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[malvado]

Well, Dwarf fortress continues to evolve on several important areas, one of those are multi core use thanks to more developers helping out (unless it has changed), and things are changing on the Gui that makes it easier to handle even for my kids who has never been able to play the old DF variants even though I used simplified GUIS made by the community. The complexity and richness of the game is now so huge that it's definitely enjoyable just to open it to read about whats happening in your world that you generated a while ago.

And yes I bought it at Steam at full price and I say it's worth every NOK I spent.

[Grammus]

It's hard to go back to 47.x between Putnam's extremely noticeable optimizations to the game and the change to how mods work (no more messing around with merging files every patch anymore). At the same time, I find myself losing interest more easily now that my big projects and even workshop orders take so much longer to actually set up - I don't think any operation that requires a mouse will ever be as fast as kay-mash sequences burned into muscle memory.
I wasn't thrilled to have to learn the new UI/keymap but I figured them out sooner or later - it's really that slowness that's been bothering me.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Been playing on and off for almost 15 years now. I'd say almost everything is an improvement in the Steam release. Obviously there are new bugs and needed feature migration, but it's a lot easier to navigate and actually play now.

[Telgin]

That sums up my feelings too.  I get that people were used to the old UI and controls, but I think this is a much better direction for the game's UI.  It's much more consistent compared to different commands using different keys to change stockpile / zone / designation dimensions, and being able to just click on things instead of having to use different key commands to enter look vs. unit mode is much better to me.  I can understand people who want to be able to play with just a keyboard and I support efforts to restore that ability to the game, but I really like being able to play with a mouse.

[Bumber]

We had mouse controls before v50 (expanded with DFHack.) Didn't need to give up keyboard for it.

It can't be overstated that DF's macro system simply doesn't function with a mouse. It would have been a good idea to release with a keyboard cursor for menus at the minimum. Like at least tab through options like every other windowing system does.

[Telgin]

I guess since I've never used macros I didn't even notice that aspect.  And wow, if DF had mouse support before now it must have been longer since I last played than I realized.  Maybe that's why the break in hotkeys didn't bother me.

Oh well, at least the devs have stated they want to restore the ability to play with something like the old controls again.  Guess it may take a while though.

[Lexyvil]

As much as I like the Steam version for bringing graphics, there are some gameplay changes that I'm really not fond of.

For instance, the stairs. There is no way to build or alter stairs on a single elevation anymore, it must now span at minimum 2 floors. This means you can't construct an Up stairs on a carved Up/Down stairs to block entry anymore with ease. If you need to change the stone type of a hallway that includes stairs, then either the above or downstairs will have to be affected too. It's really limiting.

[Splint]

As much as I like the Steam version for bringing graphics, there are some gameplay changes that I'm really not fond of.

For instance, the stairs. There is no way to build stairs on a single elevation anymore, it must now span at minimum 2 floors. This means you can't construct and Up stairs on a carved Up/Down stairs to block entry anymore with ease. If you need to change the stone type of a hallway that includes stairs, then either the above or downstairs will have to be affected too. It's really limiting.

That's one of the things I've really hated. It's especially weird since individual stair sections could have been placed under advanced options alongside priorities and blueprint mode and wouldn't have taken up much space and done the job perfectly. The basic designations are fine if you don't need/plan to do much more than a few designations, but for more complicated things or expansions, it can be very irritating.

[Bumber]

And wow, if DF had mouse support before now it must have been longer since I last played than I realized.

You could paint designations and burrows for as long as I've been playing (since late 2012.) Options were free painting or clicking two corners.

DFHack mousequery has existed since 2013, with the ability to edge scroll and click on units and buildings.

[Eschar]

And wow, if DF had mouse support before now it must have been longer since I last played than I realized.

You could paint designations and burrows for as long as I've been playing (since late 2012.) Options were free painting or clicking two corners.

Designations could only be free-painted with the mouse, could not pick two corners with the mouse.

[Laterigrade]

Many have said it but I much prefer the feeling of being able to just using a keyboard. Mouses feel imprecise in comparison.

[Mohreb el Yasim]

I think we all hope for full keyboard support indeed.
Also once it is out we will still be able to redesign key bindings (however some things are strange in the premium too, I can't make "<" work for going down 1 z level, it sometimes, but not always, it sends me to the lowest level instead, with nothing else configured to it)

[Telgin]

I've had some weird behavior with the Steam version since the SDL upgrade with inputs too, but the main one I've had is that trying to use my touchpad's two-finger scroll feature doesn't work for scrolling or going up or down z-levels anymore.  It used to work fine, but since the upgrade both directions end up causing it to go up, even if I bind them explicitly to scroll up or down based on the direction.  I'm pretty sure it's jank with my touchpad since it'll stutter trying to go down before zipping back up, but it used to work so it feels like something software related is at least partially responsible.

Anyway, I was thankfully able to bind < and > to go up and down z-levels without issue.  I haven't found a way to make scrolling work well without attaching an external mouse to my laptop though.

[mikekchar]

Yeah.  It's because on some devices the scroll wheel and the second mouse button drag are hard to distinguish in the current version of SDL.  I actually wish that you could rebind the map scroll to something like shift-click-drag, but you can't rebind it at all.  Like you, I just unbound the scroll wheel entirely.

[Flying Dice]

That sums up my feelings too.  I get that people were used to the old UI and controls, but I think this is a much better direction for the game's UI.  It's much more consistent compared to different commands using different keys to change stockpile / zone / designation dimensions, and being able to just click on things instead of having to use different key commands to enter look vs. unit mode is much better to me.  I can understand people who want to be able to play with just a keyboard and I support efforts to restore that ability to the game, but I really like being able to play with a mouse.

This is a really bad take. Keyboard shortcuts were vastly superior for many use-cases (especially menu navigation) compared to mouse control. Note, also, that pre-Steam we had both the normal UI and mouse control for the content where it was most relevant (moving the cursor around when viewing/selecting/designating) for years. There's absolutely no reason to not have both, and in the grand scheme of things the control lost by getting rid of hotkeys vastly outweighs the control gained from clickable UI buttons. The only thing the latter are better for is a smoother new player experience (which is important too, don't get me wrong).

Being able to hammer out a three or four-layer menu selection in a second or two is just plain faster than clicking through buttons and popup windows to do the same thing, and that adds up over the course of thousands of actions.

This is going to be even more evident when adventure mode hits Steam and you have to manually click through every... single... attack target. Though I expect most people who don't like hotkeys aren't going to be using advanced attack anyways, just walking into enemies and letting the game pick attacks.