# Do you play with tileset or ASCII and why?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [January 13, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751 "2014-01-13T13:43:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![wad67](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/wad67/32/7_2.png) [@wad67](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/wad67)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/21 "2014-01-14T04:53:52Z")

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ASCII as it makes a lot more sense than trying to discern what a heap of multicolored pixels are.

It’s also a lot easier on the eyes than a swath of random graphics.

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**Author:** ![Sirent\_Odour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Sirent\_Odour](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sirent_Odour)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/22 "2014-01-14T05:24:46Z")

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When I start playing a new roguelike, I always give the tileset(s) a chance if there are any, but 99% of the time I can’t find one that isn’t suffering from this problem: [quote=“Labtop\_215, post:19, topic:4751”]too much in the other tilesets that are unaccounted for.[/quote]

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**Author:** ![Notquiteright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@Notquiteright](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Notquiteright)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/23 "2014-01-14T16:46:33Z")

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For the stable release I prefer ThuztorTileset@, but for the later patches I prefer ascii. One thing I can’t take is inconsistencies.

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**Author:** ![Dominae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/dominae/32/53_2.png) [@Dominae](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Dominae)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/24 "2014-01-14T17:04:20Z")

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[quote=“DG123, post:10, topic:4751”]Tileset, and I use Raga’s tileset.

Why? Because I prefer my eyes to not be bleeding.

ASCII is hard to look at and hard to comprehend what you’re seeing. Sure, you can get used to it, but after taking a short break from playing I was confused all over again. I don’t get that problem with a tileset.

The only thing I don’t like about using a tileset is that my viewport distance is too small when it comes to driving around. But I’m not sure how much better it would be with ASCII…[/quote]

I like ASCII, and have played roguelikes in ASCII since … oh god… I don’t want to think how long ago that was when I started.

Anywho, I’ve more recently switched to a tiles-only way of playing them because, as DG says above, I just can’t stand the eye-bleed (and for me, day-ending migraines). Symptoms of getting older maybe, and compounded with buying a big pretty monitor for graphical things with way too many pixels for non-graphical things.

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**Author:** ![Broken\_Finger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Broken\_Finger](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Broken_Finger)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/25 "2014-01-14T17:10:57Z")

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> [@Rekozg](#):
>
> What I miss though, is that i can’t see the clothes on a zombie unless i kill it.

I don’t think the clothes even exist until you kill it.

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**Author:** ![Drakasin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/drakasin/32/850_2.png) [@Drakasin](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Drakasin)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/26 "2014-01-14T17:14:22Z")

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I normally play ASCII (I mean, this game has some beautiful ASCII graphics compared to other games, another example of this would be Caves of Qud, I mean, what the hell, that’s ASCII on a whole new level!), unless the game has some nice tiles (Dwarf Fortress - Ironhand, Tales of Maj’Eyal). Why? Dunno, I just do.

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**Author:** ![Alexg6464](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/alexg6464/32/227_2.png) [@Alexg6464](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Alexg6464)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/27 "2014-01-14T17:49:00Z")

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ASCII, simply because i am used to it.

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**Author:** ![VampyreLord](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/vampyrelord/32/197_2.png) [@VampyreLord](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/VampyreLord)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/28 "2014-01-15T11:04:04Z")

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ASCII + Cataclysm = more dark, noir, gritty and dystopian feel. ASCII just seems right while tiles not.

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**Author:** ![ClaytonRISING](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/claytonrising/32/75_2.png) [@ClaytonRISING](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ClaytonRISING)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/29 "2014-01-15T15:09:26Z")

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Come on, let’s be honest my fellow ASCII preferring people: it’s because we’re the hipsters of the gaming world.

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**Author:** ![Notquiteright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@Notquiteright](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Notquiteright)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/30 "2014-01-15T15:22:10Z")

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> [@Clayton](#):
>
> Come on, let’s be honest my fellow ASCII preferring people: it’s because we’re the hipsters of the gaming world.

Hey, I am not a part of that right? I mean I only use ascii for patches (I think that what they are called). That doesn’t mean I am a hipster, right, right?

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**Author:** ![Nighthawk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/nighthawk/32/896_2.png) [@Nighthawk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Nighthawk)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/31 "2014-01-15T18:00:02Z")

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For me, ASCII has nothing to do with being hipster; it’s simply difficult for me to find a tileset that flows as nicely as ASCII does when I look at everything on screen. If that retro tileset was a little bigger and didn’t make me strain my eyes so much, I would use that, but it’s kinda teeny.

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**Author:** ![Iosyn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/iosyn/32/35_2.png) [@Iosyn](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Iosyn)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/32 "2014-01-15T19:53:27Z")

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The voice of god has a well-known tendency to make heads asplode.

So sure, if you can’t handle the awesome raw power of order and information contained within pure ASCII that’s fine.  
Use a tileset.  
Ya Heathen. 😛

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**Author:** ![FunsizeNinja123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/funsizeninja123/32/118_2.png) [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/33 "2014-01-15T20:40:57Z")

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Heretics.

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**Author:** ![Tsu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tsu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tsu)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/34 "2014-01-15T21:50:54Z")

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If you play experimental you probably want to use Ascii, because I doubt anyone will come along and 100% maintain a tileset for the new builds and constant additions to displayable objects…

For stables though, whatever are the current tilesets should work; by that I mean continously updated. (Hoder, deon and mine(and I believe Hrose) have releases for various stables, but all have some missing tiles because of the way the game handles it.  
I personally just did not have the patience to manually tile 300 things I didn’t want to add specific tiles for 😛

I play with tiles though, I found after a while it helped me differentiate some things easier, especially cars felt a lot more intuitive in tiles mode than ascii to me.

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**Author:** ![Sirent\_Odour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Sirent\_Odour](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sirent_Odour)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/35 "2014-01-16T20:15:54Z")

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> [@Tsu](#):
>
> especially cars felt a lot more intuitive in tiles mode than ascii to me.

Really? I used tiles a bit at first with this game (I liked your tileset too!), but the cars were the reason i reverted to ASCII!

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**Author:** ![Blaze1711](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@Blaze1711](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Blaze1711)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/36 "2014-01-19T12:42:39Z")

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I use ASCII always.

A game doesn’t need any graphics when it is as complex as C:DDA or Dwarf Fortress, plus my graphic card isn’t the best…

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**Author:** ![Zireael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zireael/32/956_2.png) [@Zireael](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zireael)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/37 "2014-01-19T15:59:16Z")

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[quote=“Blaze1711, post:36, topic:4751”]I use ASCII always.

A game doesn’t need any graphics when it is as complex as C:DDA or Dwarf Fortress, plus my graphic card isn’t the best…[/quote]

You don’t really need a great graphics card for tiles, you know?

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**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/38 "2014-01-19T20:31:36Z")

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[quote=“Blaze1711, post:36, topic:4751”]I use ASCII always.

A game doesn’t need any graphics when it is as complex as C:DDA or Dwarf Fortress, plus my graphic card isn’t the best…[/quote]

Huh?

Are you saying that using a tileset is actually graphics card intensive? I find it hard to believe.

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**Author:** ![Blaze1711](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@Blaze1711](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Blaze1711)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/39 "2014-01-19T21:47:15Z")

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Noooooo, i meant that games which have demanding graphics aren’t going to run smoothly in my PC, so i don’t even care for graphics anymore, instead i care for the game’s complexity and immersiveness.

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**Author:** ![Rivet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/rivet/32/11_2.png) [@Rivet](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Rivet)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/do-you-play-with-tileset-or-ascii-and-why/4751/40 "2014-01-22T01:30:20Z")

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ASCII

I’ve been playing on ASCII since Rogue, and I’ve been at this for too long to change now.

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