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[Ai Shizuka]

That's not an opinion. That's an objectively terrible fort. Seriously, I watched another video and he builds his depot behind a hallway full of traps. In a tutorial video. For new players.
What about telling new players that wagons can't walk over traps?
I don't teach other people anything, unless I have a rock-solid, flawless knowledge about the basics. This guy actually could use a good tutorial himself.

Those videos display an absolutely inefficient and accident-prone fort.
Sure, it works. It can survive.
As his population grows, it will inevitably become a chaotic mess. Something will go unnoticed and troubles will arise.
Wich doesn't necessarily mean losing the fort. But a new player will find himself wasting more time on fixing problems than actually playing the game. Wasting 15 minutes to find why a workshop has not been build in a year is not fun. Failing to find your shit around the fort because you have no clue about proper stockpiles is not fun.

I repeat. I have absolutely nothing against the guy, or his personal way to play.
But, by the views on his videos, he seems to be pretty popular. People will watch the video, play their first game in the same horrible way and fail miserably. By 'fail' I mean 'not having the slightest hint of fun while playing DF'. Because creating shit is fun. Fixing broken shit, while pretending it's an incredibly hard game (it isn't) is not fun.

There's a million threads on various forums and blogs around the web about the oh so incredible difficulty of this game.
The interface surely is something different and seems pretty impenetrable at first. But this game isn't 'hard' by any stretch of the imagination, unless one purposely puts himself in very harsh conditions.
The sole result of mediocre videos like these (I reiterate: NEW PLAYERS TUTORIALS) is contributing to the false reputation of this game of being too harsh and unforgiving.
I wouldn't have the slightest problem if he labeled his series as a simple 'let's play DF', with no purpose other than displaying random gameplay.


On the other hand, Capt. Duck makes excellent tutorials. He has a very deep knowledge about the game and knows how to explain things.

[Untelligent]

Those videos display an absolutely inefficient and accident-prone fort.

That's not relevant. Teaching people how to play DF has nothing to do with teaching them to make their forts efficient or avoid accidents. The depot hallway full of traps is a legit complaint, though.


The most important thing to teach -- perhaps the only important thing to teach -- is the interface. Showing people how to use the military interface and create hospitals. Showing people how to set up nobles, and use the menus -- if you have a high-precision bookkeeper, it doesn't matter where you put your stockpiles, because if you forget, you can find your items from the stocks screen. If you've learned the interface, then "failing to find your shit because you have no clue about proper stockpiles" is not a problem. There's no such thing as "proper stockpiles".


If he's not teaching people the interface very well, then I agree that it's a lousy video, but you're hating it for the wrong reasons.

[Mishrak]

It was Cpt Duck, the wiki and the forum for me.  All of Snarling Urn, all of Glaciersacks and I was ready to go.  I still know very little about things like military and the like, but I know enough to be dangerous to dwarves goblins and elves alike.

I took really accurate notes about his start-up process and basically copied them verbatim for the next 4 or 5 forts till I learned what I wanted to do on my own.

[JonBrant]

What about telling new players that wagons can't walk over traps?

Not true, I've always built my depot past my traps, never had a problem

[deepfreeze78]

What about telling new players that wagons can't walk over traps?

Not true, I've always built my depot past my traps, never had a problem

Wagons can't go over traps. You're not getting the wagons. You might be getting the traders, but no wagons. The Depot may be "accessible" but wagons can't get to it. Watch when the Dwarves/Humans come. They won't bring a wagon to the Depot.

Also, the way I learned how to play DF was through Quill18. He doesn't have many LPs, and he definitely isn't the best at the game, but he is pretty good at teaching the basics.

[Urist McVoyager]

I used a written tutorial on a random blog site as a starting point, but outside of setting up my embark and starting basic industries, I didn't overly rely on it. I played by ear once I had the interface down.

And no, I don't think the Interface is the only thing you need to learn. You can pick up the rest from the Wiki, but a well done tutorial can lay out a proper starting fort that doesn't have issues outside of Dwarven insanity.

[Ai Shizuka]

What about telling new players that wagons can't walk over traps?

Not true, I've always built my depot past my traps, never had a problem

Only the pack animals made it to your depot. They can walk on traps.
Wagons can't, so you missed them entirely.

Usually it's not a big deal, unless you have some kind of severe shortage of some important resource (wood comes to mind).
Often I find myself ignoring caravans completely because I don't need them.
But it's a pretty important bit of information for new players.


Untelligent: I don't think I should bother answering, as you appear to be arguing for the sake of it.
Let's put aside the design choices. Maybe there aren't 'proper stockpiles', but there surely are terrible stockpiles. Or do you advocate finished good stockpiles without bins and food stockpiles without barrels? Because that's what he's doing. Have fun with your gems/crafts occupying a single tile each. After you dumped a million stones for no reason at all, obviously.
But apparently this is a matter of personal opinions, as a few other issues.

But the unquestionably wrong pieces of information are not a matter of personal opinions.
He got something wrong (as in 'factually wrong') about:
- biomes
- surroundings
- undumped rocks making holes in his stockpile
- farms
- bridge to cross streams
- traps and wagons
- random workshops for mood (dyer shop, seriously?)

All of this in tutorial videos.
While I'm not going to lose my sleep over it (and obviously I'm not 'hating' anything), I will surely point how it's an absolutely unreliable resource for new players learning the game, if I see it mentioned as a good tutorial.
Not sure why anyone would defend it as a good source of informations. Maybe he's your friend, I don't know. And honestly don't care.