DwarfCorp News

Both unstable branches have been updated. if you are on Linux or Mac, don't use the WindowsFNA branch. You'll just get the stable version if you do.

Some of the changes in this version:

• Fixed a bunch of bugs.
  
• Rebalanced dwarf pay and levels. Now, it takes far more experience to level up, so dwarves won't demand promotions quite as soon. Also, implemented across the board paycuts. That's what they deserve for trying to unionize.
  
• Tweaked the attacks of some hostile creatures.
  
• A slime draws near!
  
  Okay. A lot of slimes draw near. Slimes will spawn in every biome. Aren't they adorable?
  
• Treasuries have been robbed. You won't be needing them anymore.
  
• Added new bugs to fix later.
  

The current plan is for the next stable release in July, however we are leaning towards delaying that because it will absolutely break all save games. Until then, and whatever decision we make, the unstable branches remain available.

The unstable branch has been updated.

Most of what's included in this update is performance improvements, as discussed in the previous update. You won't necessarily see changes unless you push the limits - That being said, these changes do allow the generation of much larger worlds.

Do not use the Windows FNA branch unless you are actually on Windows, as it includes the stable builds for Linux and Mac.

In the last release of the unstable branch, a world size (called 'ram killer') was added without an announcement. This size is 80*80 chunks, or (at a default depth of 64) 104 million voxels. It's not actually possible to load that size world in the unstable branch because the memory needs of the geometry buffers used for rendering exceeds the limits of a 32 bit process.

Well, that's no longer the case, and these worlds will be available in the unstable branch soon - and are expected to make it into the next official release. A bit of work we couldn't get done for the official release has finally paid off and now we can discard geometry for chunks not in view as needed, bringing the memory usage in the shot below back under 1 GB.



We've also been experimenting with fog of war, and the possibility of not revealing the surface. This works quite well and has for a while, but was left out so far because it doesn't play well with slicing as you can see below. Also, it's a bit odd for a full 3d camera. Does this even make sense when, presumably, dwarves could see what's a fair distance away?

The unstable branch has been updated to version 19.4.11.

There is also an additional FNA unstable branch available for windows only (Linux and OSX already use FNA on the main branch). The FNA version is, all around, just plain better - but may not run on older systems. Users who can run it should, as they will enjoy improved performance and less issues with windows 10 randomly dropping their graphics device context.

So what's in this update?

First - deeper worlds! A change in the way chunks are stored on disc allowed us to make the depth of the world variable. When creating a new world you can choose to make it up to 128 levels deep. Honestly, it might be a bit too much!



Next, elevators. Dwarves use these to move quickly up and down, but each elevator can only carry one dwarf at a time. Dwarves can be quite lazy, so be careful where you put these as they might just line up waiting for them and take longer to get places. If you want to try these out, use the god menu (press g) and find 'elevator shaft' under 'spawn'. Their front end integration isn't done yet.



Other changes:

• The pause menu was upside down. Now it's not.
  
• Prompt before quitting a game.
  
• AutoScale wasn't being applied to all GUI elements.
  
• Fixed memory leak that slowly filled up video ram every time the game was saved.
  
• Fixed the wrong rail tiles appearing when laying an S curve across an S curve in a way that, honestly, nobody would ever do because it's completely silly.
  
• Fixed a crash involving necrophiliac animals (No seriously. Sometimes, two animals would choose to mate right before one died, and...)
  
• Lamps now grant a status buff.
  
• Active buffs can be viewed from employee screen (click the stats)
  
• Dwarves get debuffs for being hungry, tired, etc.
  

An unstable branch is now available. You can opt-in to it in your steam library.

1. Open Steam to your library page.
2. Right click DwarfCorp on the left and choose properties.
3. Set your beta choice to 'unstable' on the beta tab.

During early access, It wasn't really advantageous to have a separate unstable branch (Let's be honest here - it was an unstable branch the whole time), but now that we have released we will not be updating the main branch with incomplete features. New features will be available in the unstable branch first. Be aware that saves will not be compatible between the main and the unstable branch.

Please also to remember to update your game even if you are not opting to try the beta. The current version is 19.03.17. We still receive daily crash reports for version 19.02.01, for issues that have been fixed.