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Thread: Classic Ascii or Tile?

  1. #1

    Default Classic Ascii or Tile?

    Personally I can't stand the tile set. It feels awkward not being able to see the whole map.
    Even at half size it's still weird.

  2. #2
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    The minimap makes it fine in my opinion. But then I've played lots of roguelikes with a similar set-up, so I guess it's not so jarring for me.
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  3. #3
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    I definitely prefer ASCII, I just can't seem to imagine playing adom any other way.
    For tiles or, for that matter, "graphics" I have other games - Skyrim, Dead Island, Fallout etc.
    "Visuals" in general is the last thing I expect from a game like adom so I'm playing it exclusively in ascii.
    I love books. Adom is like reading a book and being part of it at the same time.
    Everything that happens or that you do has to be imagined to make sense and, for me, this alone has always been the main incentive to play this game.
    I believe tiles and what passes for graphics here is taking away at least a part of that "pull" the game has on me and so many others, but of course to each their own.
    Tiles will probably serve to attract the interest of those people that can't stand pure ascii GUI but are still willing to experience the game and share their thoughts with the rest of us.
    That is the most important thing, I suppose.
    "Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

  4. #4
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    In most roguelikes, I choose ASCII without any doubt. It's more practical because you get more view distance.

    ADOM makes me doubt because the tiles are really nice. ASCII is still more practical, though. I have noticed that the characters I play with tiles tends to survive less. Less view distance and missing a ring or two may not be very relevant, but it may have some effect. The minimap in p16 helps a lot, though. I also tend to kill cats in the tiled version, because they aren't as easy to tell from other monsters as when they are f's. After all these years playing, my mind is hardwired to not touch f's.

    On the other hand, health bars and visual differences between otherwise similar items should help. But as I say, my anecdotal data is that I seem to survive less with tiles, so it doesn't seem to help me so much.

    Another big reason I have to play ASCII is the server. It would be great if the ADOM team came up with a means of playing on servers with tiles.
    Last edited by Al-Khwarizmi; 08-20-2013 at 11:49 AM.

  5. #5
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    It's funny how things some things that are easy to recognize in ASCII are disguised with tiles and vice versa.

    With tiles you can see the status of a herb bush at a glance, without the herbalism skill. You can identify herbs by dropping them at the floor and looking at the picture, too. You will no longer mistake a fortune cookie for a blink dog corpse, but any other corpse does look like it.
    Berserker emperors, on the other hand, look almost the same as kings/princes/lords now. There are subtle differences in the pictures but I need to check them with the look command.

    The game has a different feel with tiles, it's much more cartoony.

    By the way, I think my characters die less when I play with tiles. Maybe it's the health bar, idk.
    Last edited by grobblewobble; 08-20-2013 at 12:48 PM.
    You steal a scroll labelled HITME. The orc hits you.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blasphemous View Post
    Tiles will probably serve to attract the interest of those people that can't stand pure ascii UI but are still willing to experience the game and share their thoughts with the rest of us.
    That is indeed the idea - to lower the entry barrier and see if we can get some more people to enjoy the game There's no doubt that a tileset will never beat imagination though, and for ADOM the tileset will always be only an option - a means to an end rather than a goal in itself.

    Quote Originally Posted by grobblewobble View Post
    Berserker emperors, on the other hand, look almost the same as kings/princes/lords now. There are subtle differences in the pictures but I need to check them with the look command.
    Thanks, that's a good point and I'm gonna look into that. Monsters being easily distinguishable at first glance is one of our main goals. There's still a few NPCs that could be improved in this area.

  7. #7
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    I can only appreciate tiles when they are really big, so when p14 came out, I've played almost a whole game with tiles to see all pictures. After that I've changed back to ASCII because of two things - shooting long distance and controlled teleportation. Health bars in ASCII mode are still *very* awesome.
    I like my women like my ADOM loot - hunted as treasure and in extra quantity.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ravenmore View Post
    Thanks, that's a good point and I'm gonna look into that. Monsters being easily distinguishable at first glance is one of our main goals. There's still a few NPCs that could be improved in this area.
    Thank you. I was thinking that different color schemes could do the trick? If they all wear armors of different color or something like that, I think that would be sufficient.
    You steal a scroll labelled HITME. The orc hits you.

  9. #9
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    I definitely prefer ASCII. It's going to take awhile for me to get used to that dramatic of a change. Right now I still prefer to mostly play on pre13, actually, as it seems the fastest and most stable version.
    Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.

  10. #10
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    When I found NetHack, my first roguelike, I was completely new to the genre, so I did play with 32x32 tiles and sounds for some time because that made the game more "accessible" to me. Eventually, I switched to ASCII mode to see what the fuss was about. I quickly grew fond of it because it let me come up with my own mental picture of all the things my PC did, the monsters they battled, the noises they heard and the strange feelings they had, instead of essentially having to accept the images I was seeing in the screen or the sounds that played through my speakers. After all, imagination is one of the biggest attractive of roguelike games, if not the main one. By the time I stumbled upon ADOM, lack of tiles and sound was no problem whatsoever. For what's essentially rows of letters and symbols, areas like the wilderness, ToEF or WDL, and special effects like bolts, vortex explosions and so on sure are beautifully rendered.

    So, I mean no disrespect to the huge effort that has taken place to bring tiles to this game, and I agree with the idea behind it (besides, even if you're not a new player, having the choice is always good), but nowadays I wouldn't see myself using anything other than ASCII mode.
    "And light there be!"

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