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Author Topic: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?  (Read 3045 times)

Abraxis

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I've been looking into Gnomoria on steam, and it seems to be the most developed of the games trying to bring the concept of Dwarf Fortress to sensible gamers.  The problem is, every review I read of it just praises it as being a great game for people whom can't get past the problems Dwarf Fortress has.  Like all of you however, I have quite a lot of experience with Dwarf Fortress, so I don't think any of those reviews really apply. 
However, I do occasionally find Dwarf Fortress too stressful to play, since I have a poor memory and probably mild OCD, keeping a large fort organized over time really doesn't do my psyche any favours.  With this in mind, I think a less complex (to manage) version of Dwarf fortress could be fun between Dwarf Fortress binges.
Has anyone here played Gnomoria?  What are your opinions on it from the perspective of someone that does know how to play Dwarf Fortress?
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Dyret

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Re: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2014, 02:15:43 am »

From what I've heard it gets old fast if you're used to DF. It does a good job of explaining itself and its features, and the interface is massively simplified, but so is everything else, limiting your options quite a bit compared to DF. There's also Stronghold HD, which is kind of in the same genre, and probably a better game.
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Billy Jack

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Re: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2014, 10:55:50 am »

I migrated from Gnomoria and Towns from Steam to DF after seeing many of the posting in the Steam forums about how it was a poor comparison to DF.

Towns added a few more fixes/features since I last played (and the developer(s) stopped working on it).

Gnomoria appears to still be adding more features but it still doesn't have the depth of DF (and I doubt it ever will in regards to the experience of the whole world picture).

I think they still have a demo for Gnomoria, so give it a try. Maybe you'll like the lack of depth in exchange for the easier interface.
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Kumil

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Re: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2014, 11:57:20 am »

I'd feel bad inside, playing the copy instead of the original.
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idgarad

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Re: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2014, 07:08:15 pm »

DF is a fantasy world simulator first, with game play a distant second. Fortress, Adventure, and Legends are tools to interact with that simulation.
Gnomoria is a fantasy management game first, without needless world simulation. So is Rimworld and the rest.

Gnomoria is more focused on gameplay, DF is more focused on simulation.

They live together quite happily.

Gnomoria is for people who just want to play something like Dungeon Keeper meets Sim City.  If you aren't spending hours obsessing with Legends Viewer and looking at that marble statue of Urist McMayor, you have no reason to feel ashamed of liking and playing Gnomoria. Gnomoria is no more a rip off of DF as DF is a rip off of Populous, Sim City, Elite, etc.
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Levi

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Re: Is Gnomoria a good experience for an experienced Dwarf Fortress player?
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2014, 02:57:07 pm »

I liked it, it was fun.  I made an upside-down pyramid.

It was surprisingly well-along for an early access game too, and that was when I tried it sometime in 2013. 


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