Bay 12 Games Forum

I actually like the interface because it's so very fast to use once you're used to it (after about a week for me). Almost every command can be accessed by pressing 4 or less keys; no finding the right button, moving the mouse, clicking, moving the mouse to the other side of the screen for the next button and so on. Of course, learning the 20 or so most important keys first is part of the learning curve (or rather, learning cliff), but once that's done, it's absolutely worth it.

As for the graphics: Not necessary in my opinion. I currently play with a slightly modified 12x12 version of the curses set and find it way easier to see what's happening than with most graphics packs. A horde of goblins does look very different from a herd of mountain goats and I have no problem finding the dog in a pile of dragons (it's the burning one)
If there were better possibilities for graphics (as planned in the presentation arc, I think), I think, I'd try again. The thing that bothers me most is that many different things use the same tile from a tileset. Chairs and Tables look like part of drawbridges, so if I want to give a chair a different image, there will be random chair-symbols in my bridges. Or if I decide to draw a nice lever for the ó and ò letters, there will be nicely drawn levers in the names of my dwarves - not what I had planned.
But as I said, there's no problem with ASCII-based sets. There's a wide selection and some even look pretty nice and you can always make your own. I'm already like Morpheus in the Matrix: "I don't see the code. I only see blondes, brunettes, redheads..."

No, that's currently not possible. But you can make a one tile artifacts only stockpile for whatever type its is and disable artifacts from other stockpiles and it will be placed wherever you want. It won't raise the room's value, but dwarves will admire it and get a very happy thought. It's a good idea to place these stockpiles in common areas like main hallways or meeting areas, so that many dwarves will see them.

I'm shocked by the number of elves... what's wrong with this forum?

I'm human with a bit of dwarf, btw.

Also, there should be an answer E: MAGMA!

for the squad menu, then select your squads with the letters (you can select multiple my pressing shift) and then [k] and select the colossus for the kill order. Not that bronze colossi are currently almost unkillable. Unless one of you soldiers has a lot of luck and severes the head with a single blow, magma or dragonfire is the only solution. Look up "bronze colossus" at the wiki for details.
Have Fun.

Nope, that's pretty normal.
I just had an adept jeweler and liar arrive... "Just hand me all the nice precious stones. I'm a jeweler, you know "

My current fort ist still new - only 19 dwarves. I ordered the starting 7 to dig down into the caves right from the beginning. First there was a giant underground lake, but the next cave was a nice forest by a lakeside. I was just walling off a small living area (GCS webs make me nervous), when  5 troglodytes appeared out of nowhere.
Nobody got hurt  (except the trogs), as miners are so deadly and my woodcutter's a decent axedwarf. Ok, now finish that wall, before even worse stuff comes through... why exactly are there so many crundles in my farming area?
I propose "crundle" to be a new verb, as in "My base got crundled so badly, I had to draft everybody into the militia". These guys are so annoying. Nobody got hurt (the expedition leader got his fat bruised, whatever that means), but every time I try to build something, another horde comes along and interrupts everything 

Prepare for friendly wizards riding fluffy wamblers coming to trade and attacks of hordes of amphibious dragons... bugged raws can be so much fun

The search function is your friend.
Search the suggestions forum and you will find that there have been a lot of ideas in threads concerning magic. Something like that will be implemented some day with the magic arc, but it won't be very soon.