The problem about Dwarf Fortress

[zeitgeist]

The Dwarf Fortress phenomenon is pretty interesting because it's a perpetually unfinished (and buggy, horribly unoptimized, without a proper UI, unplayable blah blah you know the rest) gameworld engine someone still needs to put an actual game in, and the fanbase is treating it like the game is already there. Well it is, maybe, in the sense of the game being you (the player) against the game UI and the clunkiness of it all, an epic battle of epic epicness every time you want to do anything that's, in most sims, just a matter of selecting a single menu option.

And I'm pretty sure the largest portion of the fanbase would treat anything else than adding superfluous features like individual beard strands as a horrible too.

 

[Mhain]

Yes, but aren't you forgetting just how far this game has come, and also the fact that all the things you talk about will probably end up in it along with more options? If this was any other game we were talking about, you would be laughed off the internet for even daring to dream such possibilities.

You are correct, but you are assuming I am looking to the game from a player's perspective, while I am a small game programmer myself and have made several roguelike-like games. I know that the game developed pretty slowly right now. While the mechanics are there, the game isn't - and there is nothing that keeps the game from getting developed. The current engine is perfectly capable of integrating what I am talking about with little to no effort; it is strange that such ideas are considered impossible. On the other hand, the limb system and the combat system are certainly the ones that did certainly require a lot of coding and balancing. I assume the developer is someone who loves programming more than gaming.

The same disease affected Mount & Blade: while it was an enjoyable game, the amount of things to do, as well as the amount of items and hostiles never increased above the level they had in the VERY FIRST beta release.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I would say you are correct with this post.

The same disease affected Mount & Blade: while it was an enjoyable game, the amount of things to do, as well as the amount of items and hostiles never increased above the level they had in the VERY FIRST beta release.

Very correct with this part of the post

 

[poocolator]

Megaprojects.
There's your damned objective.

 

[GarfunkeL]

"amount of items and hostiles never increased above the level they had in the VERY FIRST beta release."

Uh, no. From two factions to four and now five with Warbands. Each is somewhat unique, in that they are not carbon cobies of each other. Amount of items surely increased. Or what do you define as the first beta release? I've played from .604 onwards, IIRC and the 1.0 version had much more in it than what the .604 had, not to mention the really old versions.