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[Davion]

com⋅pen⋅di⋅um
1.    a brief treatment or account of a subject, esp. an extensive subject; concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
2.    a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

Encouraging Beginners to Dig Deeper:

Recently, I've been toying around with the idea of creating a website that features brief 'Getting Started' guides for the various modes of Dwarf Fortress. I was inspired by how many publishers of tabletop role-playing games distribute a Quick Start or Beginners Guide containing abridged rules wrapped up in a nice elegant package to entice potential customers into checking out their products. While the DF community is already up to its patchy neckbeard in great tutorials and guides, I get the feeling they are still sometimes hard for the uninitiated to digest. I hope to alleviate that a bit.

I'd like to create an elegant package that not only helps new players over that first hurdle but then entices them to dig deeper into the knowledge base and hopefully become a long time player of Dwarf Fortress. Some features I have been mulling over for the Dwarf Fortress Compendium:

• ASCII/Tileset Support: The instructional images displayed within the guides could be cycled between ASCII or Mayday's tileset on the fly. Helpful for both camps in that they can learn the various graphic symbols for both versions.
• PDF/HTML Versions: It'd be nice to have alternate versions of the guides that can either be downloaded to your computer or printed out.
• Multiple Language Support: I'd like to keep the guides simple and concise enough that if someone was interested in translating them into another language it wouldn't take them thirty years to do so.
• Flavor Text and Images: I'd like to keep it interesting by inserting Dwarf Fortress inspired artwork and flavor text here and there.
• Pre-generated World and Samples: Hosting the world, starter embark profiles, and saved games isn't necessary but would help get people into the game quicker. Offering saved games would be cool because then the player could start exactly where the guide is at.

The hardest part will be writing the content in a way that will only brush the surface of the simulation and leave room for inquiry. My intention with these guides is to try and pull in those that are on the fence, give them enough useful information that they can competently navigate and play the game, then leave them to explore the game, the wiki, and other guides. You know, hooking them and encouraging them to dig deeper.

The website:
http://www.dfcompendium.com/

This project is still in an infant stage, though I am pleased with how it is turning out visually. I've been meaning to mess around with websites for awhile and figure this is as good an opportunity as any to experiment with one. So far I've managed to hack together an earlier layout that is similar to the one above using CSS; I am just learning as I go and browsing places like CSS Zen Garden for inspiration. Standing back and looking at what I'd like to accomplish this is going to be pretty ambitious based on content, but probably not so much from a technical standpoint, mainly because I don't plan on this website being interactive or anything.

I am open to comments, suggestions, critiques or whatever. For now I am not in any hurry with this project, it's just a cool little thing to do that could turn into something even cooler.

This could also evolve into discussion on how to better ease newcomers into the game, though maybe I am in a minority that thinks the wiki and many guides, while helpful, can be just as overwhelming as the game.

[Ironhand]

What a delightfully attractive interface. Nicely done.

As for the project in itself, I wish you luck.
And I look forward to watching it grow.

[timmeh]

It's a good idea, the tricky part is going to be simplifying it enough.  You're going to have to decide which features aren't worth covering ahead of time. 

A quick idea you've probably already thought of, at least on the web version,  I'd advise you link to the wiki page for just about everything, especially the first time it is mentioned.  That way, if the reader wants more information on a specific topic, they can find it easily.  You could also do this for topics you want to touch on, but not really cover.  For example, say you decide to skip magma-based buildings, you could mention them either in the text or in a footnote with a link to the appropriate wiki page.

Looking forward to watching this progress though!

[Davion]

What a delightfully attractive interface. Nicely done.

Thanks.

A quick idea you've probably already thought of, at least on the web version,  I'd advise you link to the wiki page for just about everything, especially the first time it is mentioned.  That way, if the reader wants more information on a specific topic, they can find it easily.  You could also do this for topics you want to touch on, but not really cover.  For example, say you decide to skip magma-based buildings, you could mention them either in the text or in a footnote with a link to the appropriate wiki page.

Yeah, I plan on linking to the DFWiki and other guides extensively. I like the idea of footnotes, which I hadn't thought of!

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Is that the "Strike the Earth" thing in latin?

[Davion]

Nah, it's just "Lorem ipsum", which is nonsense placeholder text that resembles Latin. It's used in graphic design and publishing to demonstrate layout, font, etc.

[Davion]

Small update: Sliced up my layout design and reconstructed it with some hacked together CSS. Now it's just a matter of cleaning up the style sheet code and replacing the psuedo-Latin with something meaningful and permanent. After that it's off to working on the guides themselves.

I also put together a little favicon:

So, it's coming along.

[SolarShado]

I approve of this project.

If you make a to-do list, I might be able to find the time to help.

[Jack_Bread]

For embark profiles, you can use what I have on my thread "Embark Profiles".

[Davion]

I approve of this project.

If you make a to-do list, I might be able to find the time to help.

Cool, as things start to ramp up and get underway I'll see about compiling a list if I need any help.

For embark profiles, you can use what I have on my thread "Embark Profiles".

Thanks

[Davion]

Updated the original post with a WIP shot of how the guide layout is shaping up for one of the 'Sections'.

I think the three 'Sections' are going to be:

• Introduction - Some brief history on the game, explaining the controls and how to remap keys, touching on world generation and maybe a bit of the advanced options, explaining the tileset, some other stuff.
• Fortress Mode - Finding an adequate starting site, embarkation and profiles, going over the interface that is unique to Fortress Mode, going over most important workshops when starting out, production, explaining the states of the dwarves, sieges, etc.
• Adventure Mode - Probably won't be much here other than going over character creation, the controls and interface unique to Adventure Mode, how to wrestle effectively, maybe some other stuff.

[Hawkfrost]

I like it. Alot.
The style is wonderful.

[Davion]

Spent the last couple of days researching various web hosts, purchased a domain name, and got on board with HostGator.

I've updated the original post with the address, which you can visit and check out. The only thing that is up right now is the front page layout with that Latin-esque text, but I suppose that is better than a simple "Coming Soon" splash graphic. I installed Wordpress, and figure I can strip away most of the visual cues that identify it as a blog by designing my own template/theme for the guide area, mainly just keeping the ability to be able to post articles and edit them, that way I can stay on top of things as the game changes.

There's also the nice little feature of being able to add authors with various levels of access, which might come in handy once the site has a reason for people to possibly contribute to the tutorials/guides.

[Davion]

Got the website up along with the stripped down blog that will serve as a simple content management service. You can only click on "Introduction" from the main page (and you can't get back to the main page from there at the moment, oops). Now I am ready to get writing. 

I am probably going to change the main page one last time to better fall in line with the rest of the website, but right now I am tired.

[Blacken]

Looks promising! I dig the structure you're putting together, I think it'll be helpful.

I'd suggest a cleaner CSS template, however - something fluid would be a lot easier to read on larger screens, and FWIW (and this isn't meant to be snarky, just an observation) black-on-white is the most common way to render text on the Web for a good reason. It's very hard to read that white-on-red text.

I might have some time over the next few weeks to knock something out to help if you'd be interested. Let me know if that's the case.