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[Mictlantecuhtli]

Gnomoria has progression?

It's fun for an example of what DF-likes should go for [the actually unique tinkering stuff, which is still blown out of the water by MasterworkDF], without the bare bones mechanics.

[Girlinhat]

Gnomoria has a very interesting progression.  As your wealth increases, enemy size and type changes.  It starts with unarmed goblins, and ends with two-headed ogres accompanied by full steel armor goblins, as well as the infamous Mants...

[debvon]

I always run into the issue of not having enough military gnomes, and the one(s) I do have doesn't have decent equipment. I read somewhere that copper equipment was terrible so I automatically assumed that tin equipment was even worse. By the time I'm making bronze bars, I'm getting raided by 3 goblins with armor that smash one important gnome or another. Hell, at that point I barely have enough population as it is to send anyone into the military. So I know I'm doing something wrong, is forged copper equipment acceptable? I feel like I should only be putting effort into bronze, but fully equipping one gnome takes -forever-.

I have my squads set up so that one gnome is always training (the conscript) and the rest are set as "civs". They retreat when bleeding but follow attack orders, so when my conscript rushes off to defend a gnome, I can give the attack command for everyone else to rush in and act as meat shields/wheelbarrow swingers. Also, digging down to -10/-11 seems to set off the "fuck your miners, time to spawn endless skeletons" mode.

[Niveras]

... plus much better UI.

I actually disagree on this point, despite it being touted as one of Gnomoria's strengths. My biggest is that the UI outbreaks under certain conditions: if the mouse cursor is hovering over the lower menu (or any window or menu for that matter), you're unable to use keyboard keys to access the items in the menu. In addition, the right click menu itself is also pretty finicky and can be irritating to use. For example, when you hover over an item in the menu, there is a slight delay before it expands that item. But if you move your mouse to a new item (say, while trying to move the mouse into the new list, but slipped onto a new item before moving to the next menu), the list immediately disappears. It could do with having the same delay in closing the menu (presuming no selection was made) as it does in opening it. Most or all of the menus and windows could also do with being keyboard-accessible, though this may require reorganization in some cases.

Also, there is absolutely no excuse allowing only a single keyboard shortcut per command; indeed, there's no reason for any kind of artificial limit at all. I don't understand why so many games fail on this, but most of them limit it to at least two and this is workable. Gnomoria only allows one, and the numpad and number row are distinct keys (although though they appear identical when binding them). This is as it should be, although it is inconvenient because of Gnomoria's limitations on binding keystrokes to commands.

These are basic issues of accessibility. If DF's interface is obtuse and difficult to learn (and I speak here only of accessing menus instructions, not the gameview or how certain information is presented), it is, at least, very functional. Well, the military and large-scale dwarf management notwithstanding. I'm not saying that Gnomoria is some weak DF-lite that sucks because of this, but just because the interface is mouse-driven over DF doesn't mean it is perfect as is, and there is great opportunity for improvement in that regard in Gnomoria.

[Girlinhat]

I always run into the issue of not having enough military gnomes, and the one(s) I do have doesn't have decent equipment. I read somewhere that copper equipment was terrible so I automatically assumed that tin equipment was even worse. By the time I'm making bronze bars, I'm getting raided by 3 goblins with armor that smash one important gnome or another. Hell, at that point I barely have enough population as it is to send anyone into the military. So I know I'm doing something wrong, is forged copper equipment acceptable? I feel like I should only be putting effort into bronze, but fully equipping one gnome takes -forever-.

I have my squads set up so that one gnome is always training (the conscript) and the rest are set as "civs". They retreat when bleeding but follow attack orders, so when my conscript rushes off to defend a gnome, I can give the attack command for everyone else to rush in and act as meat shields/wheelbarrow swingers. Also, digging down to -10/-11 seems to set off the "fuck your miners, time to spawn endless skeletons" mode.

1: Set 5 gnomes to defense as soon as you get 5 gnomads.  Build a training field so they can ALWAYS be training, in the gateway to your settlement.
2: Set ALL other gnomes to a squad with no equipment and "knock 'em down" as well as "defend gnomes".
The result here is that your good fighters engage, and then an endless swarm of gnome fists will just pound the enemy to death.

When you start seeing goblins wearing breastplates AND helmets, this tactic will result in a lot of death, so start smelting the goblin gear for copper, and outfit your gnomes in copper mixed with bronze.

Torches prevent enemies spawning underground.  Press backspace to see what's too dark and will give spawns.  I place torches 15 apart each in a grid to prevent spawns.  Or I don't.  Skeletons provide extra items to smelt, extra combat experience, and if you set things up right, the skeletons will fight the goblins.  Every "group" of creature will fight every other group.

[debvon]

Very helpful tips, much appreciated. I guess equipping the civs with armor is a lot less hassle than losing them to goblin attacks.

[Vattic]

I like the game, but have to agree with Niveras about the interface; I find it really fiddly. The isometric projection can get a bit confusing at times also. It's been a while since I last had a game and I'm getting the itch again.

[Intrinsic]

On Flash Sale atm, £1.49 for me, and even at that price i'm not sure i wanna try it again.

Last time i tried it i didn't enjoy it much, mainly down to the menu system as i'm just so used to complete keyboard control in DF for quick access to all i want. I think they added keyboard shortcuts now though?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224500/

[Girlinhat]

On Flash Sale atm, £1.49 for me, and even at that price i'm not sure i wanna try it again.

Last time i tried it i didn't enjoy it much, mainly down to the menu system as i'm just so used to complete keyboard control in DF for quick access to all i want. I think they added keyboard shortcuts now though?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224500/

Keyboard shortcuts were added.  It's definitely worth $2.  The addition of greatshields is hilarious, they're two-handed shields that are just outrageous.

[Intrinsic]

Was hoping to try a recent demo but i haven't been able to get to the website at all.

[Sergius]

Well since I just got this from the Steam Sale, may as well PTW.

Lovin' the soundtrack BTW. UI needs more 90's pixels...

[PrimusRibbus]

... plus much better UI.

I actually disagree on this point, despite it being touted as one of Gnomoria's strengths. My biggest is that the UI outbreaks under certain conditions: if the mouse cursor is hovering over the lower menu (or any window or menu for that matter), you're unable to use keyboard keys to access the items in the menu. In addition, the right click menu itself is also pretty finicky and can be irritating to use. For example, when you hover over an item in the menu, there is a slight delay before it expands that item. But if you move your mouse to a new item (say, while trying to move the mouse into the new list, but slipped onto a new item before moving to the next menu), the list immediately disappears. It could do with having the same delay in closing the menu (presuming no selection was made) as it does in opening it. Most or all of the menus and windows could also do with being keyboard-accessible, though this may require reorganization in some cases.

Also, there is absolutely no excuse allowing only a single keyboard shortcut per command; indeed, there's no reason for any kind of artificial limit at all. I don't understand why so many games fail on this, but most of them limit it to at least two and this is workable. Gnomoria only allows one, and the numpad and number row are distinct keys (although though they appear identical when binding them). This is as it should be, although it is inconvenient because of Gnomoria's limitations on binding keystrokes to commands.

These are basic issues of accessibility. If DF's interface is obtuse and difficult to learn (and I speak here only of accessing menus instructions, not the gameview or how certain information is presented), it is, at least, very functional. Well, the military and large-scale dwarf management notwithstanding. I'm not saying that Gnomoria is some weak DF-lite that sucks because of this, but just because the interface is mouse-driven over DF doesn't mean it is perfect as is, and there is great opportunity for improvement in that regard in Gnomoria.

Picked Gnomoria up during the Steam sale and the UI has been the #1 reason I have not been able to get into it. It seems to suffer from a lot of the problems that plagued Goblin Camp (i.e. mouse controls for things that would be better with keyboard hotkeys).

Hopefully the UI will click for me after a few more tries, though.

On the upside, the graphics look like classic Stonesense before they remade it with the creepy, pseudo-realistic dwarves!

[Rose]

Hey, the old, non-nightmare-inducing dwarves are still there, you just have to change a config file.

[Kestrel]

Maybe I'm just "doing it wrong," but the lack of lockable doors, forbidding objects, management queue, burrows, etc, really aren't helping my experience with Gnomoria.  I do appreciate that you can designate an area for immediate cleanup, so that helps.

Goblin attacks seem too frequent and too bland.  They effectively mean that unless I wall off my entire outdoors, the only time my gnomes are safe to go outside to work is immediately following a goblin attack.  But at least, unlike DF, the goblins properly path to my fortress...

[kirkington]

Gnomoria is a fun little game.  It hits a lot of the DF sweet spots but far more simple.

THE BAD:

Play one game you've seen everything.  All games basically turn out the same, sameish map, same resources, you just get everything and build up until you get bored.

Digging into the underworld is broken.  You dig.  If you don't put up torches enemies will spawn.  If you do, it's 100% safe.  You dig, looking for stuff, then you move on.

Enemy attacks is broken.  The basic strategy is to immediately build a one level high wall all around your fort, all danger is no averted.  Your fortress becomes an island and it is easy to make it self sufficient.

THE GOOD:

Fun building stuff watching gnomes do things! woo woo!

Here is something I really like, what makes this interesting for me:
You get much fewer gnomes than you do Dwarves in DF.  These gnomes have a wider array of jobs to do.  You need to manage the number of jobs created and the priorities of these jobs in order for things to move smoothly.  All the gnomes that could be available to create that one stick you need to build a particular workshop could all be busy for days chopping trees.  You could stall your beer production because no gnomes are available to haul away the finished product.  Managing this actually reminds me of developing efficient multithreaded software - managing your resources and what is blocking is super fun.  Dwarf Fortress has this to a certain degree but the balance is different.  You have much more execution threads (dwarves) and jobs get balanced more easily.

I hope I did a good job explaining that.  I feel like a puzzle game or at least game with a different set up than fortress builder could make use of that mechanic and maybe even could be a teaching tool for computer science concepts.

OVERALL RATING:

Fun diversion.  I hope the author improves the game's weaknesses and doesn't break the pieces I like.