Wednesday 26 December 2007

For all of you voting for Dwarf Fortress

Are you actually playing the game in 'Adventurer' mode? Or are you trying to stretch the definition of roguelike to encompass a turn-based strategy game that uses pseudo-ASCII graphics?

I'm genuinely interested to hear people's experiences with Adventurer mode. As far as I am aware, it's a great way to interact with abandoned fortresses, but at this stage is not necessarily a fully fleshed game.

2 comments:

Ravious said...

Well I was voting for the game in total, but I do play Adventure mode much more than Fortress mode. Thinking back on it, I might've changed to Stone Soup, but since I do play DF Adventure Mode quite a bit... I wouldn't say I cheated a vote.

But yeah...since it just says Dwarf Fortress instead of Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode, I bet more people are voting on the game as a whole.

On the tangent, I don't think the definition of a roguelike could be extended, but I do think that roguelikes fall pretty well in the Earth B game category. ;)

Rebecca said...

It's fun visiting old fortresses you created yourself, as though you probably know the extent of those structures yourself, you really don't know what creatures you'll encounter outside of a couple of scenarios. At least one of the game's already interesting features (engravings and images on coins) gains here, containing extra information not shown in fortress mode that's added to your file of known history when you examine them.
You can also run around and find the still-rotting corpses of dead inhabitants. It's a form of the make-your-own-dungeon games, where the process of making the 'dungeon' is just as fun as looting it afterwards. It's very definitely a dungeon of your own making.

But it's also fun visiting the Goblin fortresses that sent armies at you, and teaching them a lesson. Or going to caves and chatting with Ettins before killing them. Or dying in the process.
Yeah, I think my vote for the game as a roguelike has justification, a bit.