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[Neyvn]

How many times have you gotten someone past the ASCII with a Graphic set or at least understanding the ASCII if they know already to just lose them the moment they finish genning their first world. What about when you lose them as soon as they embark. WHAT THE FCK IS THIS!!! They scream. And unless your there to hold their hands for a while chances are they hit the X button (only to be frustrated even more then hit Ctrl+Alt+Del). Perhaps we the people need to do more then create How to Play vids on Youtube, Perhaps we should start creating a FULL and TRUE (to the current) Manual that isn't the Wiki, something that can be downloaded and printed for ease and efficiency...

The main goal is to create a Manual which can be put together to help those new and those dragged into this world by others. Something that will make Heads and Tails out of these Axes and Beards...

What is needed is people to take a part of the game, Embarking, Starting a Fort, Building a Wall, Building a Farm, Feeding your Dwarves, Adventure Mode. And so on and fit it together to make a manual. Use the Wiki, use the wiki and expand or just expand on your current knowledge and write it up. This needs to be done if we ever want to help those poor poor souls....

[Dutchling]

But the wiki IS the manual :S

[AutomataKittay]

I believe that there are walkthrough videos in the gameplay question for both 40d and 2010, both stickified (I didn't looked through them, myself ). Not to mention there are a few guides on wiki itself.

[shadenight123]

hmmm i think i can see it.
a pdf file with lots of pics depicting Ascii style art AND a tileset version of it, with explanations of the how to.
...
darn it i don't have the time though.

[sneakey pete]

Though i've not watched the walkthrough videos and cannot attest to their quality, that's pretty much the idea sort of manual. Short of that some sort of illustrated guide would be the next best thing, and one of those probably already exists too.

[Thatdude]

So your saying that we need an up-to-date quick-start guide and maybe even an embark to go with it? Like Captn' duck's youtube tutorial but written instead of filmed.

Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. But to say "a manual" means a bit more than that I guess. The problem is, it's not needed. In my first steps into the game I just had google up and running so I could pause the game and search up anything I didn't know. Usually when you type in "dwarf fortress [insert whatever here] it'll come up with the wiki on top and a few forum threads beneath so as long as there is a quick-start guide, a true manual is never needed.

[stabbymcstabstab]

thats only helpful if thw wikis up to date and most of the guides really arent

[metime00]

If the wiki's not up to date then we should probably fix that. A manual is too time consuming to make and plan out while being rendered obsolete after 6 months. A "manual" that showed the reader how to make a  sample fort that used links to the wiki would be easier to create, maintain, and probably be more informative.

Or maybe just update the wiki with the time and effort instead. There's already extensive documentation there that only needs to be maintained to be a definitive guide to the game, and then just link all new players to it. I think a large problem is that most people dismiss the wiki as being inferior to a manual and not a suitable replacement, when it serves the purpose perfectly. Just gotta guide the folks to it.

[AutomataKittay]

Yeah, it's going to be hard to keep manual up to date. I'm still playing .18, and all the wiki references are for .25 (Yeah, I know I should get to the new version  ). A manual would be pretty much stuck to the version of DF it refers to, such as all the 40d version guides I see online still. And there're http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Quickstart_guide, which seem to be current enough. At least having things that the version I'm on don't have!

I'm not sure why there're a need for dedicated and detailed manuals, unless you're going to stick to one version for extended time and not update. Wiki's much better source of information, as it's kept current (as much as the people part of it can do ). Forum can deal with oddity of older version, or offer work-around. Or just chitchat 

There're printable version, if you click on link that says "Printable version" below the search and in the toolbox space, if you're concerned about people avoiding wiki as 'unreliable'.

[stabbymcstabstab]

the wikis great but the manual should have blueprints to build magma cannons and pump stacks for new players that are just learning the wiki doesnt give that clear if derections on that type of stuff im still trying to figure out pumps and i been player for about two years

[AutomataKittay]

the wikis great but the manual should have blueprints to build magma cannons and pump stacks for new players that are just learning the wiki doesnt give that clear if derections on that type of stuff im still trying to figure out pumps and i been player for about two years

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Pump_stack#Pump_stack
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Stupid_dwarf_trick#Magma_Cannon

If you don't mind the magma cannon linking to a thread, it works. Magma cannon seems to be more for... Experienced players, as opposed to newcomer. The pump stack one seems to be pretty clear to me, maybe it's been updated since you last looked at it, with the gif showing how to dig and stack it up?

[stabbymcstabstab]

well i been able to repel hell about ten times so far i just cant build a magma cannon yet

[celem]

Yeah but getting an arc out of magma is like getting dwarves to go without booze...  it's pretty much the grail of DF engineering in my eyes.

[Psieye]

If they are people who would sit down and read a manual then I doubt they'd have too much trouble picking up the game. A lot of gamers don't have the patience to do their preparatory research (be it wiki, tutorial, forums or manual) and then get frustrated that this game isn't like all the other games where it's obvious what needs doing. Heck, right now the game doesn't even have a goal or a storyline to guide players, never mind thoughtful features for the utter newbie.