Blind play?

[Wallsh]

So I am in one of those ruts where there is nothing out there I am interested in playing. I have long heard about Dwarf Fortress. It has always interested me but I always hear that the game is unplayable without doing extensive guide reading and etc.

I like to blind play games but I have been told the UI is nonexistent/terrible and you cannot even know what you need to do without seeking out this information.

What are your thoughts on this?

Also I do not like mods so I am strictly talking about the game itself

[Albatross]

Steam version is very accessible from a ui perspective . If you get the idea of Rimworld or other colony sims you will get the basics very fast.

[Helios]

Game is not like modern games where they hold your hand all the time you have to look up stuff for yourself it starts with simple things like that there is no iron ore ingame , they have real life names like hematite or magnetite or malchite for copper , some things also need workarounds example ro make magmasave mechanisms from stone you need to setup a mechanic workshop that only takes from a stockpile that only acepts magma save stones as the recipe in mechnic workshop is just make stone mechanism.

[FriendCalledFive]

If you have played any colony sims like Rimworld, it isn't hard to adapt to the basics of DF.

The reputation of DF being hard is from pre-Steam when people played it in ASCII with arcane keyboard shortcuts, but the Steam version makes very approachable.

[madpraxis]

All over exaggerated, honestly.
It takes some effort to figure out how things work, for sure. Better with the new graphical version.
Hell, I've played it since it first came out. Even then it wasn't that hard to figure out. Despite what people state, you literally had all the shortcut keys visible on the UI, so.... You know...
Like, literally the only thing I ever looked up in all these years is when I took a break for a year or two, and came back to a new military setup screen. Which, I'll admit, I looked up how people were using it to spare myself the confusion.

Steam version? Much handier, much easier. And slowly... I want to say improving, but... Yea, I will, that's about the closest term possible.

Give it a try.
It's good fun.

[Wallsh]

Originally posted by madpraxis:

All over exaggerated, honestly.
It takes some effort to figure out how things work, for sure. Better with the new graphical version.
Hell, I've played it since it first came out. Even then it wasn't that hard to figure out. Despite what people state, you literally had all the shortcut keys visible on the UI, so.... You know...
Like, literally the only thing I ever looked up in all these years is when I took a break for a year or two, and came back to a new military setup screen. Which, I'll admit, I looked up how people were using it to spare myself the confusion.

Steam version? Much handier, much easier. And slowly... I want to say improving, but... Yea, I will, that's about the closest term possible.

Give it a try.
It's good fun.

Thank you! I love figuring stuff out which is why I usually go in blind and avoid mods. This was the first game where every person I spoke to was just like "ya no the UI and game are so unclear you HAVE TO look it up"

I appreciate your response and I think I am going to buy the game, so cheers!

[Les]

In my Experience on a blind play, with this game of all games. Be ready for stuff to go wrong. A LOT(well maybe not a lot, but often enough to learn what you did wrong). The Original game when I first played it I didn't even know about Z levels. You can do a lot with the game without knowing what to do, There is no wrong way to play Dwarf Fortress. most of the time it's about having a cool fort going until that "Wrong" happens. Only thing I wouldn't recommend on a Blind play is attempting to generate your own Custom World Gen. Stick with the pre-sets and Just go have fun. All forts eventually fall. Unless you're cheating (Df hacks). But it is entirely possible to figure out the game just from repetition.

[ndjs]

Your greatest challenge is FPS death rly..

[GarfieldCultist]

A lot of the the comments made about the UI and needing a guide to learn how to play come from earlier versions of the game before the Steam release. Back then there was very little mouse support so a lot of the skill curve was in learning the keybinds.

The Steam version has full mouse controls and your first embark on each newly generated world will have a basic starter tutorial so you can get an idea for the basics.

[AlP]

This is not a game you can play blind. It's very deep, with unexpected mechanics and interactions, that require you to either know something before you play or research as you play it.

Even veteran players and modders keep the wiki open to at least check some things.

[CringePotato]

You could play this game pretty much blind and enjoy it, but there are certain mechanics or features that would be worth checking the wiki pages for, though you could probably piece it together yourself.

[Nilserrich]

You can do this until you reach a limit or really can't find a solution or answer yourself. And yes, it is quite demanding. But your approach promises to be a lot of fun.

[Country Square]

Personally I always found adventure mode to be a good tutorial to get used to the more DFy elements of DF in a more familiar classic rougelike setting before jumping into the more complex fort mode, so if you're really concerned and willing to wait a 6 or so weeks for adventure mode to release I'd do that, although as others have said if you've played some colony sims then it might be easier to adapt to fortress mode, the UI is perfect for new players now though so no worries there.