The Dwarves of Glistenveld News

Fellow Dwarves! A small bit of news today, our notification messengers have upped their game, and our engineers are finally figuring out how to assemble multiple tracks in a row!

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]
Features & Design Changes:

1. Notifications - Certain notifications will now persist instead of being removed when clicked on. The battle notification will remain as long as the battle goes on. The level-up notification persists until you've chosen an ability for the dwarf. Once any notification ceases to be relevant, a count-down arc appears indicating that that notification will disappear on its own soon, but you can also click to remove it at this point.
   
2. Assembling - When many of the same building instructions are to be assembled in the same region, engineers will now assemble them in sequence, until they run out of parts. This is most notable for tracks and pressure plates.
   
3. Instruction Assignment UI - Selecting an instruction zone brings up the assignment UI where you can select which dwarves work what jobs. A new button has been added 'Apply to all' which will set the current configuration to all instructions of that type.
   
4. Caverns Mode - Introduced some new quests, and balanced some of the cave generation (only found when playing a fresh game).
   
5. Guide - Added many more guide entries, and fixed some bugs including a couple of broken entries.
   
6. Campaign - A few small refinements have been made to reduce confusion in the earlier levels.
   

Fixes & Improvements:

1. Trade Stalls - Fixed various bugs and the general glitchiness surrounding these should be resolved. Trade stalls can now also be packed up.
   
2. Mushrooms - Fixed bugs both with the farming plot, and that mushrooms could not be removed on soil patches.
   
3. Battle - Battles taking place around mobbits or vehicles, characters were prone to dancing back and forth instead of fighting. Also the hit counters weren't always showing the correct numbers.
   
4. AI Improvements - Ally teams should no longer steal food, or stand around doors begging to be let in for the same reason. AI miners should stop mining down your walls (fingers-crossed we nipped this in the bud this time). Made various other improvements to AI teams, and resolved some scenarios where units were getting stuck in a rut. Bats should no longer get confused about how to avoid lamps and light sources.
   
5. Placing Buildings - Fixed a bug where in large maps, occasionally what you were trying to build instead turned into beds.
   
6. Pathfinder Optimisation - Longer paths should now be a little more efficient, but less accurate.
   

We're also saying goodbye to easter mode tomorrow, although you will still be able to enable it manually for a while longer by going to Options > Gameplay > Seasonal.

That's all for now, have a good weekend!

Fellow Dwarves! Recent training advances will make your Warriors better at choosing their fights, and your working dwarves easier to boss around!

[h3]Easter Mode[/h3]
For the next few weeks, easter mode will be enabled, and you will experience the following changes to the game:

1. Atmosphere - The environment has a different look and feel.
   
2. Mobbits - Mobbits are larger than normal, and provide more meat!
   
3. Easter Eggs - You will find easter eggs sprawled about everywhere, even hidden in the walls! You can now harvest easter eggs using the gather instruction, and they can be stored on tables similar to meals. How many can you find? (Total is at the bottom of the Stats window)
   

As usual, seasonal modes can be disabled in the options menu under Gameplay > Seasonal.

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]
Features & Design Changes:

1. Dwarf-List - Added a 'select-all' button, which allows you to select all dwarves within the active tab.
   
2. Accident-prone - Dwarves with this trait will no longer injure themselves randomly, but continue to fumble more frequently in combat.
   
3. Blood-thirsty - Dwarves with this trait now attack enemies on-sight regardless of class, and gain bonus exp in combat. This change removes the stance restriction, as we will be removing stances in a future build (more info below).
   
4. Sound FX - Added sound FX for the schematic & tech table.
   
5. Guide - Added more guide entries. The guide now indicates how many entries have unlocked / unread sections.
   

Fixes & Improvements:

1. Flee - Warriors that are in the vicinity of enemies will now return home to rest anyway if they're low health. Spiders were giving up on fleeing too easily.
   
2. Unit Control - Dwarves that are being manually controlled by the player (selected and controlled) will slow down their autonomous behaviour. This gives the player more time to give multiple orders without the dwarf trying to leave.
   
3. Doors - The sprites for doors were getting confused. The symbols for which mode is selected should now be correct.
   
4. Music - Will no longer play the same track twice in a row. Added new track 'Aegis' which plays around more advanced bases.
   
5. Stats - Stats for units on your team are now bolder and should stand out more than stats for other teams.
   

In a future update, we plan on removing stances from the game. We feel stances require too much micromanagement for the benefit, and have decided to replace this with something else to give you greater control over when units choose to attack enemies. Once we have a more concrete design, we'll write a blog post about this change.

That's all for now, have a good Easter break!

Fellow Dwarves! Hereby follows a list of new discoveries in the world of Glistenveld! Creatures and characters are getting smarter, building and unit improvements, and an all new guide is under development!

Some of these updates were described in greater detail in our most recent blog: The Finer Details.

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]
Features & Design Changes:

1. Spiders - There are now spider mothers, decided as the nest expands, which have the ability to create burrows for smaller spiders to travel through. Spiders will also flee from battle now when injured, returning to their nest. High level spiders are more dangerous than before, but less common in caverns mode.
   
2. Repair Zones - A new building plot that you can place near your important buildings, which will automatically tell your engineers to keep them repaired. Any building damaged within the Repair Zone's radius will be flagged for repairs. This includes caltrops and doors for example, but not walls.
   
3. Skirmish Mode - You can now assign teams by selecting the numbers on the right side and matching them together. Added randomly placed barrels and tomes.
   
4. Caverns Mode - New biomes, including an outer biome that holds greater threats and rewards. Fixed some issues with quest interactions.
   
5. No Beds Notification - A new notification pops up when you don't have any free beds for a dwarf to sleep in.
   
6. Supply Ballistas - The supply instruction for ballistas is now persistent, which means as long as you have spears in stock, your units will continue to supply them. You can remove the supply instruction at any time using the Remove Zone instruction.
   
7. Combat Ability Icons - The combat abilities were not very clear when they were active. Now when an ability like wall-puncher is active, that icon will appear above the dwarf's head.
   
8. Trade Stalls - Trade stalls now have updated sprites to include all the items they sell. Rebalanced some of the trades, and buying schematics in skirmish or some scenario modes has been moved from the tech table to the trade stall.
   
9. Clan Creation - You can now lock traits in while you re-roll a dwarf's appearance and name.
   
10. Tutorial Continuity - Reworked some of the dialog and improved the engine to enable the same dwarves to be retained throughout the 5 tutorials, without disturbing classes or positioning.
    
11. Guide to Glistenveld - We needed somewhere for players to go when they're confused about something. This guide is an in-game manual that expands as you discover new objects and unlock new techs. The more you discover, the more sections you unlock and the more intricate information you'll find in the guide. It is still in early stages, many topics are still to be added, but most of the important topics are written.
    

Fixes & Improvements:

1. Extensive AI Work - Both allies and enemies will now protect their buildings, go on assaults, attack enemy buildings and successfully explore, expand and grow of their own accord. Units were getting stuck in a lot of different situations, preventing them from properly developing.
   
2. Tiered Ability Icons - All level 2 abilities now have tiered icons for the different ability tiers. A level 3 dwarf will have tier 2 version of their ability, and a level 4 dwarf tier 3 respectively.Goblins have a new stone-cutter sprite to distinguish them away from dwarves.
   
3. Updated Sprites & More SFX - Most buildings now have clan-colour stripes on them, so you can better distinguish which buildings are owned by what team. Some still need updating, like doors.
   
4. Mining Tiles - With multiple units selected, you can now right click to mine tiles, as long as one of your selected units is a miner.
   
5. Building Damaged Notification - Now includes walls that you own, provided you have a dwarf or lamp post near that wall. Other buildings will notify you regardless of presence.
   
6. Line of Sight - Improved the sight system so you can no longer see through walls in some angles.
   
7. Various Instruction Improvements - For example, defend zones will now tell warriors to attack their nearest enemy building, instead of the first in the list.
   
8. Held Units - Held units will attack enemies next to them, but if they end up chasing their target, they will return to their held position.
   
9. Building / Assembling - A spinning spanner icon will now appear over a building instruction when an engineer is working on it.
   
10. Training Dummies - Fixed a bug to do with dwarves not going to train while another dwarf was on their way to train. Some other buildings also had this problem.
    
11. Sculptures - Made more configurable. You can now re-roll the sculpture itself.
    
12. Map Editor - Overhauled the controls and UI. Still looking into adding a tutorial or guide to make it easier to get to grips with.
    

As always, if you run into issues, let us know either in the forums or the in-game feedback form.

Our next blog will talk about AI improvements in greater detail, and what we have planned next. That's all for now, stay safe out there!

[h3]Halloween Mode[/h3]
Fellow dwarves! Glistenveld is getting spooky once again as Halloween Mode is now enabled!
With Halloween Mode enabled, you will experience the following changes to the game:

1. Atmosphere - The colour and atmosphere of levels have become a little spooky!
   
2. Pumpkins - You will find random pumpkins in each level. You can harvest these to get a tasty pumpkin stew, which dwarves will treat like meals!
   
3. Webs - You will find random webs which are sticky.
   
4. Bats - When you start a new skirmish mode game, you'll find a few more bats roaming the tunnels!
   
5. Bubbling waters and mist - Water has turned greenish and bubbles, and you will find mist emerging here and there.
   
6. Green blood - Units and creatures flash green when injured, instead of red.
   

As usual, seasonal modes can always be disabled in the options menu under Gameplay > Seasonal.

[h3]The Tomb[/h3]
To help celebrate this spooky event, we have created a new map called: The Tomb! You can find it by going to New Game > Scenarios > The Tomb. Alongside this, we've just released a hefty new update to the game (patch notes below).



[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]
It's been a while since the last update. This is mostly because we've been focused on chapter 2 content which, for the time being, must remain secret. However, we have finally reached a state where we can push out a new update, and boy is this a big one!



Features & Design Changes:

1. Difficulty Settings - The Dwarves of Glistenveld will now present you with difficulty options when you start a new game! The options are 'Dwarfling', 'Normal' and 'Veteran', and will impact the gameplay in every mode. Once in-game, you can change your difficulty setting at any time from the escape menu!
   
2. New Campaign Introduction - When playing a new campaign, after the cutscene, you will find yourself in a new level called 'Introduction'. This short -yet dramatic- level bridges the gap between the story in the cutscene and the first true level of the campaign: Fisher's Cove. This introduction is intended to give you a real sense of the goblin threat, and being on the run.
   
3. Escape Menu Hints - While in the escape menu, hints appear that remind you what each section of the UI is for and offers some tips related to them. You can turn this off in the options menu, under gameplay.
   
4. Farming Plots - An addition to an existing tech: Farming. With this tech unlocked, you'll now be able to place little signposts called farming plots which tell your foragers to automatically harvest roots and mushrooms in that area. It also tells allies to avoid gathering there! This should allow you to automate your farms and let your foragers get on with it by themselves.
   
5. Tech: Bed-rolls - A new tech in the tech tree that allows any unit to build bed-rolls. Bed-rolls differ from regular beds in a few ways. Bed-rolls are cheaper and single-use (they are destroyed after a full bar's rest), but can be built by any class. Lastly, a crafted bed-roll is not put in physical storage but exists only in the HUD. You can queue one of these in the Workbench to be built later on. Then when you do build it, it will appear in the builder's inventory as if they were already carrying it around. This allows you to build bed-rolls miles away from your base in a matter of seconds, perfect for an assault on a distant base!
   
6. Tech: Upgraded Hinges - A new tech in the tech tree that provides you with 'Iron Doors' and allows nearby ballistas to trigger one another. Iron doors are a more durable and flexible alternative to wooden doors. While wooden doors prevent enemies but allow allies through, iron doors are configurable and can be chosen to allow everyone, noone or only your units through.
   
7. Big-Picture UI - The little UI in the top-left now features 3 sections: dwarf count, claim count and schematic count. Each section is also a button. The dwarf count will open the dwarf-list; the claim count will select one of the claims you own; the schematic count will open up the tech tree, once you have built a tech table.
   
8. Crafting Instructions - You can now prioritise specific crafts by selecting an engineer and right clicking one of the buildings the craft will be performed at. That engineer will then perform the chosen craft before any other instruction, assuming they are able.
   
9. Building Attacked Notification - New notification that tells you when one of your buildings is under attack!
   
10. Bats - Bats will now level up over time, growing slightly in size and strength. Bats will also avoid any buildings that produce light, like monuments and lamp posts. Younger bats will now follow older bats around. Also fixed some issues with bats bunching up on single tiles.
    
11. Goblins - Higher level goblins now have a different colour outfit. Goblins have also been balanced to be stronger in combat at higher levels.
    
12. Attention Pop-ups - Now have a timeout and will disappear after a while. No longer keep reappearing once dismissed.
    
13. Hardy Trait - Dwarves with this new positive trait will have +1 defence and an additional block opportunity in combat.
    
14. Root-puller Ability - This has swapped places with Root-hugger and is now a level 2 ability. In theory, this ability will be more useful earlier on in the game, and root-hugger will be more useful later on. Existing saves will not reflect this changes.
    
15. Tutorials - Tutorials now feature a side-objective, to click all of the hint signs in each level. Also fixed various issues with tutorials, like edge-cases that can lead to confusing situations for the player.
    
16. Gather Instruction - Can now be used to pick up items strewn on the ground, in addition to foraging or fishing.
    
17. Green Mushrooms - These nasty mushrooms will now cause a chain-reaction when triggered! When stepped on, a green mushroom spawns gas around it, and triggers neighbouring mushrooms with the same effect. This gas drains the victim's hunger and will cause them to become frenzied from too much exposure. A frenzied unit will only return to normal once you knock some sense into them!
    
18. Multiple Unit UI - Now shows the unit's level, and provides individual rest and hold buttons for each unit you have selected.
    
19. Pressure Plates - Now craft 3 at a time, similar to tracks. This should speed up the process of assembling pressure plates where you want them.
    
20. Flintlock - This ability is finally implemented! Flintlock is an engineer's level 5 ability that allows them to fire a shot at an enemy before engaging in battle. The graphics are still missing some sprites however.
    

Fixes & Improvements:

1. Notifications - Notifications for short-term or less significant events have a timeout and will remove themselves after a period of time. Also fixed issues with certain notifications not popping up.
   
2. Held Units - Units will now equip items even while held. Held warriors will no longer attack enemies on sight, unless they are adjacent. Holding a unit will only cancel their move if it wasn't directly issued by the player.
   
3. Moving Units - When issued a move by the player, units should no longer give up on their target when they get in each other's way.
   
4. Single-button Mode - Now named 'One-button mode' has undergone a few improvements, including certain cases where a vehicle couldn't be selected or moved, and gathering roots/fish required multiple clicks on touch screens.
   
5. Crafting - Engineers should no longer double-up on resources needed to craft something. Engineers should now take into account the resources they're holding when starting a craft or assembly, particularly for walls and bridges. Engineers will now try to build in order of distance from the target, which should make assembling tracks a little less chaotic.
   
6. Buildings - The colour of the HP bar now corresponds with its clan colour, as with units.
   
7. Stealing - You can no longer pick up an ally's building item while it's being assembled.
   
8. Steam Achievements - Some achievements weren't being validated at the appropriate times in the game.
   
9. Barrel-riding - Fixed a few bugs, one involving the pathfinder going through land to reach the target, one where loading a game with a unit in a barrel would cause issues with movement. Also you could drive them with no unit in them.
   
10. Ambient SFX - Ambient sounds will now play even before the source is revealed in the fog-of-war.
    
11. Ally/Enemy AI - Made more intelligent and aggressive when an enemy is sighted or one of their buildings is under attack, (more refinement might be necessary). An AI's 'give-up' threshold has been modified and made more intelligent, which should stop most AI-related FPS drops in the game.
    
12. Warrens - Should now be destroyed when their tile is mined by an AI team, as it would be by the player.
    
13. Caverns Mode v0.44 - Enemies would sometimes spawn with reduced HP. Tunnels should be guaranteed to spawn after exploring enough. Some quests have been made a bit clearer. New cave featuring mobbit warrens!
    
14. Skirmish Mode - Fixed bugs involving the 'choose spawn' option. Also Dwarf AI in this particular mode were inclined to stand around like lemons. You can now choose spiders as one of the occupants of caves.
    
15. Campaign Levels - All levels in the campaign have received small or significant updates. BridgeItLake now features an obvious schematic. SmuggleMeTimbers received improvements for conquest route, and the chest contents changed to contain gems.
    
16. Minimap - Clicking the minimap should now correctly move the camera to where you've clicked.
    
17. UI Flickers/Updates - Fixed some issues with flickering UI and issues with UI not updating icons correctly.
    
18. HUD Items - Items that are not stored physically but in your HUD should now show correctly when loading a saved game.
    
19. Placement Hints - Always on for heavily restricted placements. 'Remove instruction' only shows hints where instructions are present.
    

We'll also be releasing a blog post soon, so stay tuned for that. Until the next update, Happy Halloween!

Hi everyone! We noticed after some changes to how pathfinding works, there have been some significant FPS drops for large groups of units in large open maps (like later stages of caverns mode). These were quite hard to track down since many of them were not reproduceable after saving and loading. We've resolved most of these along with a number of other fixes & improvements.

Patch Notes:

1. Performance Drops - In larger maps with vast areas to walk around, units whose target was inaccessible could cause significant FPS drops. Most of these have been resolved as the AI will now either give up or wait a reasonable amount of time before trying again.
   
2. Berserker Trait - Since we introduced this trait we've not been too happy with it. Before this patch, units with the berserker trait would not listen to any orders you give them as long as they're in battle. This effect can be quite irritating in practice, so instead of this they now refuse to equip armour. Currently the only equippable armour is helmets, however more will added to the game in future updates.
   
3. Single Mouse Mode - For touch screen users, such as the windows surface, there were no on-screen buttons to zoom the display, change instruction paint sizes or rotate buildings. We've added {+} and {-} buttons for these actions. The mouse hints near the bottom will also indicate in brackets what building rotation or instruction size you currently have.
   
4. Obstructed Mining Instructions - Miners will now indicate with a pop-up when the path to their mining instruction is obstructed. Most other units were already doing this, however a recent patch stopped miners from digging undesirable walls which in turn altered the miner's logic for obstructions.
   
5. Move Building Instruction - A series of closely related bugs were noticed involving the 'move building' instruction. For example, sometimes a different building would be placed there as well as, or instead of, the intended building.
   
6. All Items - Ghost items would sometimes appear in the all-items list. While we track down exactly what is causing this issue, we've introduced an easy 'clean-up' fix on the user's end. By clicking ghost items in the list, if they don't actually exist in storage, they'll be removed from the list.
   
7. Ballistas - The ballista's projectile was not firing correctly across water. You can now also fire ballistas manually while another unit is delivering ammo to it. As a quick reminder, to fire a ballista manually, select a unit and right click the ballista.
   
8. Loading Issues - We've fixed one or two more bugs that would sometimes crop up after saving and loading a caverns mode game. In rare circumstances, a saved game wouldn't load, even though the save files were fine.
   
9. Auto-Attack - Units will now think twice about auto-attacking enemies if their health is low.
   
10. Defend Zones - Warriors guarding a defend zone will now only go to rest once their hp is less than 60%, or their hp and stamina are both low.
    
11. Mine / Gather Notifications - These 'jobs done' notifications should now only appear once all mining / gathering instructions are completed.
    
12. Removed empty space around the All Items UI, where tiles wouldn't highlight.
    

Let us know if you run into any issues, or if you have any feedback or suggestions!

That's all for now, have a good weekend!