Dwarf Fortress News

Hey Urists,

Alexandra here with a big community update but first, a dev update from Tarn:

(Last) week has been going well! The experimental SDL2 branch is stabilizing after a few patches, and this should pave the way for some speed increases as well as the Linux and Mac versions. Putnam got me through setting up the Windows Subsystem for Linux and it's mostly playing nice with everything, so there's some hope that I'll just be able to compile from within MSVC itself to make the Linux builds.

We're having our first meeting for the adventure mode sound effects tomorrow, and I'll need to get an adventurer running around soon for that and for upcoming artwork, so that's a simultaneous thing going on. And 50.09 is also in progress - the return of the game log and we're working toward report/announcement persistence and some archery fixes/changes as well.

[h2]Dwarf Gear[/h2]

We are so excited to share that the Dwarf Fortress FanGamer collection is now live! There is a very metal shirt, a pint glass with a fort design and a high-quality pin to represent your love of all things dorf. This is the first wave of the collection so expect to hear more merch news in the future!



Tarn and Zach say, “If you think losing is fun, buy this shirt. You’ll look like a total loser… and win!”

Store link: https://www.fangamer.com/collections/dwarf-fortress

[h2]Tarn and Zach on Stream[/h2]



For those who missed our 10th anniversary stream, we have uploaded the VOD to Youtube. Watch Tarn and Zach review a community -made fort live and hear them answer some of chat’s questions along the way.

[h2]Dwarf Fortress at Gamescom 2023[/h2]

Attention European Urists! We are coming to Cologne, Germany for Gamescom from August 23-27th and are looking for volunteers with convention experience who want to help out at our booth. If this is something you’d be interested in please email me at [email protected] (Bonus points if you speak German)

[h2]Sheet Music and Tabs[/h2]

The composer of the Dwarf Fortress soundtrack, Dabu is working on some exciting but secret new things for Adventure Mode and more. In the meantime, we wanted to share the tabs and sheet music for Strike the Earth! Looking forward to hearing your covers!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o9FVaX97mVxPNNOK4IMC-c6EcgUG-9uW?usp=share_link


-Alexandra

The famed dwarf-em-up dynasties sim Dwarf Fortress has been enjoying something of a second wind ever since its release on Steam, with its creators finally receiving plenty of richly deserved mountain gold and hunkering down to a regular update cycle for the 'new' release. Dwarf Fortress being Dwarf Fortress, it gets some pretty good patch notes. And today's theme is babies...
Read more.

Hey Urists,

Today's patch features the much-anticipated baby update including sprites for children and babies for many of the creatures and outdoor plants. This also includes dragon hatchings! How cute! Other important fixes for buckets and refuse stockpiles.

New stuff

• XML export is back in legends mode.
  

Major bug fixes

• Cleaned out lingering data from autosaves and manual saves that could cause corruption if multiple worlds were active.
  

Graphics additions/changes

• Added graphics for many child/baby creatures.
  
• Added hatchling state for dragons.
  
• Added crop/sprout pictures for outdoor plants.
  
• Added outdoor sapling graphics.
  
• Added palettized boulders.
  
• Ice wall graphics updated.
  
• Smooth ice wall graphics added.
  
• Added more fortification images to indicate direction and material.
  

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• Stopped dwarves without working grasps from trying to get goblets to drink, failing, and dying of thirst.
  
• Allowed most water-based jobs that use buckets to use partially-filled water buckets in addition to empty buckets.
  
• Made stocks screen open faster.
  
• Made all stockpiles not include the refuse option.
  
• Stopped refuse piles that also have armor/finished good settings from degrading contents.
  

-Alexandra

Dwarf Fortress is the kind of deeply simulated videogame where a cat can wander into a tavern, step in booze, get drunk by licking its paws and then vomit booze-puke all over the floor. Caves of Qud is the kind of deeply simulated videogame where you can use a can of "spray-a-brain" to turn an inanimate object like a wall sentient, at which point it can move, talk, fight, and become your companion if you're able to beguile it...
Read more.

Tarn's about to be traveling for a little bit but in the meantime, there's a fancy new public beta branch on Steam for folks to try the following fixes for 50.08:

Major bug fixes

• Cleaned out lingering data from autosaves and manual saves that could cause corruption if multiple worlds were active.
  

Graphics additions/changes

• Added graphics for many child/baby creatures.
  
• Added hatchling state for dragons.
  
• Added crop/sprout pictures for outdoor plants.
  
• Added outdoor sapling graphics.
  
• Added palettized boulders.
  
• Ice wall graphics updated.
  
• Smooth ice wall graphics added.
  
• Added more fortification images to indicate direction and material.
  

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• Stopped dwarves without working grasps from trying to get goblets to drink, failing, and dying of thirst.
  
• Allowed most water-based jobs that use buckets to use partially-filled water buckets in addition to empty buckets.
  
• Made stocks screen open faster.
  
• Made all stockpiles not include the refuse option.
  
• Stopped refuse piles that also have armor/finished good settings from degrading contents.
  

If that sounds interesting to you, right-click on the game in your Steam library and choose Properties -> Betas -> click the None dropdown to pick public beta. And let us know in all the usual places whether you see a disaster in the making. If all goes well, this patch will be out in a couple of weeks!

In the meantime, if I understand correctly, DFHack ("the Dwarf Fortress Modding Engine") is launching literally tomorrow on Steam! That team of volunteers is entirely independent from Kitfox and Bay 12, but have our blessing to keep working their magic as best as we can without stepping on each others' toes. It has a lot of interesting extensions and tools for different user experiences, and is planned to be totally free. So keep an eye on it if you're curious.



Thanks to all who came to the PAX East panel and/or party. I heard Tarn and Zach had an excellent time, so I hope ya'll did too, minus one known decency violation from the bouncer (we're still agitating angrily about this to the management btw). Relatedly, if you heard or saw anything problematic about the Lucky Strike staff's conduct, please do let us know so we have the full picture of what happened at the venue.

Have a great day!
Tanya