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I'd say it takes maybe 8 hours max to start understanding the interface and art. With regard to learning the mechanics that can be hugely accelerated if you kno

I'd say it takes maybe 8 hours max to start understanding the interface and art. With regard to learning the mechanics that can be hugely accelerated if you know how to save scum. Basically you move your save files out of the default save folder regularly and then if something happens that you don't like you can restore a previous snapshot of your fortress. This is good for newbies because it allows you to try out different ways to avoid or recover from various things like tantrum spirals, invasions, etc before the fortress is completely ruined and the game ends. Rather than taking 120 different games to master the mechanics you can master the mechanics over 120 save and restore iterations on the same game, so you don't have to waste time rebuilding from scratch. It's also fun to try to never let a single dwarf die (from anything other than old age) or get a significant injury, and never let a single strange mood go unsatisfied.

fapjacks 11y ago
I would say eight hours is a figure you've derived in hindsight. I have walked at least a handful of people through playing DF (without DFHack or other mods), and eight hours playtime is not sufficient for learning some of the things necessary for survival (e.g. a military), even sticking with the same save and therefore having a kind of prescience about invasions and such.
- NathanKP 11y ago
  I guess I'm always the type to read the wiki so I quickly learned the "exploit" way to train up an impressive fighting force: build mechanisms and set up a room full of poor quality light wood spikes linked to a lever that is being continuously pulled by another dwarf, then station your squad of unlucky soldiers inside that room with the door locked (keeping a careful eye on them to remove anyone with excessive bruising so they don't pass out and get slowly poked to death). Eventually your dwarves get ninja level dodging skills. At that point they are pretty much invincible because they can't be hit by enemies and can just punch the goblins to death while dodging every attack. (I once had a dwarf trained in this manner kill a forgotten beast inside one of the underground cave levels with a silk sock taken from the corpse of a less skilled worker dwarf who had been slaughtered by the beast). It took forever but he survived. But anyway, speed of learning aside there is practically endless variation in techniques to take advantage of in Dwarf Fortress, and if you choose you can discover them all yourself through slow experience, or you can read up in the wiki to get a jumpstart, but either way you end up having a lot of FUN.
- Thimothy 11y ago
  Agree with that. Hell knows that I have spent more than eight hours in that game and still haven't been able to defeat a goblin invasion through a decently trained military. There are other ways though, I usually go the overly-complicated-lava-filled-valley-trap route.

fapjacks 11y ago

I would say eight hours is a figure you've derived in hindsight. I have walked at least a handful of people through playing DF (without DFHack or other mods), and eight hours playtime is not sufficient for learning some of the things necessary for survival (e.g. a military), even sticking with the same save and therefore having a kind of prescience about invasions and such.

NathanKP 11y ago
I guess I'm always the type to read the wiki so I quickly learned the "exploit" way to train up an impressive fighting force: build mechanisms and set up a room full of poor quality light wood spikes linked to a lever that is being continuously pulled by another dwarf, then station your squad of unlucky soldiers inside that room with the door locked (keeping a careful eye on them to remove anyone with excessive bruising so they don't pass out and get slowly poked to death). Eventually your dwarves get ninja level dodging skills. At that point they are pretty much invincible because they can't be hit by enemies and can just punch the goblins to death while dodging every attack. (I once had a dwarf trained in this manner kill a forgotten beast inside one of the underground cave levels with a silk sock taken from the corpse of a less skilled worker dwarf who had been slaughtered by the beast). It took forever but he survived. But anyway, speed of learning aside there is practically endless variation in techniques to take advantage of in Dwarf Fortress, and if you choose you can discover them all yourself through slow experience, or you can read up in the wiki to get a jumpstart, but either way you end up having a lot of FUN.
Thimothy 11y ago
Agree with that. Hell knows that I have spent more than eight hours in that game and still haven't been able to defeat a goblin invasion through a decently trained military. There are other ways though, I usually go the overly-complicated-lava-filled-valley-trap route.