Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Majestic7]

A friend - veteran of Rimworld - is interested in dipping toes into DF. Unfortunately ASCII and the like are a serious turn-off. What are the best tilesets and/or UI mods to smooth the learning curve for total newbies? I'm completely out of touch there. Any other suggestions?

[Robsoie]

There's always the Dwarf-Therapist tool that helps a bit when it comes to manage dwarves jobs when there are a very lot of them in your fortress.
But for the UI itself all i can think about is mousequery, a plugin for DFHack that improve a lot DF weak mouse support.

[feelotraveller]

You might want to try this: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076.0 assuming it is a windows rig.  Besides anything else it makes changing graphics/tilesets easy (between those it installs) - Meph, Obsidian or Phoebus might be to your mate's taste.

[Fleeting Frames]

I used more tooltips as newbie.

Newbies may prefer more "graphical" tilesets - worth mentioning is Gemset for 24x24, as something in-between the more popular 16x16 and newer 32x32. (If they're on small laptop, they might prefer something even smaller.) For ASCII-like graphical sets, there's CLA. Ultimately, a good legend would be helpful either way.

I imagine utilizing dfhack alongside with autolabor or labormanager could be helpful by not having to learn about that part of the game right off the bat.

[scourge728]

Tell him to stop being a coward and jump in with the ascii

[Sver]

Ascii can be heavy on the eyes. Also, the guy is clearly not a fan of ascii, so there's no need to be cheeky.

For a Rimworld player, I'd recommend the Meph's launcher + tileset. LNP, despite it's name, can be very confusing with it's pile of utilities, most of which are never used even by long time dorfers. Meph's is a bit more modular and descriptive.

[Starver]

ASCII(/CodePage 437-inspired graphics) is basically mnemonic for most of the basic (and some accented) letters and nodding-towards symbolic for most of the rest. Some frighteningly so, like the Æ (in the codepage font) looks very coffer-like and levers are visibly òff or ón. What better symbol for a lobster than ¥?
And I think a ╤ Table and a ╥ chair (ok, maybe more a stool?) are the right way round, given their respective top-surface heights.

If you choose a 'graphical' graphics pack, you still have to learn to recognise the group of pixels. They might be slightly better in symbolic terms, but creature-art is limited to resolution, for a start. While geese and goblins might indeed be confusing, depending upon the colour of the g used for that individual's purpose or age, different artists use different methods for differentiating the various quadrupeds, bipeds or indeed pinnipeds. And then you might call foul over their depictions of fowl, or might not, depending on source and what respective utility you might put chickens and turkeys to, etc.

Maybe it doesn't matter, as you're probably going to interrogate every unknown item you come across in your games, and will be confused or at least unsure about every screenshot published that does not use a familiar variation. Though nature isn't so hard to understand that you need to choose one of a pantheon of false gods to worship. Religion often makes people feel better about the world, but don't find yourself trapped in a faith that others chose for you. Look around for which one best augments your understanding of the world once you have a firm understanding of the basics.

(I'd go for something syncretic, personally, if I felt the need. One of the augmented-437s that round out the vanilla with some added visual flair. Though I've seen some that go all the way to turning it into 8-bit-video-console-alike, which is marvellous if you like that kind of thing.)

[George_Chickens]

I don't recommend Meph's tileset. Most of the assets are taken from other sources and deeply clash with one another. Plus, I don't get the impression that Meph is willing to keep things constantly updated.

Keep in mind that tilesets can be confusing in their own right, with certain things, like punctuation and the symbols indicating sexes, being transformed into images. You may still need to guide him through. I don't recommend Text Will Be Text to solve this as it apparently it makes the game much crashier. Other than a tileset, get him to install Dwarf Therapist.

If he doesn't want to do all of this himself, he could use the Lazy Noob Pack or other starter packs, but I do not recommend that at all for total newbies, as if he never learns how to install them himself, he will be reliant on when they are updated and won't be able to just jump in and play the game whenever he wants.

[Fleeting Frames]

I imagine it'd be easier to learn the parts LNP helps (following the assumption LNP helps) with once there is need to go without rather than learning the hard way all at once in the beginning, though. If they would rather wait than play DF, then they would never have started playing DF without LNP in the first place due having even less investment, understanding and interest at the start.

[funkydwarf]

Absolutely. My friends that resist DF because this idea that its like programming or some other quantum physics thing.
 They see the ascii and their brain turns off. They decide they cant , and then surprise, they cant.  Mephs pack is very complete and EASY to tell what is what. I cant wait to see my long distance friends and offer up Mephs work. They could give a crap that it "clashes". They are not design students, they are gamers that like graphics.  Who cares if he keeps dumping hours of work in the future and updates it, this version is great, and I appreciate the work salvaging some of those old great tiles.

Alternatively , the PeridexisErrant's DF Starter Pack is great if you wanna shop the tilesets around.  And as far as "dependence" on a pack. Its open source at the core(the lnp framework), some version will always exist. and if the very amazing PeridexisErrant ever retires his giving, someone will make a not as nice one. Give a fish or teach to fish, this aint! Just help your friend play the game.

If someone knows how to play rimworld then they will get DF real fast. The UI SHOWS the keyboard letter to push for each option. ok they are random seeming but not THAT bad. For real, the newer versions of DF are way better in that random respect anyhow, there's just tons more stuff.

I contend that the "DF is hard myth" first was a side-effect of creating a genre, but thats over, so it now is propagated to make "ingroup" special and further distinguise from "outgroup".

[Cathar]

Tell your friend to read the quickstart guide on the wiki, before he even starts the game.  Have him read it through. Then when he has done that, disable invaders on his first game and tell him to keep the wiki open.

Everything he needs from there, he'll learn by himself. DF is only hard when you're thrown into the game with no idea on what the game is about.

Tilesets wont help him much, that I'm sure. They are aesthetics.

Besides what kind of dwarf dips his toes in the water? Guilt trip him into divebombing like any friend would do

[Jack-22]

My recommendation for adventure mode is:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=172544.0
It's my own, from player to player.

[Iduno]

What stuff can you add to make it simpler?

Graphics pack only. Maybe a link to a Video LP/tutorial.

[Bumber]

What stuff can you add to make it simpler?

Graphics pack only. Maybe a link to a Video LP/tutorial.

What about Modest Mod? http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=148265.0

There's a module that combines leather types, etc. (Unfortunately, it says it's bugged right now.) There's also one for adding tooltips to workshop reactions.