Bay 12 Games Forum
Dwarf Fortress => DF General Discussion => Topic started by: Ekaton on December 06, 2022, 08:42:35 am
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Do you think that the Steam version's UI is good enough to replace external tools like Dwarf Therapist or Legends Viewer?
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I bought it, because I have loved this game for over a decade, and there's no reason not to support, but I have no machine capable of running the game.
That said, I always played without addons, and don't see why I would start now, so yeah, I think it will be good enough for me. Soon as I find a way of playing it on the machines I own.
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I don't know that they're ever going to go away entirely, but yes I think the game is certainly playable now without Dwarf Therapist. I never really used Legends Viewer myself, but that was mostly because Legends Mode in-game was so bad. Now, it's super easy to use.
So far every change I've noticed has been for the better, in a very good way.
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I still want the windows interface, maps, populations, etc of Legends Viewer. Legends Mode is great for exploring but not for getting an overview of the whole world.
Hopefully the export functions will be added back in soon. Hope no-one's tried to convince Toady that it's not needed because "no-one uses it without DFHack". That would be frustrating. But people have been telling him all sorts of weird stuff over the past couple of years apparently (no-one needs a keyboard, no-one plays adventurer, no-one uses the military screen....).
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For what it's worth at least he's been receptive to people saying "hey, no, I actually use this" and adding the functionality back in when able.
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it's somewhat of a productivity downgrade as I have said elsewhere, not only due to the forced mouse usage but the strange decision to bury labor details within the larger categories. looking forward to modifications that enable old functionalities
the new UI echoes Rimworlds. at the very least you can re-bind the hotkeys to minimize clicking and scrolling with the mouse hand.
also, classic should restore these old ways. I think the game is selling very well, I hope as well as it needs to for future development! And financial security for the brothers, at last. in this sense, it was worth discarding the functional albeit obtuse old UI for the noob-friendly but clunky version we have now.
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I'm tempted to say No on replacing Dwarf Therapist, not with what we have right now. Partly because the game design has shifted. Everyone does every labor now, and then there are settings to narrow a workshop or labor to just specialists when you need it. It's super useful when you need any random dorf to chop out some blocks or some crappy beds for the dorm. But it's not as fine-grained unless you go to the trouble to set up a "detail" for every labor.
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Therapist... yeah less necessary. LW? Nope. I'd like for a nice viewer with pie charts and big lists to be integrated, but nothing beats LW for now.
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I'm tempted to say No on replacing Dwarf Therapist, not with what we have right now. Partly because the game design has shifted. Everyone does every labor now, and then there are settings to narrow a workshop or labor to just specialists when you need it. It's super useful when you need any random dorf to chop out some blocks or some crappy beds for the dorm. But it's not as fine-grained unless you go to the trouble to set up a "detail" for every labor.
I really don't understand this change. I mean I do get it as an acceptable 'basic' setting for people just starting out, but the lack of advanced option is baffling. I've played enough DF - I know what labours I want my dwarves to do and by whom.
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It's not simply a way of making it more accessible, though. It's an intended change that, going off of some other dev log stuff, meant to lead to other changes regarding labor such as apprenticeships. Besides, it has other benefits: there are several needs for some amount of "be creative" or "make something" that are easier to meet when you're not forced to find those dwarfs and, for some point in time, assign some crafting labor to them to meet that need before unassigning.
My understanding at this point, and I toyed with the concept prior to the Steam release by "simulating" the behavior in Dwarf Therapist with the pre-Steam version and seeing how it played, is that the way to have "specialist" dwarfs is to assign them their own workshop, rather than their own work detail. You ultimately need a workshop per specialized dwarf rather than letting them all share the same as before, but the net result is roughly the same. I imagine this will be expanded upon as guilds become more integral to forts and the assignment of labor.
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I'm tempted to say No on replacing Dwarf Therapist, not with what we have right now. Partly because the game design has shifted. Everyone does every labor now, and then there are settings to narrow a workshop or labor to just specialists when you need it. It's super useful when you need any random dorf to chop out some blocks or some crappy beds for the dorm. But it's not as fine-grained unless you go to the trouble to set up a "detail" for every labor.
I really don't understand this change. I mean I do get it as an acceptable 'basic' setting for people just starting out, but the lack of advanced option is baffling. I've played enough DF - I know what labours I want my dwarves to do and by whom.
If you really think that it's worth your time to make sure only certain dwarves are doing soap making, I am unconvinced that you actually know these things
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I'm tempted to say No on replacing Dwarf Therapist, not with what we have right now. Partly because the game design has shifted. Everyone does every labor now, and then there are settings to narrow a workshop or labor to just specialists when you need it. It's super useful when you need any random dorf to chop out some blocks or some crappy beds for the dorm. But it's not as fine-grained unless you go to the trouble to set up a "detail" for every labor.
I really don't understand this change. I mean I do get it as an acceptable 'basic' setting for people just starting out, but the lack of advanced option is baffling. I've played enough DF - I know what labours I want my dwarves to do and by whom.
If you really think that it's worth your time to make sure only certain dwarves are doing soap making, I am unconvinced that you actually know these things
meh that sure is a tone. anyone who has written characters into DF will disagree lol
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The thing I really missed is seeing what the dwarves are carrying
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The thing I really missed is seeing what the dwarves are carrying
That shows in the view of that dwarf.
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Yeah but I agree it was nice to see the flashing back and forth thing so you didn't have to go and view each hauler individually
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Flashing on and off would look a bit weird with graphics probably. But would definitely be nice to get the hauling visual back in classic.
You won't ever get sprites showing what each dwarf is hauling probably, there's just too much stuff.
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Flashing on and off would look a bit weird with graphics probably.
It already does this for multiple creatures on a tile.
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Flashing on and off would look a bit weird with graphics probably.
It already does this for multiple creatures on a tile.
Yeah, but that's not quite the same as flashing between "dwarf" and "crossbow bolt".
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Do you think that the Steam version's UI is good enough to replace external tools like Dwarf Therapist or Legends Viewer?
Steam version still needs work but yeah, it could do it after a few patches.
At the moment, a properly configured Therapist offers a better Labors functionality than the Labors system in Steam DF. The only exception is the ability to auto-assign miscellaneous jobs to any new dwarves which is a useful time saver. Not critical though - again, with a properly configured Therapist you only save yourself a few clicks per season. Steam DF also makes life easier for a new player by providing him a bunch of useful templates, but for any advanced player the difference between the amount of fine-tuning they need to do (either in Therapist on in the new Labors screen) is effectively the same.
Oh, and they really need to make predefined Labors editable and configurable, otherwise you're going to spend the game with a bunch of labors that you never use but which still take up precious space on the very first page of Labors screen (and occasionally receive accidental misclicks).
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any advanced player
See, this is precisely what has me so pissed off in all these threads. Is it inconceivable that the way you play isn't the literal best way to play? Because the implication that "any advanced player" is micromanaging every single dwarf is exactly that. You can't reasonably be accusing me of playstyle myopia and then turning around and saying that advanced players will universally be doing at most as well with the new system as with therapist. I believe you're an advanced player, I have no reason not to, and I don't really believe you're trying to say I'm not an advanced player, but clearly some part of you thinks that anyone who disagrees with you must not be or you wouldn't be saying stuff like that?
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weak point of 2d graphic, every action needs a sprite
who knows if they will be able to find a way instead of doubling the graphic for every sprite that carries something
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I would think that reusing the existing item graphics is definitely possible. Layering the item sprite over the dwarf carrying it would be enough imo.
Seeing what a dwarf is carrying without clicking on them would be nice.
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Yeah but I agree it was nice to see the flashing back and forth thing so you didn't have to go and view each hauler individually
True.
At the moment, a properly configured Therapist offers a better Labors functionality than the Labors system in Steam DF.
It offers much more than that just the ability to check and manage dwarf job allocations (military assignments and handle animals). You get an overview of everything in the fort in a very convenient way e.g. you can easily sort by migration wave and check everyone attributes and personality traits. Unfortunately the fnew UI seem to focus on being approachable rather than useful in this way for more advanced players.
Oh, and they really need to make predefined Labors editable and configurable, otherwise you're going to spend the game with a bunch of labors that you never use but which still take up precious space on the very first page of Labors screen (and occasionally receive accidental misclicks).
Agreed.