Bay 12 Games Forum

I wouldn't say I'm conflicted. I like the game a lot, and I like Toady a lot, so I donate

It could be so much more, and I wish it was. But to get there we'd need Toady to make radical changes to himself. That's crazy to expect or to even ask for.

Dude, you're waltzing into a forum of a game that's been in development for over a decade and in the span of 2 weeks you're acting like you've got it all figured out; not just the game, but also the developer and his goals and what the players want

Fresh perspectives are great, but you need to seriously chill

DF used to be hard for two main reasons: completely unfair bugs, and as a nearly hardcoded path to failure to force people to explore their (ruined) forts

Things have changed since then. Those bugs have been fixed. Toady found new ways to make the world feel alive and full of stories beyond forcing the player to explore a ruined fort.

If you're looking for a true challenge then embark on a map with undead - you'll get curbstomped. Or dig down past the magma - you'll get curbstomped. If that's the experience you're looking for it's still there. Thankfully, it's just no longer the priority of this game

Definitely agree with the main point in this topic that something should probably be done regarding the weird sameness of the world.

I think the having-cake-and-eat-it-too solution is to nudge the game toward the more "time appropriate" or even "genre appropriate" model of gendered names, clothing, and other such things, but then allow the culture generator to have its way with the whole thing

I searched, and while there are a few topics discussing UI improvements I felt was necessary to call this out in specific.

The Thoughts screen is in some trouble. The amount of info it contains has increased over the years and its grown from a simple collection of thoughts and preferences and has since turned into a 30 page dossier created by the NSA

It's not just a "nice to have" feature anymore. A dwarf's personality, needs, physicality, etc. all have actual impacts on gameplay and in some cases dramatically so.

It's time to move away form the walls of text and make it a bit more readable

Here are a few suggestions

1. Add 2 Line Breaks Between Sections
This is the easiest one to implement. It doesn't address how vertically "long" the screen is, but it makes it far easier to parse. 

Simply add a double line break so that sections are separated by a blank line. This is a standard when separating paragraphs without using an indent.


2. Give Each Section a Title
Thoughts and Preferences contains way more than those two things these days. The UI should be updated to remind the user what each section actually is

All players could benefit from a reminder, but new players - particularly viewers of Let's Plays - would find such info vital.

Something like:

Personal Values
Like others of her culture, she holds craftsdwarfship to be of the highest...etc

Personality
She has little interest in playing around. She needs alcohol to get through the working day...etc


3. Hide Extraneous Information
There are generally two use cases for accessing Thoughts:
-I need to know a vital piece of information so I can perform a game action, like assigning them a job, addressing their needs, addressing their unhappiness, etc.
-I want to know flavor information about a dwarf, often in the context of sharing the dwarf in a Let's Play situation

I'd propose that Thoughts have two 'modes' that you can toggle with a button.

The first mode shows the basics or "rolled up" versions of each section. For example, if a dwarf is largely undistracted it'll simple say "She is undistracted" and will not display the 15-20 factors contributing to her undistraction.

The second mode shows the expanded version, which is what we have today


4. Consolidate Redundant Text
This one is harder by virtue of the fact there's a text generator that needs to worry about all sorts of possible strings that may or may not exist, strings that can could vary in wording and length, etc. etc..

That said, consolidating accomplishes two things:
-You reduce the amount of words, making it look less daunting
-You improve the 'flow' of a sentence, making it easier to read, conceptualize, and memorize

"She is a citizen of the Youthful Basement. She is a member of the Fleshy Crypt" -> "She is a citizen of the Youthful Basement and a member of the Fleshy Crypt"

"Her hair is straight. Her very long hair is arranged in double braids. Her hair is flax" -> "Her very long flaxen hair is straight and arranged in double braids"

I know this has been suggested before and some areas are already 'consolidated', but look for some more easy wins

I'm still pretty confused. I'm having a hard time visualizing something like the Headless Horseman lumbering toward you only to suddenly drop dead because you cut off a single hand

Undead have a lot of problems, but I thought the current "must-have-at-least-one-grasp" system was pretty clever. With all the other nerfs and changes I feel the grasp change isn't necessary, but hey, we'll see. Either way I'm glad to know the undead won't be the game-enders they are today

I'll change my answer to tonight

I know that Toady is from WA, so I wonder if he's ever been to San Juan island. I hope so, as per today's devlog, he basically simulated the Pig War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War

Thanks, Toady!