Bay 12 Games Forum

I'd call myself a Gamist/Simulationist. I would list constructionist because I would love to build huge gold mausoleums, and giant canyon-straddling castles with built-in self destruct switches; however, I cannot for the life of me stand to play Fortress mode. There's just too much going on, too much micromanaging to handle. So, I will focus on adventure mode as I discuss why I categorize myself as I did.

I call myself a gamist because I *do* see DF as a game. It's a very deep, unfathomably complex game, but a game none-the-less. I wouldn't ever wish for simpler rogue-likier mechanics in the game, but I can't wait until there are more interesting and attainable goals I can set (or have set for me) to achieve. Currently I approach the game with the objective of becoming as powerful as an individual as I can before dying a horrible horrible death (which, being an IVAN player, I came to DF with in the first place). I don't want a numerical score, I don't really want a "win" condition. What I want is to be able to do things other than "get quest, go here, kill this, come back, repeat" and/or "explore aimlessly in the wilderness for anything interesting you might find". I want to build a farmhouse. I want to become a bodyguard for a merchant. I want to enlist as a soldier in an army, and be knighted in the field for my bravery and valor. I want to join a death-worshiping cult, and then disguise myself and slip into the king's palace and slit his throat while he sleeps.

That's where the simulationist comes in. I want to be able to do all this, and more, and I want it to be as real as possible. I want my farm in the woods to gradually grow into a town as my hired farmhands build homes for themselves, the knighted soldier to inspire tales in far-off lands, the assassination of the king to shape the politics of the kingdom. I love being able to hew through a guy's ribs and puncture his lung, to hack off fingers, and so forth. And I want more details. I want it to be a precise simulation of the "real" world, but with gamist goals I can strive towards.

I made a swordsman. I never expected this adventure would be so profitable.

After some minor bandit slaying adventures, I encountered a troll while returning to town, who crippled my teammate, but I was able to strike it down. Immediately afterwards, the lady of the local fortress recruited me to slay another troll, which was handled easily. The night stalker I was quested for next was a little tougher, and it took down two of my companions (as well as biting a hole in my cheek) before I managed to land a blow and behead it. At this point, things got a little more dangerous -- a giantess was my next target. After a brutal fight we brought it down, though much to my disappointment my companion axeman got the killing blow and not me. However the royals were still happy to hear the beast was slain, and gave me an even tougher mission: to bring Uzma Diamondparched the Bejeweled, a dragon, to justice.

But that's not what I'm posting about.

On my way there I decided to stop in a town and get rid of some of the copper/silver coinage I'm carrying about. After a bit of exchanging I reduced my total burden... and then noticed that my gold bag was actually getting pretty heavy. A quick glance and a bit of math informed me that I was hauling around ~17 lbs of gold! A little more math: in U.S. dollars, that's equivalent to about $277,300.

If I survive this next encounter... I think it's time to retire and buy a nice house somewhere.

I'd like to appear next to the box in a flaming ball of hellfire.

Simple question because I couldn't find it at a glance: Will more severe weather/other natural events be implemented, i.e. lightning storms, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, floods, droughts etc? How far down the line?

When you have intelligent entities in cages/chains/otherwise captured, I think it would be fun if others from the same civilization (friends, perhaps?) would come and attempt to free the captives using various methods -- sneaking in mostly, though for a ruler they might send an army. This could also happen to a lesser extent within your own fortress, when people get thrown in jail for long periods of time -- friends could come and try to free him and then... I don't know, escape the fortress perhaps?

It already rains and snows... will such things as hail, blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, thunder and lightning (especially those two) be implemented (in the near future)? I want to make a lightning rod. And tie immigrants to it >

I had one tell me that life was, in a word, mountains. My first reaction was "Wow dude. That's deep." Damn game. You'd almost think something like that was planted.

Did you jump down the stairs onto that rat? Nice.