From the point that I stopped playing DF, every update has actively made the "Fortress mode" actively worse.
Instead of improving the fortress experience, the dev went full on his "open-ended "story generator"" and adventure mode. Which is cool, but the majority of players came for the fortress and never even touched the adventure mode. And lo and behold, the Steam version comes Fortress first. Wonder why?
The developer pushes boundaries by implementing things like "short and long term memories" for dorfs, yet the game still bogs down to a slideshow even with modern tech. You can send raiding parties outside of the fort, yet military management is still nightmare material.
What the game (fortress mode) really needs is an editor and "redux" version. No 300 types of leather on the UI, if leather has no special properties, it is leather. If you want cosmetics, dye it - voila, you have black leather. No 600 Z-levels on the map. Cut out the superficial annoyances and focus on the core features: building the fort, sieges and dorf management.
Once the game runs well with large fortress and all the production and military can be comfortably managed, then you can think of adding more things to manage for the end game.
But slim chance of that ever happening. I can't fault Toady-fuck for doing what he likes to do, if that's what keeps his motivation up, good for him. But seeing how misaligned the vision for "Dwarf Fortress" is, I wouldn't give him a dime.
