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Author Topic: Noob tutorial feedback needed  (Read 8427 times)

ral

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Noob tutorial feedback needed
« on: April 27, 2011, 06:47:19 pm »

In order to help save the noobs I decided to start working on improving this:

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Quickstart_guide (fortress mode "quick"start)

Most of this was originally written by GhostDwemer. I organized it into a lot of headings, elaborated on some stuff, updated it with some stuff for the latest version, and put some stuff in "tip boxes".

It still not really supposed to be a full tutorial as it doesn't always tell you exactly which key to hit exactly when, but hopefully it says enough that people can look up missing details without too much trouble. The goal is still to have something that people can use without a specific saved game (like Bentgirder) that's somewhere between a tutorial and a reference docs.

It would be great if someone could walk through the whole thing to make sure it's coherent and nothing major is missing, but any feedback (especially from people who just started learning the game) would be helpful.

Kepplerr

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2011, 08:05:00 pm »

Remember to add something about milkfish, and how they lure your poor dwarfs to a sad, watery death.
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ShinWalks

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2011, 09:02:42 pm »

Wow, that is a really, really huge improvement on the old one. (I used the old one to figure the game out a year ago.) Thank you so much! I love the gameplay-goals flowchart!

Bravo!
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ral

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2011, 10:00:03 pm »

Thanks.  The flowchart thing isn't mine though. It was already there and linked to from the tutorials and main page and I just sort of "integrated" it into the quickstart and reference docs.

zwei

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2011, 04:08:39 am »

Well, that flowchart looks pretty intimidating.

greycat

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2011, 10:13:22 am »

I touched things up here & there.  Overall it seems very good, but I'm not the target audience, so my feedback may not be what you need.
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zwei

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2011, 04:06:13 am »

I have some ideas:

1) Hide "extra info".

For example, player should not be bothered with worldgen options when it does not really do that much for tutorial overall.

It is usefull info, but it should be hidden as a "spoiler" - as it is more like "optional excercise" from textbook rather than vital information for brand new df player.

I would for example hide discussion why having or not having some features at embark is important and just present player with list of must-have and nice-to-have - discussing traps/milita and their relationship to goblins is not really something you want to do when player is picking spot. Besides, it is self explanatory. In similar vein, you can just tell player that trees are vital and conveniently skip part about breaching caverns - in tutorial, breaching caverns should not be happening for fairly long time.

I can say same thing about picking your starting build - default build is good enough and contains all vital things and little more even. Having option to see more info and explantions is important, but unless player will face quick doom without it, it is less important than keeping guide easy to follow.

ral

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2011, 12:46:35 pm »

greycat: thanks for the edits.

zwei: I sort of agree. Most of the stuff like the starting build I wouldn't have done if I were starting from scratch, but the info was already there and I don't like to just delete stuff off of a wiki if there isn't something factually wrong with it or something. The idea of creating a "spoiler" type box for extra details doesn't seem like a bad one though.

The specific worldgen options are mentioned though to make sure that the player doesn't create a difficult to deal with world. I mean they have to generate a world so might as well give them some safe parameters to start with.

ral

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2011, 07:19:03 pm »

Ok, all the theoretical details about the embark location and the "prepare carefully" stuff has been moved to subpages and linked as optional. I also went though and removed any references to things players might have done during the prepare carefully stuff since that is now optional.

The flowchart is still there but I've tried to emphasize in the captions that it can just be ignored because the guide will tell you what to do.

Escobatt

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2012, 11:13:27 pm »

Just registered to say thanks alot of the guide! Without it and the lazy newb pack i would not be enjoying dwarf fortress right now. Thanks again!
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robertheinrich

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2012, 02:32:09 am »

You should mention that the trade depot needs a 3 tile wide path leading to the map edge if you want wagons to come in. Yes, the link to trade depot explains that, but your paragraph only consists of a single line, so some additional info might not hurt.
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morikal

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2012, 02:09:58 am »

I've been away from the game for a long while, so I figured I'd give the tutorial a shot.

It is a great resource--thanks for putting it together.

I have one question/problem: when I build traps near my entrance, my Depot becomes inaccessible. Am I doing something wrong, or was there an update that makes traps block the wagon?

Thanks!
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Zivilin

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Re: Noob tutorial feedback needed
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2012, 04:52:45 am »

There was indeed an update that makes traps block wagon access to the Trade Depot. Slightly more elaborate fortress defense designs are necessary to protect the trading area.
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