Print

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

[Sappho]

I've started a new series on my YouTube channel consisting of short tutorials on specific aspects of the game. I did this once before with the Minecraft modpack Sevtech: Ages and it was pretty well-received, and I think DF could really use something like this for newbies who prefer to watch a video rather than read a tutorial. I'll be adding new ones as often as I can manage, probably around once a week at least. My hope is that I'll do my part to help newcomers better understand the intimidating interface and mechanics by breaking it into small chunks. All videos are done on a vanilla copy of DF with no plugins or launchers.

Check out the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVn_gKZIx41Un39T7zgR7NZbN5-Ct7_HQ

I've also started doing the occasional "teaching stream" where I play the game very slowly and describe in detail everything I'm doing, also taking questions from the audience. I'll try to remember to post here when I am going live, but the most sure-fire way is to subscribe to my channel and/or join my Discord server (link to that in the descriptions of each of my videos). Previous streams are also always added to my "stream archives" playlist.

I know how scary DF can be when you first start. Never fear, new players! We'll break it down for you. And it's absolutely worth the learning curve.

Current Mini-Tuts:
How to Disable Aquifers
Generating a World
Reading the Embark Screen
Getting Your Bearings

[Bradders]

I remember a number of distinct stages to my DF learning, but the worst and most intractable set of interfaces is the Military panels.  You can get by only so long with a single squad, but past that it gets hairy quick; setting up training areas, proper equipment loadouts and matching preferences and skills, getting them to actually equip things, cursing at bolts in bins (or just bolts in general), and then the monumental task that is understanding the Scheduling system.  A great 3rd tut would be how to properly set up and defend your front door, a 4th would be setting up training and going over equipment, and maybe just leave the whole scheduling system alone lol.

[Sappho]

Heh, well, military is probably a ways down the line, to be honest. The people who asked me to start this series in the first place are absolute beginners, so I need to take them through how to read the embark screen, how to find a good embark, how to navigate and use the various look commands, how to designate your first trees/plants/digging, how to create and place furniture, etc. I certainly would like to get to military stuff eventually but I think that would be a big scary jump from "this is how you make a world" to "this is how you create custom uniforms and training schedules for your military". It's on the list for sure though! The long, long list.... 

[Iduno]

"And this is how you make a perpetual motion minecart that makes deliveries of magma every 30 seconds. I don't remember why."

[Zeeneri]

Maybe go through finding a site? how to use the search tools, what all the different screens when you tab through mean and how to read it. What towers are and the risks they pose, goblins, etc.

Btw I stumbled across your videos independently already. They were really good! I can't imagine how useful they'd of been when I was starting out, as well as if there were a plethora of them.

A lot of my issues on DF tutorials stem from how long and ambling they are. Your concise and edited approach is really easy to digest without cutting any important information out.

[Sappho]

Thanks! The first time I did these "mini-tuts" it was for the Minecraft modpack Sevtech. I had been looking for specific information but the only tutorial videos I could find were really long and it was a nightmare trying to find the answer to the specific question I had. I thought some shorter, targeted mini-tutorials would be useful to people, and it seems I was right!

Been a bit held up with the next video - planning a new roleplaying campaign with some friends starting tomorrow and like a fool I decided to create and entirely original setting for it. But there will be more within the next few days. My hope is that eventually I'll build up a nice long list with lots and lots of short tutorials and players can just refer to the ones they need. I have written the script for the next one, which is about reading the information on the embark screen and finding a site. I'm afraid it'll be longer than I like them to be, just because there's so much information! And I haven't even included identifying the different map tiles (that will have to be its own video). Still need to record the audio and edit the video, though, which always takes far longer than you'd imagine it should. 

[xZippy]

I don't know if I can follow a girl's tutorials. Girls have germs, and I don't think I want those kind of germs worming their way into my PC - which is totally a thing that can happen.

[Fleeting Frames]

It's too late. The germs are already in your computer. Look for the dwarves without beards.

[Sappho]

Look for the dwarves without beards.

HERESY!

[xZippy]

I understand these tutorials are meant to be "mini", but I think your second/next video should cover how to be careful when choosing an embark location (temperature, aquifier, needed metals, pink/goblin areas, etc.)

[Sappho]

The script is already written, just need to find the time to record and edit. It includes most of those things and yeah, it's longer than I prefer the mini-tuts to be, but I couldn't find a way to easily break it up into any smaller pieces than that.

[Sarmatian123]

You gotta start with tutorial how to make saves. It is so simple, still even many old DF players do not know how to do that.

Also, when the DF gets released with graphic upgrade on steam, you got to redo whole series.

[Sappho]

What do you mean by "how to make saves?"

The first tutorial is how to manually disable aquifers, and the second is how to generate a world. The next will be how to read and use the embark screen. After that will probably be one just on how to look around the map. Then one on designating, then one on stockpiles... and then we'll go from there.

[anewaname]

In many games, there are "save points" where autosaves are made and players can reload to change their choices and the consequences. It becomes something players expect from games.

In the d_init.txt file, there choices for the AUTOSAVE settings. The default AUTOSAVE setting for vanilla DF is NONE, which means the game only saves to disk when a player uses the menu to "Save", which also closes the game screen. It can be upsetting to a player to have lost their fort to a werebeast outbreak after they just learned to manage food and booze production and still do not understand how to fight back. So, they attempt to load a save and find there is none, or maybe there is one from 6 real-life hours ago. Some of the packs and mods may change these settings, and the Steam version may also. But this need for learning to save the game is what Sarmatian123 is referring to.

At the same time, accepting the consequences of your choices, even if those choices were made in ignorance, is a very dwarfy thing.

[Sappho]

Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, that's a good idea for something to add to the list. I definitely set to audosave seasonally (and backup), and that's not something a new player would know about. Actually, the entire init and d_init files should be covered, but hoo boy, that's not a small thing! Maybe I should break them into small pieces instead of trying to tackle the whole files all at once.

Apologies for the delay on the next episode. There's a hideous heat wave here in central Europe and we don't have air conditioning here, and I've been sick from the heat. It's currently 29C/84.2F in my apartment in the middle of the night... and it was far hotter during the day. We were supposed to get thunderstorms today to cool everything off but I watched on the weather forecast satellite map as the thunderstorms literally diverted *around my city* in real time.  Anyway, it's supposed to cool off tomorrow, so as long as the meteorologists have finally got it right, I should finally be able to make the next episode!