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Author Topic: What turns you off about DF?  (Read 313054 times)

Bobv2

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1365 on: April 19, 2010, 02:30:12 am »

Hey, newbie here.

The utility of the original ASCII graphics are big turn off. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually one of the first to jump on the game over graphics bandwagon, but they just don't do their job well enough at displaying the game. Things are hard to distinguish, especially dwarfs are hard to tell apart. I have a pretty tile set though that solves this problem. I do agree above that the tileset system could be better. Maybe make a system where tileset makers can "unbind" the male sign and bag graphic and make them into two different graphics.

Also, the lack of a scripted tutorial. I'm using the "complete and utter nooby tutorial" found here. It does it's best, but it's hard to stay in sync with it. A scripted tutorial could show you how to deal with events better. Right now I have the problem of my dwarfs running off to the near by river to get a drink while I have 100+ (accessible because it goes down) drink. My only woodworker was killed by a pike. I now have about 30 idlers on average and I don't know if that's normal or if my fortress is behind.

Priority labor instead of it simply being on/off would be nice too. A dwarf would look for a jobs in the jobs queue that it's best at, and go from there. That way I don't have to turn hauling off on my farmers to get them to stop moving around random junk while I have 200+ seeds rotting away and empty farm plots, but then, I have to re-enable it when they are done if I want them to do stuff. Why not have it when they finish planting seeds, then look for hauling jobs? Same would go for workshops, the best available crew will be selected first, and that dwarf would drop whatever it's hauling (because hauling would be a low priority job for it) to go to make the thing. And maybe more management options like in the still an option like "call for a brewer when drink count is under X and make X units", which it would add brewing to the job list and brewers on a low priority job would come and do.

Meh, just my two cents.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2010, 02:35:57 am by Bobv2 »
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DDR

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1366 on: April 19, 2010, 04:14:18 am »

I looked at this game once, about three years ago. I gave up in confusion rather quickly. Impressive, but it's all just blinking symbols at first. There is too much you /need/ to do, right off the bat. In SimCity 4, for example, you can lay down some roads, zones, and a power plant and pretty soon the interesting happens. You need nothing off the bat, really, so if you don't understand one thing you can get away with it for a fairly long time. However, in DF, you need to understand lots, quickly. This is hindered by the ASCII graphics (which I looooove, major reason I play the game there) and the fact that there is such a plethora of things to build. It's all there, and you have to pick out the 5% that matters now. About half a year ago, or more now, I knew that I needed a good solid weekend in which to learn the game. I watched a few LPs, and followed a tutorial in the wiki to get started. It was so much fun. I felt like, damn, I actually accomplished something. ^_^

Now I'm just waiting for the nobles screen to be fixed. I prefer long-term forts. The new blood clean-up method is hilarious to wash away... just a couple screens of blood and sand.

Ah, I'm going off to make a fort which may be cleaned by opening a floodgate.

[update] "A floodgate has been destroyed." x2. Half my dwarves drowned, the other half went mad or starved.
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melomel: DF is like OCD candy, isn't it? existent: No, DF is like the stranger in the trench coat offering the candy.

DalGren

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1367 on: April 19, 2010, 04:51:53 am »

Another newbie speaking.
I have followed DF mostly as a technical achievement -actually since Armok...it was wondrous but unplayable- and started playing/modding with the latest release.
To summarize, and knowing the shortcomings and in-progress cores, but referencing the current state:

Overall:
* Kicking a dead horse, the menus and such can get a facelift. But until everything is done, it's too much to ask.
* The ASCII interface is not too threatening for a veteran to roguelikes or games like ZZT and Megazeux, but even so the sheer variety makes impossible to tell what you are looking at "at a glance".
* Controls are strange. They don't resemble any other setting for any genre...it's pure original, but pure chaos.
* Everything sounds ugly. Descriptions are either too raw and no positive features are to be found.
Seriously how can we make elf jokes without them looking like damsels? No beauty is to be found, since the only traits are negative. This is fantasy medieval, it doesn't need to be so realistic about the old ages!


Dwarf mode:
To be honest, I barely touched this aspect of the game. (I know I am missing)
It is threatening in a way, the slow response and lack of information without reading or watching a tutorial, it requires a zen state of mind that, on its favor, makes it feel like embarking on a real adventure.

Adventure mode:
My real draw to the game, actually, but as many say, it's clearly alpha.
* Equipment management is bizarre and clearly a mere placeholder for the real thing. I completely understand it as coder (everyone does that), but, wow, it blows my mind.
* It makes CPUs explode. Although I understand this one well, too. To make it work well it has to work first.
The response lag is very high and chaotic (it has no rhythm so you are forced to key-wait-key).
* It gives way too many details. Wrestling is just incredibly difficult for example. Sure, it IS awesome to be able to throw someone from the back molar, using the right foot (or talon, I saw a harpy doing that to a goblin)...however, it makes "grab head with right hand" a 1000-entries long list. I guess this will be separated in submenus or something, so it doesn't worry me too much in regards of future development.
* Some descriptions should be dumbed down to avoid saturation. This is mostly about very verbose item names. Sure you need to tell apart items of similar materials (two leather items of the same class), but it can be improved.
* It's wondrous, but it feels too empty. The last version improves it a lot, but while you feel there IS activity -peasants move, monsters attack stuff and you find the mess during or after the action...there is life in the random world, but you can't do much about/with it (other than going medieval, solving quests, and exploring)
In a way there are games that are just that, but better looking, so it's a matter of time to see more stuff to do.
* Although it's on the core todo list, and related to the last point, there's little influence of the adventure in legends. That will change, so it's just a half-complaint.
* It was frustrating to see "strawberry bush" and being unable to pick the berries for later use. I could just set it on fire. It IS awesome but not the first thing you think about when seeing a bush with edible berries.
* Related to the last and possibly planned for the future, there's little to do in such a vast and complete world. Cooking, making potions, picking up herbs, building small structures even if laborious, digging, perhaps gambling, even setting up shops. Basically mixing some Dwarf Mode mechanics to be done as an adventurer and again, influencing the world further.
* Raising pets (as in war companions, food sources (keep your chicken around), or perhaps actual "pets" (within the limitations of the current AI, not asking for a pet sim...although Dwarf mode is a bit of a pet sim). For example getting a eagle egg protected by mommy eagle, and you hatch it and it's like a joined party member)...also further interaction with your companions, have them do stuff and help with battle and other feats like building or such. Make mercenaries that join you for money or goods...that kind of thing. More ways to make your own army to pierce the heavens. With horses, knights and racial stereotypes.
Right now your party is barely manageable, you just have them around or not, and can be killed without the played ever noticing or lost (like in some LP I am following where party members disappear into nowhere).
* Make your funds/value clearer. You don't really know how much things are worth, you don't know if the items you find are just junk or have significance. It seems only weapons and armor are worth something (might be true).
* Conversations mean nothing but quests and some minor background. More on that later.
* Combat is bugged but since it's probably being fixed as I write, not complaining.
* Cities and such work, but they are too crude. I prefer to spend more time at world generation and have villages with some roads and constructions, not random huts scattered around, but I am nitpicking now.

Modding and extending:
Despite my short time I already got to mod some stuff just for the kick of it. On its favor, despite bugged stuff and relative lack of documentation, it's very easy to mod stuff in. (stringdumps work but it's not pure detail)
* Conversation files are raw placeholders and you simply can't make much conversation with them.
* You simply can't make a "beautiful race". Like a nymph or such, they'd be subject to the description uglyfication since there aren't positive traits to mod with (as of now).
* It feels odd you can make a [MALE] [FEMALE] or genderless civilization prosper at all. Perhaps making races crossbreed or magically reproduce or randomly "evolve" from another creature, or simply spawn some every year...it'd be kind of awesome so you can get a tree city of harpies or demons gathering into some unholy city, or perhaps robots. Or like amazonesses, death by snu-snu and stuff. Can give a meaning to "baby snatching" races.
* Until more effects like magic or so are added, there's not much to do with attacks. Like a powerful wind creature like a bird or so launch a gust of strong wind at you and stuff. Right now it's just plain melee simpleness and some grabs.
* Nothing else not suggested yet.

All that said, I consider DF a masterpiece of "things a single game can do". It makes a whole world from the chewy core to the sky, and puts a respectable amount of work into it. Most things will be ironed out with time, but having a whole world to explore makes one wish more actions were available. I love/hate it soo much.
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Andir

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1368 on: April 19, 2010, 05:08:59 am »

* Related to the last and possibly planned for the future, there's little to do in such a vast and complete world. Cooking, making potions, picking up herbs, building small structures even if laborious, digging, perhaps gambling, even setting up shops. Basically mixing some Dwarf Mode mechanics to be done as an adventurer and again, influencing the world further.
This is the main reason I'd kill to have a multiplayer version of DF... (YES, I know the arguments!  The threads and threads of them!  I'm just putting in my two cents in expanding this idea...)  If you could imagine being able to build structures in adventure mode, that opens the game up to being able to build an entire fort with the help of your friends.  You could technically do this entirely in adventure mode.  As an alternative, have one person designate jobs (like a fort manager) and put nominal prices on their completion (with some sort of economy...) letting your friends complete them for money that could be used to buy things from the traveling vendors or nearby towns.
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DalGren

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1369 on: April 19, 2010, 05:42:39 am »

This is the main reason I'd kill to have a multiplayer version of DF... (YES, I know the arguments!  The threads and threads of them!  I'm just putting in my two cents in expanding this idea...)  If you could imagine being able to build structures in adventure mode, that opens the game up to being able to build an entire fort with the help of your friends.  You could technically do this entirely in adventure mode.  As an alternative, have one person designate jobs (like a fort manager) and put nominal prices on their completion (with some sort of economy...) letting your friends complete them for money that could be used to buy things from the traveling vendors or nearby towns.
What you propose sounds like a hybrid of dwarf and adventure mode if I got your idea right...can certainly be fun, but threads and threads...I personally prefer local gameplay, but I see your point :P
The idea I think of is much simpler, or it would need as many menus and tweaks as Dwarf Mode. Something simplified like "use wood to build wall" "use wood to build floor/door/stairs", or it will be a management nightmare, and perhaps simple orders like have my fisherdwarf friend(for hire?) go fish stuff and come back with food. More like simple orders and actions than designating areas, schedules, and such. As much a party menu like "you sent X to do Y on day Z: not returned/dead/etc".
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bustok

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1370 on: April 19, 2010, 08:29:43 am »

-missing full mouse support (menu - map navigation)
-Micromagement
« Last Edit: April 19, 2010, 08:48:34 am by bustok »
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Lemunde

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1371 on: April 19, 2010, 10:20:47 am »

Ugly blinking ramps. (Hatches too, for that matter.)

Hatches don't blink any more.  I've made several since the new version came out and I'm looking at one right now.  Definitely NOT blinking.
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Jiri Petru

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1372 on: April 19, 2010, 01:24:41 pm »

I've never complained about framerate, but I have to now. I've accidentally released HFS (55 of them!) which I have no chance of defeating, so I walled them off. While before I was running at steady 30-40 fps, now I'm at 8 fps thanks to the flying HFS (I suppose).

DF Accelerator doesn't add a single frame, I guess because it's a pathfinding, not a graphical issue. I think I'll have to savescum and not release the HFS, which I don't want to... and which would mean I'd lose a great story about a heroic mason saving the fort in the last second (literally).
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Footkerchief

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1373 on: April 19, 2010, 01:30:10 pm »

^^^ I don't think it's the flying.  HFS has a tendency to spam path requests like crazy, even after you wall them off -- that's a bug that goes back to 40d and earlier.  This recent report is maybe related.    Here's one from 40d.  Another.  Older.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2010, 01:49:46 pm by Footkerchief »
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Jiri Petru

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1374 on: April 19, 2010, 01:33:37 pm »

Hmm... anything I can do about it?

It's true that once I open the bridge that's blocking them, the FPS shoots back up.
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Pickled Tink

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1375 on: April 19, 2010, 01:41:22 pm »

I'm in pretty much the same boat with regard to the Hidden Fun Stuff. I spend the better part of a game year digging a massive collapse trap over a winding path that doubled back over itself three times over three floors (There is an additional tiny room with a cage after that. The cage is opened by a lever, releasing all the forts non pet animals, so the HFS runs into a tile with a dozen cows, a few horses, a pack of war dogs, dozens of puppies, and a kitten).

The problem is my FPS flatlined not long after I opened the HFS, which is a shame because I really would have liked to have seen how that trap worked against them.
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Draco18s

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1376 on: April 19, 2010, 01:43:30 pm »

Hmm... anything I can do about it?

It's true that once I open the bridge that's blocking them, the FPS shoots back up.

That's because they're no longer pathfind-spamming.  They found a path and are following it.  Set a guy to pull that lever on repeat.  Eventually it'll smash some demons.
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Cardinal

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1377 on: April 19, 2010, 02:16:30 pm »

Some thought need to be given to better interface, or providing meaningful defaults that allow you eg. to set up a military or production with two clicks.

Very much so on the meaningful defaults bit.  I like all the added complexity and I know that some of the problems with the military are a result of bugginess.  But I shouldn't be required to go in and fiddle with a bunch of stuff just to activate somebody to throttle a kobold (not that I see kobolds anymore--poor guys are as rare as chupacabres, these days.  I think all the titans and dragons and such think they taste like candy.).  Same with plump helmets and booze defaulted to being cookable and other newbie-friendly defaults. 
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Draco18s

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1378 on: April 19, 2010, 02:30:33 pm »

(not that I see kobolds anymore--poor guys are as rare as chupacabres, these days.  I think all the titans and dragons and such think they taste like candy.)

They do.  Ever tried charbroiled kobold?  Delicacy!
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Jiri Petru

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Re: What turns you off about DF?
« Reply #1379 on: April 19, 2010, 03:05:24 pm »

Some thought need to be given to better interface, or providing meaningful defaults that allow you eg. to set up a military or production with two clicks.

Very much so on the meaningful defaults bit.  I like all the added complexity and I know that some of the problems with the military are a result of bugginess.  But I shouldn't be required to go in and fiddle with a bunch of stuff just to activate somebody to throttle a kobold (not that I see kobolds anymore--poor guys are as rare as chupacabres, these days.  I think all the titans and dragons and such think they taste like candy.).  Same with plump helmets and booze defaulted to being cookable and other newbie-friendly defaults. 

I wanted to write a proper suggestion with mock-up interface pictures, but god knows when I get to it, so I'll just spam it here before I forget.

A meaningful default for military would be:
- Reverse the way recruitment works in the military screen. Instead of clicking on a position first, then choosing a dwarf, you would click on the dwarf first and put him in the squad second. Also, there's no reason why the player should be forced to choose the dwarf's number in the squad - just assign it automatically, please. Basically, bring back the old system for recruiting dwarves and arranging them to squads, it was better! (I know the new system of positions has advantages, and internally it would still work the new way. But that things work in some way internally doesn't mean they have to work the same way in the interface)
- You only have to click on dwarves you want to recruit, the squads get created automatically. Once a squad has 10 soldiers, another one gets created and the first soldier you click on becomes its leader. No extra effort needed.
- Along the same lines, the first dwarf you ever recruit becomes the militia commander. No extra screen or separate system needed (but allowed).
- Meaningful default: have two squads by default. Each odd dwarf goes to the first one, each even to the second one. Result: chaotic clicking on 10 dwarves would create two squads of 5 instead of one squad of 10. Because...
- Have the default squads alternate training and free time in a chessboard pattern. Each month, one squad trains and one has time off
- Which means the default schedule should be some "ideal mix" of training and free time, not only training. Also, default requirements should be... i don't know... 5 dwarves, not 10. (Better yet, have this value in percents, and by default set it to 50 %)
- Have some kind of default, automatic ammo assignment... the old system was good: "use wood/bone for training, metal for combat". Also, automatically assign ammo for hunters. The player should only see ammunition menu when he wants to change thing, it should be entirely possible not to ever use it, like in the old version.

(All of this is the default behaviour that happens when you click as little as possible. I don't want to take any functions away. Spending some more clicks would of course enable you to have one squad of 10 instead of two of 5, etc.)

AND

- Have all barracks by default allow everything (training, sleeping, equipment storage) for all squads! Player should only intervene when he want to turn things off, not on!

Result: you have a functional military, and the only thing you had to do was clicking ENTER on dwarves you wanted to recruit. Like in the old, good days.


------

Also a random suggestion: have all rooms, like dining rooms, barracks, zoos, statue gardens or even bedrooms work the same way as hospitals. Interface streamlining. Please, pretty please!
« Last Edit: April 19, 2010, 03:08:45 pm by Jiri Petru »
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