Dwarf Fortress

So, with the amount of Dwarf Fortress references in DoD, surely some of you ladies and gents play it? The devs do, at least.

 

I have been known to play it off and on. Not a regular, but I enjoy it up until I get distracted 5 minut.... Ohhh, a button!

 

Dwarf fortress is everywhere ! Each time I play a game, i see references and find myself an urge to play DF again and again. Last time, my 'hole' was so rich that it was besiege every month...

I hates you !

 

The craftdwarfship is of pretty bad quality actually.

 

I wonder if Mr. BrowMan ever gets tired of always drinking the same old booze.

 

I do in fact play it alot.

It's right up there with Minecraft and some others on my "games I always come back to" list.

Superb game, really is.

 

Wait...this game makes references to Dwarf Fortress a lot?
Man, from what I've heard, Dwarf Fortress is more complicated than Quantum Physics, the Unified Field Theory, and String Theory combined. I saw a screenshot once, it looked like an Ascii representation of background noise...

What references are in this game? The only Dwarf Fortress reference I know of at all is Diggy diggy hole.

 

Off the top of my head the Dwarven IED flavor text, Sewer Brew and THE SHEER NEED OF ALCOHOL.

I'm sure there must be a gazillion more, too. I'm surprised I haven't found the name "Urist" anywhere yet.

 

Ah. Sewer Brew seems like something much much older than Dwarf Fortress though.
Unless you mean the description.

 

ô.ô what the hell do I know if the idiom existed before, I'm not a native english speaker, I just know that in DF you brew Sewer Brew from Rat Weed.

 

@DavidB1111

DF isnt as hyper-complicated as all that; it's more like there's 2 big issues that can prevent players from getting into it.

1, is the learning curve. It's NASTY early on. Once you get just a bit into the game, alot of other stuff sorta falls into place... particularly if you're accessing the wiki like you should... but the earliest stuff is very hard to learn, and you pretty much need tutorial videos.

And 2, the ASCII bit. THAT can confuse many players, particularly those that have never played a non-tileset Roguelike before (I, personally, play all of my roguelikes in ASCII mode; I honestly think they tend to just look stupid with tilesets). DF, though, does HAVE tilesets available for it (which look MANY TIMES nicer than the usual tilesets for most Roguelikes), so that does help.

The thing about DF is that you dont HAVE to learn all of it. You learn the bits you want to USE, and that you think will be useful to you. I play this alot and I know what I'm doing, but I dont know everything. Some things I just ignore, as my playstyle does not require them. Other things, I use quite alot, but other players may not use at all.


DF, though, is not a game for those that have problems with losing. There is no "win" condition in DF. You go as far as you can, and come up with your own goals.... and then you lose, in a hopefully spectacular and hilarious way.

As they say on the DF forums.... "Losing is fun!"


As for references in this game, they are numerous indeed.

Of particular note is the Artifacts. There are Artifacts in DF as well, and they're EXACTLY the same; they have the same random, bizarre naming (which SOUNDS the same; like "Largaxfoor, the Perilous Swamps of Hating" sort of thing), and they have the randomized attributes, similar to Artifacts in this game. This was the first "reference" I noticed in Dredmor.

Someone on the design team must be a fan of DF, I should think.

 

Yes, the artifacts! And they're *studded and decorated with stuff", just the same as DF artifacts.

Except that the materials that artifacts are studded with get FAR sillier in DoD:

Carborundum: Silicon carbide, very rare mineral, synthesizable, a f*cking strong ceramic. Okay, you could stud an axe with that.

Neutronium: Degenerate matter comprised entirely of neutrons. Found in some weird stars. No way you're going to stud anything with that. Or manipulate it in any way for that matter.

Unobtainium: Generic name for fantastic elements found in fiction (they should add Handwavium and Phlebotinum)

Fibreboard: C'mon!!!

Elerium-115: That's a reference from the original X-COM. What the UFOs in that game used for fuel.

I'd like to see artifacts studded with Hard Rock, Cofee Stains and Cheerios or Cornflakes.

 

@Misery Ah, thank you, Misery, but I just don't see the appeal of Dwarf Fortress. I'm a fan of Roguelikes, as I've said before, but different strokes and all that.
Thank you for the information though.
You and Psiweapon, "Get out of my brain!" Oh, wait, not that Psiweapon.

This game, and even Dwarf Fortress aren't the first games with random named artifacts with random abilities though.
Later versions of Angband/Zangband, etc, had them first. I think.

The descriptions, I'll grand you, are unique to this game and DF.

 

Have you tried Dwarf Fortress adventure mode? That's all I ever do. Tons of fun to go wrestling yetis, breaking all of their limbs, and what not.


I remember one time I lost a leg to a bear attack, so I was crawling around, stabbing things to death with a spear. Only survived at all because I had a shield, and shields are super effective in a prone position (or were at that time). I think I eventually died to a yeti.

And more. It's never boring, and never the same.

 

@DavidB1111 To each their own, indeed.

It's the sort of game where... well, you cant really see the appeal, until you've seen someone play it, or something like that. That's the only point when it's going to start to make sense. Alot of games, you can just see descriptions/screenshots whatever and "get it", but.... not DF. For me, it was a specific Let's Play that did it.

It is some of the same appeal as Roguelikes though; the extreme randomness, the high difficulty, the huge amount of things to do... I think that's (part of) what drew me to it in the first place.

But.... yeah. Different strokes and all. I myself am not a fan of Angband or it's variants, or much of a fan of Nethack either; Nethack in particular has.... certain gameplay elements that I absolutely disagree with and think are terrible ideas. I do still enjoy the game though, just not NEARLY as much as other Roguelikes. I prefer Crawl (and it's variants) over either of those. And I tend to play alot of "obscure" (as in, not being the "main" Roguelikes) games in this genre. A recent favorite is Caves of Qud; that might be worth a try, if you have free time. Very quality game, that, though still not entirely complete.

@Vykk

I havent messed with Adventure mode yet, myself. I've seen good LPs of it.... but it just doesnt look like there's enough to DO in it yet. Plenty more content is planned though; I'll probably jump into that one when the next big patch for the game comes out, since apparantly that one will add alot to that mode.

.....that, and the actual Fortress mode just INHALES me. I keep meaning to go learn Adventure mode so I at least know what I'm doing in it, but..... the Fortress mode..... all those dorfs and their crazy random lunacy just sucks me in and holds my attention all too well.

 

@ DavidB1111: yeah, it's all the little dwarves and their crazy antics what keeps me playing the damned thing!

It's so !!FUN!! when one dwarf throws a tantrum, proceeds to beat the shit out of the first neighbor that shows up, and you can see that neighbor running like hell through half the fortress. Or making "cube" fortresses, doing demolitions... I'm not an advanced player at all, though.

About roguelikes, the one I play the most (besides DoD now) is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, although my *playing favourite* is Ivan. That game is sadistic !!FUN!! with bananas.

 

Been hearing about it and wanting to try itout, I like steep learning curves... what's more, I dislike it when the curve becomes more horizontal than vertical... Ah well. First I gotta eat, and DoD... and... etc, but I guess I'll try it out soon enough

 

I was just fighting some bogeymen with a new character, and I was having a pretty epic fight. I was keeping them on the move, didn't let them surround me, and kept trying to remove body parts so they would bleed to death, or at least be crippled. I got down to two bogeymen, both were missing limbs, and were bleeding everywhere. Then I was gored in the brain. The end.

This character killed a honey badger, dodged an elephant (what's the big E mean? OH CRAP!), and killed four bogeymen. R.I.P. Ithru Duquehobu.