Dwarf Fortress!

[Handshakes]

 :DYes! I'm starting the Dwarf Fortress thread! Anybody here ever played it? Any thoughts to share on it? Do you want to start a 360Fahrenheit succession game?

If you haven't ever played or heard of Dwarf Fortress, I'll sum it up for you:

Dwarf Fortress is a kind of God game in the vein of the Dungeon Keeper series. The difference between Dwarf Fortress and other God/Base-building games is that Dwarf Fortress is extremely technical and minutely detailed. The first time you run the game a random world is generated for you, and by random world I don't just mean random terrain, I mean an entire world is generated with 2000 years of history behind it. Wars get fought, historical figures are born, presumably do something important, and die. Entire civilizations come and go before the 2000 years are up and you get to pick a site for your Dwarven mining expedition.

When you actually embark on an expedition is when you are in the game proper. You have an overhead view of whatever area you plopped your 7 Dwarves on, you give them orders to build/harvest/dig, and they get to it. But the real challenge - along with creating a safe Fortress that can fend off attacks from snakemen and goblin sieges as well as a robust and sustainable economy - comes from the fact that your Dwarves aren't mindless automatons. They have background histories, likes and dislikes, wants and needs. The AI in this game is pretty neat. Dwarves can go crazy, become murderous or thieving, or even get depressed and commit suicide. And they will, often at some very inopportune times.

The most important thing to know when starting to play Dwarf Fortress is that you are almost definitely going to fail, and fail spectacularly. There is a slogan that they used to say about the old ASCII Rogue-RPG games, and they very appropriately use it for Dwarf Fortress: "Losing is fun!". And it really is. Every new breakthrough you make for your Dwarven civilization - be it a new type of craft shop, a taxation system, or a mayor to demand certain rights for his people from you - opens up a new layer of complexity that often makes your already fragile little ecosystem that much harder to keep in working order. Eventually, things start to spiral out of control, and whatever does end up being the cause of your deminse - whether it is from a madness that descended upon your Dwarves, or you dug too deep and caused a magma flood, or you dug too deep and unearthed some ancient evil demons that rip even your best Dwarven guards to shreds - know that it is going to be spectacular and a lot of fun to watch from a distance.

This description really only scratches the surface though. The game is super complex, and almost has to be seen to be believed. Still, I also have to mention that the game is about as non-user friendly as they come. There is almost NO game design put into this thing to make it intuitive and easy to use. Simply put, if you want to play this game you are going to have to do a bit of studying and play your way through a tutorial (which I'll link below) before you can even get a fortress off of the ground (or rather, into the ground, as the case may be). Even then, you are probably going to have to constantly Google or search the official Wiki to figure out certain game elements. This sounds like a big turn off, and it is, but trust me when I say that if you persevere and figure the game out it is very rewarding.

Important Dwarf Fortress links for those too lazy to Google:

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ - This is the homepage where you can download the original ASCII version of the game.
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.php - This is a graphical tileset for Dwarf Fortress. There are a couple of visualizers out there, but I like this one.
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page - This is the wiki. You are going to have to consult it a lot while you play.
http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ - Here is the tutorial I used to help get me off of the ground.
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/ - This is the chronicles of Boatmurdered, a Dwarf Fortress Let's Play from the SomethingAwful goons. If you want to have a better idea of what the game is about and why it is so great, just check this out. It is kind of a long read, but believe me when I say that you will not be able to stop once you start. It is hilarious and ends beautifully.

[GamerMan316]

Does it have guns with chainsaw attachments?   

I'm not a fan of god games so i'll pass.

[Failed]

im neither a fan of god games or RTS games, sorry, sounds fun i like Disgaea which is pretty complex but it's turn based. RTS loses to TBS all the time for me.

[Handshakes]

It isn't really an RTS either. It is more of a sim game, along the lines of Theme Hospital.

No guns, but there are crossbows. And the the combat is pretty detailed. Limbs come off, eyes can get poked out, etc... For example, just today my Master Glassblower went mad and choked two of her dogs to death before the rest of my war dogs mobilized and bit her arm off. She bled to death a couple minutes later.

[Failed]

obscure, so is it turnbased or realtime ?

[NeuroticSarge]

Just,no.

[Maibs]

Sounds intresting but ASCII games just depress me.....

[DFUSIONITE]

the only pc game i play is roller coaster tycoon 3. and sims. sounds interesting though. does it have cheeves 

[Failed]

does it have cheeves 

lol >_<

[nCogNeato]

I used to play a text-based game that was a little similar.  It involved a lot of foraging and animal attacks.

I tried to get my brain psyched for this, but I think my gaming tastes have become a lot less refined this generation.  5 years ago I would have jumped on this, but my eyes just can't handle low-res graphics anymore.

Sorry, Shakes.   

[Handshakes]

I have to admit, half of the fun is just overcoming the challenge of the poopy graphics and interface. It is just a little free game that I think has some neat ideas. Ideas that I want to steal.