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Extended ASCII (Original)

Tilesets (Mayday DFG for instance)

Other (Custom ASCII tiles, etc.)

[Keizo]

Count me in as an avid player of DF (for years) who has, from day two pretty much, switched to using Mike Mayday style square graphics/tilesets.

Recently I have delved into the stonesense stuff too, the only thing stopping me from using it more is it being Windows only. Stonesense just looks so cute it's hard to pass up.

The graphics don't help me "understand" the game. They never did; I can switch back to ascii only and play the game perfectly fine. They just make me happy, and more satisfied when I build a megaproject and it doesn't look like squished crap.

[Warlord255]

I prefer ASCII, but I use pixel-type creature graphics for anything important.

Goblins -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Orcs -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are similar base graphics for humans, elves and kobolds. I think it's a nice compromise, as it doesn't force you to try to pixel-hunt for information like professions.

[ggeezz]

ASCII all the way for me.  But I like Nethack and such.  (Off-topic here, but why does everyone call DF a rogue-like.  It is NOT a rogue-like.)

Once you understand it, it's much more enjoyable.  I remember the first time I stepped into the castle and Fort Ludios and had telepathy or detect monsters.  It's one of the great experiences of gaming.  I wish I hadn't been save scumming at the time.

If I were pressed to explain it, I'd say it's better because you're forced to use your imagination.

[Danarca]

I prefer ASCII, but I use pixel-type creature graphics for anything important.

Goblins -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Orcs -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are similar base graphics for humans, elves and kobolds. I think it's a nice compromise, as it doesn't force you to try to pixel-hunt for information like professions.

I've been looking for something like that
Which "tileset" is that?

[Untelligent]

I use the vanilla graphics.

and horrible UI.

Why do so many people here seem to hate the UI? I don't mind it.

[h3lblad3]

I use the original ascii.  Started out using another one... I think it was Mayday's.

I luffs the way the menus are set up.  It's so logical and stuffs.
If I was a game maker, I would set them up the same way. ^___^

...content > graphics...

[KaelGotDwarves]

Why do so many people here seem to hate the UI? I don't mind it.

It's clunky and can be improved for sure, and requires some patience to figure out it's quirks- but I'd stop way short of calling it horrible.

That's a whole other can of worms and opinions.

EDIT: I'm not going to be a certain other poster and just make a statement without my reasoning.

So I suppose for starters:
There's inconsistencies like enter, space, and F9 all used for "finishing" a screen and moving on.
Certain things "make sense" like "b"uild "w"orkshops while other things like forges are off in their own little world
Sometimes you use +- to scroll, other times you use up/down arrows, other times you use [] or some derivative of it, second scroll confuses a lot of newbies who have to figure out key bindings and when to use them.
o: set orders and options + esc: options = 'wat?' for newbies
lack of mouse support on almost everything
Trying to teach people DF I hear a lot more, but those are some basics.

[Dakk]

I use the vanilla graphics.

and horrible UI.

Why do so many people here seem to hate the UI? I don't mind it.

Same here.

And me neither, the UI certainly is hard to get used to, at first, but with the help of the wiki and a few friends, it got much easier and in a week I had mastered it. I'd say its fairly decent and quite far from being horrible. A tutorial would help new players alot though.

[Wirevix]

I use and enjoy the original ASCII, but I don't mind graphic creature tilesets either.  I'd never go with a full conversion like Mayday's pack because it messes up the text in menus and dialogues, plus I don't like the look of any of them that I've seen, but once full graphics support is in someday I'll probably start looking for a tileset more in earnest.  I use so many custom creatures, however, that it'd be a bit of a hassle.  'Course, I've made a few tilesets of my own, though they didn't look very good so I trashed them afterwards.  Sooner or later I'll do some that hopefully are a bit better.

My main issue with DF's presentation is the way the window sizes, which I presume is better in the 40d# versions but I've never used one.  Fiddling to make all the resolutions right frustrated me because, perhaps because of a math error on my part, I never managed to find a resolution that actually fit properly on my widescreen monitor.  Plus I could never figure out how to make it just show more tiles on the screen, rather than making the tiles bigger, but that's probably my own impatience shining through.

The UI in Fortress mode doesn't bother me.  Other than it being awkward to remap if you're using a laptop keyboard, because of the inconsistent scroll-keys (sometimes the arrow keys scroll both columns, sometimes the numpad scrolls the second column...!), I haven't had any particular problem with it. 

Adventure mode drove me a little bit nuts because of the lack of any indication of what menu options there even are (I didn't know you could choose what wrestling moves to do until I just happened to read someone mentioning a "spacebar menu" on the forums, totally at random.)

[Warlord255]

I've been looking for something like that
Which "tileset" is that?

It's one I made myself, for 9x9 tilesets.

I'll upload a .zip folder to DFFD once the new version breaks, after I figure out how to assign different graphics to male and female dwarves for beard dimorphism.

[sneakey pete]

Well, i tend to use a mix. I've currently got the old (version 12 maybe) mayday set, i really can't stand the newer additions to it (the rocks changing to what used to be boulders, didn't like that especially). I've also got the native ASCII tileset, but squared, running on another install of DF and i like it quite a bit.

[Flying Carcass]

Mayday all the way. While graphics aren't the most important thing in a game, I like being able to tell at a quick glance what's going on and there's no way I'd bother with this game if there wasn't the graphics set options. What can I say? My 'minimum graphics threshold" is at original gameboy era graphics; any lower than that and I'll pass.

[bluephoenix]

Mayday all the way. While graphics aren't the most important thing in a game, I like being able to tell at a quick glance what's going on and there's no way I'd bother with this game if there wasn't the graphics set options. What can I say? My 'minimum graphics threshold" is at original gameboy era graphics; any lower than that and I'll pass.

Same here, I like being able to tell what creatures are hiding in the chasm or whats attacking your fortress by simply looking at it.

If there would not be a way to add tilesets I think I would never even have tried this game (first thing I did was look for the tile-set).

[Shima]

I prefer ASCII, but I use pixel-type creature graphics for anything important.

Goblins -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Orcs -

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are similar base graphics for humans, elves and kobolds. I think it's a nice compromise, as it doesn't force you to try to pixel-hunt for information like professions.

Oh, I like that.  Sorta like giving the other races their own happy face/Dwarf head.

[Tokkius]

I use the Mayday graphics set. My comprehension is much faster using it, and it just looks purdier without sacrificing any gameplay.