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DF General Discussion / Re: *We need your help with game ending stress*
« on: July 01, 2020, 05:35:04 pm »
As a relatively new player (I just started a couple of weeks ago), I can only relate the struggles I've had with getting up to speed.
1. It's a lot of information to take in, especially as your fortress gets larger. It's not intuitive to figure out what's wrong and what to do to go about trying to correct it. There's a lot of looking up on the wiki to do. For me, that's fine but I wonder how many stop there after the first dozen lookups or so? Do many simply write it off, after a while, as the game is "too hard"?
2. Some of these things seem straight forward, but are not. For example, a dwarf stating that they're unhappy from not sleeping in a proper bed. I have more rooms (bed, chest and cabinet) than I do dwarves. Why are they not sleeping in it? Or, unhappiness about an inadequate meal when I have tons of masterpiece meals available. Why are they not eating it? Why are they unhappy drinking without a goblet when there are tons available? What seems to be a responsive solution to the problem doesn't "fix it" leading to a frustrating experience making the player feel like they're doing something wrong.
3. When you do finally see a problem with a dwarf and figure out the resolution, it doesn't always seem to address the issue. Perhaps it takes time, after implementing the fix (e.g. adding a bed), to see the happiness turnaround. But it feels like, it's a downward spiral that can be impossible to turn around from once it's started. As in, once they start spiraling it "feels" like it's almost too late at that point.
I knew going in that there was a steep learning curve, so these are not complaints, but merely my observations in response to the the original question. I'm way too new to suggest the fixes, but I am curious if there is a way to show that you're moving in the right direction as problems crop up?
1. It's a lot of information to take in, especially as your fortress gets larger. It's not intuitive to figure out what's wrong and what to do to go about trying to correct it. There's a lot of looking up on the wiki to do. For me, that's fine but I wonder how many stop there after the first dozen lookups or so? Do many simply write it off, after a while, as the game is "too hard"?
2. Some of these things seem straight forward, but are not. For example, a dwarf stating that they're unhappy from not sleeping in a proper bed. I have more rooms (bed, chest and cabinet) than I do dwarves. Why are they not sleeping in it? Or, unhappiness about an inadequate meal when I have tons of masterpiece meals available. Why are they not eating it? Why are they unhappy drinking without a goblet when there are tons available? What seems to be a responsive solution to the problem doesn't "fix it" leading to a frustrating experience making the player feel like they're doing something wrong.
3. When you do finally see a problem with a dwarf and figure out the resolution, it doesn't always seem to address the issue. Perhaps it takes time, after implementing the fix (e.g. adding a bed), to see the happiness turnaround. But it feels like, it's a downward spiral that can be impossible to turn around from once it's started. As in, once they start spiraling it "feels" like it's almost too late at that point.
I knew going in that there was a steep learning curve, so these are not complaints, but merely my observations in response to the the original question. I'm way too new to suggest the fixes, but I am curious if there is a way to show that you're moving in the right direction as problems crop up?