Whoa, I just noticed something...
Tycho included a mention of FFH in his latest post on Penny Arcade:
- Fall From Heaven II is a Civilization IV mod, supposedly, but that grievously undersells what's been accomplished. It's not new, by any means, but my experience with the Dwarf Fortress stuff above brought it swiftly to mind. I read the manual for it during Christmas last year, the manual, and it has remained fresh in my thoughts for months. I'd recommend you do the same, even if you don't own Civilization 4 or have any intention of playing it.
The story and the game mechanisms are woven so tight that they're almost inextricable.
http://penny-arcade.com/2009/03/13/
(Emphasis added by me)
This is not always the case. At least, not directly. Indirectly, maybe, but not directly. And this is only the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended), I remember that lore vs. mechanic debates crop up from time to time...
EDIT:
Mmmmmph, I'm not sure the comparison with Dwarf Fortress is a good one! It suggests that FFH is somewhat intimidating if you don't just dive straight into it. Now, if Kael had never cut an FFH feature or simplified the game AND had merged the features of five different Fall Furthers into the main game and never bothered to optimise previous features before starting on the next and never allowed anyone else to contribute or assist in coding then...
... it still wouldn't be as difficult to get into as DF, but it would be getting there!
(remember boatmurdered!)
Y'know... I've never understood how people have such a hard time getting into Dwarf Fortress. It was quite intimidating at first, but once I got into the swing of things, it was actually pretty easy. I've had to explicitly hunt down challenges to keep things interesting. (To the beach! To the glaciers! To the swamps! To the Castle of Hate! To a location known to have Hidden Fun Stuff!) Funnily enough, I'm a mediocre Civ player, and hilariously awful at SimCity and the like, but DF and me just seem to get along well.
Oh, and... WELCOME TO . .. .. .. .ING BOATMURDERED!
But, yeah, I can see the comparisons to DF scaring off potential FfH players... to hear some people, you'd think it was an ASCII version of I Wanna Be the Guy...
Man, I was hoping he did a comic about it. THAT woulda floored me
Oh, that would have been epic. My next conversations with my fellow gamers for the day would have began, "remember that mod I've been preaching to you about?" Hell, even this ought garner some reaction.
EDIT 2: A rather strange metaphor occurred to me whilst struggling to stay awake in Linear Algebra. Isn't reading a manual for a game you have no intention of getting somewhat akin to purchasing the Kama Sutra after swearing a vow of monastic chastity? Am I even allowed to use that metaphor? And before you ask, no, my mind isn't in the gutter; it's long since made its way to deeper sewers.
The story is really what keeps me playing. Also, good work team! I wonder how this will affect traffic...
