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Author Topic: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?  (Read 6606 times)

Vattic

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #15 on: July 08, 2016, 10:12:44 pm »

I've only played since z-levels, but when trying 2D DF found it much more difficult.
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #16 on: July 09, 2016, 12:08:49 pm »

Hard to say for having only played single version. Still, I'm impressed by how sometimes I see a game more resemble a desperate bullet hell with clear paths ever-changing and invisible rather than civil planning project, such as seen in the migration into TuftedStockades in year 5.

However, one threat to fortress that tends to get ignored in these sort of threads is FPS loss. I'm under the impression that DF2012 era fortresses had much less risk of dying from low FPS as 2014 and 2016 era ones do, especially in larger worlds. 

The value of combating overproduction, destroying clutter and using efficient pathing seems ignored compared to having even more invaders to drown in magma.

Dyret

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #17 on: July 09, 2016, 02:18:17 pm »

Some players seem to miss the old tantrum spirals, but I always hated them. They never made any sense to me. New releases also made undead weaker, but I think that change was also a big improvement.

They kinda threw a rock in the pond, either you stabilized and had your work cut out for you or you didn't in which case you usually had a good story at least. They were a far more enjoyable challenge than 'here's a webber, get fucked' at any rate. I agree the old undead were plain retarded though.
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Chase

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #18 on: July 09, 2016, 02:19:03 pm »

Good thing the game's not feature complete otherwise I'd see a reason for hassling Toady about the difficulty

I'm excited to see if it will ever be feature complete.

Here's to another ten years and more, folks!

Woo! :D
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Vattic

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #19 on: July 09, 2016, 07:15:39 pm »

Some players seem to miss the old tantrum spirals, but I always hated them. They never made any sense to me. New releases also made undead weaker, but I think that change was also a big improvement.

They kinda threw a rock in the pond, either you stabilized and had your work cut out for you or you didn't in which case you usually had a good story at least. They were a far more enjoyable challenge than 'here's a webber, get fucked' at any rate. I agree the old undead were plain retarded though.
The new stability will likely be robust enough to allow for much larger rocks to be thrown. Internal factional strife is one I hope for.
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #20 on: July 09, 2016, 07:24:48 pm »

Hehe, I can already see threads in Q&A of 'My fort randomly killed itself, help': "I embarked on Calm Temperate forests with a river and my miner just killed other 6 dwarves before dying of her wounds." with reply: "Hm, she probably worshipped a god of war or something. Check relationships?" "Can't, the fort crumbled."

More seriously, it is interesting watching breadbowl spiral from the bodies of dead goblins for a modern community fort tantrum spiral. The pond just runs deeper, but it is still there.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2016, 07:28:33 pm by Fleeting Frames »
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Max™

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2016, 11:16:45 pm »

Well, they could always check her out in legends mode!

Also regretting the imgur beta atm, they apparently got rid of the easily clicked layout switcher, yeah I can type in /layout/vertical myself but clicking the layout button does nothing! It's goggles!
« Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 11:24:46 pm by Max™ »
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Dyret

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #22 on: July 11, 2016, 01:49:00 am »

The new stability will likely be robust enough to allow for much larger rocks to be thrown. Internal factional strife is one I hope for.

Yeah, me too. Magic is bound to make fortress life more dynamic as well when that goes in.
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Findulidas

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #23 on: July 11, 2016, 02:07:03 am »

I agree the old undead were plain retarded though.

Depends on which undead you mean, when they were super empowered beasts or earlier than that when they refused to die ever in evil biomes.

In a way I liked both, whats bad is the hair and skin that cant be killed in my opinion.
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DeCervantes

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2016, 07:20:44 am »

I agree the old undead were plain retarded though.

Depends on which undead you mean, when they were super empowered beasts or earlier than that when they refused to die ever in evil biomes.

In a way I liked both, whats bad is the hair and skin that cant be killed in my opinion.

And some undead are still pretty dangerous. My new fortress is in an evil forest with clouds that turn everything living into husks for FUN. Not as bad as reanimated hairs but wow. Because of some bugs (I guess) the husks attack each other but the last husk, usually already badly wounded, is usually still able to kill a few dwarfs and send a few dozens to the hospital.
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Sanctume

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #25 on: July 11, 2016, 05:03:25 pm »

Just make dragons trap avoid, and more frequent scorched earth visit to those above ground projects. 

Make FBs+ be able to destroy constructions made with mechanism, i.e. raising bridges; break hatch covers from below; rip open carved fortifications.

A tweak on the effectiveness of sparring.  A dwarf should not hit legendary in 2 years of training. 

Make weapon skill up soft cap at level 5 through training, and skill gains only on attacks versus hostiles. 

Same for Armor User probably.

Embark settings also determine easy.   Abundant ores. 
Multi-trees giving more logs--does it need a nerf?
Stone seems to be good as there are plenty, yet finite.

The toughness to make unlimited resources are relatively doable with knowledge: obsidianizer, glass industry, clay.
Making wood finite.  Metal is finite too with exception of re-smelting of certain items bug/feature that can be fixed with a raw edit maybe?

Food is somewhat easy too depending on biome.  A farmplot with 1 grower that can sustain 200 pop--is that reasonable?  It can as it lessens micro for the player to focus on something else once farm is setup.  Nestboxes for egg food source is sustainable too.

Fleeting Frames

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #26 on: July 11, 2016, 05:50:13 pm »

Uh, Sanctume, I think you took the thread topic and kinda ran away with it to the modding forum.

(Also, the second one of those ideas might be non-trivial to mod.)

The fourth one is something that strikes us humans as sensible. But why limit it just to combat skills?

Another version: sub-skills for every category: a mason's legendary ability to produce stone blocks can carry only a bit over to making thrones (this should be easier to do than combat version, actually, since you can modify their skill after they've taken the job with the script, keeping internal variable for display/further use purposes).
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 05:55:21 pm by Fleeting Frames »
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DeCervantes

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #27 on: July 12, 2016, 05:10:53 am »

I think it is mostly cage traps that need a rework. I have no problem with a dragon triggering a weapon trap but putting a dragon into a wood cage feels anticlimatic.

Also invaders and attacker being able to destroy bridges and constructed walls is needed, asked since a long time, and not so easy to implement from what I heard. I stopped using drawbridges because it felt like easy mode. Just lock yourself in and wait.
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #28 on: July 12, 2016, 11:45:05 am »

Expect cage trap mechanics has never changed and invaders have never been able to destroy bridges and constructed walls?

Whatsifsowhatsit

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Re: How much easier has dwarf fortress got?
« Reply #29 on: July 13, 2016, 08:02:29 am »

Anyway, once dragons and other large creatures actually become multitile, I guess they will already interact differently with cage traps. I wonder if you could get larger cages at that point, but then they might be more obvious so dragons might be able to avoid them (depends on intelligence I guess—not sure how clever DF dragons are actually supposed to be; myths vary widely in this regard)? At least most of the time. (Personally I would like trap avoidance to not be fully binary, i.e. not perfect avoidance versus no awareness at all.)

As for the thread topic itself, ... well, I cannot comment very much, as I haven't played each version enough or far enough into the game to really have a good idea of it. Recent versions I haven't played at all, as I kept hearing about cool upcoming new features and then deciding to wait a bit longer for them.
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