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[malvado]

I'm impressed at the thought of someone getting 80fps with 150 dwarves and an 80-level magma pump stack in a mature fort active in any version, especially on 2013 hardware that almost seems to beg belief

It was operated by filling a certain area 10 levels up with magma then taking that lava up another 10-20 levels ( can't recall exactly ).  At the end I had the reservoir and defense ready and the magma pumps where deactivated.

If I recall exactly some versions later you would start seeing more fps fall by doing similar actions and in the end it started being less playable and fun even when reducing citizens, critters and micro managing paths , movements etc.

[Dorsidwarf]

I'm impressed at the thought of someone getting 80fps with 150 dwarves and an 80-level magma pump stack in a mature fort active in any version, especially on 2013 hardware that almost seems to beg belief

It was operated by filling a certain area 10 levels up with magma then taking that lava up another 10-20 levels ( can't recall exactly ).  At the end I had the reservoir and defense ready and the magma pumps where deactivated.

If I recall exactly some versions later you would start seeing more fps fall by doing similar actions and in the end it started being less playable and fun even when reducing citizens, critters and micro managing paths , movements etc.

Does your current machine still run pre-DF2014 builds as fast as it used to? I know I was surprised by the game getting slow very fast when I went back to a real old DF version

[RenoFox]

The FPS death. As exciting as new features are, the problem of the game slowing down is making it impossible to enjoy, or sometimes even play long enough to see them. In fact, I haven't even seen a single siege in the latest version because the in-game years start taking real-life days before getting that far. I don't know how difficult implementing hyperthreading is, but it is definitely becoming necessary.

For new players, a tutorial would be a must. There are thousands of people who find Dwarf Fortress intriguing but find the learning curve too daunting to get started.

In adventure mode my biggest problem is the lack of stuff to accomplish. All the best gear can simply be found for free from any random keep, spreading stories of your exploits only affects the number of followers, and even taking over keeps only results in a message and reverts out of your control as soon as you retire. It sounds like the next update is starting to change that in the better direction though.

[KittyTac]

There is a tutorial. It's called Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

There's also a Quickstart Guide (aka a tutorial) on the DF Wiki. Two of them, actually - one for each playmode.

[KittyTac]

You are even pointed to the wiki when generating a world.

[malvado]

I'm impressed at the thought of someone getting 80fps with 150 dwarves and an 80-level magma pump stack in a mature fort active in any version, especially on 2013 hardware that almost seems to beg belief

It was operated by filling a certain area 10 levels up with magma then taking that lava up another 10-20 levels ( can't recall exactly ).  At the end I had the reservoir and defense ready and the magma pumps where deactivated.

If I recall exactly some versions later you would start seeing more fps fall by doing similar actions and in the end it started being less playable and fun even when reducing citizens, critters and micro managing paths , movements etc.

Does your current machine still run pre-DF2014 builds as fast as it used to? I know I was surprised by the game getting slow very fast when I went back to a real old DF version

Took me some time to get an old version up and running, but it seems so. Will have to play for a while to answer correctly, but right now with an increase in population to 88 and a lot of tasks going on the fps fall is still not even close to what happens in the same situation on newer versions.
Will let increase to 120 and see.

[Robsoie]

I play DF with both 34.11 and the latest version as the good thing is that you're not force to choose only 1 version

originally 34.11 had some very problematic bug (the temperature one that was leading to heavy fps problems) that were fixed with DF 2014 (and superior), but some genius coders fixed those bugs for 34.11 thanks to dfhack (the one i use with 34.11 is dfhack 0.34.11-r3 ) and Quiestus patches, the whole makes the game just run better.

And the bugfixed 34.11 allows me for the same type of fortress to play on a larger map (not the world map size, the map size on which you play with your fortress) for the same kind of fps i have with the latest version.

For those interested in still running good old 34.11 , there are some more point of interest :

There's the 34.11 patched version (with most Quiestus binpatches to fix some outstanding 34.11 bugs and features dfhack too) :
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=7207

There's also the Modest mod that bring more bugfixes to 34.11
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=6028

And a mix of Modest and Accelerated mods to benefit from the Modest mod bugfixes and the increase of fps due to the item simplification of Accelerated for 34.11
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=7059

And while you're at it, load this fort that has 400 dwarves and still run at more than 180fps
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=7750

[Showbiz]

Military is kinda a pain

[KittyTac]

Military is kinda a pain

It's fiddly, but once you do it one time, you will learn how to do it.

[Pvt. Pirate]

Military is kinda a pain

It's fiddly, but once you do it one time, you will learn how to do it.

i can make squads, have them find weapons(+ammo) and armor and send them around.
but i never got a working barracks, archery range or a schedule working, even when following the wiki guide by the word.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Military is kinda a pain

It's fiddly, but once you do it one time, you will learn how to do it.

i can make squads, have them find weapons(+ammo) and armor and send them around.
but i never got a working barracks, archery range or a schedule working, even when following the wiki guide by the word.

The wiki is slightly more detailed than it needs to be due to the need for workarounds for bugs in the past. Barracks, archery, etc, Just Works these days.

[nickbii]

Military is kinda a pain

It's fiddly, but once you do it one time, you will learn how to do it.

i can make squads, have them find weapons(+ammo) and armor and send them around.
but i never got a working barracks, archery range or a schedule working, even when following the wiki guide by the word.

I have never even tried a barracks where they sleep. I've set up an archery range or three, but I've never seen them use their archery range. They must do it sometimes otherwise nobody would be a Marksdwarf.

But getting them to train at an armor stand is quite easy. Build the armor stand, use 'q' to make it a room and assign it a squad. Then his 's', and switch your chosen squad from inactive to training. Within a month or so everyone should switch from Farmer/peasant/whatever to Recruit/Wrestler/Axedwarf/whatever.

Archery is basically the same. But you have to tell them which direction to shoot their target.

[Senator Jim Death]

I still have dwarves that never figure out how to put parts of the uniform on in the right order. They end up running around without gauntlets and boots until I change their uniforms to exclude clothing, take the bad thought for being naked, and then allow the uniforms to have clothing again.

Do armor stands and weapon racks work for storage yet? I define barracks from items other than those two things because they were never used for storing stuff in older versions, and a barracks defined from a bed works the same way as one defined by a weapon rack. It's actually okay that they never worked: military dwarves can and should just carry their equipment all the time because trying to change it out is buggy and inefficient anyway. The whole "store the swords in the armory and have dwarves grab them for training or emergencies" system makes intuitive sense and feels good from a "roleplaying" perspective, so some new players are certain to try it. If they keep playing, they will eventually realize it's a pain to get to work right and isn't practical in emergencies since there's no penalty for a dwarf who just carries his weapons everywhere.

Then there're training weapons, which are actually harmful to use now that dwarves can get attached to items and sparring is pretty much totally safe.   

Ammo is still buggy and inefficient. Bolts are available in the thousands and the one squad has 500 bolts reserved, with none reserved for hunters. I still have marksdwarves that don't shoot bolts reliably because they're on the ground in the stockpile rather than in their quivers.

The military is actually pretty reliable in these versions. But the UI is still clunky, dwarves still don't always equip properly, and new players aren't going to understand why things don't just work right. Sure, there are workarounds and other ways to do the things that need to be done to have a functional military. But it doesn't help the game's image to have obtuse or broken things running around in a system of such critical importance to a fort. Things like this are why people dismiss the game as buggy or unstable.

I guess my thing is that I don't care so much about all the old timers who are used to the DF way of doing things. I want DF to have a future, and so I want new players to be able to understand the way the game works, too.

[KittyTac]

New players should just use the wiki. It's easy to learn with it.