Dwarf fortress is amazing, the algorithms it must use must be pretty interesting, it would be interesting to piece it out and open source it.
Dwarf fortress also benefits from completely simplified UI. Meaning it can go really deep without worrying about how the rocks are generated. Does magnetite look like pyrite?
It already looks like the scope of No Man's Land has gotten out of hand, maybe it will offer some of the joys of dwarf fortress, but not if it's purely visual.
The author open sourced his last game, Liberal Crime Squad, and its... The work of a madman. IIRC it was one ~40kloc C++ file full of globals and switch statements 6+ levels deep.
I'm sure someone's cleaned it up some now, but it made me wonder if that (unpredictable spaghetti code) is what's required for truly dynamic behavior, the kind that you see in DF and (to a lesser extent) LCS.
This. There's a reason Toady won't open source Dwarf Fortress, and I think it is mainly because he is embarrassed. Toady has a masters in math, not CS.
Dwarf fortress also benefits from completely simplified UI. Meaning it can go really deep without worrying about how the rocks are generated. Does magnetite look like pyrite?
It already looks like the scope of No Man's Land has gotten out of hand, maybe it will offer some of the joys of dwarf fortress, but not if it's purely visual.