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[randyshipp]

I've seen lots of replies about the ASCII graphics, and I'm sure that's a turn-off to a lot of people when they first see the game.  But honestly, if they're the kind of person who's going to want to spend hours micro-managing moody, alcoholic dwarves then the graphics probably aren't their biggest problem.

For me, this latest release illustrates what is, in my mind, the biggest roadblock the game throws up to new players when DF is played "out of the box."  Labors are a pain to manage. It's not that it's super difficult to tell Urist McDigger that's he's responsible for Mining when those jobs show up.  It's figuring out which of 95 dwarves is BEST suited to having that labor turned on.  Or finding out quickly how many miners you already have.  Basically, what it boils down to is that I think Dwarf Fortress is close to unplayable without Dwarf Therapist or something like it to help manage labors.  And so I can't move my 34.07 fort to 34.11 until Dwarf Therapist is updated.  I'd love to see a select few things that are currently add-ons (tileset/graphic packages and Dwarf Therapist) brought under Bay12's official development umbrella so that new releases are immediately ready to go with those (essential) add-ons.

[Jelle]

Not unplayable, I play just fine without.
I'd agree it's hard to figure out who one is to appoint for a job, but the actual management isn't undoable it just takes a bit of time.

[randyshipp]

Not unplayable, I play just fine without.
I'd agree it's hard to figure out who one is to appoint for a job, but the actual management isn't undoable it just takes a bit of time.

Fair enough.  I just don't want to spend that much more time on repetitive, back-and-forth checking of the labors of scores of dwarves.  And, Armok forbid!, jotting down of notes so I don't lose track.  It's the decision making that's interesting, not navigating the menus to make or implement the decisions.

[Tyler6498]

I too also play without therapist, but I never have trouble finding a dwarf for a certain job as all you typically have to do is look for a dwarf doing no job and assign him that job, but I have pretty productive forts and this means i can easily find the useless dwarves and give them use.

[Viking]

Bedides, right now, challenge is not mechanics, but user interface - once that is fixed, mechanics can be tuned and most inapropriate exploits fixed. But you need to make people stop battling UI before you can make then battle goblins.

Main problem with UIs is this: Sheer amount of stuff. And it gets worse with every release because new creatures are being added (trees, minerals, item types ...). This ever increases screen clutter. Golden medal goes to interface for bringing items to depot - it is the one part that handles required sorting and filtering well. Contrast with Grime medal for actual trade interface which has nothing of that sort, yet is closely related.

It is hard to find items and creatures.

Secondary problem is organization. Menus show their history of commands being added. New features are not incorporated to existing structure, but being added. Why is there z-animals menu when there is u-animals menu which can both be merged? both are very late adition or had recent makeover.

It is hard to find commands to do something with items and creatures you had trouble finding.

Tertiary problem are inconsistencies. Same actions often have different commands. Similar concepts completelly different implementations.

If you found what to do and how to do it, you can't apply that to ther parts of game.

I wonder why toady never simply took month or two to develop stable and robust widged library - "item list", "being list"

For me? The military screen. That thing is utterly ridiculous. The menu at my local chili joint makes more sense, and they had to actually hire someone to explain it as people came in.
For new players, the WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO ARGH factor. Even if you manage to gen a world, the interface isn't conducive to learning. The fact that when I found the "?" menu it didn't tell me jack shit didn't help much either.
Everything else I like though.

Both quoted for truth so to say. UI and unnecessary military complexity both are my biggest problems with the game which I also otherwise adore. I'd happily endure a few updates with no new features that resolved some issues and simplified managing the military screens.

[Reudh]

Seriously?

I had no issue with the military screen. It still is a little confusing as to who or what is selected, but for the most part it's quite easy.

[NTJedi]

Not unplayable, I play just fine without.
I'd agree it's hard to figure out who one is to appoint for a job, but the actual management isn't undoable it just takes a bit of time.

Sometimes I will assign two dozen different dwarves for smoothing stone which takes 1minute within dwarf therapist because you sort, glance at dwarves names then some quick clicks then removing those two dozen so the two experts can perform engravings.  I couldn't imagine all the time it would take for going thru all 150 dwarves inside dwarf fortress so only the two experts can perform engravings.

[orius]

I'd say my biggest problem is the interface as well.  I've mostly gotten used to it, but one thing that's still troublesome is the lack of consistancy in scrolling through lists.  Some use the numberpad while others are -+/* instead.  I still make small mistakes with it.  I think I understand the logic behind it a bit, but it's a bit frustrating.  The military menu can be quite annoying as well, with most of the other menus in the game, the ESC key just take you back one level, but it cancels out of the military menu entirely.  That's one of the biggest problems I have with it anyway, but again, it seems like the military menu is organized a bit differently.  These things aren't really illogical, but they are very non-intuitive at least in my experience.

Graphics don't bother me too much nor do some of the sillier aspects (like building a magma cistern out of soap and ice).

[reality.auditor]

For me it would be fact that fixing (or rather half-fixing or outright turning it off, like with spread and calling it "fixed") bugs are lowest priority.

[Taffer]

For me, aside from the labour interface, I'd have to say that my biggest complaint is that the world histories just don't grab me. Toady has stated that he wants Dwarf Fortress to be like picking up a middling fantasy book.  My worlds never seem to grab me though. The current development process looks to remedy this somewhat. Including more background and detail about my chosen embark civilization, improving legends mode, and drastically improving adventurer mode dialogue, books, and the adventurer introduction would do so much for the game, in my opinion. Small libraries with some history books in major cities would be fantastic, even if it just duplicates legends mode a little.

[Die Nacht]

The fact that it isn't even close to being done!

The idea that I won't be able to play this game to the fullest until I'm 40 makes me very sad.

[dennislp3]

And that is why I play it as a full game and enjoy the addons, expansions, updates, and fixes as they come. Unlike most games I do not see Dwarf fortress as simply a game...but an organic program that expands constantly. Hard to explain...but I know I dont have to do what I do with most games which is buy it, play it, make whatever little good time I can of it, and go "well that was fun while it lasted..."

On the topic? Some of the military and health care bugs irritate the hell out of me. I kinda wish Toady had a bug "limit" of some sort and would keep bugs under a certain level. That said I understand the need and focus of implementing new features before fixing a part of the machine that may get rewritten later. My only question is...how many years can we expect the game to be very bug ridden? Can we expect a full bug fix focused cycle within the next year or two to exclusively fix bugs until it truly is in a more polished Beta state? Am I going to have to wait 10 more years before the ecosystem of bugs is eradicated or shrunk to a reasonable level?

[Thorik]

I'm turned off by how you can't see stone layers anymore when looking at embarks.  Also the bugs where flux doesn't display sometimes when it's there and sometimes when it's displayed it's just dang marble 100 z layers below

[TheChosen]

Aquifers. If I for some reason embark on map where's one and it prevents me from doing pretty much anything, then its a literal turn off.

[Bulwersator]

Aquifers. If I for some reason embark on map where's one and it prevents me from doing pretty much anything, then its a literal turn off.

You can mod them out.