Bay 12 Games Forum

Well, if such is the case, it's clear your group is a bunch of shamed outcasts, and so deserve the terrible things that shall be done to them.

While they are on fire.

Worst case, you should, IIRC, be able to butcher them if they are still in a cage.

Japan needs to realized that they are almost as bad at admitting and breaking bad habits as America, and if that phrase translates well that might be the most effective way to explain it.

Much as I love Japan, I have to admit the cultural pressure to conform and not cause problems makes them prone to deny a problem exists than to deal with it.  Speak no evil indeed.

Hrm.

Haven't used D12 myself yet, but that's possible in theory.

However, the game uses the same tileset for map tiles and the text for menus, so all the text would be, I think, stuck at the large size, regardless of the zoom.

Eh.

I mostly get the ASCII, but I prefer tilesets.  'Course, I started with a set from the get-go, and have merged and altered 5-6 sets to make the one I use now, which I'm sure biases me a bit.

Hrm.

Before I learned the ropes, it was the interface.  The menu system isn't very intuitive for me, and even with my fort in it's 5th year it can still take me a few tries to recall which menu option that, say, building stairs, is under.

However, I found DF via the tale of Boatmurder, so I knew about the ASCII, and I found Boatmurder via TVtropes, so I new about the wiki and the existence of graphic sets, so I was well armed from the get-go on those fronts.

My best advise, given that, would be to include a link to the wiki either with the game or in the in-game help itself.

IIRC, DF was once described (on TVTropes I think) as a game with many ways to fail, but with no victory that you don't make for yourself.  This is not like most games (and is why I love it), but is going to confuse many people who don't know what they are in for.

Best thing you can do for that is tutorials and/or scenarios, maybe in the form of a pre-built fort in which you are promoted for certain things to be done in a certain order.

Lastly, even now, I have trouble managing jobs in my fort.  Part of this is related to the interface (it's hard to figure out just what exactly is the issue in any given case), and part of is me not having had the time yet to learn about using the manager screen.

I notice that idle animals will tend to go to the meeting hall.

So, lets say there is a Ranch zone you can define, either for all animals or a specific kind.  Animals selected should tend to go there, much like they currently do to the meeting hall.  Further, once in such a zone, the pathfinding cost to step outside of it should go up (not by a huge degree, but enough to make them prefer to stay in over going out).  Building a wall/fence around the area is the only way to ensure the animals stay in.  Maybe dwarves with Animal Care or Animal Training jobs will be able to herd the animals into the correct ranch as they wander.

As for doors... well, I think that setting a door to not permit pets should work.  As is, any time a dwarf passes, at least one of his pets can follow him, if not all of them, which makes it kinda pointless.  So long as the doors block pets from entering, you don't have to worry about them getting stuck inside.

So, now if you have a defined ranch with walls and a door, and you want to get a critter out?

Build a cage inside, put the animal in and have it haul off for... whatever.