Questions that needed to be asked:
Stretch goals?
And
why is it important to keep these packages as close to vanilla as possible?
Who
is the target audience of this "Cross-Platform Edition", anyway?
As I see it, you need a
well-defined goal. Right now, it seems blurry. I don't think it works very well to have a jack-of-all-trades interface / package for everyone, regardless of their DF experience or what they're looking for in a pack.
From what I can tell, the Lazy Newb Pack started out as an easy-to-install and use package
primarily aimed towards
newbies. In particular, some of the video tutorials on YouTube suggested installing the LNP and using their custom embark settings as a simple and straightforward way for newbies to play along.
Though, there
were plenty of
others who appreciated it, such as who found installing the most commonly used utilities and modding their INIT settings, keyboard layout, etc, rather tedious and/or complicated. It was a "lazy" way of doing things (if you can forgive the term).
However, since LucasUP released the source (which is a good thing) and stopped updating his pack, the torch has been passed on to others. Thing is, the Expanded LNP / MacNewbie Pack / Lazy Newb Pack are
not exactly geared towards newbies anymore. This,
despite the continuation of the old naming system, which just confuses newbies.
IMO: The decision to keep the LNP name was a mistake. Though,
to be fair, right now there really isn't anything geared almost exclusively towards newbies. (This might change in the future, though.)
Case in point:
Proposal: we call this the "Dwarf Fortress Launcher" (or something), because LNP just sounds condescending and doesn't really fit anymore.
Also, if you look at PeridexisErrant's
Expanded LNP thread you'll see that the thread title describes it as quote, "everything in one place". This evokes the image of a pack aiming to include 'everything but the kitchen sink'. (No offense intended, PeridexisErrant.)
Let's compare them.
LucasUP's original LNP contained:
BASE: LNP GUI + latest vanilla DF
GRAPHICS: 2 graphic tilesets included (Phoebus & Ironhand) with the ability to easily switch between them. (It is assumed that newbies will tend find that using a tileset will make it easier to get into the game vs. ASCII graphics.)
EXTRAS: LazyNewb Keybinds, Custom Embark Profiles, Custom World Gen, Large Address Aware patcher
UTILITIES: Either 3 or 7, depending on whether you download the regular or "Advanced" versions.
* Regular includes Dwarf Therapist, Soundsense, and DFInit (INIT text editor).
* Advanced includes all the above, plus DFHack, Stonsense, Quickfort, and Chromafort.
Simple, right? No fuss, no muss. It contained
only the essentials that are recommended for every newbie and which most players would feel comfortable with (and would sorely miss if they had to do without). It was compact, too. The last regular version was a bit over 21 MB and the Advanced was 35.6 MB.
PeridexisErrant's Expanded LNP contains:
BASE: Cross-Platform LNP GUI + Lazy Newb Pack GUI + latest vanilla DF (with binpatch for bugfixes)
GRAPHICS: 7 graphics sets, including Phoebus, Ironhand, Mayday, Obsidian, Spacefox's dwarf sprites w/Phoebus tileset, 2 tilesets based on ASCII, and vanilla ASCII.
EXTRAS: Keybindings,
lots of embark profiles, a legends export processing suite, Vherid's colour schemes, Cheatsheets, Quickfort community plans
archive, Large Address Aware, and a .bat file for updating
UTILITIES: 12, including some rather obscure stuff that not all players would find useful.
The result is over 86 MB! I'm think newbies would tend get lost trying to figure out what to do with this package. Two different GUI's?
Seven graphics sets? Color schemes? Twelve utilities? Fortress Overseer may be awesome, but it's almost 17 MB and I'd be very surprised if many people use it regularly. And Dfterm3? How many find the need to play DF remotely over the internet?
Granted, it is awesome of PeridexisErrant to maintain a pack like this and update it with stuff to make the game more enjoyable and easier to install and use. I merely want to point out that it is not as well-suited to newbies as LucasUP's old pack.
I'm saying that it would
work better to have packs geared towards different audiences. And including everything but the kitchen sink is not always the best method. Most experienced Dwarf Fortress players have their own preferences for utilities which they tend to use often and those which they either don't want to use or never bothered to learn.
At least LucasUP's old LNP gave the option of downloading either a small, basic pack or an "Advanced" version with a bit more stuff. And newbies do
not really need to learn a bunch of utilities and tools. The game itself is hugely intimidating! Learning Dwarf Fortress can be enough of a challenge without such distractions. That said, certain utilities can make the game easier to understand and manage, making it less daunting.
Author
Topic: *beta* Lazy Newb Pack Launcher - Cross Platform [0.34.11] v0.5.2 (Read 70740 times)