So what is frustrating you the most about Dwarf Fortress?
Odd choices of UI. The custom stockpile is the best/worst example. I scroll up and down the list to the broad category I want, then I have to allow or block that category, then I have to permit or forbid a group, then I can use the enter key to turn on or off specific items, plus a random letter for some other oddball items (sand bags, prepared food). More generally, trying to remember which set of scroll keys to use on which screen. These don't seem like massive fixes to me; simply scrap the BAPF keys and let me use arrows + Enter to select on all menus. If there are side by side menus, then left and right are used to change menus and up and down scroll on that menu. Fast scroll should be page up and page down. That's what the keys are called for a reason; people expect things to scroll pagewise when they use them.
I'd love a way to save custom stockpiles. I always want to remove bone, skulls, shells, and fresh hides from my main refuse pile. I want to have a dye stockpile, a thread stockpile, a cloth stockpile, a seed stockpile, etc etc, and I'd like to not have to go through the same long menu sequence every time I set one up. (plant stockpiles for the mill/still/farmer workshop are the worst for this, as I haven't memorized which plants can be processed at which shop, so I have to alt tab to the wiki five times for each stockpile I set up.)
In the same "repetition is hell" vein, many more first level workshops need to have the auto jobs like the loom, butcher & tanner. I swear at the fish cleaners every single time I play. I tell them to clean fish every time I notice that the raw fish stockpile is overflowing. They go clean a couple, cancel because the rest are already rotten, and then I notice twenty minutes later that the stockpile is filling up with raw fish again. Raw fish = automatic fish cleaning job. Brewable plant = automatic brewing job. Ditto milling. Ditto bagging leaves. Maybe instead of a Repeat option, many jobs should have an auto option?
Generally, my problem isn't that the interface makes the game hard to learn, my problem is that the interface makes the game tedious to play; between the inconsistencies (What, exactly is the purpose of the F9 to exit screens?) & the forced repetition, the UI is going to frustrate some potential long term players to the point of quitting.
There could be some better documentation on how to do things as well (frex how to get the dwarves to store artifact craftwork in a 1 tile stockpile to simulate putting it on display in the dining hall or even what the difference between core and overall quality is), and what different creatures in the game are (is that slugman something my 4 wrestlers can take out? Damned if I know!) but that's a back seat imo.
