Let's say it's still too insanely complex.

[The Former]

I'm the type who prefers to learn by doing (and failing) as much as I can, rather than reading about how I should be doing things right off the bat. I intend to learn that way with Dwarf Fortress. But let's say I simply can't wrap my head around it. Let's say there's too much information at once and I'm just not absorbing anything.

In such a situation, are there any veteran suggestions with regard to learning the game slowly? "Eating the elephant", as it were? I know the wiki's a good source, I've seen links here and there, but I'm looking more for... Are there systems I can mostly ignore until I've learned others, for instance? Are there things I might see onscreen and think I have to take in but really it's wasteful information until I've gasped simpler things, or some connected subsystem?

[McFuzz]

You'll be able to pick it up thanks to the tutorial. And it's a very easy premise. Keep the dwarves alive. Your first fort should be figuring out food and drink production chains and keeping the first few migrant waves happy, but let's assume you won't be militarily prepared.

Worst case scenario, turtle. Right now, you can build a raising drawbridge hooked up to a lever and lock yourself in; and shut the gate whenever trouble arises. Use it liberally, because once enemies can dig you'll be left in the cold lol.

Using this start you can safely learn the game, and use the wiki to look up the rest.

Or maybe something will sneak through, or break the bridge, or climb in, or the problem will come from within, who knows haha.

[EddyVegas]

I just started learning DF about 10 days ago to learn some of the systems. I tried to learn by 'doing', and i can tell you, that doesn't work. I finally ended up here:

Play in a window.
Have the wiki open too.
Any time you can't do something, or;
Any time you find something new (what the heck is tourmaline and what's it good for?),
Hit the wiki.
if the wiki is still not helping, go to youtube. (sometimes you literally need to see whatever step by step process is confusing you executed in real time.)

[⚔TonkRogerio⚔]

ok disclosure, I have only played DF briefly for a few hours about 7 or so years ago and I couldn't take the controls. I have however played a multitude of DF clones from gnomoria to towns to rimworld etc. I've played a lot of them even the ones with the side view angle like oxygen not included and craft the world etc. I've also watched a bunch of videos on DF as I'm super psyched to finally be able to play this game with good controls. My point is, despite me not really playing Df that much, I do understand it very well and I understand the genre very well also.

DF is not that complex to play if you've already played other games in the genre. if you haven't then you're going to have a steep learning curve to first understand the genre but after that you're ok. You will mostly be fine and the complexity in the game comes mostly from the game itself rather than the way you play. There obviously is a ton of stuff to do but once you understand how colony sims work, you'll be able to pick up different systems for the game pretty easily.
Yes you can absolutely ignore systems in the game. that's the beauty of DF even compared to other colony sims. You really do play as you please. If you want to min max so that you can dig deeper than any dwarf has ever dug then you can watch videos and read the wiki, etc. if not then you can just learn from the fact that you got bum rushed by demons for digging way too far down without being prepared for it. But yes, you will absolutely learn from your mistakes in colony sims. That's actually one of the things that makes them so much fun. Just be prepared to lose your whole castle over noobie mistakes before you start learning by yourself. if you're fine with that (it's actually tons of aggro but also tons of fun lol) then you're golden.

Can't wait.

[McFuzz]

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

spoilers

No spoilers for new players, it's called Hidden Fun Stuff for a reason :3
Although I think OP would know by now he's been posting here all week. Just as hype as the rest of us ❤

[McFuzz]

If you don't wanna learn an industry at that time, then you can just buy the end-product from traders. Like in the above example, you can just buy bins of cloth for your first fort and worry about the other industries first. You can even order stuff from the dwarves if you're really stumped on one.

[The Former]

Thanks lads! Appreciate all the suggestions. Hopefully I won't need too much support, but it's good to know I can come back here and remind myself of some things I might be missing during the initial onboarding process, should the amount of detail in this game just overwhelm me.

For now I'm eager to strike the earth and let the information flow at me like a stream of subterranean demons I shouldn't have agitated!

[The Former]

Originally posted by Frank McFuzz:

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

spoilers

No spoilers for new players, it's called Hidden Fun Stuff for a reason :3
Although I think OP would know by now he's been posting here all week. Just as hype as the rest of us ❤

Yep, all good. :)

[⚔TonkRogerio⚔]

Originally posted by Frank McFuzz:

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

spoilers

No spoilers for new players, it's called Hidden Fun Stuff for a reason :3
Although I think OP would know by now he's been posting here all week. Just as hype as the rest of us ❤

What are you on about? Unless I'm breaking some sort of rule in the forums how about you focus on what you're doing and let people be.

[The Former]

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

Originally posted by Frank McFuzz:

No spoilers for new players, it's called Hidden Fun Stuff for a reason :3
Although I think OP would know by now he's been posting here all week. Just as hype as the rest of us ❤

What are you on about? Unless I'm breaking some sort of rule in the forums how about you focus on what you're doing and let people be.

I think he's just saying, with games like this, many people will want to discover things on the fly (which is true of me). But as he said, I've been here long enough that nothing was spoiled anyway, so all good all around.

[⚔TonkRogerio⚔]

Originally posted by Lockfågel, the Paradox Knight:

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

What are you on about? Unless I'm breaking some sort of rule in the forums how about you focus on what you're doing and let people be.

I think he's just saying, with games like this, many people will want to discover things on the fly (which is true of me). But as he said, I've been here long enough that nothing was spoiled anyway, so all good all around.

Yea I don't think that was a spoiler. it's pretty well known. I hate spoilers as much as the next guy but I don't hate them as much as random dudes who try to tell other people how to behave.

[The Former]

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

Originally posted by Lockfågel, the Paradox Knight:

I think he's just saying, with games like this, many people will want to discover things on the fly (which is true of me). But as he said, I've been here long enough that nothing was spoiled anyway, so all good all around.

Yea I don't think that was a spoiler. it's pretty well known. I hate spoilers as much as the next guy but I don't hate them as much as random dudes who try to tell other people how to behave.

All good, he meant well and your stance is valid too. Long as he wasn't doing it to be a jerk and you weren't handing out spoilers, we can all move on in peace, eh? :D

[Zoopy]

Learning the basics should be very simple if you've ever played a colony sim. The difficulty almost always comes from trying to do more complex stuff.

If you're really having a hard time, you can look at Gnomoria. I played Gnomoria before Dwarf Fortress and it served as a great introduction to to DF, because most of the basics worked exactly like DF, but was just easier to digest because of the visuals. Chances are the DF Steam version will have an equally good tutorial, though.

[McFuzz]

It's regarded as a "massive spoiler" on the wiki. No it's not a forum rule, but it's typical Dwarf Fortress etiquette to use either codewords (clowns/hidden fun stuff/ candy) or spoiler tags when referring to the very late game content or surprise content.

[Deformerad Dallarydsbo]

When I learned Elona+ and CDDA and Caves of Qud which are ascii games but not near as complex as DF and only 1 z level I had two monitors, one for wiki or a tutorial and one for the game, I have dusted off an old LCD just for dwarf fortress and I imagine it can be helpful

[⚔TonkRogerio⚔]

Originally posted by Rat:

Originally posted by ⚔TonkRogerio⚔:

Yea I don't think that was a spoiler. it's pretty well known. I hate spoilers as much as the next guy but I don't hate them as much as random dudes who try to tell other people how to behave.

It's definitely a spoiler, that's why the entire wiki page for HFS is in spoilers

Except it's not because it's not a story. it's a mechanic and the devs are constantly talking about it so if they think it's fine to bring it up then I think it's fine to bring it up.
If you dig too far down there are demons :/