What an enchanting game this is. I’ve never made it that far but the world building is simply superb.
Recently started playing it again on my Steam Deck and it plays wonderfully.
Caves of Qud completely entranced me when I first played it. It's a great example of what modern Roguelikes can be. My only complaint is that the story and some writing is just bad (in a cringe kind of way). But most of the worldbuilding is excellent and really captures a sort of Dune-inspired science-fantasy feel. I think the game would be basically flawless (in my opinion) if they removed or reworked the Barathrumites and the Consortium of Phyta.
I absolutely love this game. You can do all kinds of stupid shit in it, like turn a wall into a sentient being and then enslave it to your will. Or survive by being a part mushroom mutant and eating your own body.
My favourite run was when I took the mutation that gives a tiny chance of my evil twin appearing. Literally the turn that I started the game in Joppa, my twin appeared and killed me. They acted before I even got the chance to take my first turn, so from my perspective I just loaded in and instantly died.
I was looking for something like dwarf fortress adventure mode or cataclysm dark days ahead and this is as close as I could find.
Sacrifices a lot of the smaller details of CDDA by being easier to play (not a bad trade off necessarily). You'll still die a million times in Qud though.
I for sure feel this sentiment but damn does Qud hit that sweet spot. Like, sometimes I don't want to feel like I'm writing a dissertation - which is what CDDA can feel like sometimes - but I still want said depth, or at least the feeling of said depth. CoQ hits that sweet spot. So much charm too, love it.
I'm not too particularly bothered by that, I'm more bothered by the fantasy part of it. It's not really like story fantasy trope, but a post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff being fantastical is kind of a given, isn't it?