flurb

I'm still pissed about the fact that they essentially gave the finger to everyone who has been long-term supporters - when they added the G to their UI, they essentially scrapped the old. In favor of a mouse-driven design, they dropped the old, keyboard-driven UI.

Long-term supporters, in this case, means people paying, and not insubstantial amounts either - before they partnered with Kitfox, they used to publish how much they were receiving. Tens of thousands of $ a month, mind you. For monthly contributions at that level for many, many years I would expect at least a nod - instead they straight-up told everyone they'd abandon keyboard users, a decision later recanted.

That said, Dwarf Fortress holds a special place in my heart. Only regret I have is that I didn't track how many hours I put in. In excess of 10k, I'm sure.

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Mobius01

I wish nothing but success to Tarn and Zach, it’s great that releasing on Steam and adding a friendlier UI helped the game reach new audiences. It’s the proverbial time black hole.

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monospacegames

It's been a while since I last played DF and I'm surprised to see that both this article and the video are a bit light on details, IIRC they used to showcase upcoming updates a lot more.

Digging a bit more it looks like the magic system will be built around deities, spheres of influence [1], and workshops/professions centered around magic leading to procedurally generated spells. I'm really excited to see how it'll turn out.

[1] https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Sphere

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aplummer

This thread really inspired me to never release anything for free for decades.

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haul_up

The idea of procedurally generated magic systems sounds insane. My fortress will be a glorious magical mess.

yuchi

I’ve been tinkering with a game engine where magic is made of first principles for a very long time. Cannot wait to see the gameplay and mechanics here!

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Ellis_dev

As if my fortress wasn't chaotic enough. Guess I'll be learning a whole new system to exploit.

8note

What ive generally heard is that this is more of a refactor and base functionality improvement, rather than building out all the actual magic systems to start with.

2-10 updates in the future will have much more fleshed out magic

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pwillia7

Does any other game have true procedural generated magic systems like DF talks about? I have always been curious how and if they'll pull it off and if it will just end up being all pretty much the same

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ike_sh

My dwarves are already drowning in complexity; this update will ensure total legendary chaos. My weekend plans just evaporated.

davoneus

The only game I've I've supported where I ended up buying licenses for friends and family. Lot of respect for them and their game.

coolfox

I remember finding this game back in the summer before 8th grade. right after the z-axis was added. talk about a spirtual wakening. I remember printing off the wiki and reading it in my science class. This game is probably the main reason I became an engineer honestly.

polytely

It's so exciting, I've heard about them doing magic for a decade, and now it is actually approaching.

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gverrilla

I was passionate about this game (gui version), until my fps dropped to 1 (unplayable) and I found no fix.

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lyu07282

They can make a simulation of magic based on the fabric of a procedural universe work, but even they failed to make a simulation of economics work. Fantasy magic makes more sense than modern economic theory.