Author Topic: A Game Of Dwarves  (Read 15684 times)

Offline keith.lamothe

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A Game Of Dwarves
« on: October 23, 2012, 03:17:45 pm »
http://store.steampowered.com/app/200370/

Is it any good?

...

Dare I ask?
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Offline zespri

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2012, 03:24:42 pm »
Yep, I was waiting with interested what other people say about it. After countless numbers of hours in Dungeon Keeper 2, and after the most recent flop that Dungeons turned to be, this is something I 'm curious about.


Offline Volatar

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2012, 03:25:01 pm »
What IS that thing?

Offline zespri

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2012, 03:27:39 pm »
What IS that thing?
I view it as DK2 clone. Another one coming is Impire. Quite a number of people me including wanted something like this for quite a long time, but since Evil Genius there was nothing even close.

Offline madcow

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2012, 03:28:24 pm »
I had been keeping an eye on it, but I found stuff that got me thinking it's more in the category of "making your dwarf home pretty" rather than "losing is fun" or dungeon keeper.

It kind of dropped off my radar after that. Impire, Clockwork Empires, and Prison Architect seem more like what I want from that sort of genre. Especially clockwork empires.

Offline zespri

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2012, 03:33:46 pm »
It kind of dropped off my radar after that. Impire, Clockwork Empires, and Prison Architect seem more like what I want from that sort of genre. Especially clockwork empires.
The problem with Clockwork Empires is that this one is vaguest of the three and the furthest down the road. So while it induces wild dreams, I'm not sure which of them are just dreams and which will be fulfilled. Prison Architect on the other hand is definitely something tangible, since it already has playable alpha.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2012, 03:35:28 pm by zespri »

Offline madcow

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2012, 03:36:56 pm »
That's true. Impire and Prison Architect are both likely far down the road as well. Though PA has an open (although pricey to get into) alpha.

The focus in a Game of Dwarves seems to be less dungeon keeper/dwarf fortress, and more on settlement building and aesthetics rather than disasters or horrible things happening. So I'm passing on it myself. I may be wrong on that though, I haven't seen any reviews now that it's out, just an impression I got while it was in development.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2012, 03:37:50 pm »
A dwarf game that's not about dying horribly?

What universe are the developers from?
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2012, 03:42:33 pm »
A dwarf game that's not about dying horribly?

What universe are the developers from?

LotR dwarfs were known for being as the hardiest "smartish" creatures around...being half a human's height but just as heavy due to their stature and armor...
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Offline zespri

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2012, 03:43:55 pm »
Though PA has an open (although pricey to get into) alpha.
In the context of this discussion pricey is not a factor, since you can get other people impressions, playthrough reports youtube vids and whatnot. Usually this is enough to understand what a game is and what it is not.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2012, 04:16:29 pm »
A dwarf game that's not about dying horribly?

What universe are the developers from?

LotR dwarfs were known for being as the hardiest "smartish" creatures around...being half a human's height but just as heavy due to their stature and armor...
Well, yes, but I'm not aware of any "dwarf games" set in Arda :)  If one were made in it, out of the events surrounding (for example) Khazad-dûm, I expect it would fit my definition of "dying horribly".

Or, more generally, "losing is fun".
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2012, 09:59:25 pm »
I want to like this game. I think a demo is in order.
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2012, 10:07:31 pm »
I want to like this game. I think a demo is in order.
Hear, hear!
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Offline madcow

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2012, 11:16:21 pm »
Yeah, I'll be interested to hear if what I've heard prerelease is right or not. Not really seen anything yet anywhere.

Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: A Game Of Dwarves
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2012, 08:41:24 pm »
mumble mumble

So yeah.. the game is kind of cute but has 2 major design flaws 3 if you consider "cute" a design flaw ;P

1) The dwarf AI and sometimes pathfinding is stupid as hell. They go back to get sleep, their hunger goes down, they go to work, arrive, turn around, go back to eat.. their energy goes down.. you get the idea. It is so absurd that you have to cheese with teleport spell all the time. They also only eat to 100 points (the max is 200 points) so if they arrive with 20 they have 120.. which goes down before they arrive their work place. This gets MUCH worse the longer the game goes on, because dwarves also would rather go to a bed 60 screens away than the one right in front of em...

2) The economy is based on mining finite ore which is very very far spread, there are no ore veins, there are chunks (ala native minecraft) and if you think Stone is easy to come by in this game, apparently dwarfs dig through mud here, stone is nearly as rare as money or iron (which is even more rare). Which means it is VERY finite. One wrong step and you are dead. Because if your highest skilled warriors die, you have to restart with level 1 guys that you have to level up, which costs ore and to train them, you need money. The economy has thus a major "dead-end" design flaw.

Besides that, Dungeon Keeper 2 is still the superior game, far far superior. The problem is mainly that because you have levels like in Dwarf Fortress but a 3d view you only see the walls facing you, that means you can potentially miss 50% of the ore and stuff in the walls because it is not displayed unless you rotate like crazy. This is fine in a game like DF where you had a top-down view, but in a 3d-game this is horrible. Especially because there are no actual in-between floors, to have a floor, you need to literally skip an entire level, and because you can't rotate the camera to look UP you can not tell whether there is anything in the floor above you unless you have the same area dug up from above. You basically end up digging a huge chasm downwards hoping to get any ore, because any complicated tunnel networks mean you have to move your base foward. Which means enemies can get faster there, and destroy things.

Also, that a game made in 2012 can not manage to duplicate the great room system of Dungeon Keeper 2 is telling. This game has no room allocation system (which I consider one of the greatest features of both DK2 and DF) neither are there real stockpiles in the sense. This is basically really dumbed down.. worth the 7.50$ if you buy via GMG maybe, but also buggy. The doors in this game currently are broken (don't build em ,p)
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