I love Rimworld and play it a lot. I frequently see posts and articles comparing the two. I got Dwarf Fortress, watched tutorials, printed out flow charts, and really gave it a try for several hours.
But I didn’t get into Dwarf Fortress :( some of the mechanics are weird. Many things are not intuitive or don’t make sense. Like seeds that are needed for growing mushrooms are defaulted to be used in cooking and the setting to turn that off is difficult to find.
I finally realized an analogy today. Rimworld is like The Sims while Dwarf Fortress is like Sim City. Rimworld you directly control people and micromanage a colony. Dwarf Fortress is Sim City - you zone things and say generally what you want to happen, but don’t control your meeples directly.
Thoughts on the comparison? Any other folks like Rimworld but not Dwarf Fortress?
Appreciate that dwarf fortress is an 18 year old game. They first released it in 2006 and even then the interface was clunky and never a priority. It is a dwarf simulation engine first and an interactive game second.
RimWorld owes its existence to Dwarf Fortress the way Halo owes its existence to Doom, or World of Warcraft owes its existence to RuneScape. Dwarf Fortress is the precursor for all games like RimWorld. So comparing their interfaces will always set Dwarf Fortress up to lose, just like if you compared the controls in Halo against the original Doom. I think you have to approach Dwarf Fortress more like playing a piece of gaming history, and a look into the world of a very interesting human, Tarn Adams, rather than a modern game competing against modern titles.
Huh, I didn’t know that history. But that makes some more sense. It’s always difficult going “backwards” in a game. Like if you play the latest in a series, the first is more “meh”. Respect where due - I appreciate that DF paved the way.
I’m only a few hundred hours in to Rimworld, but have 5 or 6 times that in DF.
I very much enjoy the micro management of RW and it’s polish, but DF feels so much richer and deeper to me at least. I do prefer the longer term, macro management of DF.
Perhaps it’s nothing more than which I played first?
I can see the Sims/Sim City analogy! Hated the Sims, loved Sim City!
Oh DF is definitely a deeper world. There are a lot more knobs to turn (obvious or not). I’ve seen some really cool colonies and worlds. I’m just not very apt at building them myself.
Another comment made a good point that DF did come before, with Rimworld building on what DF made. It’s difficult (for me at least) to go backwards. Like I really enjoyed Baulder’s Gate 3 and tried the original but couldn’t get into it :/
I like watching DF but imo it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s probably the best game I’ll never play
I’m kinda in the same situation as you, hundreds of hours in rimworld, but DF hasn’t clicked.
I’ve only given it a couple of goes though, and honestly if I think back, I don’t think rimworld really clicked for me initially, so part of me is just running on the assumption I’ve not sunk enough time into the game to get comfortable with it really
I think one of the big differences is with rimworld you can kinda ignore 95% of the stuff in the game on your first few goes, and I think that makes it a bit less daunting. There are still bits of rimworld I’ve still not touched, but every playthrough I knock a few more things off (still need to really give a sanguophage run a proper try, for example). With that approach it becomes a gradual skill gradient that keeps you interested
With DF my initial reaction was a bit of a baptism of fire. I got the impression you need to interact with a lot more of the game’s systems to even get off the starting line.
If I really sat down and gave it another few runs, I know I’ll probably fall in love with the game
I have more time in rimworld but play both. Sometimes DF is nice when you can’t be arsed to care about the people you manage and don’t want to micromanage the way you really have to in rimworld sometimes. Plus there is no storyteller in the rimworld sense. You get more raids if you live near people who don’t like you and I feel like that makes a lot of sense.
The world building element in DF is so cool. Like the world is generated and aged and has history. Rimworld’s planet feels flat in comparison.
No, and I mean NO! Dwarf Fortress post should be without the hilarious and colorful story of boatmurdered
You can read the whole log, but starkravingmad’s journal is pure LOL.
I played DF before Rimworld came out, never really got into it as this was before it came with a UI. Gotten back into DF the past couple of weeks and am really enjoying it. Definitely a learning curve though.
DF feel a bit better now I’ve given it some time. My only issues with it is stuff like you’ve mentioned, weird defaults. The dorfs eating seeds is one, the default game state FPS makes the game feel way too fast, the default population cap is pretty full on for beginners too. Changing both of those made it far more manageable. That and using nothing but work orders when you get the means. There a a lot of solid videos for newer players, DF you’ll need them for all the finicky things.
Playing Rimworld does makes me miss the Z levels every time though. Rimworld feels like you get a bit more breathing room and can do your own thing quicker. DF I usually take a year or two just to get my colony stable.
