This. There are plenty of games based on Dwarf Fortress and indirectness, though many of them seem to suffer from lack of depth. DF is nearly endless in terms

This. There are plenty of games based on Dwarf Fortress and indirectness, though many of them seem to suffer from lack of depth. DF is nearly endless in terms of new content and events; once you figure out a pattern for setting up your fortress and finally feel like you're winning, something new comes along that you didn't expect. Once that feeling of "anything could happen" is lost in a game, it's tough to continue. Factorio is a good example of this. It satisfies the desire for challenge and survival like DF, but the challenge drops off drastically once you have a good setup. It's tough to match the content of Dwarf Fortress for a game that hasn't been around for 15 years though.