DwarfCorp News

I've pushed an unstable update. It's taken a bit longer than I planned, but that delay also allowed a bit more art to make it into this update. This is the long list of everything since the last stable release.

* Dwarf equipment -
* Tab added to dwarf info screen.
* Remove and equip tools and clothing.
* Tools required to complete tasks.
* Some tasks can be completed without tools to prevent deadlock.
* Dwarves automatically retrieve the appropriate tool, if available.
* Equipment is shown on the dwarf sprite.
* This required a lot of art and is still rough - expect the occasional stray pixel; they tend to show up as bright pink.
* Added Hoes - used for farming.
* Dwarves start with default tools.
* Tools aquire wear and eventually break.
* Some color variations of standard equipment available through god menu - will eventually be craftable.
* Tools made of different materials last different amounts of time.
* Wood breaks quickest - Iron lasts the longest.

* New plant - Cotton
* Spawns in grasslands and wetlands.
* Currently unused - but expect it to be an ingredient for crafting clothing.

* New voxel types -
* Beam and Stucco - made from sand.
* Carved stone.
* New tile colors.

* Improved the tutorial
* New tutorial triggers no longer get swallowed and lost forever if they are triggered while another tutorial is active.
* Introductory tutorials flow automatically into each other.

* Added filter to employee listing.

* Implemented camera hotkeys.
* Shift + Number to save a camera position.
* Control + Number to jump to a saved position.

* Changed behavior of training equipment
* It can now be removed without having to break it, and replaced somewhere else.
* Breaking it through training destroys it completely.

* Tasks now show why they are failing.
* Hover over a task in the task pane to see a tooltip saying why the task has failed.
* Some tasks are impossible - it may tell you something like "You do not have the resources", etc.
* If a specific dwarf fails a task, it will display their name and why.
* This is a work in progress, but most tasks should be covered.

* Build voxel tasks are now combined the same as dig tasks.


* Resource spawning separated from other entities in god menu.

* Quickplay option - previously used for debugging - added to main menu.
* Launches game with large set of dwarves into a small world.

* Tweaked biome map colors to make them more distinguishable.
* Tweaked plant spawn rates to make them more abundant.
* Added mushrooms to more biomes to make starting with no food sources less likely.
* Increased Jolly Forest and Haunted Forest appearance rates.

* The Pumpking reigns... might want to avoid haunted forests unless you have a lot of muskets...

* Stuff you don't care about -
* Removed implicit combinations from behavior trees - really makes the AI code easier to comprehend.
* Improved GUI mesh generation.
* Support dynamic GUI textures - used for the palettized resources.
* Better resource templating.
* All dwarf layers use palettes.
* Fighting the billion dollar mistake.

* Bug fixes
* Fixed gem-set trinkets not using correct graphics.
* Fixed crafting table using wrong graphic when in resource form.
* Fixed trinkets generated as part of trade sometimes not having graphics.
* Fixed targets using wrong graphic when in resource form... sensing a pattern here.
* Dwarves no longer faithfully follow a path even when the voxels have changed - meaning they no longer walk or swim through voxels built in their path.
* Fixed issue preventing wizards from building bookshelves.
* Fixed issue preventing placement of apothecary.
* Fixed issue with object placement tool shutting off.
* Fixed issue with teleporter stranding dwarves inside voxels.
* Fixed issue that caused dwarves to fall through single voxel width bridges.
* Fixed issue that sometimes prevented ladders from being placed.
* Fixed issue with stockpile outline not being removed when stockpile is destroyed by fire or explosion.
* Fixed issue where urgent tasks would interupt dwarves trying to sleep, causing an exhausted state deadlock.
* Fixed crash when destroying certain rail pieces.
* Fixed issue where some AI bookkeeping was not saved, causing tasks to fail after load.

The unstable build has been updated with the next release candidate. This one has taken a bit longer than planned, for a few reasons largely personal, but beyond those I also had to rewrite a very fundamental part of the game - all resource handling. This build is still missing several pieces of art, but is functionally 'locked' for release. The only changes will be bug fixes. As always, no update to the stable branch yet. This is an opt-in beta and will break all saves.

In this update:

• All dwarf clothing / tools is now removable and interchangeable.
  
• You won't find them in the crafting interface just yet, but you can find some color variations on common items of clothing in the god menu.
  
• Tools will break. Different materials will last different times.
  
• Tools do not yet determine how effective a dwarf is at their task, so they are mostly cosmetic. They will happily mine with their bare hands.
  
• Fixed a bug where the teleporter could leave a dwarf in solid rock and kill them.
  
• Large voxel build orders will be composed into a single task in the list.
  
• Zones are designated by a border, not by specific floor voxels - so build them on whatever you want.
  
• Added a couple of new block types.
  

Greetings all,

Progress continues on the next major feature, and I felt it was a good time to drop an update on it. So the goal is to give dwarves equipment, and I'm starting with tools - you probably noticed them in the most recent updates. At the moment they serve no purpose, but picks can be crafted out of different materials. Eventually, different types of tools will have different properties, and tools will wear down and break.

In implementing wear and tear, I discovered that the existing resource system just couldn't handle it. Which led me to rewriting the resource system almost entirely. That set me back almost two full months, but it is finally done.

Now that I'm past that - I finally have some picks that wear out and break. Well, iron picks at least.

Part of this goal was getting these different tools to appear in dwarve's hands when equipped. I really think I under estimated just how much art would be required to make that happen, so I don't really know how long that's going to take yet. The first release with this feature is likely to include only picks.

This is a small update to mitigate the problem of dwarves getting stuck in overhead blocks while jumping below them. You will also find some minor features

• Default embarkments - which should remove some confusion for new players.
  
• Starting cash is adjusted by the difficulty level chosen.
  

A new stable update has been released. We delayed this one a bit despite having a desperately needed fix because we just couldn't figure out how to do it without breaking saves. Finally, we realized that without the fix your save is probably unplayable anyway - so we broke them.

So new things in this update - including all the stuff in the last few unstable updates...

• Crafting and placement are now completely separate.
• Chairs and tables can be made out of candy.
• Metals in the ground will produce ore, which needs to be smelted.
• You can no longer craft things using 'any' as the resource type.
• Added bamboo.
• Redesigned the employee info popup.
• Added a view on the contents of a specific stockpile, available through the zone list.
• Added job descriptions to the hire employee screen.
• Craftable tools - this feature is in progress, so right now they aren't useful for anything except selling.
• Added a bunch of hotkeys - esc closes everything, hotkeys for cycling through employees, hotkeys for all panels on the bottom-left.
• Dwarf idle behavior was greatly improved at some point.
• Fancy new ruins shapes.
• Metal block voxels.

I'm pretty sure that just scratches the surface. And for bug fixes...

• Fixed issue where stone could not be included/excluded from allowable stockpile contents.
• Fixed issue where teleporters would leave dwarves stuck in the ground.
• Fixed an issue where teleporters left dwarves invisible.
• Fixed an issue causing the first underground layer to only be one voxel thick.
• Fixed an issue where creatures could spawn in violation of the species limit.
• Fixed an issue causing flags to not wave.
• Fixed an issue where traders came but didn't bother to bring anything.
• Fixed issues where doors didn't animate.
• Fixed issue where factions would get pissed because they sent a war party against you.
• Fixed an issue where mouse-over text didn't update to reflect a creature's health.
• Fixed an issue where sprites on the edge of the screen popped in and out.
• Fixed an issue where cancelling a build task left behind a ghost object that prevented building other things there.
• Fixed an issue causing particularly steep terrain to show gaps until dwarves explored the area.
• Fixed an issue with the voxel selector not appearing while building a zone.
• Fixed - after over two years of hunting for it - a bug that caused dwarves to get very excited about anvils and do unspeakable things to them.
• Fixed an issue where cancelling an attack command didn't actually cancel it.