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Author Topic: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?  (Read 3977 times)

anomaly

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Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« on: February 04, 2009, 11:34:24 am »

A lot of the things that used to make dwarf fortress dangerous are gone now.  Will we ever see a return of the Boatmurdered era?  I am asking this because I am interested in starting a succession game but I am afraid it will be rather boring without a substantial threat of death (which there really isn't right now).
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Ametsala

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 11:45:36 am »

If you mod elephants and unicorns to appear in every biome you should be able to have fun in the evil surroundings...  ;D
'Thikut McDwarf cancels store item in stockpile: Interrupted by skeletal elephant'

The orc mod is also good to bring some extra action to a fort. (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=26858.0)
There're some other mods to make the game more intresting but I haven't tried those...
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Savok

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2009, 11:54:11 am »

We will, anomaly. Enjoy your time of peace.
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Bujold

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2009, 11:54:48 am »

I remember someone somewhere had a map where, due to different biome climates in his area, the waterfall and parts of rivers froze at different times, leading to massive floods. Try to find an interesting map (natural floods are hard to come by, sadly. Things like that should be more common) and try to set some restrictions on nearly-game-debalancing features (i.e. traps) and you might be able to milk some danger out of the current version.

Like Ametsala said, mods are fun too. Make common animals aggressive and building destroyer, and chaos will follow shortly.
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Caz

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2009, 11:56:27 am »

Two words:



Ender goblins.
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Aqizzar

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2009, 11:57:46 am »

And of course, there's the devlog.  Toady has already promised all kinds of vile underground-dwelling nasties and hazards to run into.  And god only knows what sort of bizarre tempers and tantrums we'll get with the new mental attributes, poisonous wounds, and bodily possessions.
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Neonivek

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2009, 11:57:56 am »

A lot about what made Boatmurdered dangerous was glitches, stupidity, and just plain bad luck.

We will NEVER get another Boatmurdered and frankly I am glad. Do you honestly want your dwarves playing Fire Hot potato or immigrants entirely made up of people who won't do a shred of work.

However, Toady has heard some of your pleas and is working on Consistant Sieges and Underground chances...

As well, eventually Sieges will be fixed and be legitimately dangerous and plenty of other things.
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TheMirth

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2009, 11:58:00 am »

The only thing preventing the wholesale slaughter of my dwarves is that drawbridge + empty moat = impenetrable. Traps are extremely powerful but can be almost completely negated with the trap avoid tag.

Once tactics are in then dwarves may be unstoppable but right now they're a mere siege bridge and skill bump away from disaster.
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Raphite1

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2009, 12:20:51 pm »

I would also add my vote for more challenging environments. I'm a new player, and have tried to embark in difficult regions, but never been remotely close to losing my fortress. I think my worst experience ever was losing maybe 8 dwarves over several years.

Hostile animals eventually seem to go extinct, goblins are only challenging if you deliberately choose to not use game features like traps (and if they don't decide to stop sending sieges), and most megabeasts die in half a second to a well-trained soldier. I want to have fun losing, and really feel like I accomplished something by completing a megaconstruction, rather than just accomplishing being able to sit behind my computer for a few hours.

Ametsala

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2009, 12:32:22 pm »

BTW: The 2D versions are still available, so you can run a succession game in the boatmurderer setting if you want.

The latest 2D version is 0.23.130.23a, I think.
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anomaly

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2009, 12:46:47 pm »

A lot about what made Boatmurdered dangerous was glitches, stupidity, and just plain bad luck.

We will NEVER get another Boatmurdered and frankly I am glad. Do you honestly want your dwarves playing Fire Hot potato or immigrants entirely made up of people who won't do a shred of work.

However, Toady has heard some of your pleas and is working on Consistant Sieges and Underground chances...

As well, eventually Sieges will be fixed and be legitimately dangerous and plenty of other things.

Quite frankly, I'm not interested in recreating boatmurdered.  I only used that as an example of a game that had a lot of challenges to overcome.  The point I'm making is that the average player has to seriously try to get his or her fort to self destruct in the current version.  The only reliable way to destroy your fort right now is an intentional magma/water flood, or digging for adamantine too early.  Both of these honestly require an intentional effort to destroy your fort.

On another note,
Is there some way to make a saved game with modded files that doesn't require the transfer of modded files with the things you're talking about?  I think if the game requires modded files to run it will make succession games a hassle for some players.

edit:  The orc mod looks like fun.  I'll give it a try some time.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2009, 12:48:26 pm by anomaly »
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Neonivek

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2009, 12:52:25 pm »

"I only used that as an example of a game that had a lot of challenges to overcome"

My point was that those Challenges were mostly errors in the game.

Now the lack of challenge is are errors in the game...
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Footkerchief

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2009, 01:01:35 pm »

anomaly: bringing back some of the fun elements of the 2D version is one of the stated goals of the next release.  Specifically, endless attacks from the underground will be back.  And there'll be a lot of new underground creatures to contend with, from the sounds of it.
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Maltay

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #13 on: February 04, 2009, 03:57:18 pm »

A lot of the things that used to make dwarf fortress dangerous are gone now.  Will we ever see a return of the Boatmurdered era?  I am asking this because I am interested in starting a succession game but I am afraid it will be rather boring without a substantial threat of death (which there really isn't right now).

I modified my mega beasts to be more dangerous.  For example, I made them all much larger.  In my mind, if a Giant has a size more than twice that of a Dwarf, then a Dragon should have a size more than twice that of a Giant.  In my imagination, the Dragons are akin to Smaug from Tolkien mythology.  The Titans are akin to the Titans from Greek mythology.  The Hydras are akin to the Lernean Hydra in Greek mythology.  Finally, the Bronze Colossus is akin to a construct, or golem, of at least the same size as a Titan.  Imagine the Colossus of Rhodes getting up and walking around, smashing things.

That said, I gave Dragons fire immunity in addition to fire breath immunity.  This oversight struck me as somewhat silly.  I also made Dragons capable of speaking and learning, as they have always struck me as intelligent creatures.

I have also modified the Bronze Colossus to give it damage reduction equal to half its size.  As a giant construct, or golem, it should be incredibly resistant, almost immune, to damage up to a certain point.  At this point, it should break horribly.  Thus this change plays nicely with the sever on break attribute and their incredibly regenerative abilities.

I have begun thinking of modifying the semi-mega beasts and the basic races to more closely align with my perception of the game.  If you have any additional suggestions for mega beasts or other creatures, feel free to contribute.
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Deathworks

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Re: Will DF ever be as dangerous as the 2d era?
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2009, 04:14:06 pm »

Hi!

Those complaining about challenges, what kind of nasty areas have you tried?

* Glaciers? (seem to be somewhat conquered by people)
* Scorching biomes?
* Sites including evil oceans/rivers (undead fish are said to be quite effective)

I don't remember, do undead giant eagles still have flight?

I also wondered about the first comment about modding. Won't you get undead elephants if you have an evil jungle area? (And will they not be hostile being undead?)

Sorry for not having any real advice, but I was wondering about these points.

Deathworks
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