I'm not sure why creating pre-bundled saves would impugn on dev-time (Toady isn't the only one who has to make them), or why they're completely useless due to the existence of tutorials. It will definitely be helpful for showing people the 'big picture' in an interactive way, showing how all of the individual steps they took fit together to form a fortress.
Also, enough about scripting. Scripting is annoying, if nothing else, to implement. Scripting at the level that would bring any gameplay benefits whatsoever is not worth it in terms of dev time and dev hassle, IMO. The whole point of a pre-bundled save with notes is to remove the need to have an in-game tutorial.
Another suggestion might be more automatic in-game raws documentation. For example, when looking at a plump helmet it should tell me that it brews into dwarven wine, it grows during so and so seasons, the name of the seed is plump helmet spawn, it's edible both cooked and raw, etc... Looking at a sweet pod should tell me it's processable to barrel into dwarven syrup, brewable into dwarven rum, etc... Looking at dwarven syrup should tell me it's processed from sweet pods, and cookable, etc... Looking at copper should tell me it can be forged into weapons, furniture, able to be alloyed with tin, etc...
A third-party tool might actually be just as good for such a thing, for now. I'd rather this be implemented before the presentation arc, though, as with the sheer amount of information which will be present in the new raws, it'll be invaluable. Perhaps you could tie in guildmasters later on; but that's outside of the scope of this suggestion.
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Topic: Making the game more accessible for new players (Read 2099 times)