[bengraven]

I've had the demo for a few days, but no clue wtf to do, so I'll pop into this thread later on today.

[Toma]

I've had the demo for a few days, but no clue wtf to do, so I'll pop into this thread later on today.

I wrote some general starting help in the last section of the OP, also take a look at this: http://www.gnomoriawiki.com/wiki/Getting_Started, for some ideas what to build first.

In general: Try getting a good food and drink supply running is your first and most important goal. If you get in food problems since your crops dont yield food fast enough, use forage on apple trees and strawberries plants in the wild.

[Toma]

Another hint: 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.

[krpiper]

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.

Did you get the "This program has stopped working" If so and your on 7, run the Troubleshoot compatibility on the right click menu It worked okay for me!

[bengraven]

I wrote some general starting help in the last section of the OP, also take a look at this: http://www.gnomoriawiki.com/wiki/Getting_Started, for some ideas what to build first. In general: Try getting a good food and drink supply running is your first and most important goal. If you get in food problems since your crops dont yield food fast enough, use forage on apple trees and strawberries plants in the wild.

Yep, your starting help was what I was referring to using as a guide. :)

[bengraven]

Okay, this is pretty rad, but how do you get stone? I've cleared away some hills but I'm just collecting clay now.

Also, I made some stairs, but how do I see the next level down?


Edit: nvm to both.

[Ghizz]

Damn Toma. Thanks for posting this, having so much fun with this!

However DF does have more depth but I guess you can say this has more length? :P

[paranoidfortean]

First suggested kingdom name: The Bitch Kingdom.

[Toma]

Damn Toma. Thanks for posting this, having so much fun with this! However DF does have more depth but I guess you can say this has more length? :P

More length? I played weeks on a DF save without getting bored because there is always something new you can learn. The biggest "problem" of Gnomoria will probably later be that you dont have too much stuff to do after a few hours. But still enjoyable! Looking forward to accompany this games development.
Its definitely easier to get into though. Really would be interested in whether learning to play Gnomoria makes a difference in learning DF,which I assume.

First suggested kingdom name: The Bitch Kingdom.

Haha.

[Kalnos]

First suggested kingdom name: The Bitch Kingdom.

do you look like one?

[Vastag]

Getting Started Guide

This have been very helpful

[Toma]

This have been very helpful

Yeah, figured so. I was just trying to describe how to use the general game interface, whereas this guide gives clear goals to achieve somewhat of a working "economy", which is why I posted both :)

Glad to hear it worked for you!

[Toma]

Has anyone figured out how to build a well? Cant place it anywhere. "Above water" doesnt help me all that much either.

[maniac-kun]

Just starting my mine. Its just like i imagined it to be :D

[flowsnake]

This game uses 100% of one cpu core. It does it as soon as I generate a world, so it isn't anything to do with that stockpile thing.

Any way to stop it doing that? I'm already limiting the framerate.

Edit: not using the limiter and using the ingame vsync seemed to help

[speedpop]

No... nooo... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I have succumbed.

[maniac-kun]

My mine so far:

[Toma]

Got new immigrants, so I needed to make a bit of free space for growing more strawberries... BY DEFYING THE LAWS OF GRAVITYYYY:

Neat little detail:

By looking at the color below your workshops you'll immediately see whether they are running fine (green), currently not in use because there is no task (yellow), or whether there is a problem somewhere (red) if the output of the workshops is full for example and needs to be emptied (by designating a stockpile to carry those goods).

[Toma]

Oh and yeah, 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.

Edit: Yay, got a few immigrants. Amazing how much faster it is to adjust your immigrants to their new jobs than it had been in DF. I still love DF, but this game is definitely easier to play.

[Toma]

My mine so far:

I love the random colours for the floors due to the different ores :) I am having some SLIGHT difficulties finding nice stones at the top of the map, lol. Really need to dig deeper tomorrow to start some ore melting/weapon crafting.

[flowsnake]

I managed to place a well by randomly trying squares above water, not sure if it has to be the perfect height above it or what.

[speedpop]

I managed to place a well by randomly trying squares above water, not sure if it has to be the perfect height above it or what.

My partner did the same. I asked her how she did it and she didn't know.

Even worse - her dwarves started dying of thirst even with the well available. Seems that it's a little bugged and the best thing to do is use a distillery to make beer.

[Toma]

My partner did the same. I asked her how she did it and she didn't know. Even worse - her dwarves started dying of thirst even with the well available. Seems that it's a little bugged and the best thing to do is use a distillery to make beer.

Yeah, figured. First thing I set up for that. I also noticed that those gnomes consume quite a bit of beer. Definitely good to have a HUGE strawberry field and a HUGE wheat field (beer). Is there any drawback of having them as big as possible?

[Ventilaator]

Dwarf Fortress, but in a form that I can actually look at and understand what I'm looking at? Give me this!

[Nelo Ice]

Well was always interested in Dwarf Fortress but ludicrous learning curve and graphics scared the hell out of me. Will have to pick this up eventually.

[Toma]

Meh. I was too slow setting up all my workshops and to dig down to get some ore:


Needless to say, the first goblins butchered my helpless gnomes. I was able to kill them off, but 2 gnomes are already dead :(

[Toma]

Dev posted this in their forums about where Gnomoria is heading now, bolded parts for the juicy bits:

I've been getting a lot of questions about where Gnomoria is heading and seeing a list of upcoming features. I take that to mean that I've been too quiet about development. Part of the unspoken agreement of alpha funding is getting to be a part of the development process. Part of my job is to listen to feedback and communicate back what's being worked on and what is planned. I'm hesitant to put up a list, because in my mind as soon as I do, that becomes a promise. Game development tends to be fluid. As you iterate on the game, often times features get repriortized and new ideas pop up. I want to be able to cut features that just aren't fun or don't work well and reprioritize plans to fix critical bugs or add in something awesome that I just realized or someone suggested. I feel like having a list would lock development into that list and just upset people if I deviated. The way I see it, is that if you want to fund alpha, you should get something that is fun right now and not buy into it on the chance that promises will come through later. So with that said, my focus has been on fixing bugs because it pains me to see people pay for the game and not be able to play. Debugging 24/7 rots your brain, so I tend to mix it up every now and then with a quick update or change that adds a lot compared to time spent developing. I'm not satisfied with the current state of bugs, so right now it's still my top priority. I think as a comprimise, once Gnomoria is in a better state and I can work on new features and content, I will keep a near-future list of upcoming stuff. At that level, everything on the list should be making it in and so I'm ok with it. Of course, we can still talk about crazy future stuff on the suggestion board :D In the absence of a big feature list, let's talk about some goals for Gnomoria. At the heart, Gnomoria is a sandbox simulation with a management game placed on top. Instead of just playing around in an editor, warping terrain with the mouse and having complete control of everything, you interact with the world indirectly through your gnomes. The idea is that there are enough options in the sandbox simulation to let you create your own goals and you have fun going through the steps to get there by playing the management game. When adding new gameplay systems, I look at how it fits within the simulation and how you interact with it. There are inherent rules for how the system works and I try to open up parameters to play around with it. Sometimes those come from player actions and sometimes from other parts of the simulation. I also try to set it up so that if you wanted to ignore it you could. Streamlining controls and reducing some of the tedium with management to keep the game fun is also important. There are 3 main areas I think of when adding new features or content -- building, combat and gnomes. These also roughly correspond to some "end game" goals you might give yourself and possibly different playstyles. In addition to that, of course is the stuff you actually do to reach your goals. There have been a lot of great suggestions for improving the UI, making the controls more intuitive and streamlining common tasks. Then there are areas that are common across the 3 main areas, ie you'll always need to craft to progress and your gnomes will always need to eat/drink to survive. For building, you can expect to see more aesthetic options. Alternate options for walls and floors. More furniture options. Sometimes there will be new content that has new gameplay functionality as well. The idea is that when someone sits down and they just want to build something cool, there are more options to play around with. In addition to this, there will be things to craft and build but they satsify other areas of the game. Mechanisms cross over into combat, but I tend to lump them here since I enjoy laying them out and putting all the pieces together. For combat, it comes down to new challenges and new ways to overcome it. This area is for those who want to build up defenses, survive for as long as they can and kill stuff along the way. Right now, combat is a bit too random and there aren't many options. It'll get tuned to be more predictable and then adding more options and counters to challenges will start to make sense. You can expect more things to build like the spike traps and more mechanisms to construct more elaborate traps. In the spirit of exposing parameters, I'll be adding behavior options at the position and formation level of squads. I plan on adding ranged combat, engineering recipes to craft automatons and eventually, I have some plans for a magic system. I would say interacting with your gnomes is the least developed area. This is for people who just want to build a village and take care of their gnomes. There needs to be a lot more here before it really becomes a viable option. Gnomes will have a life quest that will have permanent bonuses once reached. You'll be able to see what they are thinking and what kind of things they like. There will be more interactions between gnomes for you to play with. Like other things, this is something that if you mostly ignored it, you'd be in a similar spot to where it is now. If you took the time to micromanage everything, then you'd benefit from happiness bonuses to combat and crafting. I would guess that development in this area might have some small updates along the way but there wouldn't be a big focus until other parts of the game were further along. In the other areas, you can also expect more options and new features. Underground crops and livestock if you want to seal off the outside world, or just don't want to depend as much on outside surface area. I'd like to add a grove designation for automating log production and an orchard to farm apples. I'll probably add a "stock this" selection to prioritize stocking specific items and to clear a specific area. Storage containers aren't really working out like they should, so I'm going to add more direct player control for where crates, barrels and bags are placed. There needs to be some changes to give more control over job priorities. Feedback might be something that will always be improving. Easier ways to find out why jobs aren't being started. More announcements for things like entering combat. There were some suggestions for tracking resources on the HUD. I would guess that UI and controls improvements will be an ongoing thing as well. Some things that I've considered but have been pushed back for the time being are more interactions with the world outside your kingdom, gnome leaders and overall town upgrades, mod support and multiplayer. This post has turned out to be a bit longer than I thought :D I should probably put something like this on the website for those who aren't on the forum. For now though, I think I'll just leave this here and see what you guys think about where things are heading.

Bullet point version for the OP:
- 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

[maniac-kun]

Dev posted this in their forums about where Gnomoria is heading now, bolded parts for the juicy bits: Bullet point version for the OP: - 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

Sounds great! I hope this game will grow a lot over the years.

[Toma]

Sounds great! I hope this game will grow a lot over the years.

Yep, since interest will probably die down on GAF after a while, be sure to subscribe to this thread. I'll update it when new stuff comes along.

On another note:


*whistles*

[maniac-kun]

Just found a nice series of Lets play Gnomoria videos on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txc0leJrcEw

[Toma]

Just found a nice series of Lets play Gnomoria videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txc0leJrcEw

First of all: Great quality vid and very pleasing voice. Should be enjoyable to watch later.

Second: HOW THE HELL DID HE ZOOM OUT. Seriously, anyone knows? Oh god that would be helpful for screenshots and general oversight.

[maniac-kun]

First of all: Great quality vid and very pleasing voice. Should be enjoyable to watch later. Second: HOW THE HELL DID HE ZOOM OUT. Seriously, anyone knows? Oh god that would be helpful for screenshots and general oversight.

ctrl + mousewheel

[Toma]

ctrl + mousewheel

Thank you.

The video is really nice, also works nicely as a tutorial. Probably adding that to the OP later.

Edit: ah neat, you can rotate stuff to build with "r". Does that work for everything or just stairs? (workshops too?) Cant try atm.

[krpiper]

Yep, since interest will probably die down on GAF after a while, be sure to subscribe to this thread. I'll update it when new stuff comes along. On another note: *whistles*

Yeahhh I've never been on those type of lists before haha

But thanks for the OP. This game is still pretty unknown so its nice I can have a small community to ask questions or share advice

[Toma]

Yeahhh I've never been on those type of lists before haha But thanks for the OP. This game is still pretty unknown so its nice I can have a small community to ask questions or share advice

No problem :) Was hoping we'd find a few people interested for that cause since I didnt even really start playing it when creating the OP. Sort of was hoping to help out and get help when starting out too.

On another note: Finally figured out how to build wells. You cant place them on land. You need to place them in an open space above a water source, so like this top down example:

~= river, x= land

xxxxxxxx
~~~~~~
~~~~~~

, now the well needs to be build hovering directly above the water source (connected to the land on one side):

xxxxxxxx
~~~W~~
~~~~~~

[Toma]

Another control related revelation:

You can turn the overall camera by pressing "," and ".". Now I dont need to guess anymore whether I need to get rid of ramps behind my mountain. Geez. A simple ingame help button for explaining controls please.

[Jintor]

DF with a workable UI? Sign me the fuck up. I love DF, but having to relearn the game every time I pop in after an absence of 3 months gives me the shits.

[Huw_Dawson]

Stonesense does this for DF.

Also, this game lacks Adventure Mode, which is the superior part of DF. :P

[maniac-kun]

Stonesense does this for DF. Also, this game lacks Adventure Mode, which is the superior part of DF. :P

Stonesense dosnt fix the bad UI.

[Toma]

Stonesense dosnt fix the bad UI.

Also no proper mouse control.

From reading his latest forum post, it also seems like the dev is going to have original ideas/additions to this formula and not only retreading DF's steps. So who knows, might become a game DF players can enjoy on top of DF.

I already am at least. It doesnt have the same longevity as DF has for me, but I am seriously intrigued by the groundwork I see here.

[Huw_Dawson]

In any case, I'll show it to a friend who knows way more about DF than I do.

Also, DF's UI isn't bad. It's just menus and keyboard inputs. Not the end of the world. ;)

[Toma]

In any case, I'll show it to a friend who knows way more about DF than I do. Also, DF's UI isn't bad. It's just menus and keyboard inputs. Not the end of the world. ;)

I actually want some of those keyboard inputs back. Like clicking 3 menus takes 3-4 seconds, whereas the keyboard inputs in DF take about.. 1 second. That adds up quite a bit. I hope he adds shortcuts later.

But still, the option for mouse control is very relaxing, its works rather well and you dont need to relearn how to play everytime you start up again after a while.

[Littlegator]

I'd rather it just be a wrapper for DF.

[Toma]

I'd rather it just be a wrapper for DF.

Well yeah. That would have been a good scenario too. But since that hasnt happened in the last 7 years or however long DF is already in Development, I assume that this isnt easily possible.

Guess thats the concession you have to make between accessibility and depth/content. Either super complex, with not much fancy graphics going on, or rather accessible with most complex systems missing. Or somewhere in the middle, like Gnomoria.

Besides, its a nice and easy going break from DF currently, which fits my bill very nicely if I only want to play around with my fortress for 2 instead of 20 hours.

Its certainly not meant for the hardcore DF player, and probably never will be, but its the perfect entry point into the gameplay idea behind DF.

[Toma]

My busy, busy (and hungry) working bees. Watching virtual people work is somehow soothing. Doesnt matter which game (Gnomoria, DF, Settlers..), always very enjoyable to watch others do the work!

*relaxes*

Also:


:|

Going to lock my fortress down now after collecting a lot of wood. I am sick of people dying of Goblin attacks before I even realize we got Goblins on the map.

[speedpop]

Another control related revelation: You can turn the overall camera by pressing "," and ".". Now I dont need to guess anymore whether I need to get rid of ramps behind my mountain. Geez. A simple ingame help button for explaining controls please.

Aye. More explanation in the options section would help, but an in-game tutorial would do wonders for many people who do not have the foresight to check a wiki or the various forum posts dedicated to this.


I am keen to see what happens in the future and what non-DF ideas he might have down the track. I've already paid for my copy so the interest will always be there, and yet I have barely touched it yet. Compare that to my partner who was up until 2am last night playing it; I told her months ago that she would love Dwarf Fortress and it's great to see her bite in to the "lite" & prettier version of it.

[Zulithe]

I was corresponding with the developer via e-mail and mentioned that I learned about the game through this thread... but he was already aware of it! Don't be surprised if he pops in here. Not sure if he has a GAF account though.

[maniac-kun]

Gnomoria just passed the /v/ test:

[Toma]

I was corresponding with the developer via e-mail and mentioned that I learned about the game through this thread... but he was already aware of it! Don't be surprised if he pops in here. Not sure if he has a GAF account though.

Well popping in here without a GAF account will be a "tad" difficult. Or we'll need to wait a few months. But sure, that would be great. Always nice to talk directly to the person responsible. Hey RoboB0b! I hope I sold a few games with this thread!

;p

[Ranger X]

Wow, first time I see this game (and thread)

Will download that asap as it seems to be right up my alley ;)