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Author Topic: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF  (Read 39399 times)

Ricky

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #45 on: November 08, 2010, 05:33:42 pm »

hmm.. speaking of DF learning avalanches, if DF's learning avalanche was a learning rollercoaster... would that rollercoaster be condemed/illegal/deadly?
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Ah, I wish I had been lucky enough to be scum.
I'd make such great scum...

Killing Time

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #46 on: November 08, 2010, 09:11:09 pm »

I got the controls figured out and I could probably keep a fortress running for a million years underground if I wanted to, but I constantly want to build big and I want to build big from the start. I want everything to be 100% effecient. Anything less is a waste of time.
For example, coal is, for me, a waste of perfectly good tree, which can be used to make beds in my symetrically aligned and effeciently planned bedrooms, when you can use magma instead.

But then I can't find a magma pipe in the first 10 minutes, so I start over, trying to find a biome with a volcano or the like.
Or even something as simple as the layout of my fort fucks me up. I try to plan everything ahead, but there is simply so much to plan it gets impossible to keep track of.

My biggest problem in Dwarf Fortress is myself.
Same here, but for the opposite reason. My forts usually end up being a 20z high morass of random passages and rooms sized according to whim.

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Lolzwheejars

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #47 on: November 11, 2010, 01:05:47 am »

Hey all (new). I agree? I've been playing for about a month now, and this has just been an amazing game. Although quite hard to understand and get into.
So far I've had about... Oh... 8 fortresses? 5 of them I abandoned because I couldn't figure out why my underground farms weren't growing plump helmets. I was following Tiny Pirates tutorial, and it musta been an older version because it never said anything about mud or irrigating your farming fields. So Fort 6-7 was lost due to not saving and computer running updates >.<
8th fortess is going strong right now. Stupid me I dug up a cavern and forgot to wall it off, as well as cancel all my digging and fungiwood chopping. So it ended up my Expedition Leader went down to pick up this nice little piece of fruit, and was ambushed by a pack of trogdolytes. I drafted him to a onedwarf squad and suprisingly he killed the first one! I mean, he had no wrestling training what so ever. But then another one came along and merced him. And then my entire fortress decides to make a B-line to go and get all his clothes and everything, so I sent my 7 (petty trained) marksdwarves/mace(club? thing?)dwarves to deal with them. Going well so fair, only one causualty, and a few minor injuries. Outta bolts though >.<
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Oglokoog

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #48 on: November 11, 2010, 01:16:53 am »

I see I've been missing a lot of fun by walling off the caverns as soon as I breach them  :D
You should do that too though, probably. Forgotten beasts are stronger than troglodytes and much more aggressive. Also, you can set items dropped by your dwarves to be automatically forbidden, I think it's o->F, but I'm not sure. It's in the "set orders" or something section, then Forbid.
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So we got monsters above, monsters below, dwarves in the middle and a party in the dining hall. Sounds good to me.
If all else fails, remember one thing:  kittens are delicious, nutritious little goblin-baiters, cavern explorers, and ambush-finders.

Lolzwheejars

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #49 on: November 11, 2010, 01:28:45 am »

Yeah. I'm thinking I just kill off the trogs, let them pick everything up and set out. I've been using Maydays files, I don't know if it's the current version just with the tileset set in place or what. But meh. The military screen(s) are still somewhat confusing to me. And probably will continue to be for some time. I'm thinking after this fort, I'll try one on a glacier or something. Really test my newby abilites :3
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Encased in burning magma

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #50 on: November 11, 2010, 03:37:18 am »

Yeah. I'm thinking I just kill off the trogs, let them pick everything up and set out. I've been using Maydays files, I don't know if it's the current version just with the tileset set in place or what. But meh. The military screen(s) are still somewhat confusing to me. And probably will continue to be for some time. I'm thinking after this fort, I'll try one on a glacier or something. Really test my newby abilites :3

Real men embark on multi-layer saltwater aquifers on a terrifying biome with just a cat, two coal lumps, and that's it.
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SineHacker

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #51 on: November 11, 2010, 04:41:22 am »

Been playing df for over 3 years and still learning new stuff all the time, I tend to set myself big projects like building a dwarven industry in a tower above ground with a large residential estate below, I like making dungeons and castles as well  8) I get into more and more technical construction every time I start a new embark, I remember how good it felt to finally be able to drain water from a river for an underground well without flooding an entire fort!

To sum up, I think df just keeps getting better the more you learn and experiment!
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Wastedlabor

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #52 on: November 11, 2010, 05:51:38 am »

Real men embark on multi-layer saltwater aquifers on a terrifying biome with just a cat, two coal lumps, and that's it.

Real dwarves embark with nothing and survive on plants, vermin and pond water until they manage to kill an axegoblin.
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He stole an onion. Off with his head.
I wonder, what would they do if someone killed their king.
Inevitable, who cares. Now an onion...

PrimusRibbus

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #53 on: November 11, 2010, 06:05:35 am »

Maybe I'm weird, but I always felt that DF's crazy learning curve was an illusion perpetuation by a lack of documentation on the controls, compounded with illogical key choices that make learning by feel difficult. When my buddy first introduced me to DF back in the day, he sent me a printable PDF of DF's controls overlaid on a drawing of a keyboard; with that as a reference, I didn't feel that the learning curve of DF was particularly intimidating at all.

I totally understand why DF has a reputation for having an outrageous learning curve, though: When I first booted up the game, I hadn't looked at said PDF and wasn't even sure if I was supposed to be able to control anything.
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Oglokoog

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #54 on: November 11, 2010, 06:35:38 am »

I couldn't agree more. The controls are the worst, every other aspect of gameplay is simply a matter of being able to manage a lot of different processes at once, which really isn't that hard, especially since you can pause the game at any time and have a good look at the state of things.
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So we got monsters above, monsters below, dwarves in the middle and a party in the dining hall. Sounds good to me.
If all else fails, remember one thing:  kittens are delicious, nutritious little goblin-baiters, cavern explorers, and ambush-finders.

Lolzwheejars

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Re: My sudden realization about the learning curve of DF
« Reply #55 on: November 11, 2010, 04:29:35 pm »

Yeah. I'm thinking I just kill off the trogs, let them pick everything up and set out. I've been using Maydays files, I don't know if it's the current version just with the tileset set in place or what. But meh. The military screen(s) are still somewhat confusing to me. And probably will continue to be for some time. I'm thinking after this fort, I'll try one on a glacier or something. Really test my newby abilites :3

Real men embark on multi-layer saltwater aquifers on a terrifying biome with just a cat, two coal lumps, and that's it.

Saltwater can be fixed with a well ;D
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