I started out as so many do after reading Boatmurdered.
My initial attempts to play were like banging my head against a brick wall.
I hated the interface; I hated how the game looked. How could such wonderful stories come out of something so ugly?
I gave up in frustration.
But stories kept me interested until RPS pointed out
TinyPirate's complete and utter newby tutorial.
Due to not understanding how water worked, I ended up flooding the world of my first fortress while trying to divert a stream on top of a volcano. Then imps shot fireballs at my dwarves and burned them all.
But thanks to the tutorials, I was hooked.
I think the biggest turning point for me was realising that farms only worked properly if you used the seasonal crop functionality.
After that, everything else was garnishing. Now all of my fortresses are mental sprawling affairs, and I love every second of it.
I still can't play the game without
some degree of prettification, and to that extent I only play using Mike Mayday's releases, but I don't mind the interface at all now (well, okay, the 2010 military interface still bamboozles me), and I honestly think it's probably my favourite game ever.
It's certainly the most insanely detailed one.
I just wish that the rate of migrant influx wasn't quite the torrent it is now. I got so used to having to attract migrants to my fortress in 40d, it's not uncommon to see a migration wave of over 20 just a couple of years into the life of a new fortress for me.
And children. I hate children. Uninvited guests who are completely useless for seemingly endless years, and the buggers just keep popping up.
I may very well have to create a baby drowner again. It worked incredibly well in 40d, and kept my framerate at reasonably playable levels.
My current fortress has a population of 232, I think a third of which are children and babies.
Dwarf Fortress.
Where infanticide is a performance option.