So, is this just a DF with a texture pack on, or...

[Rogue The Avali]

Many people can't get into dwarf fortress not because of graphics, (simple graphical mod fixes that). It's the interface. The gui, menus, dozens of tabs, dozens of shortcuts to remember, mouse almost completely absent, if not unnecessary. That's what drives people away.

[diji]

I'm hoping enough sales will encourage the development of a UI overhaul with Therapist-like functionality built in

[it's a gabe]

I don't remember ever using the mouse to play this, though.

I have to agree somewhat. The ASCII aesthetic was the first thing to drive people away cuz the information regarding tile sets wasn't as readily available as it should be. You had to do at least a little digging or ask a few questions to get a clear picture on that.

As for how the game plays—yeah. It is a nightmare. First you have to master the controls, which is hard in and of itself, and then you have to understand how the game plays, which requires hundreds of hours until you can do something on your own. There's even a DF manual of sorts which is hundreds if not thousands of pages long... I remember trying out a tutorial years ago and I easily spent more than 30h just doing the most basic stuff depicted there.

I understand and accept that DF is a hard game. It's healthy for the market to have games such as this available for those who crave the challenge and the reward that comes with it. But it sure would be nice if at least the controls were more streamlined in order to encourage people to get into it.

Originally posted by diji:

I'm hoping enough sales will encourage the development of a UI overhaul with Therapist-like functionality built in

From what I read, it seems this isn't a case of "let's release it on Steam to help further support development so that we can add more things." It's more a question of the devs' health not being the best and current political scenario affecting their healthcare, so they're hoping sales here will boost their income a little so that they might not die if there's ever a serious episode (or even to prevent such a situation from happening).

We could request some changes to be made but 1) the hardcore community will counterargue that we need to git gud and 2) I think the devs' priority is polishing and adding features instead of redesigning how the game plays.

But I think it's fair to count on mods, as we've been doing for so long now. At this point, it's quite fair to say that you're missing out on a lot of DF's features if you're not using mods and I see that carrying over to this release as well.

[CeSium]

The game comes with a custom made tileset alongside extra music, and steam workshop support.

[evillee]

Originally posted by unnecesaurus:

I don't remember ever using the mouse to play this, though.

I have to agree somewhat. The ASCII aesthetic was the first thing to drive people away cuz the information regarding tile sets wasn't as readily available as it should be. You had to do at least a little digging or ask a few questions to get a clear picture on that.

As for how the game plays—yeah. It is a nightmare. First you have to master the controls, which is hard in and of itself, and then you have to understand how the game plays, which requires hundreds of hours until you can do something on your own. There's even a DF manual of sorts which is hundreds if not thousands of pages long... I remember trying out a tutorial years ago and I easily spent more than 30h just doing the most basic stuff depicted there.

I understand and accept that DF is a hard game. It's healthy for the market to have games such as this available for those who crave the challenge and the reward that comes with it. But it sure would be nice if at least the controls were more streamlined in order to encourage people to get into it.

Originally posted by diji:

I'm hoping enough sales will encourage the development of a UI overhaul with Therapist-like functionality built in

From what I read, it seems this isn't a case of "let's release it on Steam to help further support development so that we can add more things." It's more a question of the devs' health not being the best and current political scenario affecting their healthcare, so they're hoping sales here will boost their income a little so that they might not die if there's ever a serious episode (or even to prevent such a situation from happening).

We could request some changes to be made but 1) the hardcore community will counterargue that we need to git gud and 2) I think the devs' priority is polishing and adding features instead of redesigning how the game plays.

But I think it's fair to count on mods, as we've been doing for so long now. At this point, it's quite fair to say that you're missing out on a lot of DF's features if you're not using mods and I see that carrying over to this release as well.

I would consider myself to be somewhat part of the "hardcore" community. Since the game is actually being sold now, as in you are paying money for this. I see no reason why you can't request features. As long as your polite, it doesn't matter.

[Satoru]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/Caves_of_Qud/

I'd just like to point out that Caves of Qud is doing quite well and doenst even have the 'fancy' graphics

[Polarbark]

Dudes, what has the DF community alwaysasked for? lol

"What if DF had graphics? What if DF was on Steam? Wouldn't that be AWESOME?"

[Fantasy System]

actually most of the time people asking for graphics are people who are not actually players of df, because if they were they would know that you can get a tileset.

[Viss Valdyr]

Originally posted by Polarbark:

Dudes, what has the DF community alwaysasked for? lol

"What if DF had graphics? What if DF was on Steam? Wouldn't that be AWESOME?"

Graphics were always there. Forced updates and Steam DRM and paying 20 dollars for it.

[CeSium]

Originally posted by Viss Valdyr:

Originally posted by Polarbark:

Dudes, what has the DF community alwaysasked for? lol

"What if DF had graphics? What if DF was on Steam? Wouldn't that be AWESOME?"

Graphics were always there. Forced updates and Steam DRM and paying 20 dollars for it.

Also steam workshop support, extra music, and a custom tileset. I'd say $20 is well worth it.

[Viss Valdyr]

Originally posted by CeSium:

Originally posted by Viss Valdyr:

Graphics were always there. Forced updates and Steam DRM and paying 20 dollars for it.

Also steam workshop support, extra music, and a custom tileset. I'd say $20 is well worth it.

Everyone his own, I guess. I stick to free for the time being.

[Punful Guy]

They are working with two tileset/mod makers regarding the general UI and both preserving the ease of which experienced players use it but also making it easier for new players

[Viss Valdyr]

Originally posted by ThatOneGuy:

They are working with two tileset/mod makers regarding the general UI and both preserving the ease of which experienced players use it but also making it easier for new players

source about the UI changes? It isn't mentioned on the sources I read until now. They are considering it but till now, just a tileset (I admit a nice looking one) and music. Things you already can get. The UI changes you were talking about is nothing to be seen (and a new border doesn't make a new UI). And new players will be crushed so hard by the game, I can see the red thumbs down swarming in.

[Punful Guy]

My source is the reddit AMA they did yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b147yh/im_tarn_aka_toady_one_dwarf_fortress_is_coming_to/) and the reddit post of the announcement of the Steam release here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/b0mzog/official_announcement_dwarf_fortress_is_coming_to/ . In which Meph and Mayday the modders will be working on the UI improvements with Toady. The main chunk of the work will be done after the current Villains arc is finished

They made an early iteration that you can see here https://imgur.com/a/CHJVQ3Y which is the quickest thing they could throw together so soon in game. They mention wanting to streamline and making it easier to read from a beginners perspective. Also accessibility changes to make things less daunting is on their to do list, including the military screen. Full or the closest to it mouse support is another one on the list before release.

Simply enough, give it time

[Viss Valdyr]

Originally posted by ThatOneGuy:

Simply enough, give it time

fair enough

[HietsoM]

And don't forget it isn’t just a Texture Pack. They write new code for the Graphic implementation. In the Steam Version you will have transparent in the texture and more thing, like shadows or Monster that are bigger than 1 tile. And because Kitfox Games helps them now, they will maybe hire more dev's for the game. My source is the ama too. They did an ama in Discord too: https://discordapp.com/invite/kitfoxgames with more ingame pictures.