After reading this thread, and myself only getting DF for a few weeks after having it on my computer after five months, its interesting.
The User Interface, in my opinion needs to be homogenize, streamlined and collapsed.
There are times with the Letter Associations make sense, and there at times, where it won't click with me. Like the stairs being U J & I. Seems to be obituary. It would be nice if grouped together actions were grouped together on the Keyboard, in rows or collums(sp) instead of being spastic. It also awkward to use the number pad for some selections, and the arrow keys for others.
If the commands could be kept in constance areas of the keyboard, so I can develop some muscle memory for certain actions, that would be very helpful.
The workshops are awesome neat in some very nice ways. However, they are an overload when first getting acclimated to it. It also doesn't sink in very well on how or why things are grouped together. Like for the craft shop, the individual items for wood are stored under wood, but shells and bones the individual items are displayed on the list. A suggestion on how to circumvent it, seems out of place on this thread.
The Ascii Graphics never really bother with me. But I don't judge a game based on how shiny it looks. I'll admire good graphics, but I won't play a bad game because of them. Just how the game restrictions itself seems odd. The game doesn't have to stick with just UNICODE Ascii scripts, it can use different fonts, and bold, italics, and different character sets as well. And the restriction of just 16 colors also seems strangely limiting.
Um. A lot of it is just overload. I had a game compile when I first got it, and I forced quit out of it, as I thought it frozed. Then I let it compile as I went grocery shopping where my first world I didn't know what to expect. I had no idea on how to seek help, until Sorid from SGU Forum pointed me out to the Wiki, and from there I found the IRC chat room, which really helped me out. BUt for a good long while, I was just plain lost.
I didnt know what I could do. There was a lack of direction.
Lack of direction I suppose is the main issue. I didn't know the parameters of what I could do, and should do. I didn't know what I need to keep my dwarfs alive. Would I need to have space in the levels for sewage pipes? COuld I build a tank and kill everything?
My two cents.