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[Bronzebeard]

Screenshot of Mike Mayday's DFG (top) & his new DFGs (bottom), with respective tileset sample grids from both.

"Toady keeps adding new items, objects etc. without support for more symbols for them. Unfortunately, this was making DFG more and more of a mess. That's why I had to basically revert to ASCII. DFGs uses ASCII symbols for almost all objects, but has new, clear graphical symbols for walls- and retains the good old creatures graphics. Hopefully this will keep the game readable (a nice bonus is that the text is no longer messed up). The basic DFG will most likely no longer be updated- Dwarf Fortress can simply no longer support it." ― Mike Mayday

Sad, tragic news. It's obviously still leagues better than actual ASCII, but pales in comparison to the old DFG (in my opinion, anyway). That's a really "kind" example, too -- if I bothered to load an actual game on both, what seems like a cool little forestscape in DFG would be a plane of dots & letters in DFGs. Hard pill to swallow for some.

[yarr]

Well I got used to the ascii style, so it's not a problem for me. But still I'd like to, one day, see support for more tiles or whatever is required to get the good old mayday-tileset (with which I started my df-career ) to work again

[Elim]

Well, i like it. Now we just need the new DF version... ; )

[werechicken]

*deep breath* Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (3 hours later) o!

It's still usable in its current form, but I do get his point, if you wanted graphics for the new animals and professions then you can forget about seeing the text. I thought that's why toady introduced the true type.

Oh well, least I won't he waiting around for DFG to update. (shame really twas what actually let ne enjoy df in the first place)

[Bronzebeard]

I begrudgingly embraced DF's ASCII style for about an hour, before I found out about tilesets. Specifically, Mayday's tileset. It always seemed the best one, so it's the only one I used, and made learning & playing DF a lot easier. Now, I too depend on DFG. My friends only play ASCII -- I think they're crazy.

I may've been a bit reactionary, though; it's not that bad... I loaded up an actual game since I wrote the post, and it's not as awful as I imagined. The ground's punctuation marks (instead of those little sprinkles), trees are card suits, and stone's got some funny new icons (weird, perfect spheres when mined), but it paints more or less the same picture.

And, on the bright side, the text is fixed. A lot easier to read now, and with all the fancy diacritics.

[Jacob/Lee]

I used to use Mike Mayday's tileset, then I took an arrow to the knee manned up and used ASCII. I find the game much easier to look at (egad!) in ASCII. Since most of the players use ASCII, it's much easier to understand. I used Mike Mayday's tileset for a long time, 40d to 2010, then I switched to the normal game.

That tileset will always hold a special place in my heart, but it just couldn't go on forever.

[Lord Dullard]

I don't mind the ASCII in DF. OTOH, I've never quite understood why Toady doesn't make it easier to design graphics for his game. I can understand there are limitations, but it doesn't seem like it would take a great amount of work to make things more customizable (plus it'd open up a HUGE potential audience of people who won't bother with ASCII-only games).

[Genoraven]

I don't mind the ASCII in DF. OTOH, I've never quite understood why Toady doesn't make it easier to design graphics for his game. I can understand there are limitations, but it doesn't seem like it would take a great amount of work to make things more customizable (plus it'd open up a HUGE potential audience of people who won't bother with ASCII-only games).

Because he would rather work on improving the games content rather than improve the art.


I learned to play from a tile-set then eventually learned to use the ascii because i didn't feel like setting up the graphics after every new patch. I prefer the matrix now.

[sneakey pete]

I can't stand the ASCII as comes standard with DF because it isn't square, so i usually change that firs thing, othwerise i'm happy with it

[Malt_Hitman]

That’s too bad.  I really liked using DFG_31_25_c.  I just upgraded to the newest version for a new computer.  I hope the creature graphics continue to get made for the slim version and that they’ll remain compatible for DFG_31_25_e as long as the old tile set can be used with the coming update.

[SirPenguin]

Looks amazing

[Rex_Nex]

Looks bad to me.

[Bronzebeard]

I used to use Mike Mayday's tileset, then I took an arrow to the knee manned up and used ASCII.

Lmao. I guess I've just been spoiled by DFG too long. Once you get used to the glory of little 8-bit goblin armies charging toward your stronghold, the same onslaught by a bunch of little g's is a bit less satisfying. Without there ever being tilesets, I can say I would've played vanilla, ASCII DF & enjoyed the hell out of it (although I'd probably change that "slant", which makes a 4x4 tile room look rectangular, regardless). Whether or not I can do so after so much eyecandy, like you, is uncertain.

[kaenneth]

Is DF limited to only 256 possible tiles?

[yarr]

I can't stand the ASCII as comes standard with DF because it isn't square, so i usually change that firs thing, othwerise i'm happy with it

This. Anyone knows the reason why default is not square?