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[Kipi]

When I begun playing DF I used Mayday's tileset, mostly because the ascii was too complicated to understand at that point. I don't know when I changed to ascii, most probably it was when 0.31.01 was released because it took some time from Mayday to update the set and I wanted to play immediately. After that I have tried few times to play with different sets, mostly with Phoebus and Ironhand, but for me ascii is better.

There are certain problems with tilesets which I don't like:

• Accented characters cause problems due being used to different things.
• After each update, especially if there are new creatures or so, it takes some time before tilesets are updated.
• Sometime it's very hard to tell what the graphic is trying to represent.

So yes, tilesets are good when you are learning the game but I can't stand to play with one anymore.

[drvoke]

Not this again.  Though my mind has changed a bit on graphics, I still don't use any tilesets other than the square one that comes with the installation for all the oft-stated, well-known reasons (makes normal text look stupid, certain characters actually have multiple uses, so that volcano in the embark screen looks like a trap, etc...).  However, I have started to use creature graphics.  I find that to be a happy medium between full ascii and intelligible display, since the creature graphics don't interfere with the normal text and symbols of the tileset.

[CodexDraco]

Toady needs to add support for tile graphics just like he added suppor for creature graphics, that way we can have nice looking tile sets and readable text.

[Friendstrange]

Ive been using Ironhand since forever, but I do prefer the ASCII in some aspects like vegetation because the creen gets so busy with bushes and other junk that its extremely easy to overlook the creature graphics. Makes finding goblin snatchers in fortress mode and any fauna with a graphic in adventure mode rather troublesome.
Still, the niceties overweight the annoyances, at least for me.

Dont have a problem with ASCII so long as I can change some of the vanilla colors.

[alexandertnt]

When first downloading the game, it came with Mayday's tileset. When an update came I just played it with ASCII and diddn't have any issues. Then I was just too lazy/impatient to install tilesets.

If the tilesets stopped making my gears look like gems or vice versa then I might consider installing one again though, as this is the main issue I have with them.

[Taffer]

I use Jolly Bastion to make things look happier. I agree with some tilesets making things harder to understand, but what Jolly Bastion does is that it doesn't really change the symbols, just the colours. I like it because it makes mass genocide look so happy.

This. Tilesets don't need to be very graphical to be good. There are a number of great tilesets that let you play "ASCII", in a prettier form. Jolly Bastion is quite nice.

[Dorfimedes]

Tilesets that take characters that are used for multiple things and repurpose them for one thing irrationally anger me. Example: Dead trees showing up on the edge of bridges, or levers in dwarf names.

[Taffer]

Tilesets that take characters that are used for multiple things and repurpose them for one thing irrationally anger me. Example: Dead trees showing up on the edge of bridges, or levers in dwarf names.

That always drove me nuts as well. Some things, like barrels, can make a big difference with how pretty things look, but at the expense of screw pumps. 3D walls turn into weird rivers on the map, odd looking bridges and farms, ad nauseum.

[Intrinsic]

Tilesets are near essential for most people to make the game more accessible, the LNP should really be linked on the official page i feel as a download option.

[EmperorJon]

Tilesets are tilesets. You use them or you don't.
I can use ASCII and understand it fine, but I find it strangely distorted and the colours too garish, so I use Ironhand whenever I can.

[CaptainArchmage]

I think there's a difference between "Tilesets" and "Graphics Packs". Tilesets refers to the grid of 255 symbols which Dwarf Fortress uses to represent things. You can think of this as "modified ASCII", although some of the tilesets can be radically different from ASCII. Graphics packs allow you to specify a particular graphic for each creature.

Personally, I use the normal ASCII tileset.

In general, a good tileset should make objects reasonably easy to identify visually. This means it should be obvious that something is a bed or a barrel or a shrub or a tree.

[Alastar]

I prefer slightly pussified ASCII: smooth characters, warm colours, soft contrasts.

[reilwin]

Give the CLA Graphic Set a whirl -- it's a very smooth and clean graphic set which adheres to the purity of ASCII while being easy on the eyes.

[Eric Blank]

I only use Cooz Curses Tileset as an alternative to the vanilla while remaining in the ASCII format. I like the shading; makes it a little easier on the eyes combined with my custom color set. I learned to play the game in ASCII, and changing the habit would likely cause short term discomfort, which I avoid becuase there's no benefit to it whatsoever for me, including the fact that I'd have to wait for the tileset to be updated or change all my raws to conform to it. The less work for updating to a new version of DF the better.

[Azated]

I started with Pheobus because ASCII made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I stuck with that for a few versions, then decided to go 'hardcore' and play vanilla. Haven't turned back since.

I'll probably get around to finding a squared version of curses because the rectangular squares annoy the crap out of me, but not until Toady finishes with this round of bugfixes and we have another long break in updates.