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[moki]

Some people just don't get the game... live with it.

My advice: Get them to read Boarmurdered. If they're too impatient for reading a long-ish story, they're too impatient for DF. And if they don't want to try the game after reading the whole thing, nothing will help.

[endoric]

The lazy newb pack made this game playable for me.  I can NOT deal with the ASCII and I NEED dwarf therapist despite what everyone says.

Now I cannot stop playing this game.

See I can deal with crappy graphics but honestly I need some graphics, and an E does not help me see and elephant a g does not help me see a goblin and if I have to enable or turn off skills for multiple dwarfs there is no way I can fish through the key lard interface to deal with 100 dwarfs.

This game is sick.  I love it.

[Garn]

if they won't play because they think fortress mode is too complicated, it might be easier to get them into adventure mode first, and then fortress mode
show them how you can do shit like slice someone's lower body open, tear out their guts, and proceed to wrestle them to death with them, stealth in a bandit camp at night so you can watch the bogeyman rape them, then take credit for the kills, and get punched in the face by a bronze colossus only for your head to be propelled 30 spaces backwards and explode in gore, or become hostile to your own civ, then show them a bunker with a caged dragon in it in fortress mode, you throwing goblin sieges into a pit filled with honey badgers, you opening the circus tent then closing a "door" surrounding it, then pulling a lever that unleashes an undead giant sponge to slaughter clowns forever, how you can force a vampire in disguise to be your bookkeeper for all eternity, flood the outside of your fortress with magma to fend off all sieges, and dispose of titans by encasing them in a cooling lava trap.

[Psieye]

"The devil is in the details". It sounds like your friends cannot escape the shackles of high-end graphics that stunt their imagination. DF is only fun for people who succeed in adapting to, and then conquering, the demons of aggregate minutiae.

So then, what it takes to free your friends from their shackles is to feed their imaginations. Don't throw whole textbooks of DF history at them. Quote some highlights of DF spectaculars, be it from classics, the "what's going on in your fort?" thread, the community stories sub-forum or your own play experience.

Oh and try to do the persuasion attempt in one long session instead of spread out over many. Do it when there aren't any distractions, including other teammates: try to have 1-on-1 sessions and tailor the stories to fit each target. Yes it's a lot of hard work and preparation: persuasion (or outright 'evangelism' as it might be here) can be a costly project to undertake. It's for you to weigh the costs with how much you want the outcome.

[Urist McLaptop]

I am heavily into age of empires, majesty, and Sim city so I am getting DF today

[blaize9]

Wow thanks for all the great suggestions and the heresy image. But sadly I have tried everything now i must give them this comic and a few more.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

750x2880 image

[Urist McLaptop]

LOL

[usgreth]

Damn, Ninjaed. Pointing them to Boatmurdered is totally the way to go. A couple people I've linked it to didn't have the patience for it but yeah if you don't have the patience for that, you are not going to like the game. I've managed to get 3 friends to play DF through boatmurdered and general insane babblings about engravings of trolls choking kittens to death with socks. Some people are just not going to be converted, DF is not for everyone, it takes a lot of effort to work out how to play (even for veterans of unintuitive roguelikes/strategy games). I still try to chip away at my friends who play minecraft though, a few of them do have the brains for DF if they tried it..

[Urist McLaptop]

What is the most....!!FUN!!.....way to start a fort?

[Nopkar]

I regailed my friends with the story of Tholtig Cryptbrain and other personal stories of combat sequences and fortress experiences that I paraphrase into stories...


The first session they played hooked them...

The interface is a hairy, nasty inhuman freak of a monster...that I can't help but love like a dear friend after all of these years. No AAA title interface gives me the same pleasure as this one and all of my friends that I've converted agree. ( the youngest having only started a week ago)

[Scruffy]

The interface is a hairy, nasty inhuman freak of a monster...that I can't help but love like a dear friend after all of these years. No AAA title interface gives me the same pleasure as this one and all of my friends that I've converted agree. ( the youngest having only started a week ago)

I agree entirely.
I don't understand why so many people complain about it. Everything is only 2-4 keypresses away and once you learn them building everything will become faster and easier than any mouse interface could ever hope. It is like RTS game shortcuts except that direct one button shortcuts wouldn't work with DF. It is more like old roguelikes and I love it!

[Nopkar]

Exactly! I can't see this interface being any differen honestly. And really that was the largest hurdle for my converts...once they get the feel for it it's really an enjoyable system.


I suggest writing a cheat sheet for newcomers and this is how I've explained it to my friends:

q: check out a building/stockpile

v: check out creature/dwarf

k: look at something

d: dig etc etc

b: build something

b-w: build workshops.

z: what you have

This little list has helped them kick start into playing and they're learning all of the other shortcuts pretty quickly really...but hey, for some people it's not their cup of tea no matter how much you try and explain it

[sackhead]

go on and on about how its too complicated for them , how they are not smart enough to play. with luck they will get so annoyed they will try and play to prove you wrong.

[weenog]

What is the most....!!FUN!!.....way to start a fort?

Embark on a volcano and dig into the side, through the obsidian. 

[mal7690]

What is the most....!!FUN!!.....way to start a fort?

Embark on a volcano and dig into the side, through the obsidian.

Also known as the skip the wind up bits and go straight to the boatmurdered-esque landscape.