The abstract representation is intentional, and comes with numerous benefits which we'll get to later.

May as well take this opportunity to address that question while the project waits on the sidelines for its day in the sun.ĪSCII tends to appear 'simpler' to the untrained eye, but looks are deceiving-while ASCII is certainly a more abstract representation of the environment, the higher visual density makes it possible to tightly pack a much greater amount of information into a given viewing area, as well as more clearly present that information (a classic 'ASCII vs. Surely you could just write an ASCII renderer for OpenXCom and get the same result!? (When I introduce all these new features to it's going to blow you away.)Īnyway, I've been asked before by those outside the roguelike community about why one would bother creating an 'ASCII X-COM' when we already have so many graphical options. Not that you'd think it's dead, because if you follow my work you'll know that even now I'm still enhancing the engine as part of ongoing work for the development of Cogmind.

Time for another obligatory 'It's not dead, really!' post )