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[PREFSTRING:ungodly beard of awesome]
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I want to keep the game hard to enter and keep it arcane and elitist
We've found the neckbeard 
Hey, it comes and goes.
Right this moment I've been without it for a day. Naturally, I'm at least rocking a beard and blended, dense sidies of awesome.
Personally the only game where I ever enjoyed ascii was Caves of Qud. No clue why. I can tolerate Cataclysm ascii. Barely. I was heartbroken when the tilesets broke.
I found Caves of Qud has the best ASCII aesthetic of all the roguelikes I've played. It's used the space so well, I'm impressed whenever I play it. It's also a great game and one of my absolute favourites in the genre. I was pleasantly surprised to find Cataclysm, too, had a well designed ASCII interface. Especially given its collaborative development. Its visuals aren't Caves of Qud quality but they're right up there. Likewise, these two have thoughtfully designed interfaces. They feel intuitive and efficient.
As for ASCII on the whole, when it's done at least half well it presents a much more unified, consistent look. The symbolic nature may be a bit rough at first but in no time at all you understand it and you interpret it on the fly without effort. Anyone can do this, I disagree that some are incapable. People aren't that thick; some may find it easier but that's as far as I'll go. Headaches, etc, are a legitimate excuse of course. But anyway! It's the symbolic nature that makes an ASCII representation more visually cohesive and aesthetically pleasing. The relatively minimal look of the characters makes it straight forward for them to meld together to form a scene. On the other hand, the added complexity of graphical tiles makes it more difficult for them to do the same, arguably impossible to do so. In this instance, they're the graphical equivalent of trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The information contained in a location on the map awkwardly and abruptly changes inconsistently as it hits a sharply defined, arbitrary border. Apart from its good looks, ASCII's much mentioned imaginary component does, too, add to its appeal. The stark interrupt of graphical tile transitions suspends any significant recreation in the mind. Your imagination and subsequent immersion are on a leash as your array of coloured blocks clunk across the screen. The borderless, centred symbols of ASCII tiles allow the imagination to fill in the separating voids and provide a smooth conceptual transition. There's also the issue of perspective. Generally, tilesets forego the vaguely passable top-down in favour of the 'my three year-old drew this for you' fleshy, hieroglyphic stick-man-of-a-player-sprite. Man, throw me in a pit of shockers (once we get z-levels yeahh!)
Most important of all to consider, however, is the impact the introduction of tilesets can or will have on the direction of the game. It may be subtle, gradual, and not be noticeable for a long time but altering a fundamental element of the game like this affects the audience who plays it and in turn, what becomes of the game. I'm a firm believer in this and seemingly going it alone with the sentiment. I'm aware it's an elitist stance and possibly all sorts of other bad words but it matters. For greats of the genre such as Dwarf Fortress and Cataclysm, I see their development lifespans trailing off years into the future. There's room for these treasured favourites to take a turn for the worst or at least, not reach their true potential. I may sound like someone signalling the implausible coming of the Rapture but I tell ya, it may very well be a possibility, or more than that. A mention! I despise the 'lazy newb pack' for DF because, as the name blatantly suggests, it hauls in the otherwise unlikely players I'm alluding to, I say, shaky evangelist hands and all. Good for them, those who are now loving the goblin-torturing guts out of the game but man, their impact will be felt more and more as time marches on. I admit, I do take comfort knowing Toady's nature though. If anyone can steer clear of the whims and wants of a lower-brow crowd, it's him and his never diverging dedication and professional distance.
These things said, I do respect the effort of those who make the tilesets, Deon being a particularly prolific author of them, and the guys coding Cataclysm for our enjoyment. I just have a few.. concerns!
And, I know this latest rant of mine on the topic won't change a thing but I do find myself compelled to get it out every now and then.
HH.H,.HHH..H..,.,,...,.@
If you still aren't seeing even a dark shade of a pixelated comma of sense in my comments, I suggest you fire up DF again, with a vibrant colour-set swapped in, and check out a forested, grassy, green hillside in all its flowing, glowing glory. That's aesthetic and the genre's benchmark. For added
tear-jerking awe, if you're short sighted like me, take off those goggles and zone out to the blurry mess of beauty. You'll never see a thing like it with your tilesets.
(I'm tapped out and as I tend to do, I probably won't be too useful following up anyone responding to my rant, sorry.
Continue mingling amongst yourselves!)
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Topic: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - A roaming horde appears on the horizon! (Read 1881452 times)