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Ironhand

25 (16.7%)

Phoebus

32 (21.3%)

Mayday

15 (10%)

ASCII

78 (52%)

Total Members Voted: 149

[Vanaheimer]

Ironhand, but I'm debating switching over to Jolly Bastion.

[King DZA]

ASCII for life, yo.

Straight up, dawg.

[DarkerDark]

I started with ASCII, switched to mayday during 40d and then went back to ASCII for the latest release. I hope one day dwarf fortress will support simple animated sprites, not for the purpose of adding detailed animations, but just so I can pick out that one goblin kidnapper that gets spotted deep within my fortress.

[Conrad]

ASCII is how I started and it's probably how I'll end playing.

Maybe I'm just too stubborn to learn a tileset but ASCII just feels right for me, like it's the way The Toady One sees it and meant it to be played. Then again, ASCII might just be a placeholder for bigger things he has in mind.

[Naryar]

Mayday. It's far more clear and more aesthetically pleasing to me.

[Alidus]

I hope we won't have an another Tilesets VS ASCII discussion here.

They are ALL tilesets anyway. There's no true ASCII in the game. The default is a sprite tileset just as much as Phoebus is, it's just the sprites are sprites of symbols, and some packs require different raws to work. Other than that they are effectively the same.

[CaptainArchmage]

ASCII, from the beginning. The advantage of ASCII is clarity.

[Dbuhos]

Started out with tilesets so I can understand the game better and then turned to ASCII.

[Taffer]

ASCII, specifically, my own tileset. Although there seems to be disagreement over whether "ASCII" should mean only the default tileset, or any tileset that doesn't rely on graphic sets.

[Himmelblau]

ASCII. I got used to it long before I even heard about tilesets; I was very, very confused when I saw the first screenshots with a tileset. It looked like a completely different game.

[Mike Mayday]

ASCII, specifically, my own tileset. Although there seems to be disagreement over whether "ASCII" should mean only the default tileset, or any tileset that doesn't rely on graphic sets.

Actually, to me the logical answer is: neither.
DF uses extended ASCII, which is a code assigning the numbers 0-254 to specific symbols. When you're making a tileset, you can draw these symbols in any way you like, modifying the font, or using completely different symbols.
If you use the same symbols as the default curses set, just different looking/different font- you're in ASCIIland.
If you subsitute the symbols with other symbols, you're making a graphical tileset- which is what you have- tree pictures and a gem instead of the card symbols and the based arrow, a barrel instead of the division symbol.
You may argue otherwise, but then you could disable creature graphics in Ironhand, Phoebus or Mayday and then you'd have to call it ASCII as well.

If I were to make this poll, the options would be:
Ironhand
Phoebus
Mayday
the other creature graphics sets
a graphical tileset with no creature graphics
ASCII

[knutor]

I started with Mayday, then Ironhand, then back to Mayday, then a custom, then a new font, then truetype off.  Then I read an Ascii users post and decided to try it.  Since then, I haven't went back to Graphics, the soft colors of Ascii and the beauty of it is addicting.  Ascii grows on you, like a weed.  Plus I like the sex high row glyphs. ♀ and ♂

The only drawback with Ascii is the ground.  If I could have Graphics tiles for the ground, and Ascii for all else, I'd be in heaven.  I really get cornfused with Ascii z-levels. Its that raised period! .  I think is just too hard to focus on with these old eyes.  Too many years of working in consumer tech support, left me a lil blurry eyed. 

I'm hoping someday a modder or Toady himself converts this all into a Powershell version, so that I can play without having to move the game window.  Constantly having to reposition the game window on my desktop to the lower half of the screen, gets old.  Take care, Knutor

[Deathworks]

Hello!

I have mentioned it before in the other thread, I am one of those who have grown used to ASCII (sorry, Mike Mayday, I stick to the general consensus here ignoring technical correctness :) :) :) :) ). Though it may be a boring re-iteration for some, I think I ought to mention for completeness' sake that only stretched ASCII looks right to me (I am actually not sure whether I really have the original ratio; I simply use a set with doubled height which gives me the right feeling) - mind you, that is just my right feeling, as in, the thing I got used to and to which I am addicted.

I actually played once with some kind of tileset. As far as I remember, I was trying to help some genning a specific world for a modded version of DF; I think it was a kobold version or some such, which came as a complete package with a tileset to be used. In the end, I didn't get hooked, but then, I am usually slow to change my mind :) :) :)

Yours,
Deathworks

[Mike Mayday]

BTW If not for the fact that this is really civil forum, I'd be pretty facepalmed at the fact that the slightest mention of ASCII or graphics devolves into an ASCII vs graphics discussion. But hey, I understand it! Even I'm pretty compelled to ask CaptainArchmage to elaborate on his post, for example

[knutor]

I'm pretty compelled to ask CaptainArchmage to elaborate on his post, for example

Way I interpret it is, he's saying Ascii is more clear.  Certainly not more entertaining, or more artistic.  My experiences with tilesets were similar to his, I believe.  Text I needed to read was garbled up.  Somethings like bartering, got crazy frustrating to read, with all those extraneously positioned characters infront and behind of the values and numerals.  Just give me the damn number, I don't wanna see all these extra dohickies.  AHHH!  Makes ya wanna scream and pull out already missing hairs. 

I'm not talking about the quality dohickies.  The numbers have them in some tilesets.  I'm talking about those 'other' things that show up.  If those were not there, it'd be more clear and playable for me.  I agree with CaptainArchmage.  But its not a criticism of anyone's tileset in particular, its just a criticism of a frustrated gamer.  Seeing unclear characters as a result of accents being unremoved, and truetype font being off when it needs to be on, can be disturbing.  I cannot play with truetype font, too tiny for me.  That's how I know what he's talking about. 

It stinks to have bad vision, too.  I'd have never given this game a try, without tilesets however.  Straight Ascii takes some time to get used to.  Once ya got the game down, its not so bad, to play in Ascii.  However, I wouldn't wanna walk into an Ascii game, cold turkey.  OMG!  Matrix overload.  Knutor