DwarfCorp News

Pushed an update that fixes an issue that could corrupt save files.

Here comes the August update - and soon it will be September - and oh god, I'm getting old.

So lately I've been working on how dwarves level. Certain stats already make them better at certain things, but the only thing controlling their stats is their class (Wizards get smarter, Miners get stronger, etc). I'm working on taking classes away entirely. Instead you'll spend XP to level up specific stats. This also means that any dwarf will be able to undertake any activity. The plan is to let you choose a loadout when you hire them - they'll come with some task types disabled and with a set of equipment, but of course you can change that.

This unfortunately made managers obsolete. Instead, you can promote any dwarf to manager - and this will make them happy, but also means they can't do anything else. Dwarves gain a new state called Motivation which is influenced by your dwarf to manager ratio. More managers, and they are less likely to slack off, but they'll also get angry if they are micromanaged.

I've also been working on a few other things such as dwarves getting mad if there's nothing to drink. The entire next update is centered around adding depth to individual dwarves.

The last thing I want to add is that I'm sorry updates take as long as they do. The pandemic has stolen from me some dedicated time I could count on five days a week. I still have a day job which has to come first and - well. If motivation was in abundant supply I'd probably be a lot more successful in life in general.

Here's the monthly update for July. There's no unstable release at the moment but it should be ready soon.

Here's what I'm working on:

• A Dwarf's attacks are determined by the weapon they have in their hand, not their class. This means musketeers holding an axe won't mysteriously shoot things. It also means you shouldn't expect dwarves with no tools to be effective in combat. This is really opening the door to a pretty big change -
  
• I'm working on getting rid of classes entirely. Instead, you'll level up individual stats, and any dwarf will be able to fill any role. Haven't quite figured out how this will work with managers and some other highly specialized dwarves.
  
• This change also lets me introduce some more craftable items... like the firestaff. A wizard weapon that drops fireballs.
  
• How much dwarves have to pay for food can now be adjusted - from half price (which will make them happy) to 10x (which will really piss them off, but might help you grow your coffers). Also working on adjusting pay rate similarly.
  
• Dwarves will get mad if they have to go into debt to buy food. Oh well, maybe they shouldn't gamble so much?
  
• Added the ability to mark voxels as off limits. It won't stop dwarves from walking on them entirely - but it will count them as unpassable when pathfinding.
  
• Working on a better command bar thingy - will let you search possible commands and create a custom bar with your most used commands on it.
  

Not much I can say about this one except that I'm dumb, and grab it ASAP.

Pushed an update with a couple of bug fixes. Special thanks to the two users that flooded me with exception reports - it really helped track it down.

It turns out if you cancelled an object placement task it would sometimes create a resource on the map that was null. And then your dwarves could pick it up. And stick it in a stockpile.

And - yes, that's bad.