Depends what you mean “3D”. It is still ASCII sprites, but is considered 3D by way of multiple z-levels (each only visible one at a time).
Except last year a new UI was released for the Steam debut, which also features new graphics akin to the fan made tilesets. Those tile sets add a lot of visual interest and increase the 3D feel (even allowing you to see down to levels below your current level).
And, for many years now, there have been visualizer plugins like Stonesense that could render your fort in isometric view.
One of my favorite experiences was reading Boatmurder or boatsmurdered in the original ascii, and then looking at the renderings and realizing I can't understand characters at all.
The closest I've ever come to that matrix scene with the characters - is Dwarf Fortress.
For anyone who hasn't played the "ASCII" (technically modified Unicode iirc but eh, whatevers) it's worth doing so. After a short enough time you'll recognize the various characters quite well.
You can do this with pretty much any semi professional painting program and a drawing tablet/display - procreate, photoshop, Krita, corel paintshop pro, etc. I looked through his website and couldn't find anywhere where he said what he used, and there isn't enough evidence to say one way or the other.
My favorite little known factoid is that when I googled his name Wikipedia says he's the guy who drew the pastafarian parody of The Creation of Adam, title "Touched by his noodly appendage".
From my time hanging out with Arne on IRC I would assume he's using Photoshop (or opencanvas version oc11b72 ;-) )... I'd be surprised if he's on a PS version newer than CS2 though. I think Adobe added a subscription model to later versions and back in the day (ca 2000) he was mostly just using regular round brushes. If that's still how he's working, I don't see any reason at all why he'd have upgraded. Perhaps he's written his own raster editor by now, though (another low-odds bet tbh).
You can read his art tutorial on his main page. But essentially, I think he strives to get a clean result (no scribbling to "find" the form) with as few brush strokes as possible, which takes a lot of practice. He's also does a lot of pencil drawing, obviously.
Figuring out how z dimensions work is probably the hardest part of the game for me. Sometimes I just cannot make a stairway the way I want it or ramps or moats.
Something that I never realized (because not having played the game) is that it used to be "1D" !
> The mountain was a solid vertical wall. The further in (right) one dug, the more dangerous it got, with rivers (of water and lava) to cross. There was no going around.
It was originally all on a single Z-level. You would dig sideways into the mountain, but you couldn't go up or down. I'm pretty sure it was 3d by 2010 or so, though.
I played DF way back 12+ years ago, knew all the keyboard shortcuts by heart.
Then I acquired a life for several years and returned recently to the Steam version. I can highly recommend it! I'm able to play it with just my laptop touchpad. Of course a mouse makes it easier but point being the UI is VASTLY improved.
And it's still a source of endless random story telling.
The new version feels a bit nerfed, several users have pointed this out. But you can always increase the difficulty in several different ways.
>The new version feels a bit nerfed, several users have pointed this out. But you can always increase the difficulty in several different ways.
I've always felt that it wasn't really so difficult unless you wanted it to be. My forts only ever fell to boredom or FPS, but I stuck to biomes where things stay dead. Goblins/undead/vampires/werecreatures are a pain, but usually manageable if you're not totally unaware. Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy if you don't want the circus to come to town.
> Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy
Actually, this is wrong. Rather, there are 'safe' candy tiles and 'unsafe' ones. You can take a unlimited[0] amount of safe candy, but taking even a single unsafe tile can potentially result in immediate circus. (That's what makes it 'unsafe'.)
0: Well, it's "limited" to however much [safe] candy is actually present, but that's not what "limited" means in the context you used it. You can safely take all of the safe candy that is there to take.
No, "limited" means the same thing in the context I used it, there is a limit to how much you can take, the limit being the safe tiles. If you really want to be pedantic, the amount is always "limited" because maps are finite.
The phrase "that you take a limited amount" implies that the amount taken is the primary determining factor. For example, that (at least approximately) taking four tiles is always safe, regardless of which four, and taking four hundred is always unsafe, even if each individual tile could have been one of the aformentioned four safe ones.
But (DF) candy doesn't work like that at all; each tile is either completely safe, or has a noticable (if not always large) chance of having a circus tent behind it, completely independantly of any safe tiles, and only dependant on other unsafe tiles in the minesweeper sense (ie, that you sometimes know there's a circus tent behind either tile A or tile B, but not which).
> Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy if you don't want the circus to come to town.
You can methodically dig your way past all the candy, not taking any, and if you get far enough down you meet a whole lot of clowns. Not an entire circus, but hundreds of clowns.
I consider partying with them a pretty advanced challenge.
Did a newer version change the magma sea to have more openings? I think you could do something weird with channelling to get through the bottom, but that's still actively seeking out trouble.
Is it my imagination, or have the shortcuts changed? I picked up the Steam version over Christmas but was actually really struggling with the UI whereas I have memories of manipulating the keyboard shortcuts without a second thought in the original version. Could also just be I forgot since yeah it's been a few years here as well.
You're right, they did a reorganization of a lot of the actions to make things more accessible to new users and that did change/remove a lot of the shortcuts.
this was the kicker for me. I really can't play the new update. that and the fact that the non-steam version has pretty huge bugs (entirely invisible menus)
I was under the impression the developer(s?) kept pretty thorough notes.
In any case, with the addition of the new graphics, I wouldn't be too surprised if some changes were made to make it a bit more accessible now that there's been so much more interest in it.
Mixed feelings about the Steam version personally. The ascii version characters were all direction-neutral. All the Steam characters and creatures look straight left regardless of the direction they're moving or which way the object they're interacting with is, and I find it immensely disorienting.
Only if he actually published the clone he was working on. Nintendo isn't usually crazy enough to go after people for free fanart, especially when the fanart is re-imagining things entirely (since this pre-dates the Steam version's sprites).
