Can someone contrast a few of these games (caves of quad, dwarf fortress, adom, ...) with rimworld

[amud]

There are a lot of these games that on the surface seem similar. Some are quite cheap and run on linux (which is a plus to myself) and others are more expensive. Has anyone played enough of them to comment on how they differ and pro/con with regards to game and game play.

[Lantantan]

Uh, Oh, sure. But it would help if you could tell us what you're looking for in the first place! What are your favorite games or fiction genres? Otherwise I can only randomly ramble about each game.

You're talking about 2 different game genres here:
Colony Management Survival <--------|-------> Adventure Roguelike RPG
Rimworld - Dwarf Fortress -|- Caves of Qud - ADoM

So Rimworld and Dwarf fortress-mode are about building, managing (and often losing) a colony of a group of 5-100 people, expect organic storytelling, triumph and tragedy. Rimworld has a smaller scale which makes the story a lot more accessable and people focused. Dwarf fortresses kinda escalate into those 100 people multigenerational mega projects. There's real drama in there too, but it's burried under poor interface and extraneous stuff. Here's my preference for related colony management games:
Rimworld > Oxygen Not Included > Dwarf Fortress (free) > Prison Architect

Dwarf adventure-mode and the other listed games are (ASCII tileset) roguelike dungeon crawlers, about building one adventurer and their inevitable permadeath. Classic roguelikes are a bit of an aquired taste but since you listed them, I'm guessing thats your taste? Among the 3 listed, Caves of Qud is the most modern and accessable which makes it the best starting point. I myself have bounced right off ADoM repeatedly, after being spoiled by the modern roguelikes like The Pit and Cogmind. Here's my preference for related top-down turn-based "classic" roguelike adventure games:
The Pit (on Hard+)> Caves of Qud > Cogmind > Unreal World > CDDA (free) > Dwarf Adventure

[amud]

Thanks for the comments. It is hard to describe what I am looking for in the game. I've started on the original hack in early/mid 1980's; it just showed up one day on a floppy - er to be more precise someone at the computer center suggested i take a look at this floppy - anyway i never liked rogue but nethack was ok till it was 'over' done. I only tried the linux version of dwarf fortress once 5 or 6 years ago but couldn't get into it. So I guess i'm looking for something easily accessible with a bit of action but not too serious.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by amud:

So I guess i'm looking for something easily accessible with a bit of action but not too serious.

You may like this at the lower difficulties then. Less raids, and more environmental events happening I believe.

If it turns out you like the raids you can always change storyteller and difficulty (either easier or harder) mid-game with Rimworld. No need to start over.

[hedge]

You might just be interested in a "fresh" roguelike. You might enjoy cataclysm: dark days ahead. It's free. It is brutally hard but there are ways to turn down the difficulty.
|
V Gnomoria has mods though I dunno how active development is for that

[Gatherer Thompson]

Good taste in games in here :) Wanted to add Tales of Maj'Eyal to the rogue-side, and Gnomoria to the sim-side (though Rimworld has active development modding + workshop, and Dwarf Fort will always have more content)..

Nice to see Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead mentioned, too ( https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA last updated only 9 hours ago)!

Cogmind and UnReal have older versions you can try out for free, also.

EDIT: Haven't checked in on it in ages, but Elona+ just came to mind, worth a mention, anyway! And Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, for an updated but still "classic" experience.. Also wanted to mention that I follow the Caves of Qud dev on Twitter and he's the most awesome, genuine dude on Earth, and he updates Qud every Friday like clockwork (or informs us ahead of time so we don't panic, heheh)..

[Lantantan]

Thank you Grum :). And thanks for filling in the gaps I've left. I'm kinda biased against the fantasy genre, so you're prolly better suited to pitch those classic fantasy roguelikes.

Rimworld is totally a game I'd recommend, but it sounds to me like you're really looking for a (modern) roguelike. I'd say all of the recommendations done here are good games. But often we want more that just gameplay, we want settings that resonate with us personally. So I'll try to pitch the ones that have grabbed me. I'll label them with an (A) for accessable.


The Pit (A).
Tense and smart survival in an underground Sci-fi complex. The tileset and recognisable weaponry make the game very accessable. Has an amazing tension curve, amazing depth and nearly every item is relevant or lifesaving. It has none of that frustrating throwing away half of the loot because you're a mage class. Play on Harder or worse and use a wiki for the crafting recipes. And remember, Losing is Fun!

Caves of Qud (A).
Mutant scavengers amids jungle overgrown chrome skyscrapers. Low pixel tileset or ASCII. Mutate your post (or degenerate) human into a more feral animal form. Loot the ruins of the past and tinker with all maner unpredictable precurser relics.

Cogmind.
Scentient, living machine complex. Very pretty ASCII graphics or low pixel tileset. Grow your bot into a fearsome tank on threads with the weapons scavenges from your foes. Or build into a flying stealth machine that avoids enemies instead. Or rebuild your flying stealth bot into that tank after finding a weapon cache. Really makes you feel part of a living complex due to all the maintenance droids just doing their thing in peace, that is
until you kill them to steal their wheels.

Cataclysm, Dark Days Ahead.
Human survivor of a mostly zombie apocalypse. ASCII graphics. Desperately run through an infested city until you can find a functioning car. Multi-tile car can be completely rebuilt and will be your mobile base, while you mutate or implant yourself with cybernetics to survive. Having to abandon your home because you crashed during a smash and grab of a gunstore is heartrending.

Unreal World (A).
Survive the seasons in iron age Finland. Tileset graphics. Reasonably realistic, mostly peacefull, barely roguelike. Fishing, Farming or Hunting and Tracking. Very tense when you're starving and freezing while trying to find that wounded Elk. Very relaxing when you've suceeded, your belly is fully and you're smoking that meat for the rest of winter in your DIY Log-Cabin.

[burningmime]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

Rimworld > Oxygen Not Included > Dwarf Fortress (free) > Prison Architect

Total aside, but I wouldn't consider Prison Architect to be in the same genre at all. It borrowed some interface conventions, but that's all. I'd argue Prison Architect has more in common with SimCity than with RimWorld.

[Lantantan]

Originally posted by burningmime:

Originally posted by Lantantan:

Rimworld > Oxygen Not Included > Dwarf Fortress (free) > Prison Architect

Total aside, but I wouldn't consider Prison Architect to be in the same genre at all. It borrowed some interface conventions, but that's all. I'd argue Prison Architect has more in common with SimCity than with RimWorld.

Well, they're both management games with a human focus that use interlocking systems to procedurally generate stories. The real difference is that one of them is a dystopian hell-hole simulator where your only concern is to keep as many people alive as you can without them revolting. The other is ofcourse prison architect ;).

[brian_va]

the linux build is what eventually sold it for me. obviously no regrets as it is a great game with good mod support/participation and i would have almost certainly purchased even if windows only. but it likely would have been pushed aside longer in favor of other linux games.

[amud]

Nice summary Lantantan

[Lantantan]

Originally posted by amud:

Nice summary Lantantan

Cheers! Tell us what you decide.

[hedge]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

Cataclysm, Dark Days Ahead.
Human survivor of a mostly zombie apocalypse. ASCII graphics.

Cataclysm: DDA has very good tilesets now. I can't play it on vanilla at all anymore.