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[Zoal]

Toady,

I know you've got priorities. I know it's amazing that you don't have a stack overflow already from the immensity of requests to enhance your wonderful creation.

But think about this: Every new feature of Dwarf Fortress that's not existent yet *doesn't bother me*!
The fact that my dwarves don't rarely have the odd inclination to turn into graffiti artists and tag a wall in secret, is not a problem at all.
As it goes, a person doesn't miss what they've never had. The game is perfect at each stage of development, and we can appreciate it for exactly what it is. There is always an opportunity and room for imagination.

BUT.

The one thing I cannot reconcile is that you haven't attained the bare minimum graphically, so as not to detract from what *IS THERE*
What's the bare minimum?

First:
* A separation of the font file and the tileset. My dwarves should not have levers, trees, and shovels in their names. "..." should not be a pile of dirt.
...how to achieve that:
* There should be a new tileset graphics file, and accompanying config files.
* The new tileset graphics file should work just like the monsters/dwarves graphic file scheme.
* The original font file should be the *fallback* for the new tileset file. This allows us to incrementally build a graphical DF.
* Each object should have a unique entry in a new graphics file. Do not share entries (except when falling back to the font file, multiple fallbacks can be to the same glyph)

Second:
* In the new graphics tileset, allow 2*2, 4*2, etc tiles. Essentially for a 2x2 merely allowing configuration of 4 entries in the graphics tileset file. This allows us to draw a workshop properly. Presently workshops are very difficult to distinguish from a grand overview glance.

Caveats:
* i.e., the "Barrel", fallback attributes can be "inverted", but don't invert/etc the new graphics tiles.

THAT'S IT !!!
I'm not asking for an isometric multidimensional intergalactic 2.5d engine.
I'm not asking asking for you to cease the important work on making DF unique in the way you do.

I'm not asking for you to go on a 3 month graphics binge.
Just for the bare minimum so that I can enjoy this game properly.
Please! I can't stand the caskets in number 10's.

It really hurts the game. It's the only problem with Dwarf Fortress.

- Zoal

[Tormy]

Basically you are talking about the Presentation Arc.
You can find some more infos about it in this thread:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=21099.0

[Ubersoldat]

Am I pretty much alone in being able to play DF without any tilesets whatsoever? I think they make the game look uglier and are sometimes just as hard to interpret, but whatever.

Halfway decent graphical support is a ways off in any case.

[LegoLord]

Yeah dude, Toady's already planning on improving the way graphics work.  You really should read the developments page before making a suggestion.

[Footkerchief]

Basically you are talking about the Presentation Arc.
You can find some more infos about it in this thread:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=21099.0

Here's the most important part:

1 - Yes, graphics support for items, terrain and so on, and it's not possible at the moment to attain a separation from the text for anything aside from creatures.

If you think about it, items have more current graphical diversity than can be handled by the item tokens.  For example, chunks of hematite and mudstone are both of item type STONE, but use different tiles, since one is a metal ore.  And building tokens don't even exist yet.  The current graphics were easier since all creature definitions are in the raws, and the profession tokens were necessary for entity definitions.  (just my outsider's guess, of course)

Man, I hadn't thought til now about dwarves in the next version having distinctive characteristics (hair color, etc.) that cannot possibly be expressed via tileset.  You would need some kind of palette-swapping at the very least.  Considering the level of detail the game is already reaching, I can understand Toady's disinterest in graphics -- it's such a gigantic can of worms.

On the other hand, maybe palette swapping wouldn't be that terribly difficult -- say you create a tile with areas of exposed skin colored pure green, then use a tag in the creature graphics definition that would tell the game to substitute green with the color of one of that creature's features.  It could look something like [COLOR:0:255:0:SKIN], [COLOR:0:0:255:BEARD].  Okay, this is a really dumb line of speculation, I'll stop now.

Oh god you could even include a brightness percentage in the tag, so by using two shades of blue in the beard you could ensure the palette-swapped beard would have slightly darker lines to indicate texture, regardless of whether it was red or blond.  Something like:

[COLOR:0:0:255:BEARD:100] (dwarf's beard color, at full brightness)
[COLOR:0:0:254:BEARD:80] (dwarf's beard color at 80% brightness, for darker sections)

Stopping for real now, but I think I just turned into a graphics whore.

[Mephansteras]

Learn to embrace the ASCII. 

[Mulch Diggums]

I dont know which I would like better, graphical df or ascii.. Seeing as Ascii was first, probly that.

[Ratepe]

I like ASCII the best :F

[Yngar the Wise]

I dont prefer ASCII, but I dont mind it. From a complete utility standpoint, tiles can convey more information without having to memorize a character and what color that it means. Once graphics and text are seperated, I definitely think tiles will be the way to go.

[Hectonkhyres]

Am I pretty much alone in being able to play DF without any tilesets whatsoever? I think they make the game look uglier and are sometimes just as hard to interpret, but whatever.

Nope. I quite literally can't stand any of the tilesets out there. I keep my graphics pristine so that I actually have some sort of clue what is going on.

[LegoLord]

Really I just use the default graphics because I like square tiles.  I don't care what stuff looks like as long as it makes sense.

[eerr]

custom tile import would be nice,
either for ascii style auto colored symbols
or a colored tileset.

[Draco18s]

Am I pretty much alone in being able to play DF without any tilesets whatsoever? I think they make the game look uglier and are sometimes just as hard to interpret, but whatever.

Halfway decent graphical support is a ways off in any case.

I can't stand tilesets either.

[penguinofhonor]

Same here. I prefer clear letters over cramped little pictures.

[Random832]

Basically you are talking about the Presentation Arc.
You can find some more infos about it in this thread:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=21099.0

Why can't a couple of simple things be done before entering into an arc that it probably isn't going to be time for for years?