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[deve]

I found DF after googling around for "rougelikes." I originally played Nethack using tilesets. I switched to ASCII when I started using the public server, which didn't support tilesets. After playing a lot of Nethack and Crawl, where the ASCII/Unicode character sets are a lot more informative than the tileset, I got into the aesthetic reason for character sets: they leave more to the imagination. I've never looked back. Even though there's a bit of a learning curve, character sets beat tilesets hands down.

[EBannion]

Personally I admit that I started using Phoebus around half a year ago.

This. I used the default graphics for a long time with no problem, having a history in Nethack and other ascii based roguelikes, but then I stumbled upon the Lazy Newb Pack which makes using Phoebus so easy I ca'n't say no.

And it helps that the pack is so good at fitting the style and my mindset for most of my games.

[Lich180]

I started with ASCII, and couldn't figure anything out so I switched to Phoebus or mayday. After a while I decided I should force myself to learn ASCII. Switched the normal default for the 16x16 default, and changed the ground to be all . so I could see everything easier.

Now I'm fluent in ASCII and like it a lot more, since I can have more active of an imagination while playing.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I stared with Mayday and Phoebus, but felt guilty. Dwarf fortress is an art work. It should taken on its own formal terms. I don't feel that Mayday et al do something bad, i feel it explains dwarf fortress initially, but I had to move on the the original.

The ASCII version is very beautiful in a restrained, minimalist way, and small shifts in color (like seeing the colorful mushrooms for the first time when piercing a cavern) make a big difference. This subtlety is lost in the tileset. Think of it this way: Cubism is hard to read too, at least at first. All art is about slowing the process of perception, the default tile set does that exactly.

[Baccar Wozat]

When I started playing DF, I've played Angband and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, both of which were (at the time) using size-32 tiles. (I think Angband uses size-64 now, which looks good but you can't get much on the screen!)

I'm also a programmer who's been coding his own semi-Roguelike, which uses size-32 tiles I've designed myself. (Not getting very far with creatures, since that's not my area of expertise in graphic design.)

So when I discovered there's no 32-tiles in DF, I was taken aback, and even started to design my own. I got pretty far into it... and then discovered that even on a 1920x1200 monitor the tiles were too big. (The game needs at least an 80x25 grid, which means 2560x800 screensize minimum.)

Bang went that idea, which culminated in my working on my own DF-like (which will probably go nowhere), and switching to Phoebus which at least is functional.

But... why do I insist on tiles? I used to play Rogue in the 1980s, and that was ANSI. Well... only because if there's no need to have a letter designate something, why bother making it that way?

I look at "d" and ask, is it a dog? Whereas a picture of a dog... well in Phoebus it looks like a cat, but never mind. What do you expect from size-16 tiles? I mean, Pac-Man used size-16.

[Lord Snow]

He said Jehova...

[bluephoenix]

I used maydays graphics set first and then a year later went ASCII.
I play vanilla, I don't even use dwarf therapist like so many here seem to do.

[crekit]

I wish there were more graphics sets around because I actually like switching it up. it's interesting seeing things looking different!

[Meph]

Just for your information, I dont really believe most people play Ascii... this is the layout for people playing my mod:

[Putnam]

That's people playing your mod, Meph :V

[Meph]

Thats what I said ^^

I assume the same is true for the LNP though... it has Phoebus, Ironhand and Ascii as well.

[KtosoX]

I started with Ascii. Then I learned of graphic packs and switched to mayday for a while.
Switched back to Ascii after seeing how bloody unreadable are screen shots from different graphic packs. Screen shots in Ascii look a lot better IMO.

[Mr Space Cat]

Switched back to Ascii after seeing how bloody unreadable are screen shots from different graphic packs. Screen shots in Ascii look a lot better IMO.

It's good to get familiar with the ascii graphics yeah, it's like the universal language of DF.

[Orange Wizard]

Switched back to Ascii after seeing how bloody unreadable are screen shots from different graphic packs. Screen shots in Ascii look a lot better IMO.

It's good to get familiar with the ascii graphics yeah, it's like the universal language of DF.

^ This.
And it's a universal language that I already know. I don't use graphic sets because I can't be bothered decoding what they mean.

[Flanderbland]

I use Ironhand graphics, mostly because it "eased" the learning curve a bit, at least for me. Would like to learn to read that ASCII ones though, if nothing else then just to be able to figure out what the heck is going on in various screenshots people are posting.