What is Gnomoria? It's an actually playable Dwarf Fortress, with 8-bit Minecraft style graphics and a user interface that is FAR more intuitive than DF. If you don't know what Dwarf Fortress is, Gnomoria can be described as a Minecraft God game. Think Minecraft with the interface of Sim City 2000 - except with WAY more options. Maybe even a bit of the Sims, except the characters actually do what they need on their own and aren't helpless children; also you can have WAY more of them, and they're easier to manage.
Unlike Minecraft where you control a single character, you assign tasks on a map, and characters will automatically go and perform those tasks. You can micromanage, setting priorities to tasks, and organize your Gnomes into a functioning society.
After about 3 hours of playing, I think this is probably one of the coolest games I have ever played. It only costs $7.99 on Steam, and for that price the game is an absolute steal.
This youtube video shows a bit of what it's all about:
For starting out, I recommend watching some of the tutorials. Although I will give some hints that I found very helpful:\
1. On the top bar, there is a tab called Population, and a sub-tab called Assign. Use this to designate jobs, I created a profession called Carpenter, which essentially gives all wood working jobs; yes, you can create professions, and add a list of jobs (there are hundreds all neatly organized into categories), and this will narrow the scope of what the characters following that profession will work on. Also, you can see who is idle - if you have idle characters, then you can widen their scope of work, or create jobs.
2. Start out modest, focus on farming wheat, trees, and basic raw resources. The interface is the same as Sim City 2000, select an area, and then your farmers/woodcutters/foragers will immediately go to work on it.
3. Build a crude work bench, and then look at the materials that can be crafted there, assign your carpenter here - and build some of the resources required for other things; and begin building. It's good to have a functioning factory area. I built mine underground so I can tighten the surface land used for farming.
4. Dig a small room in the side of a mountain, and put some straw beds there, use the remaining room for a stockpile (selected via Sim city 2000 zoning selection); and set tasks to place barrels, crates, and bags in some of the location. I haven't done it yet, but you might want to specialize your stockpile zoning - which you can do in the sub-menus - so far for simplicity, I have just made large general stockpiles.
5. Begin mining, I dug down to level 4 - DO NOT go past level 7, there are monsters and such down there, even thought he resources are richer. Start with surveying mine shafts, and then clear out areas where you find valuable resources. Clear out small areas at a time so you can be more efficient about gathering ore and such when you find it. Gather all the ore and rock you can, as you can use it for building. Later on when you get a greater population, clearing out whole floors will be easier - but attempting that early on will send your Gnomes on an endlessly long amount of tasks. An alternate strategy (haven't tried it) is to actually clear out the whole floor with one dwarf, and have a second dwarf designated as a hauler, and select the resources (via sim city 2000 zoning style selection) to clear out.
6. Set up some straw beds for your Gnomes to sleep on.
7. Follow a tutorial on youtube, there are a few that are valuable, but I find they tend to be bad at focusing on interface, and tend to be by gamers who have plans in their heads, and skip steps, or jump too far ahead too early because they're working towards a plan. Luckily the Interface is fairly easy after a bit of exploration. Although try to take it slowly as the huge amount of options may seem overwhelming at first.
8. Once you have the hang of it, start over again, and start your real town with a better plan in mind
Just my opinion, while there's no reason to start over again, it's nice beginning fresh with the knowledge of how to play. This time around the early game will be less about learning and more about starting.
Unlike Minecraft where you control a single character, you assign tasks on a map, and characters will automatically go and perform those tasks. You can micromanage, setting priorities to tasks, and organize your Gnomes into a functioning society.
After about 3 hours of playing, I think this is probably one of the coolest games I have ever played. It only costs $7.99 on Steam, and for that price the game is an absolute steal.
This youtube video shows a bit of what it's all about:
For starting out, I recommend watching some of the tutorials. Although I will give some hints that I found very helpful:\
1. On the top bar, there is a tab called Population, and a sub-tab called Assign. Use this to designate jobs, I created a profession called Carpenter, which essentially gives all wood working jobs; yes, you can create professions, and add a list of jobs (there are hundreds all neatly organized into categories), and this will narrow the scope of what the characters following that profession will work on. Also, you can see who is idle - if you have idle characters, then you can widen their scope of work, or create jobs.
2. Start out modest, focus on farming wheat, trees, and basic raw resources. The interface is the same as Sim City 2000, select an area, and then your farmers/woodcutters/foragers will immediately go to work on it.
3. Build a crude work bench, and then look at the materials that can be crafted there, assign your carpenter here - and build some of the resources required for other things; and begin building. It's good to have a functioning factory area. I built mine underground so I can tighten the surface land used for farming.
4. Dig a small room in the side of a mountain, and put some straw beds there, use the remaining room for a stockpile (selected via Sim city 2000 zoning selection); and set tasks to place barrels, crates, and bags in some of the location. I haven't done it yet, but you might want to specialize your stockpile zoning - which you can do in the sub-menus - so far for simplicity, I have just made large general stockpiles.
5. Begin mining, I dug down to level 4 - DO NOT go past level 7, there are monsters and such down there, even thought he resources are richer. Start with surveying mine shafts, and then clear out areas where you find valuable resources. Clear out small areas at a time so you can be more efficient about gathering ore and such when you find it. Gather all the ore and rock you can, as you can use it for building. Later on when you get a greater population, clearing out whole floors will be easier - but attempting that early on will send your Gnomes on an endlessly long amount of tasks. An alternate strategy (haven't tried it) is to actually clear out the whole floor with one dwarf, and have a second dwarf designated as a hauler, and select the resources (via sim city 2000 zoning style selection) to clear out.
6. Set up some straw beds for your Gnomes to sleep on.
7. Follow a tutorial on youtube, there are a few that are valuable, but I find they tend to be bad at focusing on interface, and tend to be by gamers who have plans in their heads, and skip steps, or jump too far ahead too early because they're working towards a plan. Luckily the Interface is fairly easy after a bit of exploration. Although try to take it slowly as the huge amount of options may seem overwhelming at first.
8. Once you have the hang of it, start over again, and start your real town with a better plan in mind
Just my opinion, while there's no reason to start over again, it's nice beginning fresh with the knowledge of how to play. This time around the early game will be less about learning and more about starting.
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
