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[Bolzan]

Fortress and Adventure mode are fun and all that, but one of my favourite aspects of the game has always been world generation.

I came into DF thinking it'd be just a generic fantasy world simulator. Creating a world where everything was finalised after said world was complete. Dead and static.

Nothing could have prepared me for this.

It's just a thing of beauty, when you think about it. I like to think of the game searching parallel dimensions, testing and checking for the perfect world, bringing it into existence right before your very eyes.

Then you sit there and watch. Watch as civilisation fights to conquer the wilds. Watch as towns and hamlets grow into cities and capitals. There's nothing you can do to influence it. All you can do is wait, an almighty bystander in the proceedings.

Then, once time has run its course and the clock stops ticking for just a moment, you get to admire and savour the land. It all feels so real, so alive. And as you survey the land, you stop seeing it as a bunch of symbols, and begin viewing it as a living, breathing land. Cities bustling with activity, mountainhomes buzzing with industry, elven retreats... existing.

You notice the little intricacies of the civilisations. Several human towns connected with a dwarven mountainhome; a catalyst for trade, perhaps? Hamlets clustered about a town, each of which is clustered around a capital, a close knit family with its own dark secrets.

And it's these little things that lend you a sense of realism, of duty, when you play the game proper. You cease to think of it as a game, but more of as a world you are a part of. Influencing and shaping its history with your feats and failures.

Nothing could have prepared me for this when I downloaded the game.

And I'm glad nothing did.

[chevil]

I totaly agree that worldgen is amazing and one of my future hopes is that toady takes some time and improves legend mode.

[Mesa]

If we could be able to create our own civs from scratch and also build and craft etc. in adventure mode AND skip the time forward somehow, it would be definitely very living.
Not that it isn't lively already, but honestly - not that much happens after worldgen, imo.

[slothen]

the number of ways to kill or be killed is the most beautiful feature.

[Bavette]

So many rainbowdashes. No love for applejack, I see. *sniff

intopic - Doesn't beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder? I think DF is magnificent in many facets, like a jewel cut into dilapidated perfection. For me it is this prism of different specters that sum it up that truly lured me in, for tales need diversity to flourish.

[Putnam]

I came into DF thinking it'd be just a generic fantasy world simulator. Creating a world where everything was finalised after said world was complete. Dead and static.

And that's exactly what it is! Everything about worldgen stops when gameplay starts. No birth, no death, no war, nothing but what you do in-game.

But that's being fixed next version.

[WealthyRadish]

When the update rolled around with more full screen support, it was amazing to see a world generate outside of the default tiny window.

I still find the look of the caverns in ASCII interesting after however many (hundreds?) of forts I've played. The weird trees, the bright colors, the cool water features and topography... it's pretty nifty.

[Mesa]

So many rainbowdashes. No love for applejack, I see. *sniff

intopic - Doesn't beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder? I think DF is magnificent in many facets, like a jewel cut into dilapidated perfection. For me it is this prism of different specters that sum it up that truly lured me in, for tales need diversity to flourish.

Don't you worry.
When possible I use this avatar, but if not, I have a different, should this one be too big or something...


MLP/HFS-stuff aside...

OT: The fact that we can have much more living worlds with fort retirement and other sites, this will be just make the game all the better.
Assuming Toady releases the new version soon...

[Loud Whispers]

And I'm glad nothing did.

Ah, the fledgling days of the newly found demiurge as they survey this brave new world...

[comham]

It really is something, isn't it. Isoworld is a nice way of viewing it, too.

My favourite part of minecraft is the world generator; a pity the world it generates isn't actually used for much. Rather looking forward to the army arc.

Sir, You Are Being Hunted is another upcoming game with a procedural world, the generator being tuned to produce environments reminiscent of the north of england.

[Whatsifsowhatsit]

Yep, I would agree 100%. The world generation, but also the consequent simulation, it's just that that doesn't seem to be as detailed yet... but it seems like that will begin to change with this upcoming release! Which is why I'm very excited about it (well, that, and multi-tile trees). The main appeal of Dwarf Fortress, to me, is not the city building or the combat or the other gameplay aspects, but the simulation. When Toady in the Roguelike Radio interview quoted the person, whoever it was, who said that when given the choice between realism and fun, fun should win out every time, my initial reaction was immediately negative. I would agree with Toady who said that the choice given as such kind of leans toward fun, it's just kind of a false dichotomy in that usually you don't actually choose between non-fun realism and fun non-realism... but for me personally it's hard to ever conceive of non-fun realism (or whatever counts as realism within the context of a fantasy world).

In short, yes, I agree 100%.

[Putnam]

It's not a false dichotomy. He said that if the dichotomy were to ever come up, he would choose fun. And I don't blame him.

[Whatsifsowhatsit]

Well, it's a false dichotomy insofar as it's not always either fun OR realism -- they can occur together in many cases. So I suppose those two are a dichotomy, true enough. I just meant that it's not usually a relevant dichotomy. Perhaps I should have phrased it better.

And yes, he did say that when faced with that decision -- either non-fun realism or fun non-realism -- he would pick the latter option. However, he also said, and I'm paraphrasing, that he didn't think it normally came up quite that way and they generally steered toward realism because they believed that typically was fun. I'm personally glad they look at it that way. Especially since it's subjective what is or isn't fun, and I tend to think what most consider to be non-fun realism is still fun, to me personally. But in those few cases where most would consider something non-fun realism, I'm of course willing to accept that they go for the alternative of fun non-realism.

[MasterMorality]

The next release. The next release will be beautiful. The world will be more alive, all the civilisations will have their own sites, ai will move around and act as time passes...

The world gen is definitely one of my favourite aspects of DF, but when it starts really simulating things? Oh damn.

[Whatsifsowhatsit]

The next release. The next release will be beautiful. The world will be more alive, all the civilisations will have their own sites, ai will move around and act as time passes...

The world gen is definitely one of my favourite aspects of DF, but when it starts really simulating things? Oh damn.

This.