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[Immortal-D]

I am increasingly experiencing a lot of issues that I can't help but feel should have been caught with even the most basic of testing prior to release.  Yes bugs are to be expected, but there are gameplay design decisions that are just baffling.  Off the top of my head;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- coffins require a separate individual tomb zone or janky multi-door workaround
- backpacks for the military cause a buildup of food in the bedroom
- arrival of certain nobles ends caravans from your civ.
- the tutorial can start you in a difficult biome not suited for new players
- tutorial has incorrect information (numerous, but most glaring is the all-item stockpile. A rubbish pile destroys nearby items)
- the 'general strike' bug wherein zone interactions stop everyone from working
- lack of tool tips, especially on reworked skills (the debate still rages about the differences between Stone Cutting-Stone Carving-Masonry)
- report history is gone, both combat and announcement
- the squad interface icon which disbands looks instead like 'cancel menu' (Someone actually made a mod just to change this b/c the misconception is so prevalent)

The list goes on.  I feel a lot of these are simply a result of not having feedback about the actual gameplay portion.  My thoughts here were spurned by the announcement of Arena Mode coming in the next patch.  Yes that's neat, but not even close to a priority.  At some point in the life of Dwarf Fortress, there has to be consideration of "Does increasing the simulation come at the cost of playing without hassle"?  There are countless Dorfs here who would happily test a patch prior to release.  All of the aforementioned issues were caught by players within the first few days.  My biggest concern is that development will continue as it always has, with function taking a backseat to form.

[Ten_Tacles]

I don't think it feels excessive at all, you can spent years improving the usability of this game, simply due to the fact of how much there just is. They have to release at some point.
Though the QoL journey is far from over, all the points you make are great. I just disagree on the "excessive".

Also, tombs being only for one dwarf isn't all that awful? I can imagine them desiring their own private place of rest. Probably aren't fond of being buried in mass burial chamber, and thus would not prevent ghosts. Though perhaps something like family tombs would be a good idea, I wouldn't put that under QoL.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Funny thing is the 47.05 method of "Build a coffin, wait for it to be placed, select it, turn it to burial=yes" is basically the same amount of effort as the new "place 1x1 tomb zone, build coffin on it." Except you don't have to wait for any coffins to be built. With the added benefit of being able to build funny single room burial chambers for everyone if you really want to with the multi function.

It could be better, sure. Hopefully will be at some point. But it's closer towards a unified system that the scattered "everything works differently" system we had before.

[KtosoX]

I definitely agree on most of OP's points. I personally disbanded my squad on accident multiple times while figuring out the new UI.

From what I understand, the Steam release was a massive shift which will be followed by a change to the development cycle. The January first announcement states that: "...The multi-programmer era is about to begin."

Hopefully more frequent (maybe even experimental) builds will become a thing, so that feedback from the community can be provided sooner.

[Bumber]

I can imagine them desiring their own private place of rest.

What about all the war dogs?

[satan]

Yeah, I have encountered a lot of bugs so far.

- Rocs only give birth to male offspring
- War dragons are nearly impossible to use in battle because their fire causes FPS to drop like a rock
- War dragons sometimes have trouble claiming a nest box. They get stuck in a loop walking back and forth from a nest box to a random spot.
- Assigning trained megabeasts to a squad and sending that squad to conquer other sites will sometimes result in those megabeasts coming back because the game doesn't differentiate between tame and wild megabeasts
- Half my fort believes they are biologically related to a hydra

I don't think it feels excessive at all, you can spent years improving the usability of this game, simply due to the fact of how much there just is. They have to release at some point.
Though the QoL journey is far from over, all the points you make are great. I just disagree on the "excessive".

Also, tombs being only for one dwarf isn't all that awful? I can imagine them desiring their own private place of rest. Probably aren't fond of being buried in mass burial chamber, and thus would not prevent ghosts. Though perhaps something like family tombs would be a good idea, I wouldn't put that under QoL.

It's not awful in theory but in practice, manually assigning a tomb to every dwarf is tedious. It's like gay animals-- it sounds good in theory but in practice homosexuals ruin breeding plans.

[Jathe]

- Half my fort believes they are biologically related to a hydra

I choose to believe this is not an bug, it is a feature, and is Metal as all hell.

[jecowa]

Those are all good improvements we need. Today said in a recent interview that arena mode and QoL improvements are a priority. I think it was in the most recent Future of the Fortress that he asked people to post recommendations for QoL improvements in the suggestion board. He’ll try to sort them by how annoying he thinks the issues are for players and prioritize them that way.

[Panando]

There are so many very old bugs, some are teenagers now.

Like an injured dwarf who refuses to seek medical care, I think that one happens when they get injured but a hospital isn't available.

Or a dead heirless Baron killing progression of your fortress.

Or the sheer pain of fighting flying creatures. All it would take is for dwarves to attempt to path to the tile below (through open space only) a flying animal and then attempt to shoot it to make the pain 90% less, the solution could even be smarter like starting to shoot once they come within range but even the dumbest possible solution would be much better. I mean come on really, I remember getting super annoyed by birds back in 2010 and it's still just as much an issue.

My main issues with Premium specifically, are the lack of hyperlinks (like if a visitor petitions to join), the lack of sorting such as moving the last used construction material to the top of the list, and moving ghosts to the top of the list when engraving slabs, and the mess that is digging/building up/down stairs in the upwards direction.

[Thisfox]

the lack of sorting such as moving the last used construction material to the top of the list,

I take it that means that the most nearby building material is no longer the one at the top of the list? I mean, for major constructions I often used to put a stockpile of the type of rock/brick/block that I want to build out of as close to my construction as possible, to make it easier to find the construction material of choice in the list, pity if that's no longer the case.

[Salmeuk]

with great irony, I had prepared myself for a switch in priority from features to bug fixing. . . because this is now a product exchanged for money, and the sheer volume of new players might expect a more thorough series of patches post release.

two months on and I'm playing more and more 47.05 because it simply flows better. the premium version just kinda hurts to play (literally, the forced mouse interactions are killing me... ) The new game content is honestly great but not worth the switch in UI atm.

But it's closer towards a unified system that the scattered "everything works differently" system we had before.

I dunno, I don't really buy this. sure, its different... but as far as I can tell the same design choices that led to severe UI issues in 47.05 and previous still exist. basically, there is a distinct lack of regularity in the design flow of the UI with different menus having different properties of interaction. sometimes, you can right click to close.. other times that doesn't work. sometimes you click the red 'x' to close the menu. other times, you click the red 'x' to disband your entire squad. this is the same philosophy of design that made the OG hotkey ui somewhat confusing. but at least there, you could trust that it was hotkeys all the way down. now you're ducking and dodging a whole smorgasbord of interactions . pain

the UI is not made for speed, like the mouse is 'faster sometimes, slower most of the time', which is fine I accept that new players need a certain introduction... but there remain blocks to quick designation which makes constructing large mega-fortresses significantly more annoying than in previous versions.

also, ASCII is simply the superior display method (not at all an opinion  ) and it's implementation was severely muddled and that has yet to be properly implemented despite the fairly quick release of 'classic' mode. sure, it looks like ASCII, but what about all the beautiful non-standard .png tilesets that no longer function? putting the very thing that landed the game in the museum of modern art on the dev backburner seems silly

see u in a year maybe ?

[Shonai_Dweller]

Every major release is followed by a long series of bug fixes. This isn't new.

[Panando]

the lack of sorting such as moving the last used construction material to the top of the list,

I take it that means that the most nearby building material is no longer the one at the top of the list? I mean, for major constructions I often used to put a stockpile of the type of rock/brick/block that I want to build out of as close to my construction as possible, to make it easier to find the construction material of choice in the list, pity if that's no longer the case.

This is based on automaterial DFHack function. It is absolutely lifechanging. When the last used material is at the top of the list, it just means the nearest material is in the 2nd place, not a very big deal to have to pick the 2nd place instead of 1st place if you really want the closest. But it's an absolutely huge deal if you want to make say, willow block walls to not have to go to place #16 in the woodblocks list to find willow blocks (since stockpiles don't distinguish between kinds of wood block).

[Mohreb el Yasim]

People talking about UI and dwarf fortress in a thread, what a time to be alive.
Just for my two cents on the "players should have beta tested this before releasing" part.
We do beta test, since almost 20 years now.
And dwarf fortress is probably at halfway finished.
So I don't know what was expected, but I prefer unpolished but evolving, instead a "final polish", then left for dead.

[Thorfinn]

Every major release is followed by a long series of bug fixes. This isn't new.

Sort of. On Steam, it isn't common to have major bugs lasting one revolution around the sun. Which is why I thought a Steam release might be a good thing. Turns out...