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[lordnincompoop]

Er, you can change your key settings in the game. Just go to where it says "Exit menu" and replace that "esc" with a "space bar".

Bam. Now you never gotta stretch your ring finger over to hit that pesky esc key.

Gameplay stuff still applies, and the keyset screen is rather daunting for some.

[Psieye]

Since nobody has pointed it out directly, "40d" refers to the last of the v0.28.(insert long set of digits) versions which was released almost 2 years ago. Between v0.28 and v0.31 Toady One (one-man dev team) spent a long time working in a lot of features - he did it as one big update so that he'd get all the save-breaking features in. At first when v0.31.01 came out, it was highly buggy and we recommended new players to start from 40d. Now though, most of the critical bugs have been removed and by the end of this month, the serious bugs should also have been tackled.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

The only real trouble I've had so far is the military screen is extremely confusing, and I've had a group of monkeys running into my fortress and stealing my stuff. Trying to learn how to use mechanisms to fix this and to prepare for the inevitable invasion..Not gonna that off though. Losing is fun, right?  ???

This is why I recommend to initially have INVADERS turned off for new players as the military is probably the most difficult feature to master.

As for the monkeys (I assume rhesus macaques?), even though weapons have been weakened in this version, you should be fine with some well-placed weapon traps. For rhesus macaques, I would recommend the recipe 1 mechanism + 10 wooden menacing spikes (unless you can easily provide as many giant axe blades, preferably in bronze or steel, in which case you should go with the latter). b->T->w . Just cover all obvious entrance routes and you are set.

Of course, theoretically, you could just trap the doors to the rooms where you store the precious stuff, but note that wild animals running in your fortress will scare your dwarves and make them stop their work or whatever. So, it is preferable to stop the animals as far away from your dwarves as possible.

Have fun!

Deathworks

[kcwong]

The only real trouble I've had so far is the military screen is extremely confusing, and I've had a group of monkeys running into my fortress and stealing my stuff. Trying to learn how to use mechanisms to fix this and to prepare for the inevitable invasion..Not gonna that off though. Losing is fun, right? 

That's exactly why I recommend 40d over 2010... a new player already has too much on his hands to deal with, no need to bother themselves with a military system that requires lots of workaround just yet.

Not to mention all those unkillable forgotten beasts.

[HAMMERMILL]

This is a bad time to be a new player to Dwarf Fortress. The new version is the future and the new releases will have save compatibility. The old version is easier to grasp but it has a lot of elements that do not exist anymore or have been replaced since DF2010. The problem with the most current releases is that its extremely unbalanced and there are serious bugs everywhere.

So its a compromise between a stable and (somewhat) balanced older version or a newer and much less player-friendly version thats subject to overwhelming changes and "abandon fortress" type flaws.

[kcwong]

The most different feature in 2010 is military... the old system is gone and the new is not working as intended yet.

Other than that, most things are very similar... the underground may be not as interesting, but for a new player that's actually a good thing. What they can learn in the old versions - farming, animal/pet handling, working with workshops, steel manufacture, basis of magma safety, working with water, etc., all carries over nicely.

[Retributi0n]

I think I'll just stick to the version I have now, scrambled military system or no. Although I do hope sometime soon it is improved. For now though, I'm content just learning the game instead of bothering with what features are in what versions.

And the wooden spikes sounds like a great idea. I don't know much about the traps and mechanism combinations that are possible, but that sounds simple enough to start with. Pressure plates at the entrance is what I was planning on doing.

And this really is a great game. I love that it's so complex and difficult to master, and the possibilities seem endless. A masterpiece of a game, to be sure. I agree with TDSS, gonna send in a donation when I have the money to spare.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Retributi0n: As I said before, I strongly recommend having INVADERS turned off initially until you feel ready for a new challenge (the setting can be reset between game sessions in the same fortress, so you can start off with INVADERS off and when you feel your fortress can handle them, you can turn them back on).

Allow me to explain a little bit about weapon traps: Using one mechanism and at least one weapon or trap component (maximum is ten), you can build a single-tile weapon trap. That trap will attack any hostiles who enter that tile. Each time the trap attacks, it attacks with each weapon inside it (so one weapon means one attack, two weapons mean two attacks, ten weapons mean ten attacks). Weapon traps will not hurt any friendlies (dwarves, pets, merchants) UNLESS a friendly falls unconscious on the tile the weapon trap is located, in which case the trap will attack. Note that some of the nastier creatures and kobold thieves have the TRAPAVOID skill, which makes them ignore traps.

Weapon traps can strike an unlimited number of times without any negative effect on the trap. They do not need to be rewinded or anything. However, if they kill something, there is a slight chance that that something gets stuck in the trap, jamming it. In that case, the trap will stop working, but it will immediately create a "CLEAN TRAP" job, which makes one dwarf walk to the trap, and unstuck the object and thereby make the trap dangerous again.

Weapon traps can be stacked with normal weapons (bought, found on dead enemies, created yourself) and trap components. The best weapons you can place inside a weapon trap are bronze or steel cutting weapons like axes or giant ax blades, but for animals, you can also go for menacing wooden spikes which are made at the carpenter's. However, note that armor is very effective at deflecting attacks, so if you want to use the weapon traps to defend against armored invaders, you need to use at least bronze weapons to be sure of the effectiveness. Wooden or glass weapons are absolutely useless against armored foes, it seems.

Deathworks

[Kogan Loloklam]

New players who will be turned off by bugs are better off playing 40D, but if they aren't turned off an alpha game due to bugs, they really should play the newer version. The newer version has more game features, which means their imaginations can grow.

40D will not provide incentive to design a massive automatic cleaning system to keep your dwarves safe while your fortress is cleaned up. Nor will it encourage good design of hospital wings.