Game Development: Die Noobs, Die.

[RPGenie]

I will say one thing. When you start in dwarf fortress, usually you have a year's breathing time before a siege comes knocking on your door. While you can influence your chances of survival in H&H, a large slice of it can come down to luck if a bear knocks you out and steals your shoes or not straight next to your hearth fire. I imagine that this can and does drive away a player population.

Likewise, new players wishing to start out together under the current system have no in-game way of knowing what the trapdoor, the ladder, and what sherlock does. Chances are they'll have to walk for hours through level X wilderness to play together or roll a new character. This prevents people from forming that whole society of players banding together that this game touts and is a glaring example of terrible game design. Be honest now, if you started out fresh on a new game and were greeted with that introductory screen, you'd just start clicking buttons until stuff happened, right?

[g1real]

Why has every update so far lured me into the game only to make me realise it fucked up totally and makes me want to stay away even more.

[giftiger_wunsch]

Why has every update so far lured me into the game only to make me realise it fucked up totally and makes me want to stay away even more.

Did you expect an answer to that?

[Cicious]

Why has every update so far lured me into the game only to make me realise it fucked up totally and makes me want to stay away even more.

Somewhere I agree, I mean.. I finally managed to get a mine, me and my friends gotta build up a village. But, a village with a mine without a wall is too risky. We need atleast 10 Palisades to finish the village, with 4 players it will take AGES to reach the required items to get it, making me stay away even more.

[sabinati]

why not just build 1 big wall

[Cicious]

:?: why not just build 1 big wall

You need gates. And as the size, 1 gate will never be enough, and to keep everything safe we need around 4-5 gates.. That's a lot of pallisades

[RPGenie]

We need atleast 10 Palisades to finish the village, with 4 players it will take AGES to reach the required items to get it, making me stay away even more.

I hate to break it to you, but the game gets to be an even bigger grind after you get the pallisades, assuming you're interested in getting metal (you are.) The village route makes it less painful, since you can trade within your own village for metal, making for easier grinding. But that's the problem. It's still a grind. It's a long, loooong grind sandwich. While normally this is a fine situation with people of the opposite sex, an MMORPG needs an entertaining system in place for it to be any fun. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the current systems (Combat, farming, et al.) are a novelty that quickly wears its welcome.

[sabinati]

:?: why not just build 1 big wall

You need gates. And as the size, 1 gate will never be enough, and to keep everything safe we need around 4-5 gates.. That's a lot of pallisades

that's... 4-5 sections of pallisade

[lithos]

Game tends to become quite a bit easier as time goes on, with the exception of neighbor interference.

I have never gotten why people think the game is supposed to get "harder" as time goes on, it's supposed to get more entertaining as time goes on(which happens as you unlock more things you can do).

[Jackard]

http://dodonov.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Learning_curve.jpg

someone posted an edited version of this to read "haven and hearth" instead of dwarf fortress

part of the reason i posted my newbie guide and several of my suggestions were as a big "fuck you" to this image. still need to make it better...