I disagree, respectfully, I think that the stop-start nature and complex workings of DF would mean that any sort of co-op would severely constrain the game, well at least with respect to fortress mode.
I suppose there could be an argument for taking adventurer mode and making it more like a MUD but I'm not really an AM person.
And while you're at it, multiplayer Dwarf Fortress sounds like an opportunity if you don't mind staying in a niche. The author of DF says he has no interest himself in implementing multiplayer support.
I have not checked the game, only this Polygon article, but the premise sounds a lot like a (washed down!) Dwarf Fortress. Specially the unfair part. You'll realise how unfair DF's adventurer mode is the day you pick your first mission to kill a scrawny beast only to find yourself brutally killed by a pack of capybarss.
Toady (the developer of DF) is preparing a big update to adventurer mode, by the way.
I really think those two games are in different genres. DF isn’t about perfecting some kind of dwarf version of a factory. It’s computer assisted world building. The point is to create interesting history, locations and items which you then recount as stories or you explore in adventure mode. I’d like to see DF grow further with more interaction with the world. It would be amazing to eventually have something capable of building an entire fantasy world with that you could then explore.
I never really tried DF, only read some tutorials about it. I have high expectations for this port, but at the same time, I'm worried that the learning curve will still make this game unpleasant to play because it takes too much time.
Factorio is also an excellent game, but I don't play the mods for the same reason I would not play DF. Too much things, and often the game design is a bit hairy for no good reason that would make some sense.
Definitely agreed, but is there anything more complex than DF?
As a sidenote, to anyone who doesn't know the story of how Dwarf Fortress is being made, you should check it out. It's one guy, working full time on it, and managing to support himself and his brother through monthly donations. It's released completely free of charge, so this is just solely from people donating. That alone would be a pretty cool story, but when you look at the immense, mindboggling, ridiculously ambitious scale of the the planned finished game, it's incredible. He's basically trying to build a completely "generic fantasy world simulator", with procedurally generated world, history, etc. The amount of detail he goes into in this is amazing, and he has so much more planned. If you ever need to be inspired that one person can make a living doing what they love, or that you can actually implement features that are ambitious beyond most AAA developers' wildest dreams, look to Toady One.
The ASCII interface is already a huge stumbling block for anyone not used to it. For anyone that is used to roguelikes, then Adventure mode is 'Just Another Roguelike'. Dwarf mode, where you have to build a home, has a huge number of pitfalls.
Try figuring out the military system on the first read-through, for example (or even without a read-through!). It's flexible and makes sense... after you've come to grips with it... and there are a lot of moving parts and tweaks for any kind of military deployment. DF in 'Dwarf mode' is one of the poster-children for games with steep learning curves.
One thing I want to jump into is the Adventurer mode! Nothing quite like the idea of building (and losing) several fortresses, and then going through them to explore as the "new generation". Haven't played DF yet, but it's very much on my list.
The creators of DF could partner with some game studio to create a nice GUI for playing, or create an API that could allow for beter interfaces to evolve, the tilesets are great, but custom tutorials would be awesome.
I tried playing DF once but was overwhelmed with the information and didn't try again, and i used to play nethack and adom.
I also recommend ADOM for those who like nethack and redrogue that is a roguelike meets platformer, very nice !
I love DF, played it for a long time but haven't touched it for last 1-2 years. A feew weeks ago I tried to play it again, I was excited about new features such as libraries and crafting in adventure mode.
I first started with adventure mode, and tried to make a conversation with someone... tried. New conversation system is a huge mess. Sure it is much more advanced but interface is needlessly complicated, it takes away all the fun.
I just closed DF and didn't even try fortress mode after that. I love DF but Toady's tastes with ui is too eccentric for me. I hated military UI when it came out and now this.
People doing awesome job with DF using reverse engineering. Playing it without dwarf therapist for example would be a nightmare. I wish it was opensource or at least had more modability.
That only solves half the problem, though. There's still the issue that it's a single-threaded game which allocates and accesses memory randomly on the heap. So there will always be a limit on how large and complex the game world can be.
What I'm still waiting for is the game that comes after Dwarf Fortress, the game which is appropriately engineered for performance and is thereby able to be even more ambitious. We've seen a ton of less ambitious DF clones, but nothing on the other end so far.
As a counterpoint, I think that perhaps DF is a project that benefits from having a single mind and a single vision directing the course of the game and making it happen.
Dwarf Fortress desperately needs multithreading and optimization for data locality. Without that it is permanently limited in scope.
But it will never ever happen. Forget it. Anyone dreaming about open source DF should go make their own game. And I mean that sincerely: Dwarf Fortress is very good, but there are even greater things that will come. Build those things!
Yes they will be releasing Adventurer mode in DF Steam. There is, I've read, some quirk in the Steam store agreement where if a game has a free version they must have feature parity, so development will focus on bringing the Steam release to par with the classic version, and then both will be developed in step.
I suppose there could be an argument for taking adventurer mode and making it more like a MUD but I'm not really an AM person.
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