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[FuzzyDoom]

I have never read, nor will I ever read, Boatmurdered.

I prefer things that aren't dull.

BLASPHEMY! KILL THE NON-BELIEVER! KILL HIM NOW BEFORE ARMOK DAMNS OUR SOULS!

(It really is a good read...)

[quinnr]

Meh, I didn't like Boatmurdered that much.

[Narmio]

I agree with Deathworks's approach, although with one caveat.  I would never recommend turning invaders off.  Teaching safe and defensible fortress design from the get go is a big part of the game.  While it adds a fair bit of extra chance they'll lose to an ambush or something within the first few years, it doesn't actually add that much more complexity to the game - what makes a fortress safe early on is pretty intuitive.  Control access to your fort, trap your entrance, don't have anyone outside if they don't have to be, that sort of thing.  It's extra stuff to think about, but it's actually not that much extra complexity.  When I introduced people to earlier versions I'd show them how to make archery ranges and marksdwarves by year two or three or so, but that's not so easy any more, so I'd just stick to stone/weapon traps.  Also I find people (although this is possibly just the kind of people I introduce DF to) really love the idea of building a fort tile by tile with the aim of one day defending it from hordes of invaders.  Even if they know they'll fail, they love the idea.  They wouldn't want the goblins turned off if I offered it to them.

The most important thing, though, regardless of the kind of gamer you think they are, is that you sit with them while they play their first fort.  It's really a thousand times better if you can do that.  Give suggestions on what they should do next and help them with the interface.  I find that once you show them the first year or so of the basics, they'll want to try everything at once!  And then they're hooked. 

[quinnr]

Deathworks was saying to turn it off for a few years, then back on once they have nice defences.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Deathworks was saying to turn it off for a few years, then back on once they have nice defences.

Exactly. While I also kept it open for permanent deactivation for the SimCity crowd, I did mention that it can be turned on later during the fortress. My point is, unless you are actually playing and just having them watch, they are likely to encounter smaller problems that may delay things in their fortress. And if that leads to their defenses being completely inadequate, that may cause a very frustrating outcome, especially if they were just so short from getting a good irrigation for their first underground farm going.

You can see it like the tutorials for games like Tropico where you start off with reduced features and then get more and more features activated as the player gets used to things. This helps keep the learning curve not so steep. Mind you, it is not about guaranteeing that they survive their first siege, but rather that they feel they had a chance.

Deathworks

[snelg]

I agree with the others that being available to answer questions helps a lot especially if you're there in person so you can point out the important parts of the interface.

Also, something you may want to do (or might not care about) is generating a world and make sure the embark location are accessible by all the races. To make for an interesting first game with both trade and enemies. And I don't think a good first fort experience would include "no dwarven civilization left in the world so you get no migrants".