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[Sappho]

What Sofaspud said.  It's very easy once you've done it once.  Also, a lot of things in this version are much easier.  Perhaps the most notable is farming.  You can farm almost anywhere now, without needing to irrigate!  Underground crops (the ones we're used to, that you can buy seeds for at the start) need to grow below the surface level.  They can grow on any surface other than bare stone.  The first few z-levels below ground are normally soil or sand, so you can farm there right from the start and not have to worry about food.

Surface plants are much cooler in this version, too.  You gather them like you always did, by collecting them from bushes outside.  But now you can plant the seeds you get from them in a farm plot on the surface!  Sand, soil, grass, anything but rock will work for farming, as long as it's not in a mountain biome.  Rule of thumb: if you can gather plants in an area, you can grow them there, too.

The new version is more than worth learning the new quirks, I promise.  Seriously.  Don't give up.  DO IT.

[frostedfire]

also - hunting is much better now, as is fishing - although the elephant has been replaced by the carp, the giant eagle (gives you a reason to go underground), and the giant cave spider - it's gotten a size boost now, think Shelob-sized   :p

[Dame de la Licorne]

Yeah, just stick with it.  I'd been playing 2D for a while when 3D came out and it was mind-boggling at first (for me).  But stick with it and soon you'll barely remember what 2D was like.  Just assume that your first several fortresses are going to be write-offs as you figure things out.  

[Tamren]

Just in case no one mentioned it, trees do not grow on solid rock. So even if you are below the tree line and heavily forested you may well end up with no trees because there is no soil equivalent.

In other words be careful if the starting screen does not list clay/loam/sand above the various rock layers.

[Tahin]

quote:Originally posted by Tamren:
<STRONG>Just in case no one mentioned it, trees do not grow on solid rock. So even if you are below the tree line and heavily forested you may well end up with no trees because there is no soil equivalent.

In other words be careful if the starting screen does not list clay/loam/sand above the various rock layers.</STRONG>

Even more importantly, having no soil layers makes farming infinitely more difficult.

[Alfador]

quote:Originally posted by Tahin:
<STRONG>

Even more importantly, having no soil layers makes farming infinitely more difficult.</STRONG>

Not infinitely, but much more difficult--kinda like farming was before the Z-axis, hmmmm?  

[Dumatoin]

Wow.

Just. Wow.

Ok, i've gotten going again.

I had no idea how much more complex this game had become.

But the fun factor(and therefore it's addictive factor) seems to have increased tenfold.

So i've had a few resets with maps, playing around with digging down, gotten my miners trapped at the bottom of mines as i accidentally only dug downward staircases, giving them no way back up, no picks up top to dig up staircases. They all died of thrist. Whoops.

Completely messed up and built stairs and ramps in all the wrong places, but my current map seems to be going ok. So far i've just started to find places to hide my food from monkies. Wish me luck!

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Dumatoin:
<STRONG>Wow.

Just. Wow.

Ok, i've gotten going again.

I had no idea how much more complex this game had become.

But the fun factor(and therefore it's addictive factor) seems to have increased tenfold.

So i've had a few resets with maps, playing around with digging down, gotten my miners trapped at the bottom of mines as i accidentally only dug downward staircases, giving them no way back up, no picks up top to dig up staircases. They all died of thrist. Whoops.

Completely messed up and built stairs and ramps in all the wrong places, but my current map seems to be going ok. So far i've just started to find places to hide my food from monkies. Wish me luck!</STRONG>

The Monkees? You don't need to hide it from them, they're just trying to be friendly.

[Tahin]

quote:Originally posted by Alfador:
<STRONG>

Not infinitely, but much more difficult--kinda like farming was before the Z-axis, hmmmm?   </STRONG>

Well, in the pre-z versions there was no need to set up complex drainage networks, as all water would disappear immediately when the source was closed. Now you actually need a place for all that water to go, or be able to let an exact amount of water through so as to cover the whole room in 1/7 so it can dry. Either way, it's a good deal more complex than it used to be. Oh, and there's no nile farming, either, as rivers don't overflow anymore.

[Markham]

Does this relate to the lack of shrimp in overly gump'ed areas?    

[Chariot]

quote:Originally posted by Dumatoin:
<STRONG>
So i've had a few resets with maps, playing around with digging down, gotten my miners trapped at the bottom of mines as i accidentally only dug downward staircases, giving them no way back up, no picks up top to dig up staircases. They all died of thrist. Whoops.
</STRONG>

why didnt you have the miners dig stairs up from the bottom once they got trapped?

[Tamren]

Dunno exactly but down stairs can not be removed once carved

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Tamren:
<STRONG>Dunno exactly but down stairs can not be removed once carved</STRONG>

But one could dig an upward or up/down staircase in a tile adjacent.

[Dumatoin]

quote:Originally posted by Chariot:
<STRONG>

why didnt you have the miners dig stairs up from the bottom once they got trapped?</STRONG>

I tried, for some reason, they just wouldn't do it.

I tried clearing a path to where they would, so that both squares were empty, i tried making it so both squares were rock, i tried so the lower level was empty and the top was rock, the lower was rock and the top was empty.

THey didn't want to do it. Besides, i didn't mind starting over, i had just started.