I played DF for awhile. It was a lot of fun, but it's a game whose UI conspires against you.
It's not even that it's basic text in a terminal window. That's fine, I have an imagination. But everything else is fucking miserable. Building things is unintuitive, and they're grouped together in unexpected ways. Building a workshop is completely different from building a, uh... I don't even remember what you can build. The keys change for absolutely every thing. A might place a building of one type, but for another, it toggles the building's purpose.
Managing the dwarves is awful, too.
There's third party utilities that make this better, and I've looked into them - hardly any are available for OS X. And the idea that I need to install five apps just to make a game playable... well, I gave up. Fuck it. His labor of love needs an API - he's built a great system, but he fucked up the front-end of it.
Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. You do eventually get used to it, though I'm still highly dependent on the Wiki for certain things (assigning uniforms, etc.). It took me several tries to learn how to play the game.
Dwarf Therapist for the Mac is under development and should be available soon (the latest version of Dwarf Fortress has only been out a few days, so all the third party mods and tools are being updated). Without it, you really need to set a population limit of around 30-40 (which can be done in done of the init files), and you'll need to make good use of nicknames. Also, it helps to turn off pregnancies. I'm playing without Dwarf Therapist at the moment, and it's not too terrible-though I'm definitely eagerly anticipating the OS X version.
A tendency I rather like in the game is that certain types of nobles, like the manager, improve certain aspects of the UI. You don't need a manager, but he makes production so much easier. Cute idea. I'd like to see more of this.
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LoL.
This is pure gold. Your poor dwarves would be thrilled. XD
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Hopefully the vampire hasn't made enemies, or attracted the attention of vampire hunters!
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It's not even that it's basic text in a terminal window. That's fine, I have an imagination. But everything else is fucking miserable. Building things is unintuitive, and they're grouped together in unexpected ways. Building a workshop is completely different from building a, uh... I don't even remember what you can build. The keys change for absolutely every thing. A might place a building of one type, but for another, it toggles the building's purpose.
Managing the dwarves is awful, too.
There's third party utilities that make this better, and I've looked into them - hardly any are available for OS X. And the idea that I need to install five apps just to make a game playable... well, I gave up. Fuck it. His labor of love needs an API - he's built a great system, but he fucked up the front-end of it.
Reply
Dwarf Therapist for the Mac is under development and should be available soon (the latest version of Dwarf Fortress has only been out a few days, so all the third party mods and tools are being updated). Without it, you really need to set a population limit of around 30-40 (which can be done in done of the init files), and you'll need to make good use of nicknames. Also, it helps to turn off pregnancies. I'm playing without Dwarf Therapist at the moment, and it's not too terrible-though I'm definitely eagerly anticipating the OS X version.
A tendency I rather like in the game is that certain types of nobles, like the manager, improve certain aspects of the UI. You don't need a manager, but he makes production so much easier. Cute idea. I'd like to see more of this.
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But still - there just isn't enough of a reward compared to the effort I have to put in. :/
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