Some things that impressed me:
GTA San Andreas map: 13 Square Miles.
Just Cause 2: 400 Square Miles.
Largest continent in DF? 34,935 sq miles (about Maine in size)
*Nobody bring up Daggerfall. Yes I know that was like 60,000 sq miles but most of it was just empty space to make walking take forever*
Many people say you could write a book about your adventures in DF land. In fact, removing all that xml and leaving only the events recorded for a medium sized island would leave you with the history of the island. That history would be approximately 300 times longer than the King James Bible.
Direct quote from reddit:
The terrain is ecologically and geologically accurate, and… I don’t know if sociologically is the correct term here, but it’s accurate in that sense as well. Someone modded a world to have the shape of the earth’s continents and found that rivers flowed in nearly the exact same places and a bunch of cities popped up in the exact same places that there are cities in the real world. So there’s that.
A longer post about a lot of different things that make it so complex: http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/1jego3/what_makes_df_the_most_complex_video_game_ever/cbe4613
One important thing I want to point out though (background info: I think Tarn went to school for materials science or materials engineering or something):
Complex enough? Not enough for Tarn, it isn’t. Weapon and armor physics is so complex we don’t get into many discussions of it at all. It’s just fairly opaque, and we just try stuff out and share what works. Instead of damage and rate of attack (kiddie stats), you get velocity, penetration, contact area, density/weight, yield strenght, fracture strenght and elasticity (the later 3 have different values for impact and shear). Some of the stats will vary based on the metal (or other material) used.
I’ll tell you he loves answering math or physics or procedurally generated questions. “How do you get 200 dwarves to all find paths to their destinations” etc. He’s super friendly and cheerful, but you’ll be dealing with a very smart man. Tarn Adams has a Ph.D in Mathematics from Stanford University. His dissertation was entitled Flat Chains in Banach Spaces. This is his thesis if you enjoy the sensation of things flying over your head.
Anyway, I figured that’d round out the DF stuff for awhile. If you are interested in playing:
Windows: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0
Mac: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106790.0
Windows users who want to punish themselves: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98196.0 (because regular DF isn’t complex enough)
So definitely feel free to find me on google+. maccam912@gmail.com on there, or just find me by name. I enjoy showing off my l33t skillz, and honestly the best way to learn is with a friend explaining what you should probably do when. And the wiki: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Quickstart_guide when you don’t have another person.
See you at the next DF VGDC meeting!
VGDC 