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[Smeagol]

well - i really want to love DF.
i can live with ASCII-grafics.

i cannot, however, live with a horrible user interface.

unintuitive - unconsistent - almost no mouse support.

it isn't that difficult to redo the UI i would imagine - especially compared by the amount of work which is done to other parts of the game.

well - i think this is very sad and i will come back in a year to see if this got better.

[Nyan Thousand]

Hi, welcome to the forums. We're glad you enjoy Dwarf Fortress! Your gameplay data is very important for the completion of our goals la li lu le lo

That said, we have some rules around here. Before making a suggestion, use the search function and see if it hasn't been suggested yet. This topic in particular has been suggested countless times (for obvious reasons; everybody agrees that the UI could use some work). Which leads to the second part of this post: why it isn't going to happen.

Long story short, Toady's not in the mood to code the UI. He'll get around to it, sure, but eventually. Right now he's focusing on the actual gameplay. Don't come back in a year. Try a decade. Maybe then Toady would be done tweaking the gameplay and he'll finally get started on the interface.

And remember: TURN OFF THE CONSOLE SMEAGOL la li lu le losing is fun

[Smeagol]

Thank you for the information !

[JanusTwoface]

If you want to see what could be (and a few arguments about why it hasn't happened yet), check out this thread: Total Interface Overhaul (now with sparkles)

Other than that, you should probably lock this thread if you could. There's a button in the bottom right (I think).

[weenog]

Threads like this make me feel privileged to have grown up in a time when computer games were keyboard-only.  It must suck to be unable to function without a mouse.

[CaptainLambcake]

(flaming removed)

[Vlad]

I don't understand how the ui makes this game unplayable for some people lol. I can play the game just fine with only a few annoyances related to the ui, but dwarf therapist helps a lot with those. I guess I've just gotten used to the interface. And I've never even thought once to myself ''I wish this game had more mouse support!'' because i find that I can do things a lot faster with just the keyboard.

[King Mir]

Nothing is planned for the upcoming year, so nothing will happen. If you're waiting for the UI to improve significantly, you'll be waiting a long time.

I can totally understand giving up on DF because the UI is bad. But that means you'll probably never get to play the game at all. You have to tolerate the UI or you never get to experience Dwarf Fortress. Now I don't know how much you played the game before you gave up on it. Was it long enough to get a feel for the gameplay? Wanting to love DF is a nice sentiment, but looking good on paper does not mean the game is any good. So not getting passed the UI means you don't know if the game is worth loving.

For me, the gameplay is great, and draws me in, despite the UI. As a developer myself, I would not recommend anyone developing a game ignore the UI as much as Toady does, but he's obviously doing something right, because the game draws me in.

[Scoops Novel]

I suggest investigating Clockwork Empires. Think Steampunk Colony's with much closer then otherwise Dwarf Fortress levels of simulation, with nice graphics and a playable UI, and hilarity, from developers with a fan-base and a successful funny roguelike to their name. It's a dream come true. There's also Maia for SPACE colonization.

[PDF urist master]

no mouse support sucks, but it doesn't kill the game either.

if you played the game for a reasonable amount of time (few months) you'll be so used to the controls that changing it feels foreign

[Smeagol]

>make me feel privileged to have grown up in a time when computer games were keyboard-only

I had my first computer some 30 years ago - a VC 20 - i have played hundreds of games since - many without a mouse.
and i have spent much time with roguelike games, too.
there are many things in DF which cry for mouse-support - and a combination of keyboard and mouse would be progressing the playing a lot.


>I don't understand how the ui makes this game unplayable for some people

well, most menus differ by style, scheme, hotkeys, intuition and such. that's what i meant by 'consitency'.
i have a hard time to get anything done because i have to do a lot of thinking about how to do things in a given sutuation/setting.
when i get back to the game after a year i have to learn everything from scratch.


>you poor creature!  ask for a refund, you clearly deserve it.  how dare thins asshole, who makes this game for free to make us happy, not cater to your demand for a "better interface."

yikes - i do not demand anything. - i am glad that there is such a game like this at all. i just think that with some changes at the right spot it would be SO much better - freeing my head from climbing the mountain of how to beat the interface - and letting me concentrate on actually playing the game.


>I don't know how much you played the game before you gave up on it. Was it long enough to get a feel for the gameplay?

oh yes.


>Clockwork Empires, Maia

I will have a look at these - thank you.


>Dwarf Therapist

i think i tried that some years ago and couldn't get it to run - i'll try again



i think i will take another effort on DF very soon. it is just too interesting.
thank (most of) you for your answers.
---

[King Mir]

There are some community tools you can use. Dwarf Therapist is a must. It's been improved too. DFhack has also recently been expanded to enable UI improvements. There are some plugins that try to do this. There was an awk based Mouse Fortress, providing some mouse support, that reportedly works on windows. You can look in the Modding forum for all of these.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I don't understand how the ui makes this game unplayable for some people lol. I can play the game just fine with only a few annoyances related to the ui, but dwarf therapist helps a lot with those. I guess I've just gotten used to the interface. And I've never even thought once to myself ''I wish this game had more mouse support!'' because i find that I can do things a lot faster with just the keyboard.

Same here. I don't even understand why people demand Dwarf Therapist and such.

And if you don't like the current UI, come back when Toady's done with the game's guts and is putting on the figurative paint. The problem with overhauling the UI now is that it would have to be modified each time the relevant main code is done with.

[Scoops Novel]

Same here. I don't even understand why people demand Dwarf Therapist and such.

And if you don't like the current UI, come back when Toady's done with the game's guts and is putting on the figurative paint. The problem with overhauling the UI now is that it would have to be modified each time the relevant main code is done with.

Oh, you will one day. Yes.

[King Mir]

And if you don't like the current UI, come back when Toady's done with the game's guts and is putting on the figurative paint. The problem with overhauling the UI now is that it would have to be modified each time the relevant main code is done with.

There's always more features to add. Yes, if Toady spent more time developing the UI, he would also spend more time gutting the UI, but he does that with other features all the time. The UI is also the part of the project that most broadly impacts the pleasure of playing the game. It's understandable that Toady does not want to improve the the graphics, but there's a lot that he could and should do to make it easier and more fun to play the game.