If a game looks like it was made 10 years ago, than it should run on those 10 years systems also (not saying this game looks like one). So its kind like arguing that game that doesn't look that great should not need beafy new systems. And as this is a 2d game, it should be optimized for low end systems, and not need a good and new PC to run it. So yes, people should complain that graphical fidelity and calculation the game needs to do (if there are a lot of background calculations and simulations)are on par with system requirements. And developer should always try to optimize the game as best as possible.
Not to go over what forsaken said - but 2d in no way equals being computationally cheap. There's no way (unless you have access to the source code) that you can possibly guess how expensive each calculation is, and by that work out what type of PC it 'should require''
I don't think it was ever the idea that people would need a brand new GTX1070 to play it, and I'm sure that Zsinj will optimise it as best as possible, but the point I was trying to make was that Zsinj shouldn't purposefully downgrade the game/hobble the graphics just to cater to the few people that still have really, really old PCs.
An example is Dynamic lighting - it's a big overhead, but it looks great. I'd hate for people to influence the inclusion of that feature just because their PC can't handle it.
2d is computationally cheaper compared to 3d. There is no denying that in any way (just think if DF was in full detailed 3d graphics, you would not be even able to start the game on top of the line PCs from the 5 years future
). You can guess how "expensive calculation is" if you comparing it to the games of similar type. You dont need to look at source code for that (you can look at it if you want to see how badly it is written if the game is not optimized good), just what the game is, and how it looks. I am guessing this will not have simulation and calculations on the level of DF, but more be in the line with gnomoria, rimworld, prison architect and similar games.
Downgrading graphics and optimizing games best as possible are two different things. Also this is a PC game, where its standard to have graphical options for purpose to cater games to as much people as possible with different power of their PC, old and new. We are not playing on consoles (that by the way also have graphical options for some games) and no one is asking games form today to run on pentium 3, but to run on hardver that other games of similar look and style run.
