Developer Tarn Adams has been working with his brother Zach on the complex strategy simulation for 23 years: Dwarf Fortress, which has also been on Steam since 2022. Dwarf Fortress is considered one of the most complex video games ever. Adams is still afraid of one thing in it after all these years: groundwater ladder. He does not get along with them and has a fear of having to accidentally drown all of his dwarfs, he explains.
What kind of thing is that in Dwarf Fortress? In Dwarf Fortress, a complex fortress that is populated by dwarfs is built. You dig into a mountain, find new layers of rock, but also demons and monsters. You form a complex civilization with roles and appointments.
The most terrible thing you can meet in Dwarf Fortress are not ancient creatures that drill through the earth up, kill and eat up all dwarfs, but “groundwater ladder.”
Some dwarf fortress was destroyed by a false pointed chopping because such a groundwater conductor was hit, the fortress was flooded and all dwarfs drowned.
Founder water conductors (Aquifier) produce water that permanently flows out in all directions. They are like sources. “Heavy Auqifier” produce a lot more water than “Light Aquifier.” If players do not handle the groundwater ladders correctly, they flood their fortress and drown all dwarfs. This is called “Fun Flooding”: In Dwarf Fortress, “Fun” stands for the joyful feeling that you feel when everything goes down the stream and you have to start again.
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Developer says he is so afraid of them
This is what the developer says: In an interview with PC Gamer, developer Tarn says Adams:
I’m so afraid of the heavy groundwater managers. The light go, but the heavy ones make so crazy stuff.
He says when he invented the feature at the time, he didn’t even know whether any player would ever be able to deal with this source of danger:
It was such a thing I thought: I just let the players get it out themselves. I didn’t know whether it was possible or not. But after 45 minutes they had it out and had methods to deal with it, and since then I have been afraid to change a lot.
Adams says the players have found creative opportunities to deal with the unpredictable water flows:
Developer says: Feature is only in it for “Sickos”
This is how Tarn sees Adam’s feature himself: But such methods are too high for him: these heavy groundwater ladder are only in the game for “sick masochists”, he calls them “Sickos”.
The light groundwater ladder was completely enough for him. Then he builds a few walls around it and done.
Actually, he only installed the heavy groundwater conductors if players needed a strong water source for their above -ground fort. Underground, the sources, from the developer’s point of view, were intended as “Hard Block”, as places where it is no longer going on.
But Darf Fortress’s hardcore games did not accept such obstacles that had found a way to deal with the groundwater leaders with which he would never have expected.
This is how he sees the situation: The developer says:
Part of the problem is that we are simply not good in video games. Zach and I are shit. I mean, I am a rivet with every game I play. So I can’t really deal with strategies at a high level until I see how someone implements them.
Developer Tarn Adams has apparently been resigned from the fact that Dwarf Fortress is no longer his game, but the play of the players. And with that he drove very well: 2 brothers have been working on a fantastic and deep game for 20 years-now comes on Steam because they need money