Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Subdane]

I’m a years long fan of Dwarf Fortress, there is only one “negative” thing that I can say about it.
Graphics…

I really hope my words and meanings come out the right way here. But my knowledge regarding game develop and requirements are… kind of nonexistent. Don’t get me wrong, Dwarf Fortress is a fantastic game but my insight, understanding simply fails me.
Why not implement some kind of “eye-candy” for the players?

I see other games inspired by dwarf fortress pop out now and then. Gnomoria is an example.
Is it impossible to add graphics similar to that game?
Is the game so complex that graphics would be too demanding for computer hardware?
Would it take far too long to add?

I only know two people (Myself included) who have been willing to play DF for a longer period of time. A third guy who gave it a shot, but abandoned it after a short while.
I really think adding some graphics would attract soooo many more players, and potentially contributors.
When I mention the game to friends, tell funny stories about fortresses and dwarven…behavior. They all say that it sounds interesting, but its always the same thing that steers them away. The visualization.

And I can understand why.
If you place two people inside an office and have them talk for a period of time, then take them out of the room and question which colors and what objects were inside the room. They would be able to tell you a lot.
Now if you asked them which sounds they heard while being inside the room. They most likely would have very little to say.
Seeing things is so important. It’s like “eye-candy”

Honestly, I had been experiencing headaches after playing DF for too many hours Everything is just so tiny and small, and the colors…

I really love the game though and I’m going to continue playing it But oh, how I wish there was some eye-candy.

[Badger Storm]

There are plenty of graphics sets available, and I'll admit I probably couldn't play the game without good ol' Phoebus.  I think the barely-existent graphics are a deliberate artistic choice by Toady, though, and I seriously doubt he's going to change.  They're almost a part of the game's identity by now.

[Aranador]

Toady is ultimately programming this game for himself - and is merely kind enough to allow us to enjoy the ride.  Toady enjoys programming the mechanics, and isn't interested in the rather large effort needed to produce decent art assets along with the engine to push them onto the screen.  He already modified the existing display engine so that graphic sets could be applied, so it is not that he is unaware of what people want, just that he doesn't want to focus his effort in that area of the game.

Wanting pretty graphics is perfectly normal, but expecting them is naive , and demanding them is futile.  Fortunately there are some amazing people out there who have done amazing things with tilesets.

[Dyret]

In theory this sound great, but I don't see it happening, seems like the kind of thing you'd outsource, and Toady isn't open to that. Also, does the graphics put that many people off that go on to play Gnomoria or whatever? I get the interface and learning curve putting people off, but Gnomoria in particular isn't much prettier than most DF tilesets, personally I'd say it's significanlty uglier.

[GavJ]

I think the graphics are perfect. Putting in little cartoon pictures IMO ruins the story telling potential of the game, where you fill in imaginative details yourself.

Same concept as reading a book, or more direct analogy, the many many text based adventures that the world found perfectly entertaining (and probably more intellectually stimulating) for years and years.

If you disagree, you can already download other tilesets.



Better z-level visualization though definitely would be good. And more flexibility with tilesets (different symbols for every single shape and material, and more than like 16 colors)