DwarfFortress Hack, Do you use it, yes or no, and why?

[Red Heifer]

I am curious, if everyone uses the hack tool or not and why.

[rome of oxtrot]

According to Steam gameplay metrics, about 28% of active DF players use DFHack.

[|Pipe Dreams]

never knew it existed

[AlP]

Originally posted by rome of oxtrot:

According to Steam gameplay metrics, about 28% of active DF players use DFHack.

I believe something like that was the case before Steam as well?

[rome of oxtrot]

Originally posted by AlP:

I believe something like that was the case before Steam as well?

I've never seen any metrics for pre-Steam that I consider reliable, but that's because I don't know of any good estimates of how many DF players there were before the Steam release. We could compare DFHack downloads (which we have numbers for) with DF downloads, but there's a confounding factor that a significant fraction of pre-v50 DFHack users were using one of the newbie packs, which typically bundled DFHack. And I don't know of a good source for numbers for total DF downloads from Bay12 either.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Red Cow:

I am curious, if everyone uses the hack tool or not and why.

I don't.

Primarily, because I sort of consider DF still in an "Early Access" period. I want to know the game as it evolves so my opinions about it are not biased by mods.

Secondarilyish... Compatibility. I don't want a compatibility issue with any DF patches, not that I would think that would be a very frequent problem. :)

[Helios]

i might use it at some point to clean up my save from 1000 of cavedweller corpses in places i cant reach good like water underground , stuff that is not melting in my lava dump places 10000 bolts and arrows scattered over the map ect.

[Rat]

yes, it's essential if you want to get the most out of the game

[Seabhac]

Often yes, and I would very much like to see Dwarf Therapist be integrated with the platform as well.

[Robot Joe]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Originally posted by Red Cow:

I am curious, if everyone uses the hack tool or not and why.

I don't.

Primarily, because I sort of consider DF still in an "Early Access" period. I want to know the game as it evolves so my opinions about it are not biased by mods.

Secondarilyish... Compatibility. I don't want a compatibility issue with any DF patches, not that I would think that would be a very frequent problem. :)

buddy DF has been in "early access" for nearly 20 years lol

[Ottfried]

I use it for building stuff mainly. Choosing manually which block you want to use every time is really mind numbing. That way I choose the material and make the outline of the walls/floors.

Also if you're testing mods, it can come in pretty handy

[rome of oxtrot]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Secondarilyish... Compatibility. I don't want a compatibility issue with any DF patches, not that I would think that would be a very frequent problem. :)

Through the generous graces of the Toady One, the DFHack team has advance access to DF releases, and thus DFHack will generally be updated to be compatible before DF itself updates. While we can't absolutely guarantee an updated DFHack will be waiting in the wings when Bay12 hits the "publish" button, we've been successful in achieving this target for the last four update cycles, and even people on the public beta channel have never had to wait more than a few hours for us to spin a compatible update on our own beta channel.

You shouldn't let this be a concern; the DFHack team has your back here.

[Deatheagle]

Since the game is still early access there will be the occasional wonkiness and unintended bahavior. DFHack provides you with the means to counter those.

That is the reason why I have it installed. I like to have really long plays with rather large fortresses. So when something suddenly breaks (for example all moody dwarfs suddenly not finding any materials on other floors because pathing broke or they are extra moody or wathever).

Critics of DFHack might say, that is part of the experience, just start a new fortress again, but I really like my long plays.

To answer your question in a single sentence: "I use it to enable long plays on the same map."

[Drosta]

I haven't used it yet, but if/when i come back to the game I will and I already have it added to my library. Vanilla DF is in such a poor state functionally that if DF hack does what it seems to suggest it does, which is polish it up and fix some longstanding bugs, or at least give you some tools to work around them, I'd go as far as to say the game without it is unplayable for me and yes I'll use it.

[Smiggles]

Hell yeah I use DFhack. IMO, DFhack should come with the game, be fully optimized in a easy/normal mode, and there is a hard mode where you don't get to use it.

Every new player should have it. Don't use it once you learn this complicated game more! Seriously, I researched for weeks before I could play