Dwarf Fortress on Steam and itch.io has been a mega success for Bay 12 Games, a deserved success, given their previous free release supported and updated for a long time. Now the developers have confirmed it's closing in on a million sales.
I’ve played DF off and on for years. The UI overhaul it had recently makes the game much easier to play, and get into and really enjoy. The learning curve is way softer. Previously, I’d load the game up once or twice a year, build a fort, get to the point where I’d be wiped out and be like, okay, that was fun and then not play it again for months, or years. With the updated UI… I’ve put in 700 hours since it came out.
It’s still a game where you basically have the wiki on alt-tab, and you still have to google some crap to learn how to do intricate stuff. That said, I also find youtube is much easier to follow along with the new graphics set, so that helps too. TwistedLogic gaming, Blind, and few others have great tutorials on youtube. If you want to watch some fun stories, Kruggsmash and Hoodie Hair put up some fantastic videos as well - and they’ve honestly kind of inspired how I approach playing DF sometimes.
It’s kind of nice to play, and it scratches the same itch for me that Cities: Skylines used to, wherein I can go “one more thing, need to do one more thing, one more thing, ooh a forgotten beast gotta deal with that, then one more thing” BUT if I have to, I can just hit pause and walk away for a bit, or, if my fort is in a good state with no monsters or armies running around, I can walk away with it running while the dorfs just do their thing for a bit.
About 8 months ago I finally started using DFHack, which despite the name is really just a collection of really awesome tools, while it has the potential to make the game very easy (and that’s fine too!) it does include many quality of life things if some process is just too tedious. I’d say it’s upped my enjoyment another notch because it’s just so well implemented. When I feel like easy mode, I turn on things like fastdwarf, and when I’m ready to just challenge myself I can turn it off.
DF is very much a game of play at your own pace. Even without DFHack, if you’re getting overrun by werewolves and goblin armies, just turn the settings for that stuff down or off. But the main thing to remember with this game: Losing is FUN!
I’ve played DF off and on for years. The UI overhaul it had recently makes the game much easier to play, and get into and really enjoy. The learning curve is way softer. Previously, I’d load the game up once or twice a year, build a fort, get to the point where I’d be wiped out and be like, okay, that was fun and then not play it again for months, or years. With the updated UI… I’ve put in 700 hours since it came out.
It’s still a game where you basically have the wiki on alt-tab, and you still have to google some crap to learn how to do intricate stuff. That said, I also find youtube is much easier to follow along with the new graphics set, so that helps too. TwistedLogic gaming, Blind, and few others have great tutorials on youtube. If you want to watch some fun stories, Kruggsmash and Hoodie Hair put up some fantastic videos as well - and they’ve honestly kind of inspired how I approach playing DF sometimes.
It’s kind of nice to play, and it scratches the same itch for me that Cities: Skylines used to, wherein I can go “one more thing, need to do one more thing, one more thing, ooh a forgotten beast gotta deal with that, then one more thing” BUT if I have to, I can just hit pause and walk away for a bit, or, if my fort is in a good state with no monsters or armies running around, I can walk away with it running while the dorfs just do their thing for a bit.
About 8 months ago I finally started using DFHack, which despite the name is really just a collection of really awesome tools, while it has the potential to make the game very easy (and that’s fine too!) it does include many quality of life things if some process is just too tedious. I’d say it’s upped my enjoyment another notch because it’s just so well implemented. When I feel like easy mode, I turn on things like fastdwarf, and when I’m ready to just challenge myself I can turn it off.
DF is very much a game of play at your own pace. Even without DFHack, if you’re getting overrun by werewolves and goblin armies, just turn the settings for that stuff down or off. But the main thing to remember with this game: Losing is FUN!