[Toma]

For those of you who always wanted to try Dwarf Fortress but never managed to overcome its many hurdles, playing Dwarf Fortress for you suddenly went from this:


to this:



Welcome to candy heaven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Info Box |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click this link for the Desura link, where you can buy or INSTALL THE DEMO
Official Page, including forums and a buy-directly-through-us-option: www.gnomoria.com
6,39€ now/7,99€ usually
7,99$ now/9,99$ usually

Still in Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon
Win Only

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Whats this game? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Its a very true to the roots Dwarf Fortress clone in the making. Click here for the the neoGAF thread of DF.

Short description of the game type for those who never heard of DF: Its basically a fortress simulator. You'll dig into a mountain, set up your workshops, work wood and stone into crafts and weapons and fend of enemies while digging further down. The main issue with Dwarf Fortress for Newcomers are the unwelcoming graphics (which can be remedied with new tile sets) and a UI that will take some getting used to. In this game, everything can be done with the mouse!

Another general description for both Gnomoria and Dwarf Fortress: You dont actually order your units individually (like in most RTS), but you actually only designate what needs to be done, and the units with the appropriate skill get to doing it, meaning its more a simulator than you having total control over your units.

These games are also very open natured, and dont have a definite goal. Just play around and survive as long as you can, giving your Dwarves the best life they can possibly get. Later on you'll be asked to defend yourself against enemies (Goblins etc), which sort of provides the difficulty progression for these games. Due to the vast, vast number of mechanics present in DF that are still missing in Gnomoria, Gnomoria really just feels like a giant "welcoming package" to ease people into Dwarf Fortress atm. I sure hope they continue adding stuff so that in the end most of the main mechanics of DF will be represented here too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Impressions |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pictures speak more than a thousand words:

From what I tinkered around with it, its really Dwarf Fortress in isometric 2D with mouse input. Of course there is still tons of stuff missing, but I wouldnt have thought they'd already be this far along. I just discovered it a few minutes ago myself, so I have no clue WHATSOEVER about anything these devs are doing. I am hopefully able to buy the game to follow how far these guys come along with this project. Apparently they put out 4 releases with content/mechanics/bugfixes and art within 9 days, which is quite massive.

This is no replacement of Dwarf Fortress and probably never will be, but the devs seem to have a promising developing/patching speed and it is definitely a good way to get your feet wet, since this will teach you the basics of HOW to play Dwarf Fortress, since the basics are the same. You still need to figure out how to perform the actions in Dwarf Fortress, but knowing what to do next at all seems pretty helpful for getting into DF later.

There is still no proper tutorial ingame so you either might want to fire up their forums or ask here for how you might want to progress in this game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Features in Gnomoria |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Digging
- Digging deeper
- Farming
- Building 20+ Workshops and corresponding Items
- Traps
- Fighting
- Collecting items into piles
- 7 types of furniture made from several kind of material
- Areas: Stockpile, Farm, Pastures, Personal Quarters, Dormitory, Guard Area, Patrol Route
...
What am I missing?

Changelogs:
Current version
v0.8.3
v0.8.2.1
v0.8.2
v0.8.1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Whats possibly next? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- squashing bugs
- more aesthetic options, more furniture (mostly decorative)
- new challenges and new ways to overcome them (new traps)
- Gnomes simulation, lifetime quests for each gnomes that will give them permanent bonuses, more interaction, rewarding micromanagement
- Underground crops and livestock
- More automatization for some processes: Grove destination for automatic log production, orchard to farm apples.
- "Stock this" function for single items
- UI/HUD/Feedback improvements (telling/warning the player about fights, more insight on why jobs arent performed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| How do I play? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Complete Getting Started Guide from the Wiki

The Mouse interface simplifies alot, but without knowing what to do, you still will feel a bit hopeless. First of all get to know 4 things:
1. Space is your friend. It pauses and unpauses the game.
2. Right click anywhere for the menu of all the things you can designate your gnomes to do.
3. Press Esc once in a while to save. Game might crash on you and your progress is lost.
4. Left Click on something will show you what it is

Now step by step mini-tutorial (bolded text means: CLICK THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON):
I. First things you might want to do in Dwar... err, Gnome Fortress, is digging a tunnel. Terrain -> Mine -> Wall , now LC(left click) once on the first spot you want your tunnel to start, and then LC another time on where it should end. Doing this your designated-to-mine area now could look like this:

Note: If you ever designated too much Right Click-> Cancel Job

II. Now just keep adding rooms to your tunnel like this:

If you havent done so yet, press space to unpause and press space again once they are done digging.

III-1. Start collecting resources part 1! For that you will now Designate->Stockpile one of your newly build rooms. In the same way as choosing the area to dig, you can now choose the area where you want to pile your goods. A window pops up asking what kind of goods you want to store there. That is useful so that you can later make single stockpiles near the workshops which need them since this will reduce the time it takes them to get material and produce their goods. For now just mark (x in the box) all of the options to the right:

Now they will start collecting any stone lying around and gathering it there.

III-2. Start collecting ressources part 1! Since your gnorves can't live from stone alone, use Agriculture -> Fell trees and designate an area outside with trees. They'll get taken down and then collected as wood in your work place.

IV... to come later... maybe...

Now just poke around! Build workshops, try building items in workshops, set up traps in your dungeon entrance (hint: you'll need work shops and mechanism for that) and see what this DF "Lite" has to offer currently.

No excuse anymore,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Miscellaneous hints |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you experience massive slowdown, there is probably an item that your gnomes try to access but cant. Right click your stockpile and uncheck the different categories one by one until the lag disappears. That way you can check what the item is and get rid of the lag. Check all the boxes again that were not the issue, though.

Save before you UNCHECK an option in your stockpiles. Seems like that leads still to common crashes if there is another stockpile that will immediately pick up the goods that previously have been in the stockpile you now unchecked. Or better even: Always save before working changing something in your existing stockpiles.

Additional Controls:
Ctrl+mousewheel to zoom
"," + "." to turn the camera
"r" to rotate items while placing them in buildmode
Magic trick #1 & 2

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Needs a better artist. Still interested.

[Toma]

Needs a better artist. Still interested.

It might just be my eyes being used to the various DF tilesets, but I think those sprites look actually rather pleasing.

[Kalnos]

fuck you Toma

Now I'm not going to get any of my own coding done. :<

[Toma]

fuck you Toma Now I'm not going to get any of my own coding done. :<

Believe it or not, but I actually wanted to do something else too instead of writing up this OT spontaneously in the last hour.

A Gaffer told me about this game (Thanks Inertia) and I checked whether there was any Gaf thread on it... which was not the case. Needless to say, that needed to be remedied!

Edit: Oh, and yeah. You're welcome :)

[John1744]

Just a heads up to folks using Desura, the dev's been pushing updates fairly regularly and Desura has also been fairly regular in being late on updating their version of the game, typically they take two days after the dev updates to update the game.


Also the artist for this game is the same artist as the ex Terraria guy that's making Starbound is using.



That aside, I really enjoy this game, it scratches that DF itch without pissing me off to no end about stupid stuff. But one issue I had when first playing this game was trying to select stuff. The 3D mouse selector is a bit difficult to grasp at first.

[Norante]

Nice.

I wonder if things like this will make Toady reconsider his focus (or lack of) the UI and presentation of DF. There are enough features in there for a lifetime, he needs to make it friendlier.

Anyway, gonna download this and report back.

[Toma]

Added the changelogs of the last few versions to the OP:

Changelogs: v0.8.3 v0.8.2.1 v0.8.2 v0.8.1

[Toma]

Nice. I wonder if things like this will make Toady reconsider his focus (or lack of) the UI and presentation of DF. There are enough features in there for a lifetime, he needs to make it friendlier. Anyway, gonna download this and report back.

Eh, there are enough purists (including myself) who want him to just push more content/mechanics. Not even talking about Ascii here, but have the community do stuff like coming up with visualizers or even UI friendly new games. If he ends up making his game newcomer friendlier, he'll have more problems competing with those other games than if he keeps his current routine of adding 10x more intricate stuff than any other dev around him.

[Rygar 8 Bit]

will check this out

[Raxum]

Got this on desura the other day, I never played Dwarf Fortress so the only thing I had to compare it to was Towns, which I also enjoyed, but I was taking a break from because the maps weren't interchangeable between versions and updates.

Really enjoying Gnomoria though, really fun game.

[Toma]

Got this on desura the other day, I never played Dwarf Fortress so the only thing I had to compare it to was Towns, which I also enjoyed, but I was taking a break from because the maps weren't interchangeable between versions and updates. Really enjoying Gnomoria though, really fun game.

Could you link me Towns?

[Kalnos]

Could you link me Towns?

Towns.
Popular "Let's Play" of Towns.

[Toma]

Towns. Popular "Let's Play" of Towns.

Thanks. Appreciated. But yeah, at first glance totally looks like another game with DF as the cloning foundation, its just a different setting. Not that I mind or judge, but I wasnt aware of those games even existing.

[Flunkie]

Well this looks like a total fucking timesink. Thanks Toma. God.

[Toma]

Some more screenshots of a more advance game save:

[DMPrince]

hm. looks interesting.

[Toma]

Another very nice screenie (this time in big, just because):

[Norante]

Looks awesome.

[Toma]

Looks awesome.

Yep, same opinion here. Also definitely more than I expected from a project I never heard of. I thought yeah maybe he has some tunnel digging and some basic building stuff done... But nope, pretty nice actually already.

[Razorskin]

I wonder if things like this will make Toady reconsider his focus (or lack of) the UI and presentation of DF. There are enough features in there for a lifetime, he needs to make it friendlier.

[Toma]

Almost 5 am, yikes. Do me a favour and bump this thread once in a while/post screenshots and impressions of your tries to keep it a bit afloat. I'll try pushing it for EuroGAF tomorrow. I am also thinking of doing a GAF LIGHTNING succession game. Like one day/session for each turn, and then just giving it off to the next Gaffer who wants to participate. Nothing strict, just leisurely having fun. Any interest?

For that we need buyers, so buyers please step forward.

[Wanny]

You guys got me interested!

[InertiaXr]

A Gaffer told me about this game (Thanks Inertia)

You are welcome everyone, I am the secret behind all of Toma's glorious game recommendations, such as Terraria, SpaceChem, and Frozen Synapse.

[nicoga3000]

Figuring out how to make a SUPER simple (yet relatively self-sustaining) fortress in DF was one of my top gaming accomplishments. If this is anything like that, I will bite.

[Tomat]

Looks amazing. Makes me want to give DF another try first though.

[SirPenguin]

I don't like the art very much. I dunno man, give me ASCII any day of the week.

[-Cade]

Loving the demo so far. What're the restrictions in the demo? If the Steam sale really isn't until the 12th, this may be the next game I buy.

EDIT: Just reached the end of the demo. Kind of short, but fun. I'll probably buy this soon, thanks OP.

[Zulithe]

Very interested. I'm hesitant to buy it on Desura since it will probably come to Steam at some point, right? They'd be silly not to.

[dr3upmushroom]

Awesome! I've always been super interested in this game, but screenshots always look like a mess. When the game already seems pretty intimidating (in a good way) with all of its mechanics, I really don't want to have to go through a huge learning curve just to process what I'm looking at as well.

[-Cade]

Very interested. I'm hesitant to buy it on Desura since it will probably come to Steam at some point, right? They'd be silly not to.

Not necessarily. A lot of indie games are currently Desura-only.

[Zulithe]

Not necessarily. A lot of indie games are currently Desura-only.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and buy it :) I read on their forums they sent out Desura keys to all buyers once that went live. If they ever add it to steam, I'm hoping they do the same.

[Toma]

You are welcome everyone, I am the secret behind all of Toma's glorious game recommendations, such as Terraria, SpaceChem, and Frozen Synapse.

Haha, you mean you are one of my prime victims that I always convince to buy stuff, right? ;P

Figuring out how to make a SUPER simple (yet relatively self-sustaining) fortress in DF was one of my top gaming accomplishments. If this is anything like that, I will bite.

Well this game isnt anywhere near the depth of DF yet, but they definitely have a solid foundation so far.

Awesome! I've always been super interested in this game, but screenshots always look like a mess. When the game already seems pretty intimidating (in a good way) with all of its mechanics, I really don't want to have to go through a huge learning curve just to process what I'm looking at as well.

One of the best reasons for you to join this game, is the fact that there arent TOO many mechanics in here yet. Its basically only a fraction of what you can do in Dwarf Fortrtress and the dev continually will add more stuff so you can learn new stuff as you go along by playing it every other week.

This makes the DF style gameplay way easier to learn.

[krpiper]

God Damn it OP, just when I need to be finishing/studying for my summer class, this comes along

[Toma]

Oh yeah, another thing: You can also buy directly through their website:
http://gnomoria.com/?page_id=110

Probably doing that since someone said that the Desura updates take 2 days to come through.

[Vastag]

Just tried it, it feels a bit overwhelming at first, I got the impresion that my poor gnomes are going to die horribly.

[Toma]

Just tried it, it feels a bit overwhelming at first, I got the impresion that my poor gnomes are going to die horribly.

Thats the good thing here right now. You cant really die from much yet. Dwarf Fortress always has been about "Losing is fun" and about progressing through learning mechanics every playthrough. Currently the enemies and natural hazards in Gnomoria are pretty harmless though, so that you won't have to worry much.

Although, if you still dont like that thrill, version 0.8.3 added a peaceful mode for relaxed sandboxing.

[kafiend]

Oh God. Another slice of my life. Thanks for the info! I think.

[Ghizz]

What are the controls like in comparison to DF?
and how is the gameplay/is it as deeply progressed as DF or still not yet?

[Toma]

What are the controls like in comparison to DF?

You can do everything from a drop down menu that you can access via right clicking. Makes navigating the options here rather easy:

and how is the gameplay/is it as deeply progressed as DF or still not yet?

Not even close. This is not aimed to be a challenge for DF players, I can see 2 groups being interested in this game:

1. People who always wanted to try DF, but never could due to the unappealing graphics and cumbersome AI
2. People who loved DF, and just want to see where this is going (me for example)

The positive side about playing Gnomoria is also that Gnomoria will teach you the basic mechanics of Dwarf Fortress. If you are done playing around in Gnomoria you took a shortcut of 2 hours to learn stuff that would have taken a new player in DF 15 hours to learn. (How to dig, dig deeper, build a basic farm/booze input, etc). Also due to the fact that there is quite a bit of stuff you dont have to worry about yet here, like being eaten by carps or freezing to death.

[Ghizz]

Not even close. This is not aimed to be a challenge for DF players, I can see 2 groups being interested in this game: 1. People who always wanted to try DF, but never could due to the unappealing graphics and cumbersome AI 2. People who loved DF, and just want to see where this is going (me for example) The positive side about playing Gnomoria is also that Gnomoria will teach you the basic mechanics of Dwarf Fortress. If you are done playing around in Gnomoria you took a shortcut of 2 hours to learn stuff that would have taken a new player in DF 15 hours to learn. (How to dig, dig deeper, build a basic farm/booze input, etc). Also due to the fact that there is quite a bit of stuff you dont have to worry about yet here, like being eaten by carps or freezing to death.

Sounds interesting. Do you have any idea if the devs of Gnomoria are just going to rip off all of DF's features/gameplay or will they introduce their own? Any examples of authentic work they did with the game?

[Katana_Strikes]

Looks great. Will take a look. Was always interested in DF but the UI put me right off.

[Toma]

Sounds interesting. Do you have any idea if the devs of Gnomoria are just going to rip off all of DF's features/gameplay or will they introduce their own? Any examples of authentic work they did with the game?

It seems though that this game will have as many 1:1 DF features as the dev possible squeeze in here, so that that as you will. And to be honest, I am glad someone does that, since this also lowers the entry barrier into Dwarf Fortress. Every skill/mechanic people pick up while playing Gnomoria will be useful in playing DF later if they plan to "dig even deeper".

The dev hints at "original" stuff being added, but I guess he still has more DF stuff to do before that :p

You are right though, its basically a "rip off" of DF, but I am definitely not bothered by that, since it seems like the introductory supplement, whereas DF will always be there for the hardcore stuff or when you are bored of the challenges in Gnomoria.

[Toma]

Alright!
Going to try my best at building a fortress on top of a mountain. Lets see how far I can get.

Edit: Forage lets you pick and gater all those cotton plants lying around.
I havent yet figured out how to build "higher", but apparently I cant do that anyway without some stone. Off into the depths with me!

[Toma]

Still has some crash bugs apparently, just lost a bit of progress. Save often.

[Toma]

Getting Started Guide

Building on top of that huge ass mountain was a bad idea, btw. Problems to get water. Ugh. Lets see whether I can still manage that.

[maniac-kun]

Wow a accessable Dwarf Fortress! Will try that as soon as iam home.

This needs a iOS version with the same complexity :D

[Toma]

What I got working so far:

Entrance with farm in the back that can only be accessed from underground

Lazy ass catch-all stockpile, personal-quarters to be, some workshops and the dining hall:

[Xater]

I love the idea of an accessible Dwarf Fortress but Windows only kills it for me :(

Eh I already bought the Dwarf Fortress book so I guess I will still go ahead learning that game.

[Toma]

I love the idea of an accessible Dwarf Fortress but Windows only kills it for me :( Eh I already bought the Dwarf Fortress book so I guess I will still go ahead learning that game.

Good luck! I heard good things about that book.