Reply With QuoteMore exciting is drama on df forums
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index...opic=111198.15
Robotronic Games brings you
Gnomoria (free demo under Downloads)
This game is unrelated to the other indie DF-lite Towns (see the qt3 thread on that game here: link)
If I were to put this game on a list with Towns and DF, I would have to say that Gnomoria is attempting to make Dwarf Fortress in 3D a lot more accurately than Towns. While they both attempt to create the same kind of building and resource gathering gameplay of DF (utilizing stockpiles, designating areas for cutting or digging), Gnomoria is recreating DF almost exactly with its inclusion of Professions and various flavors of building materials, designating food and private rooms and dormitories, setting up supply chains, etc.
Its simulation engine so far seems to include water, since when it rains you see puddles quickly form and dry up so perhaps even flooding could be in the mix. (the Machinations menu is greyed out but I assume there will be pumps/gates).
It starts off pretty much exactly like Dwarf Fortress as well. You generate a world of varying size (noting that the max size is nowhere near the scope of DF, of course):
Right clicking brings up a pretty slick menu, the menu that I and undoubtedly dozens of thousands of gamers were praying for in DF:
What I should take the time to really praise in this game is how well-done the 3D is. Selecting things controls pretty much exactly as you would want them to, with grid highlighting as you're designating areas and 3D grid marks to show you if you're going to be building a floor above an empty space, that sorta thing. It's pretty damn slick. Mouse scrolling changes the level on which you're selecting something, though of course you can select the base ground tile that you can see if you're not building on a level. The UI isn't perfect yet, and there are few hotkeys (press E to fill in black unexplored areas if you're having confusion with a multi-level setup underground).
There's also a floor block in addition to the "wall" block, so there's a mechanism here for floating pathways or "ceilings".
Here's a little example of what it looks like graphically when selecting. And what's also slick is the yellow/green graphical highlight to show when something is queued, and when something has just been "activated" for work by one of your Gnomes. This coloring applies to construction jobs and workshops at well:
Right now it's a pain in the ass to dig down with the way that building stairs works, but theoretically you can designate walls to be cut out before building the stairs, so that you're ready to build more stairs as they chop out the walls. It's not perfect and it's janky, but the issue has been brought up with the devs.
Also notice that there is some lighting. All Gnomes are assumed to be holding torches, but underground and at nighttime things can be very dark. Torches will be necessary to build and place if you want a comfortable environment to look at eventually (and may even boost happiness, I'm not sure how fleshed out happiness is at the moment).
I'm assuming this is a throwback to DF, but "blocks" can have many different colors depending on what they are. I didn't find any nearby regular grey stone in this level, so my Gnomes have been building with Lapis Lazuli blue stone. With more varieties (serpentine stone, lava rock stone, and quite a number of other colors I spotted), one has quite a number of options in terms of aesthetics. This applies to wood as well... oak, birch, and apple tree planks are all going to be built into differently colored beds or tables or chairs. Of course, you don't have to specifically select which type of plank you need if you don't want to.
In my final day 6 shot of the demo (very short, really, but it's fun seeing how much you can get done in 6 days on a new map as you learn the game), you can sort of see the decorative blue stone I used as a ceiling to my weaver's hut and my distillery.
I know real Dwar... *ahem* GNOMES build underground, but I had to check out what I could do with above-ground buildings.
Final shot (the black area is the cut-away view of the mountain, of course, as my selected level is the one where I built the tunnel leading in)
Plenty of things aren't done, it doesn't seem that having a Pasture works, and right now I don't see any way to have, say, a log be automatically cut into a plank whenever a new job requires a plank, but I would think that's on the list for further development.
Anyone who was interested, like I was, in having a graphical Dwarf Fortress game, this one is worth trying out, especially if you're also enjoying Towns.
More exciting is drama on df forums
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index...opic=111198.15
Yeah... I don't care :)Originally Posted by DF Fanboi
That was pretty tame drama. Most folks were willing to give it a shot, even.
I don't get how people think that makimg a game in a genre is "ripping off" a game. Did Half-Life rip off Doom? It's a genre. There is room for everyone.
It's true, there's not much going on there. Some people are going to be very expressive one way or the other.
This is a very solid alpha demo. It's short but it has that itch that sorta makes you want to do it all again after you figure out some of the mechanics.
There are already mechanisms in the game, you just need to research them first.
Pastrue works. you need to assign a certain animal, gnomes carry it in and then the animals slowly multiply.
And yeah, this is much more true to the origin than Towns (Towns developer here, btw), for the good and bad.
The water simulation, from what i can see without getting into the code, is almost identical to how towns simulate fluids (bar the drying up). i tried to flood a hole i digged and it didn't work so i guess that feature is still isn't in.
It does the whole building aspect totally different than towns, being relying on blocks exclusively, rather than blocks/walls.
Its biggest advantage is how everything is "3d": the underground levels arent seperate screens, the ability to build underground is exactly the same as above ground which allow much more creative building in three dimensions.
It is a very good start (that is actually close to finish from what the developer said) but there are a lot of things about it that are being done really badly, things that i prefer to keep to myself considering i am probably biased having a competing game.
I've played this a fair bit last night, and there is a seriously good game here actualy. I can now kinda understand how you all love Dwarf Fortress, because its pretty damn fun to dig, build, manage and create your own kingdom of little misfits.
If you enjoy dwarf fortress or Towns, you'll love this Im sure. I think this particular subset of games needs all the support it can get so we can get more and better iterations of it so please -go check out the 6 day demo and if you like it, buy it! Its only what..7 dollars or so right now.
Oh, I bought Towns as well Burningpet so don't worry ;-)
7.99 as an alpha on Desura, and they have a video of gameplay.
Hmm....
arrggh - my first gnome died of thirst and I have no i idea why- Stupid gnome has to remember to drink!
Try the demo Fenris - its fun! And feel free to ask me anything and I'll see if I can't answer it.
This looks really fun. I purchased the Alpha on Desura. Going to give it a go later tonight. :)
Maybe tonight, thanks. I wanted to like DF but couldn't get past the interface, so maybe this will do it.
Oh - guys, remember this Getting Started guide in case you want some help. The game does not have any tutorials(yet?) and this helps immensely.
Gnomoria dev chimes in on DF forum. Well played, sir. This man is going to get my money, because I am solidly in the "can't be fucking bothered to learn obtuse key-based DF interface, but very intrigued by the concept" crowd.
I like the gameplay video a lot.
I bought it last night. I hate you, QT3. I've had 5.5 hours sleep. I think that's exactly what happened after I bought Endless Space just over a week ago.
I'm in the "life's too short to deal with the DF interface" camp so everything in this is entirely new to me. I got my first influx of a fresh 21 gnomes just before I went to bed and I'm really liking what I've played so far. I've built a pretty large single floor complex in my mountain, and just started digging down.
There's some obvious UI niggles right now - for example the game won't tell you why, when you go to place a table, you can't select a table yet (it's because you need to make a furniture workshop and then, you know, build a table before you can... build a table (which is actually "place a table")).
Lots of things have a "Move to" button on them but that doesn't do anything, as far as I can tell.
I've managed to get floating grass "floors" outside in the world that I can't seem to obliterate. I think I know how to avoid that in the future (remove all the grass floor tiles before removing the earth blocks, if you're trying to flatten an area outside) but it's a pain.
I've not read around much yet (just the wiki, which is still very early days) but does anybody know what the deal with crates is? Sometimes I build them and they end up in some of my storerooms for stuff (like food or metal ore) but most of the time they end up in my massive wood and furniture store. Should I keep building them and eventually they'll end up filling all the stores and enhancing the storage space?
And is there any particular reason you folks are buying on Desura, rather than direct? Wondering whether I missed a trick there (I didn't care about the bloody $1 difference or whatever, obviously). I bought direct, which is through BMTmicro. That's what I used for Democracy 2, GSB and GTB from cliffski.
Desura will automagically update your game, or rather tell you there is an update, where as you have to do it manualle through the other system :-)
As for crates, I'm not sure I understand the question. If you don't use crates, the items will quickly fill up so yeah, its very much worth it.
I use different stockpiles for different things and if I want to make sure something is added to a particular stockpile, I select it and lower the priority. Its a bit counter-intuitive, but thats how its done :-)
oh - I understand now about crates. I think my stockpiles automatically gets my crates and barrels, but then again, my furniture stockpile isnt very big. Perhaps try lowering your furniture stockpile priority (I.e. setting it higher ;-) ) and see if that helps?
Ahh, I've not fiddled with the priorities on anything yet. I've also not fiddled with any gnome professions either.
It's frankly a miracle that anything I'm posting today makes any kind of sense...
You got 5.5 hrs sleep not 5 minutes, man up :)
Interesting game. I also fall into the "Dwarf Fortress intimidates me" camp so might pick this up in a few months, or when it hits beta.
Any chance of this showing up on steam or gamersgate? I don't want to create yet another digital distributor account.
I doubt it - You can buy it directly from BMT though instead, which will give you a download link.
Only problem is that you will have to redownload it for each update.
Yeah, that's why BMT is my last resort. :D
I don't have any surface water in my world and I'm probably a way from finding any by digging. Is there a way to capture rain water? Can I build a pit and it will fill up if it gets rained on?
Probably, but you should do 2 things to get drinks to your gnomes
1) Build a Yak pasture - That will yield yak milk and you start with two of them
2) Make a strawberry farming spot. You can use that with a distillery and make wine.
Oh yeah, I'm not short on yak milk and strawberries. I just fancied some freshwater as well.
You british and your fancy drinking habits ;-)
Actually - I think I read something about rainwater, but can't find it now. Perhaps its a feature to be added? The game is far from featurecomplete. Doors are for instance only decorative right now, which I discovered when a Goblin suddenly killed two of my gnomes in their sleep!
Wow, this game looks really cool. Now I have two games to really look forward too. This one and Towns. I love these kinds of games. Any chance of this showing up on steam some time? I am not sure if I want to try it just yet. I have the danger of playing the alpha / beta like crazy and getting burned out on it too fast.
Does anyone know if gnomes have skills like they do in DF?
I doubt it will show up on steam. At least, no word of it, but its not really Steam kinda game.
As for skills - yes, there is a large array of skills that gnomes improve at :-)
Why isn't it a steam kind of game? Between this and towns, there isn't a game like it. DF doesn't count because of well.. its a Toady thing. There are other alpha / beta games on Steam.
I just want it in one spot so I will not forget about it in later years if my computer dies and all that. If it is on steam it will always be in my library and patched, until the end of time barring some disaster like a zombie plague or the heat death of the universe.
It's not a genre well known for bringing in tons of money, nor probably a genre that attracts a large enough audience, or looks AAA enough for STEAM to take them in. I'm sure Gnomoria wants to, but the type of game it is, combined with its graphics, makes me doubt it.
I'm sure there's a reason Towns isn't on Steam either, and I don't think its because Burningpet doesnt want it there.
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