Dwarf Fortress

[Anaris]

Some of you may have heard of Minecraft.  Well, Dwarf Fortress is what Minecraft was based on. http://bay12games.com/dwarves/

Its AI is absolutely staggering.  It generates a world, from scratch, with erosion, mountain formation, caverns, volcanoes, civilizations, trade...it's just incredible the amount of detail that goes into the background of the game. 

You can play it in two modes, "adventure" mode, which is very much like a classic roguelike game (Angband, Moria, Nethack, etc), or "fortress" mode, which is the one that Minecraft is based off of.  So far, I've only played fortress mode.  If I want a regular roguelike, I play Angband http://rephial.org/ ;-)

In Fortress Mode, you pick a place on the world where you want to build a fortress, equip your seven initial dwarves, and start digging.  And building.  And making beds, and crafts, and doors, and furniture, and weapons...

It's an incredible sandbox, and the kinds of things that you can make with it are vastly varied, and very cool.  My latest fortress has been running for about 7 IG years, and has tapped a magma vent to power its forges, smelters, and glassmakers, and is churning out steel armour and weapons just as fast as my dwarves can make it.  I've dug out the housing for a set of pumps that will bring the magma up into a giant holding tank at the top of the cliff my fortress is delved into, so I can dump it out on invading goblins any time I need to.  After a number of immigration waves, I'm up to (I think) 142 dwarves, and the Mountainhome is about to promote us to a Dukedom.

If you like building things, and can handle the steep learning curve (following one of the various tutorials is pretty nearly essential), it's an amazingly fun game.

[Telrunya]

Great fun! And great difficulty! Don't be surprised you will not last a year with your first Fortress as they say. From time to time I start up a Fortress when I have some hours to sink into it. It's good to set small goals for each of your fortresses, I'll admit I never come too far ('Oops that trap system has one tiny flaw, now all my dwarves are dead', 'Oops, water' etc. etc.), but as they say Losing is Fun.

I do very much recommend to grab one of the Tutorials on the Wiki and go through that. They give you enough to do for your first Fortress and are pretty much essential. Also, the Lazy Newb Pack gives you Dwarf Fortress plus a graphic pack for nicer looks and some other handy tools you may or may not ignore in the beginning. Mostly, I like the graphic pack and the Dwarf Therapist stuff.

Never played Adventure Mode oddly, but thena gain I can keep myself infinitely occupied with Fortress Mode.

[^ban^]

It's not fun without the Fun.

"Back, vile [censored]! Shatteredmountain shall not fall OH GOD FIRE!"

[Telrunya]

Ah right, I also recommend Boatmurdered, a sucession game involving a lot of hilarious stuff and quite famous within the Dwarf Fortress community. Might be a bit hard to understand if you don't know the game, but this actually got me playing Dwarf Fortress in the first place.

[Alpha]

My first "successful" fortress ended in failure after a population of about 70 dwarves.  My weaponsmith/axedwarf took a mood, which ended with the dwarf killing 3 others, and all my fortress' dogs. That was a setback. I didn't know about burial though, and the main crafting level of my fortress was infected with miasma. And I thought I was doing so well.

[Foundation]

Hehe, anyone thinking about playing a sequential game?  ( I forget the technical term)

[^ban^]

Hehe, anyone thinking about playing a bloodline game?  ( I forget the technical term)

ftfy

[De-Legro]

Channel #Arcaea has a small bloodline game running at the moment I believe.

[De-Legro]

Also those that like Dwarf Fortress might want to check out Goblin Camp. It is not as deep as Dwarf Fortress in my opinion, but still a fun game.

[Telrunya]

Hehe, anyone thinking about playing a sequential game?  ( I forget the technical term)

If we can get a group going, why not

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Like the DF LPs on SA? Don't let me get in on it. I'll die in less than 20 real minutes. 

[Foundation]

If we can get a group going, why not

So... it's been a long time since I played it, but anyone wanna try a season per week or something?  New players welcome, it's okay if you destroy it, it'll be up to the next person to restore... or destroy further.

[Anaris]

So... it's been a long time since I played it, but anyone wanna try a season per week or something?  New players welcome, it's okay if you destroy it, it'll be up to the next person to restore... or destroy further.

If we want to do that, we should wait until at least the next release (0.31.22), which is supposed to fix a whole slew of old bugs.  Just today, Toady One (the guy who writes DF, for those unaware) fixed most of the major hospital bugs.

I wouldn't mind being the starter on something like this (though I'd get input from the other participants on just how to embark), as the part of DF I've always enjoyed most is the initial dig-in

[Foundation]

Sounds pretty awesome, Tim.  I always enjoyed making a giant wall and traps, although I'm guessing beasts can go through double walls now?

[songqu88@gmail.com]

What, you guys want to keep your dudes happy and safe? I let them elephants and stuffs rumble in and wreak havoc. It's fun to build over a cursed or haunted place especially. Woot.