Your sword is glowing with a faint blue glow. This thread might be full of danger and challenges.
Your sword has begun to glow very brightly. Yup thread is going full of challenges. All related to the classic game Zork and its sequels. Something seems odd though and people that have played Zork 1 call out, "But Syntic, that sword you used to start the thread was an elvish sword of great antiquity. Using elven junk to start a thread isn't likely to impress any of the DF players here."
And that would be where you are mistaken. You see that sword is the perfect item to start out this challenge. For those unaware of the history of Zork as I am, that particular sword was created as a collaborative effort between Dwarves and Elves, in an effort to bring about peace. Unfortunately that didn't work out that great because the dwarves insisted that because it was their skills that created the sword that it was a dwarven sword, while the elves said that because it was their magic enchanting the sword that it clearly was an elvish sword.
The Zork games tell the tale of the remains of an empire ruled by the Flathead Dynasty, that earned the name "The Great Underground Empire" during its time. I'll not bore you all with further history lessons, and instead get to the challenge part of this thread.
With a name like "The Great Underground Empire" it seems to me that this empire needs to be recreated in the game of Dwarf Fortress. I would attempt to do it myself, but I'm honestly not the best player in the world, so I wouldn't likely do the Empire justice. So I challenge you to use any version of DF you want to attempt to recreate the Empire. I would suggest not going higher than v31.06, so that way at the very least it can still be visualized with Stonesense. Perhaps though one of the d40 versions would be better though for better visualization. Version number as I say though is up to you.
Ah but we need rules though so that it becomes a right good challenge. So here we go,
- The part of the Empire that should be focused on is the part that is shown in Zork 1. The reason for this is that the original creators of the game literally give out that game for free, so even if you've never played Zork before, you can attempt this challenge with a little research. 0 points for just creating Zork 1 (that's the challenge), 50 points for creating a single Fortress that recreates Zork 1 and 2. 50 more if it recreates Zork 1, 2, and 3
- Your map at the very least needs to have a cliff and a river following the cliff, and trees. 0 points, but without this it's not doing a good job at recreating Zork. 10 points extra per extra map related feature you are able to recreate. For instance Zork 1 makes it clear that if you follow the river enough that there is a deadly waterfall just a bit downstream.
- 10 points per basic area recreated from the game. 25 points for an advanced area. See below for list of some advanced areas.
- 50 points for recreating the maze so that one could use your version of the maze to get through the actual maze. This is per maze.
- 50 points for having your recreation be not only making it feel like Zork, but for also keeping it functional without adding tons of extra features. For instance, at the end of one of the Mazes is a machine that's used to turn coal into diamonds. Perfect place to place a Jewelry Workshop, and gem storage. Try to put other and other structures in places that make sense instead of building new rooms for the.
- Other scoring methods to come based on feedback.
Special structures that are worth more for building them extra well:
- Flood Control Dam #3: This isn't just a dam used to control the flow of water... the construction was ordered to be made by Lord Dimwit Flathead himself.
- The Rainbow Bridge: Sure creating a bridge out of different colored material is easy enough, but you need to also make it so that it can't always be crossed.
- The White House: Sure you could slap a hut down, put a hatch in it that hides a ramp down, but can you bring it to life?
- Climbable tree: Ironically it seems like the way to build this will be to cut down a number of trees and using the wood to make various wooden structures. This though is worth more points because it should look and feel like a tree even though it'll be a dwarf made building.
- Other special structures based on feed back
There we go, that's it so far. There are many more ways you can score that aren't listed here as I don't want to try to name all the places yet and not give other people a chance to consider what parts they would find most interesting recreating.
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Topic: The Great Underground Empire! Dwarfitized (Read 1241 times)