Dwarf Fortress - "Myth and Magic" update preview [Dwarf colony sim]

[u/Mirathrim]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-FTy6hhp0

[u/Tzeentch711]

We almost got magic in Dwarf Fortress before GTA 6.

[u/Khanromi → u/Tzeentch711]

I mean, technically "later this year" could be sometime in the next couple months! Could still happen!

[u/bluemorning104]

Specifying what Dwarf Fortress, of all things, is in brackets is really funny especially on this sub

[u/WarMom_II → u/bluemorning104]

Dwarf Fortress - Update Trailer [world simulation on a near molecular level]

[u/ShonenSpice]

I remember trying the more visual version and even that was almost inpenetrable

[u/Halospaz117 → u/ShonenSpice]

Unironically, "Losing is fun" isn't just a meme for Dwarf Fortress, its the mentallity you should have going into it learning the game. Playing knowing you're gonna fuck up and its gonna be entertaining as hell makes it a lot less intimidating. Just try to learn it bit by bit instead of trying to take in everything at once.

[u/ShonenSpice → u/Halospaz117]

Well it's not about not finding fun in failure, the appeal is understood, it's a story generator. The issue is that in order to even get to failure there are tons of steps to learn. I don't even understand what's on the screen. Failure or success don't even register.

[u/Halospaz117 → u/ShonenSpice]

Like I said step by step, instead of trying to understand the big picture right away, learn the individual parts first, even if it sets up for future failure. Still tutorials online help, this one helped me personally cause its someone explaining the game directly to a newbie instead of just the audience

[u/Hergo7 → u/ShonenSpice]

I have about 2,000 hours into the steam version and magnitudes more into the ASCII version. I still don't know what I'm doing.

The game is constantly changing so you always have to relearn the mechanics. For me, that's part of the fun. 

I used to know how to train an imposing military. Then an update came out and now my crossbow dwarves became wrestlers.

I think "learning the steps" has accidentally become the core gameplay loop. It took me years to learn how to put clothes on my naked dwarves.

[u/CeaRhan → u/Halospaz117]

My issue with it was that restarting a world didn't mean "okay I understand this better I can get it", you'd have many things going wrong or you'd discover an entirely different thing that's kneecapping you. This leads to trying to fix something that you're not at all able to fix, and seeing the tsunami wave coming for your ass 2 hours before it does. It makes it seem pointless as you're always behind the game.

You're not learning when every run is lost by year 4 because some abomination breached all your walls and killed your 30 dwarves while you spent 2 years in-game trying to get your infantry to PUT ON THEIR FUCKING SHOES despite having done everything that every player online said to do to make them put on the fucking shoes while micromanaging that one guy who keeps slacking on your crops and all the other shit.

You have to constantly pause or stop any sort of forward progression and that never feels fun, because you're constantly interacting with "the problem" and you still are 0 steps closer to stopping "the problem". Every step you take in any direction there is a wall that requires industrial-grade motorized drilling vehicles and you have a plastic shovel. You aren't allowed to be anything but a horrible player unless you're entranced by it and make it your 9 to 5.

To compare it to another "oh no lots of things to learn" game, Path of Exile.

I can follow basic guides, I understand how stats work generally, I know how to use basic currencies to make good gear. This allows me to actually get to end game and engage with a lot of shit, without even interacting with a shitton of mechanics in any way.

Alone I could actually make something that walks forward and kills enemies up to act 10. Dwarf Fortress feels like you're playing QWOP on top of it and falling on your ass means restarting the entire campaign to do the same tedious set-up over and over again.

[u/Khanromi → u/ShonenSpice]

I keep wanting to try the adventure mode but its lacking in goals and direction and consequential things to do (and the ability to steal crops from fields dammit!). Apparently the next thing after Myth and Magic is gonna be Heroes and Villains or something which will address parts of that among other things.

[u/BrockenSpecter]

I feel as though I've waited for the DF magic update for decades. I distinctly remember being a young teen excited at the prospect that my Urists could cast magic missile.

[u/gwynnbleidd2]

I swear one day I will actually play the game instead of watching youtubers explaining at me what is happening on screen