For certain values of "fun"

[sigma7]

If you never hear from me again, it's because I've discovered Dwarf Fortress, easily the most intricate and detailed game -- from the crafting to the geography to the combat system -- I've ever encountered. Even though it's as user-friendly as a pickaxe to the face and rendered simply in ASCII art, it's insane, texty fun for the sort of geeks people who love Unix terminals and spreadsheets; odds are if you're the type of person who'd like it, you know about it already.

I haven't even encountered combat outside the arena yet and I've discovered that (a) stabbing enemies with a crossbow bolt is a sound strategy (b) you can't wield crossbows when you're a duck and (c) ducks don't stand much of a chance against two enraged alpacas. Oh, and (d) losing a fight to a goblin only to dump a thousand gallons of magma on their head is utterly satisfying.

For a worst-case DF scenario, check out Boatmurdered, the aptly-named settlement that disintegrated into madness, flaming puppies, and cheese.

Must run. One of my settlements is busy being haunted by a dwarf who became enchanted by waterfall mist only to fall in and drown. We had to wait 'til winter came and froze the lake to chip through the side of the lake and dig his stuff out. Then it thawed and the flooding started....

Comments

[midnightvoyager]

E: Babies make decent weapons. And wrestlers.

[robing.livejournal.com]

Based on your recommendation I really want to like it, but those graphics are a big stumbling block for me. :-/

[midnightvoyager]

There are graphics sets that make it VASTLY more legible.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Here's a shot of what it looks like on my system with an updated graphics set and Stonesense running (the Lazy Newb Pack is a godsend for me). But what the graphics lack in grotesquery, the textual descriptions more than make up for -- tendons tearing, body parts flying off in an arc, teeth and eyes and...yeah, you get the idea.

The screenshot is a test to see who'd win, seven cats or seven chickens. Not surprisingly, the cats took the day. I've had a few outposts get bothered by badgers, only to have our guard dogs out front tear into them. And I'm tempted to create a cavy army just to see their threshold for mischief.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

That... looks amazing. And with the updated graphics, I might actually manage to play (the all-ASCII graphics are a little problematic)...there goes my summer.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

My tests in the arena yesterday: five cats versus five chickens (cats win), five cats versus five raccoons (raccoons win), five raccoons versus five peahens (raccoons win), five raccoons versus one alligator (gator wins). It's an invaluable little feature because occasionally a bunch of billy goats or raccoons will come traipsing by your fortress and you're so low on food that the dwarfs are looking at their pets hungrily with knife and fork in hand....

It's the original Sim City meets Rogue meets Fallout, kinda.

[rainfletcher.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, nearly a week with no word from Sigma... it might be time to send out that search party...

Hope you're having fun with the d0rfs. ^^

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Oh, the stories I could tell. The badgers. The hunter. The endless skirmishes between them. The pile of badger pelts. The eventual infection that felled the hunter. The wandering panda that survived solely to an extremely fortunate lack of ammunition. The Imperial Stormtrooper Catapult Marksmanship Academy. The dwarf that went insane and killed three brethren before falling victim to a yak. The malfunctioning drawbridge. The goblin siege that ended in a hail of falling rock traps....

I can't lie, it's addictive. I can't even use graphics sets now, I've gotten too used to ASCII. It's like the Matrix: on first glance it's a jumble of green garbage but after a while you only see blonde, brunette, redhead (or in this case dwarf, goblin, badger)....