In case ThreeToe is still monitoring this thread for its original purpose, I thought I'd contribute some feedback. I haven't read all through the list, so I'm sure some of these have been covered to death already, but I wanted to give some feedback. I started playing about 8 months back so I could understand the PhD thesis my buddy was writing on DF. And before Footkerchief points me to the devlog, I know some of these are being addressed in the new release.
Things that bothered me when I started playing:(1) No mouse functionality. I had been hard coded to have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. While I've come to
appreciate deal with the current interface for the most part, I still would like to see the mouse usable for designations.
(2) Other interface issues. Particularly the confusing k/v/q menus. I could go on and on. I eventually got over my objections and don't mind the system any more now that I have it memorized, but that took me probably 50+ game hours.
(3) The music. I don't have any complaints about the song. Actually, I think it's great. But playing as much DF as anyone who actually surmounts the learning curve would need to... listening to the same song on repeat got really frustrating really fast. I just turned the sound off after about 6 hours of gameplay and I've never turned it back on.
Things that bothered me once I got hooked:(1)
FPS. I cannot overemphasize how much this kills it for me. Many times I've given up when FPS drops through the floor. Sometimes I'd start a new fort, sometimes I'd just walk away in frustration for several weeks. This remains the single biggest turnoff for me by a large margin, particularly since many features of the game don't trigger until after the game becomes un-fun to play.
(2) Extinguishing the local wildlife. After a few years (a relatively short time in a developed fort) my hunters become useless. That sucks. It's also unrealistic to depopulate a whole region from one single embark location.
(3) All or nothing traps. As they exist now, traps are either a perfect defense or perfectly useless. Having a 27% chance that an enemy would trigger some traps would complicate defense design and be a welcome challenge.
(4) Relatively easy enemies. Orcs are popular for a reason, and I'm glad that we're able to mod them in, but the game would be better if it hostiles became more challenging over time, or if there were a way to ratchet up the difficulty in-game.
(5) The relatively sparse maps produced by the world generator default. The sheer amount of time dedicated to world generation on the forums is a testament to how much players want a map incorporating many (or all) of the features DF provides, and even with all the work people have done I still can't find maps with all the features I'm looking for. I'm not saying every embark location should have every feature, but it should be easier to find
some locations that allow you to play with everything the game has to offer.
(6) Useless items/workshops. Alchemy? Toy hammers? Golden Salve? I can't
really complain about this in an alpha release, but I will anyway since it's true.
Regarding new players, I plan on trying to get a few of my friends hooked on the game as soon as finals are over. I'm going to give them copies of 40d16 with tilesets, modify the init file to make things easier on them (fluid depth, pop cap, economy off), modify the cat raw, write a quick FAQ for them, and tattoo the Wiki URL on the back of their hands. I think there's a good chance they'll stick with it.
Finally, props to you and Toady for this awesome game!
-Graebeard