Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/14/epic-colony-simulator-dwarf-fo.html
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I don’t quite get, whether this is “just” a new pretty tileset (apparently from the people that made to best free tilesets already), or if this comes with a new UI, too.
TBH, I always keep forgetting which button does what 
I’m not sure if I want the premium version to reveal a more approachable version of DF or act as a kind of sadistic enticement to drown as many humans as possible in the full experience.
“Drowning” being one of DF’s defining phenomena.
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I asked about this when the Tarns, Meph and Mayday were on the Kitfox Discord. Right now it’s an overhaul of tile rendering and graphical and adding sounds. But the answer I received is that it will not touch the inputs or interfaces themselves. I’m hoping they keep that open and have a roadmap for that in there. I hope they do, being able to mod in new interfaces to make it more usable for different groups would be amazing.
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Ah, thank you! I’d be totally up for having a less complex interface. OTOH, I wouldn’t be able to suggest how to achieve that.
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DF’s interface code is deeply entangled with the game logic and will not be replaced or made moddable any time soon. DFHack can give you some quality of life improvements like autocomplete search fields for long lists, but the basic keyboard-driven commands are here to stay.
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This looks exactly like Gnomoria, which is fun, and I already bought it.
DF is a game I’ve started many many times, but never managed to get more than a little ways in before some apocalypse hits my town and kills everyone. It’s usually my fault, like forgetting to tell the dwarves to grow food, that kind of stuff.
I keep telling myself that one of these days I’ll get it right…
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I am by no means against those. It just seems it could be better exposed to the player… As I said, I have no real idea how it should be changed, I just feel that it needs a bit of change …
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There have been some stabs at mouse interface mods using DFHack:
Proof of Concept: Streamlined, mouse-controlled UI
But it’s all complicated DFHack overlay manipulation.
I take issue with that attitude on DF. This is the first time we’ve seen the Tarns reach out and officially involve a production house and community modders as contractors to work with the game. I’m sad it had to be under the circumstances it was but there’s an opportunity here to really start opening up the game and making it something more people can enjoy. If the release is successful maybe we can see some more work thrown into making more avenues to better separate parts of the code for better development and modding.
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I hadn’t seen that before. It’s actually pretty neat! Still not the best UI ever, but neat for sure.
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Here’s the thing, Dwarf Fortress takes every aspect of a game like Gnomoria and just runs it further than any sane developer normally would have taken it. The depth of simulation and complexity of all the interacting systems is on an entire different level. Now this doesn’t necessarily result in a more fun or more playable game, but in my opinion it does result in a unique experience you’re not going to get elsewhere.
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Dwarf Fortress, an insanely hard micromanagement sim for those who think that NetHack is too much like ProgressQuest.
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AKA “Fun™” ^^'…
Actually, it has a NetHack-like roguelike game mode, as well as the sim. Yes, really. And you can even visit the ruins of past fortresses from the sim mode (if you start in the same world, of course) =D.
Exactly this!
One game, I decided to try out the “Dwarven Final Solution”: I flooded the entire world with magma, then water (to generate mud/soil). Good thing I made a nice tower for my entry, because it worked startlingly well!
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I see, trying to appeal to the filthy casual market with those … graphics.
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I missed the “y” on “colony” and thought someone had successfully simulated the human digestive system in Dwarf Fortress. Whatever that would mean. (I’m sure this is possible)
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For the sake of chronological fairness it’s worth pointing out that Gnomoria(released well after DF) takes every aspect of Dwarf Fortress that is run further than any sane developer normally would have taken it and dials it back until you have a game tuned for more conventional fun rather than the DF ‘fun’.
Absolutely no disagreement with your characterization of where and what the two are relative to one another; just a clarification that Gnomoria and friends are essentially a genre in response to Dwarf Fortress’ ludicrous commitment to unrelenting mad vision; rather than Dwarf Fortress being a “like Gnomoria; but for those who know no fear” project.
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It is strongly suspected that DF is Turing complete; so the only real obstacle to any computable thing being possible is whether the engine can survive simulating a sufficiently large fortress(and tantrum spirals). Though I suspect that any DF computation falls firmly into the Turing tarpit “everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy” territory; much like Redstone logic except worse.
All that said, an exhaustively detailed simulation of digestion for all relevant species, including appropriate effects from organ damage and such, will probably be made a core feature sooner or later, just because of course it would.
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