Dwarf Fortress
| Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tarn Adams |
| Publisher(s) | Bay 12 Games |
| Designer(s) | Tarn Adams Zach Adams |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS X |
| Release | 8 August Template:Vgy (initial) 21 August Template:Vgy (current) |
| Genre(s) | City-building game, Roguelike |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress is a computer game by Bay 12 Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X set in a high fantasy universe that combines aspects of roguelike and city-building games. Development started in October Template:Vgy,[1] followed by the game's first public release in August Template:Vgy.[2] As of Template:Vgy, it remains alpha-level software, but is already played and discussed by a wide audience[3] and regarded to be very stable.[4]
History
Dwarf Fortress is the successor to Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, a hack and slash role-playing game.[1] Dwarf Fortress discards God of Blood's 3D graphics in favor of a text user interface and incorporates economic and strategy modes. On-screen displays utilize slightly modified code page 437 characters in 16 different colors implemented as bitmaps, and the developer states that graphic representation is not a significant focus.
Dwarf Fortress initially supported 2D landscapes only, with X and Y axes corresponding to the four cardinal directions. Later versions implemented 3D landscapes, while retaining two-dimensional graphical representation. This allows for geographic features like hills, mountains, and chasms and player-created features like multilevel fortresses, waterfalls, elaborate deathtraps, and pits.
Despite being donationware, Dwarf Fortress has garnered a review in the December 2006 issue of PC Gamer UK, an article in Games for Windows and PC Powerplay, mention on the Eurogamer website,[5] the Roguelike of the Year award from ASCII Dreams in 2007, the game of the year award from Gamers With Jobs in 2006, and various interviews including ones for The Escapist, Gamasutra, Gamers with Jobs, GeekNights, and Dubious Quality.
As of August 2008, Dwarf Fortress is under heavy development with features being added constantly.[6] The developers have stated that one of the over-arching development goals is to create a complex world in which stories naturally are created for and by the player in the process of playing.[1] The development website lists "Power Goals" in terms of small story excerpts, which at one point might emerge naturally in the game.[7]
Dwarf Fortress' design has lent itself to succession games, also called bloodline games. In a succession game, different players trade a saved game and, one at a time, work together on a single fortress. The player taking his or her turn will usually update the others on their progress, usually via a Internet message board. Boatmurdered, one particularly well-known succession game in the Dwarf Fortress community, introduced many potential players to the game. [8]
Gameplay
Prior to play, a world must be generated or downloaded from the developer's website. Each constructed world is unique; events that take place during play will affect subsequent games in the same world. World creation in Dwarf Fortress is elaborate: terrain is generated using fractals, erosion is simulated, then wildlife, towns, and other sites are placed.[1] A specific history is attached to each site; references to these events can be found during gameplay (in artwork and conversations with NPCs), and development's current focus (as of April 2008) is to make world generation wars determine in-game territory distribution and NPC background stories. The entire process can take anywhere from a few seconds to several hours, depending on settings and computer speed. Tarn Adams has added an option for generating significantly smaller worlds(sized of 257x257(default), 129, 65, 33 or 17) for people who do not want to spend longer amounts of time generating a full sized world.[6] With the addition of the advanced world gen parameters in v0.28 it's even possible to generate non-square worlds (such as a 129x65) as well as the ability to "paint" the shape of the world (specifying height, temperature, savagery, rainfall, drainage, and volcanism) which has given rise to real world inspired world gen parameters.[9]
The game offers two play modes: "Dwarf Fortress" mode, in which the player builds a dwarven settlement, and "Adventurer" mode, in which the player controls a single character in a generally roguelike manner. Only one mode at a time can be actively played in a given game world, although adventurers can visit fortresses built in prior games.
Dwarf Fortress mode
The initial settlement party consists of seven dwarves. The player receives a number of points to spend on settler skills and resources (food, weapons, armor, equipment, and so on). Once these decisions have been made, the settlers arrive and begin to work.
A variety of tasks can be performed in the game. Some are basic, such as mining, wood-cutting, metalsmithing, masonry, farming, and cooking. Others are more esoteric, such as soapmaking, fish-cleaning, engraving, and gem cutting. A given dwarf's "career" will generally center on the skill practiced most.
The player influences newly-arrived dwarves through the designation of work areas and subsequent job creation, but the player cannot directly control a dwarf. For example, designating an area for wood-cutting creates one "chop down tree" job for each tree encompassed, which a dwarf with the proper job activated will carry out. If a wood stockpile is created, a "haul lumber to stockpile" job forms whenever there is a spare log and available room in the stockpile. Any dwarf may be designated to perform a job. Higher skill in a given job may improve rate (such as with mining) or quality (in the case of crafting) of performance.
As they excavate their mountain, dwarves will have to fashion living space, produce food (typically involving farming and irrigation), obtain water and alcohol, and build workshops to generate valuable trade goods. They will also encounter hostile creatures against whom they must defend, which generally leads to military organization. As the fortress grows, more dwarves will arrive, providing additional labour and opportunities for job specialization
As the game proceeds, players will encounter foreign traders, dwarven nobles who place demands on the populace, goblin sieges, maniacal dwarven artisans, and a variety of other special events.
The game models the dwarves and the world in extreme detail; for example, during combat, a dwarf can get different types of blood on every single finger of his hands. Item base material, quality of workmanship, dye and decoration are all registered and taken into account. According to their experiences (had a friend die - was served low quality food - was disturbed by noise while sleeping etc.) dwarves can get happy or sad, even angry and finally crazed; they build social relationships, marry a sufficiently "compatible" dwarf (and have children) or organize parties. Each dwarf also has its own unique personality, likes, and dislikes that will affect how the dwarf reacts to specific situations. An example of this is that a dwarf who likes the material gold will get a happy thought from seeing or owning a golden item or a dwarf who is quick to anger will be more likely to tantrum and get into fist fights. In addition, dwarves can obtain personality traits through experiences such as seeing a great deal of death, which will imbue the personality trait "he does not care about anything anymore." This personality trait will prevent the dwarf from gaining significantly unhappy thoughts from seeing death or having a friend die. Gravity is simulated; an elaborate fluid system[1] is responsible for river and magma flows.
Adventurer mode
In "Adventurer mode", the player controls an individual dwarf, human, or elf. There is no goal apart from survival. Players may either receive quests to kill monsters, which provide no specific reward, or wander freely and slaughter local fauna. Gameplay is fairly minimal; "Fortress mode" has received the bulk of the developer's attention.
"Adventurer mode" also allows the player to explore parts and history of the current game world otherwise not accessible in "Dwarf Fortress mode". For instance, in the latter dwarves can decorate walls and floors or artifacts with engravings, the contents of which show up only in very general terms in Fortress mode (e.g. a dwarf striking down a goblin), but very detailed in Adventurer mode (e.g. the names of both dwarf and goblin and when and where the killing happened).
Adventurers are assigned several combat-related skills: shield use, armor use, ambushing, wrestling, swimming, and any of several weapon skills. Initial skill selection wholly determines starting gear, but equipment is available for purchase from stores in human towns. The player can also assemble a party of adventurers by asking townsfolk to join the lead character.
Legends Mode
Legends mode is less of a gameplay method than it is a way of reading through a world's vast history without needing to reveal it in Adventure Mode, though when a world is generated it can "hide" the history such that Legends Mode will list the events and entities you've uncovered.
Legends Mode features various map exports, historical civilization expansion maps, entity listings (starting with mega and semimega beasts, then gods, then the oldest creatures to youngest), site listings (cities), religions, and then each age's events (currently most worlds will generate with the three standard ages: the Age of Myth, the Age of Legends, and the Age of Heroes).
Development
Dwarf Fortress has been praised for offering so much depth and gameplay, despite only one programmer developing the game. Tarn Adams, 'ToadyOne' on the forums, is the programming half of his and his brother's company, Bay 12 Games. Though the game is currently in its alpha stage, many of the core elements are already in place, or at least have the basic foundations already laid down. Much of the development for the game is done through user suggestions, stories written by players and Tarn Adams' brother, as well as a series of overarching goals, called arcs.
Arcs
Adams has stated that the development of Dwarf Fortress will proceed across several arcs. These series of goals and priorities are all grouped together under a similar subject, and are named thusly. For example, the current arc being developed is the Army Arc, which takes focus on the various features of the game related to the military and war. While the Army Arc is the main focus, the Presentation Arc and the Caravan Arc are also in development. The arcs themselves help provide guidance in development, but are by no means written in stone. Adams has been known to delay certain features, or add in popular user requested features, despite their not falling under the current arc upon which he is working. He has also stated he's not going to stick to just one arc at a time anymore as to avoid grinding at the same old month after month without a release.
The Arcs themselves are all based on a lengthy list of requirements and development goals, falling under the following categories: Core Components, Priority/Required, Bloats, and Power Goals. Adams has made these lists available to the public.[10]
Reception
Several reviews praise Dwarf Fortress for its deep and rich content and gameplay.[1][3] [11] [12] [13] Some of those reviews also state that one first has to overcome the quirky interface/graphics and extremely steep learning curve to really appreciate the game.[3][11][12] On the other hand, at least one review claims that the ASCII graphics actually add to the game: the player visualizes game events mentally, and this helps with immersion.[13]
Mods
Most of the game data is stored in text files. These files contain information on almost everything in the game, and by adjusting them, players can customize various aspects of the game. Due to the ease of modification, players have developed many independent mods which vary in complexity. One recent highly notable change is to make certain megabeasts vastly more powerful so that they survive world gen longer (currently History Gen only takes into account some megabeast abilities and some beasts that should be super-powerful are super-weak).
Another form of mods (debatable) is the creation of Utilities. Utilities serve all sorts of purposes and act as minor to major patches to the game executable itself. Each is its own separate executable and attaches itself to the Dwarf Fortress process and perform various memory editing. Some utilities are small and provide relief to a small annoyance, such as Latitudes which gave the player a latitude/longitude display during Fortress mode embarkation so that you knew where on the map you were and made it easier to share locations instead of screen capturing. Others are highly complex and even border on cheating, like Tweak (now a combination of other smaller utilities) that can heal dwarves and other units (or even damage them). Utilities need to be updated with each new release as the memory locations they change are not always at the same offset (same relative location in RAM).
References
- ^ a b c d e f Harris, John (2008-02-27). "Interview: The Making Of Dwarf Fortress". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Development in 2006". bay12games.com. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c "Dwarf Fortress Forum". Retrieved 2008-04-28.
- ^ Harris, Bill. "Dubious Quality Review". Retrieved 2008-04-28.
- ^ Gillen, Kieron (2006-09-13). "The State of Independence #5". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Recent Developments". bay12games.com. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Full list of Dwarf Fortress development goals and requirements". bay12games.com. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Story of Boatmurdered". Retrieved 2008-04-28.
- ^ "DwarfHeightMap Utility". Retrieved 2008-08-25.
- ^ "Version 1 Development". bay12games.com. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Costikyan, Greg (2007-12-02). "Play This Thing! Review". Retrieved 2008-04-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Sigl, Rainer (2008-01-13). "Telepolis Review" (in German). Retrieved 2008-04-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b PC PowerPlay #148
External links
Game and resources
- Dwarf Fortress at Bay 12 Games
- The Dwarf Fortress Wiki
- The Dwarf Fortress Forum
- Dwarf Fortress Map Archive