Inspired by the likes of Dwarf Fortress, Civilization, SimCity and more we have the free and open source Arcane Fortune which continues to expanding in features. Played in your favourite command-line terminal application, or just use the pre-made launch script it comes with that sorts out everything for you.
Seems like it has some genuinely great ideas, and considering how ridiculously popular Dwarf Fortress is, we know that shiny graphics are not a key to success. Perhaps Arcane Fortune will be able to carve out a nice niche.
Pictured - the beginnings of a new civilization in Arcane Fortune.
What's new in Arcane Fortune 0.3.0:
- Nobility - these families may join your empire and offer some advantages based on their personality and inclinations. For example, in diplomacy or war. Their opinions of you may change, however, depending on how you govern your empire.
- A trade system to exchange resources and negotiate defensive pacts with other empires.
- Kingdoms - sub-empires that may join your empire. Unlike noble houses, they retain more autonomy, but will share all the diplomatic relations (war/peace) with the parent empire.
- Assassination - useful both to explore other cities (they can scale walls) and to rid the world of the presence of unwanted leaders and nobles.
- Screen reader mode -- there is a page on the wiki which has more information about this mode and its features. Mostly the benefit of this mode is that the text cursor will be placed in relevant parts of the screen and some text can be tabbed through to help cue screen readers. There are also other small changes I've made based on feedback I've received.
- Changes to mouse controls making it easier to pan the map while moving a unit (thanks to lecom & Tchey on the forums for specific advice on this).
- Miscellaneous bugfixes (and likely new bugs to replace them!)
- Performance optimizations -- some of which might not be noticable since the nobility might slow the game down nearly as much as I've managed to speed it up.
The idea is certainly interesting, and the mash-up of ideas already makes the early game quite engrossing. The key is going to be in the AI, much like it is for Dwarf Fortress. Arcane Fortune is going to need to keep players engaged with encounters, and other civilizations.
You can download free on the official site and GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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