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[Idiom]

I played the last stable 2D version while the 3D was being developed. No Z-axis and consistent map made it a lot easier to learn.

Besides having to read for each hotkey (I've memorized them all now), I actually caught on my very first day within my first couple tries. They all starved to death because I didn't bring enough food and set up my farm too late, but I'm rather proud to say that the only thing I ever had to look up was how much food and drink I should bring.

What I was thinking was "Who the ____ honestly expects me to rely on hotkeys? What the ____ kind of lazy UI is this?"... ...and a week later I could navigate the menus with hotkeys like in no other game and starting wishing my other mouse based games had more hotkeys...

[Durin]

After trying desperately to get the instructions in the game to give me any useful information, I went to the wiki and read the first fortress tutorial.  It was a toss up if I was going to make it through the first year.  I had precisely one dwarf left when immigrants arrived, and most of them died before I finally had figured out food.

From that day, earlier this summer, to this, every fortress of mine starts out with way too many farms.  lol

That very fortress I eventually abandoned in year 8 because the location lacked a lot of stuff I wanted to play with.  I say abandoned... it is still saved around here somewhere, but I doubt I will go back to it. It was closing in on 200 dwarfs.  Yes, it was slow.  It had neither running water nor magma though, so I guess that is why it was not painfully slow.

[Criptfeind]

On my first "game" i watched the lights blink for a bit than turned it off,
second and threrd game i went in explored the menus a bit decided to dig in to a nearby hill.
"so how do i get them to dig?"
"mine? no i don't a mine i want living rooms, ah channel sounds right."
so I read the wiki and my fourth game has always been my most successful, if you call a lack of Fun success.

[nenjin]

I think success in DF is defined as having a fortress stable enough that you no longer fear Fun, you welcome it. I'm on year...9 of the most stable fortress I've built, and still feel a long way from that point.

[Durin]

I played the last stable 2D version while the 3D was being developed. No Z-axis and consistent map made it a lot easier to learn.

Besides having to read for each hotkey (I've memorized them all now), I actually caught on my very first day within my first couple tries. They all starved to death because I didn't bring enough food and set up my farm too late, but I'm rather proud to say that the only thing I ever had to look up was how much food and drink I should bring.

What I was thinking was "Who the ____ honestly expects me to rely on hotkeys? What the ____ kind of lazy UI is this?"... ...and a week later I could navigate the menus with hotkeys like in no other game and starting wishing my other mouse based games had more hotkeys...

Most serious video game players seem to like hot keys.  I am not a serious video game player....

[Canadark]

First time I played this game I thought my computer was defragmenting or something.

Seriously though, the first time I traversed a z-level I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out what just happened and where did my dwarfs go.

[Sutremaine]

I played the last stable 2D version while the 3D was being developed. No Z-axis and consistent map made it a lot easier to learn.

I started playing 2D about a year and a half ago after reading Boatmurdered and somehow finding my way to the wiki and seeing the things I could do with the game. It helps a lot not having to deal with z-levels when you're busy trying to feed everybody and find out how to make things. From a day-to-day survival point of view, the biggest change from 2D to 3D is farming and how easy it is (crops all year round on plots freshly gouged from the earth? I felt spoilt). Also sock rushes were much harder to deal with, but that's more to do with the interface than the game itself.

[Jay]

My first game...
There were no z-levels to get lost on.
I was expecting an interface even more difficult than it was.
So, you may be wondering what brought that fort to its doom?
...
It ended to the Timed Fun.
Yep, that.

[Lamp]

First time? Didn't understand aquifers, thought they were everywhere. Took one look at the wikipage for them and said "Fuck this". Year or so later, and I love DF.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

First time I played this game I thought my computer was defragmenting or something.

Seriously though, the first time I traversed a z-level I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out what just happened and where did my dwarfs go.

haha, I think we all did that.

It's hard to remember how I got started -- I think I read Boatmurdered and moved on from there. I think my first site had a cave and everyone got slaughtered by fire imps.

[Particleman]

My first embark was on a snowy map, with a bottomless pit and a magma pipe. It took me ages to figure out how to dig down, and eventually I got to the bottom, where I made everyone try and cover the bottom of the bottomless pit (After thinking the tiles were actually walk-able.) until we ran out of food and water. Everyone went mad and killed each other.

I loved my first game.

Sounds like a pretty standard first game.

[valcon]

The only thing I remember about the first time I played dwarf fortress is that I had one dwarf that always slept on a fish barrel.  Made me lol, made me come back for more.

[RedKing]

I think it went something like this.

"Hmm...so you dig to the right. Ok, let's see what's in this 'mountain'..."
"Hey, a river! That's cool. I'll build some bridges and keep going."
"ACK! What the hell?? It's *flooding*!"
"Ok...not a total loss. Let's keep digging..."
"Hey, a bottomless trench! That's cool, I'll build some bridges and keep going."
"ACK! What the hell?? Batmen??"
"Ok...not a total loss. Let's keep digging..."
"Hey, lava!" (you get the idea)

[Itnetlolor]

I went through how I usually go through games. Screw the manual... Oh crap, that's alotta commands. Okay, what does what?

Okay, so is this grey area a cave or what? (k), just rock, but with all those bats around, I thought that was a cave. I think I saw some tower caps in there too, whatever those are...

Okay, this is too complicated to understand.

(hours of wiki, and a new location later)

Okay, let's dig... Okay, let's move the food and booze. And a few shops.

(Season passes)

Okay... why is everyone being so lazy? (v), (w), Uh... Okay...

Urist, miner
Thirsty
unconscious

Olon is throwing a tantrum. "There was a river/brook nearby, why didn't anyone drink from it? Let's flood the place and give them their water." Let's channel the river into the fort. The fortress has collapsed to it's very end. (all 7 dwarves died)

Turns out I didn't know I was supposed to assign a drinking zone. Fun times.


I think it took after a few forts, I copied the game as a different set and used it for experimental methods of playing or experimental forts. Oddly enough, my carelessness in that setup is my first real success (See Wavehandle). After enough tweaking my methods and messing around with carp (casualties on both sides), taking on Bloodfist was the next step. The process of working on a megaproject of any sort has to be the quickest way to refine skills in the game. At least, by my experience. And in a fun location like I chose to work in.

[Jopax]

Well i heard about the game on some forum, it sounded very cool with all the things you could do, then i googled and dl it.Created a world and was baffled, where are my dwarwes, where is the fortress(i was still on the embark screen), then i say screw all and quit.After a year i run into the game again, this time there is also a link do captnducks tutorials, i decide to give them a go, after a week or so of watching them i run the game again, it goes well until i decided it would be a nice idea to drain a pool into a big pit i dug out in my fort, most of them drown.After that i was just being careful and playing slowly referencing the wiki and the tutorials on various stuff.Now i love the game and wish it a long and prosperous future(with awesomesouce graphics and options being added as the time passes)