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DF General Discussion / We need your help to save the noobs!

« on: October 30, 2019, 07:34:23 pm »

Hi Dorfs,

We started a thread a couple days ago about how to fix what was wrong will the stress system and got a lot of great feedback and I hope to continue to learn from it. This question is more general. How do we stop potential players from giving up right away.

We are aiming to fix as much of the UI and graphics issues as we can going into the Steam release coming up after the Villains release, so this question isn't so much about that. What I mean is more basic than that. For instance:

We never really knew that were-creatures were such a problem for new players. This is because I think no one really knew it was a design flaw. It's not a bug so we didn't pay attention to it. It obviously ruined a lot of peoples fun. They are set to come once you have 20 dwarves, which is way too soon. We have since changed that for the next release.

That really spooked me as to what other game breaking design flaws are out there waiting to ruin everything. Starting a fortress should be relatively easy given the right embark. People will think these problems are features unless we get the right input.

Thanks again,
and Congratulations to the Generous.

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DF General Discussion / We need your help with game ending stress

« on: October 28, 2019, 07:07:16 pm »

Hi Dorfs,

We have been going through some extensive testing to find the biggest problems for new (and old!) players that make them give up in frustration. Most of these people don't bother giving us any feedback, which is understandable. The game just sucks and why play? We need your help to nail down what exactly is going on.

While we are working on every problem we can find, this thread is specifically for problems with the stress system. There are a spattering of reports that come up on Reddit and other forums from people talking about how the stress system is so screwed up the game is unplayable. I haven't found this to be the case so I need your help!

I have a fort that is 3 years old and has every possible stress reliever. Plenty of taverns with every type of alcohol. Three different taverns and temples. New clothes. All sorts of trinkets and trash for them to acquire. Lavish meals. You get the picture.

Now the negative side: I attacked the goblins and in return weathered three sieges of over 100 goblins total. I killed them all with trained and iron armored dwarves with only a few injuries. Then I had my entire fortress run out and pick up the bodies.

The results were as follows: Three dwarves went into a depression. Some soldiers suffered post traumatic stress. And one dwarf threw a fit and went to jail.

This kind of result isn't bad. We want this.

I want to know what kind of play style is causing people to quit in frustration.

We are aware of socialization problems. I haven't seen a game ending problem here, but these will definitely be addressed at some point.

This is the kind of problem we want solved: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171185.msg7839740#msg7839740

We really don't want “a cancer of red arrows”

Help us find out what's going on and we will attempt to fix it!

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