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"Once a beautiful game, and now? It is a rude bauble, fit only for your kind."

INTRODUCTION
Greetings! I'm new to this game, and to the community as well. I'm not new to graphic modding in games however. It's usually the first thing I try to do when I get my hands on something new and fun; try to muck around with how it looks and works.
It was Quill18, and his gloriously tragic forts on YouTube and Twitch, that finally made me take the first step. So I got the Lazy Newb Pack and strapped up with Spacefox. Now, I knew the game was immersive, but reading and watching other people play is one thing. When I finally started to get comfortable with the interface, and started to experience that immersion first hand, it was a completely sublime.
Immediately my instinct to create kicked in. I began experimenting with different tilesets (especially Taffers') and colors. At first it was just through the LNP launcher, but I slowly began picking apart, and putting things together at a more substantial level. I also decided to start showing my face in the community, so I subscribed to the sub-reddit and posted a little drawing I made the day before as a greeting gesture.

That was last week. I'm now registered here and on the wiki too, and I'm planning to stay.
So what better way to celebrate my 1st post here than to share the fruits of my dabbling with all of you wonderful people?

ABOUT

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So with this graphic set I aim to keep things as ASCII as I can, but at the same time allowing for some sacrifices to be made in order to give room for the aesthetic I'm going for...
Now we enter a more philosophical line of reasoning. Being new, I'm sort of in the dark here, but I can imagine this being one of the more common topics when talking about the game, so bare with me.

I'm not going to go into the mechanics of the game, but they are of course elementary in providing the kind of emergent stories, the likes of which I have never experienced before. No, I rather want to focus attention on the inherent dual nature of the work that I, and many with me, are committing to here.

You see, all the richness in experiences that the game produces, is presented to us in a very visually abstract manner. This favors the imaginative amongst us, and nourishes those who're growing. It prompts us to use our creative power to concretize, or make "sense" of what is abstract.
With other contemporary games, especially those with flashy graphics, there is little (visual) abstraction. If you take a game like Skyrim for example. It actually has both nice graphics, and a very rich world. The difference is that this world is exactly the world it presents itself to be; the game's graphic engine has solidified it for you, and your imagination is only left to play with whatever blanks it has left in its wake.

I am of the radical opinion that our innate imaginative capacity will always be greater than any amount of digital rendering ever will be. So because Dwarf Fortress, through abstraction, gives us a chance to imagine for ourselves what the game word looks like, it actually allows us to collapse the wave function before any flashy engine gets to it.

With all this stimulation going on, many of us feel inclined to create depictions of what we envision in our heads the game world to be. Now we get to the duality I mentioned earlier...
Because I'm in fact enforcing my visualization of the game through this graphic set, I'm actually shortening the abstract distance, by leading you on path other than that which your own imagination would have followed. So in a way the abstract nature of the game gives rise to behavior that is diametrically opposed to it. Which is inevitable not as bad a thing as you might think. I personally feel that this dialectical relationship is the best creative fuel I've ever found in any game. At the very least it get's you thinking, and working...

I've gone on long enough I think, so let's wrap this up...

Keep in mind this graphic set is still a work in progress. It does come with a complete 10x10 tileset that can stand on it's own just fine. There's a 10x10x2 version of that tileset as well for you guys with proper monitors (unlike me). Included is also the beginnings of creature graphics and item overrides (for TWBT). These I will continue to expand upon, so remember to swing around back for more later. There will no doubt be small changes to the base tileset as well.

FEEDBACK

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would love for you to share any screenshots you take with this graphic set. Especially if you have any issues. It makes my work easier if there's also visual feedback from users. If you need an online host that you can upload pictures to, I can recommend imgur.com, it's fast and easy, and you don't need to register anything.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Download file from here.
• Move the data and raw folders into your Dwarf Fortress main directory and replace previous ones.

If you're using the Lazy Newb Pack launcher, you can just put the set in the LNP graphics folder (...\LNP\Graphics) instead.
That way you can install the sets through the launcher with one click.

You can get the Lazy Newb Pack here. It comes with DFhack and TWBT, which are utilized by my sets.

If you just want to use the tileset, without added graphics, just edit the packs init file (located in ...\data\init).
Change [GRAPHICS:YES] to [GRAPHICS:NO], and [PRINT_MODE:TWBT] to [PRINT_MODE:STANDARD][/size]

There is an easter egg to be found with the (TWBT) graphics on though...

PREVIEW

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the tileset, such as it is. (displayed at x2)


Here is my silly fort using only the tileset(no graphics) in vanilla.


... and this is with graphics.


Showing off the UI. (no graphics)


World creation.


Adventure mode.


Hangin' out with some gobbers...

PLANS

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Completing the creature graphics for the main races (dwarves, human, elves, goblins, kobolds), and domestic animals. ✔
• A square walls variation. ✔
• Creating overrides for the tree tiles.

[/size]

THANKS

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to all the graphic packs available here. CLA, Ironhand, DraginDePlatino, Phoebus, Obsidian Soul, Meph, Sphr, Spacefox, and everyone I don't know the name of.
The wiki has been enormously helpful too, so it (and the people behind it) deserve my thanks too.
I want to thank Taffer and Vherid especially though, for the initial inspiration that their respective work provided me with.
Finally, big thanks to ToadyOne and ThreeToe for creating this amazing game!

And thank you for lending me your time and attention!

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Reserved

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Reserved

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UPDATE!

• Added square walls (which are now default).
• Complete creature graphics for the main races (no professions yet, just civilian, military, noble, undead/animated)

[Meph]

Posting to follow and kudos for the very clean and sorted opening post.

[Godlysockpuppet]

Meant to reply earlier to this, it's very clean and looks cool Is the colour scheme the same one that Taffer uses? I think it's called Tocky?

[AutoReiv]

Posting to follow and kudos for the very clean and sorted opening post.

Thank you, it means a lot.

Meant to reply earlier to this, it's very clean and looks cool Is the colour scheme the same one that Taffer uses? I think it's called Tocky?

Thanks!
No, it's a modification of one of Vherid's schemes (Jade), a bit more washed out than Tocky. The colors are bound to change though, as the set evolves. I might include a couple of variations in a future update.

[Vherid]

This is neat

[Taffer]

Good show. Beautiful font, interesting graphics. You even have a great title image. Definitely a blockier aesthetic than my set, but it fits in well with the game. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you go with it, and I hope you keep up the good work! Thank you kindly for crediting me as one of your inspirations. I've been hoping to see a 10x10 "ASCII" set that makes use of TWBT.

There's a typo in the credits, by the way: TadyOne should be ToadyOne.

EDIT: I added a link here in my own tileset's description as a recommendation.

[Max™]

You're considered cool on 4chan /dfg/ btw, Taffer, anoncred ftw.

[Ucarty]

I've always loved Taffer's tileset to bits. This.. feels very right. Maybe with this I'll last more than an hour whilst enjoying graphics for a change.
It's an amazing creation. The font too deserves special mention.

[Krabocopter]

I love this but I can't use it on my desktop monitor, can you provide us with a 2X tileset or should I make it myself?
Thanks

[astromach]

I don't think I can articulate precisely why, but I can say that this set is fantastic and I hope to see more of it one day.

[AutoReiv]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I only get to work with this in small bursts at a time, so there's gonna be quiet periods in between.
Next week I'm probably gonna have some more custom tiles for you guys, and I'll update the OP too i think...
...so stay tuned!

I love this but I can't use it on my desktop monitor, can you provide us with a 2X tileset or should I make it myself?
Thanks

I actually included x2 versions, and they are located in variations/10x10x2

Good show. Beautiful font, interesting graphics. You even have a great title image. Definitely a blockier aesthetic than my set, but it fits in well with the game. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you go with it, and I hope you keep up the good work! Thank you kindly for crediting me as one of your inspirations. I've been hoping to see a 10x10 "ASCII" set that makes use of TWBT.

There's a typo in the credits, by the way: TadyOne should be ToadyOne.

EDIT: I added a link here in my own tileset's description as a recommendation.

Thanks for the mentions, and the heads-up! You rock!

[Kynsmer]

Though it was an acquired taste for me, I really like this set! Great work, the aesthetic is lovely.

To those who have difficulty reading the font at a glance in menus and such, using Taffer's set as the font with TWBT works surprisingly well.