Dwarf Fortress News

Hi again!

We've been keeping up the bug fixes as the last standalone Classic DF release stabilizes. Now-corrected highlights include the game getting confused about who owned the tomb after a mummy came back from the dead, leading to the mummy's zombies sieging themselves, and two dwarven spies diligently maintaining their enemy cover identities even when they came to live in the player's fort, confusing the local soldiers and starting civil wars. And lots of more mundane fixes.

It has been an adventure steering this fairly massive ongoing project from the villain work toward the Premium DF work since the Steam announcement last year. We should be ready to fully switch gears and work on Premium DF around the change of the month. Fewer news items about odd quirks and strange features, and more about graphics and user experience, but I imagine we'll still see some strange things happen, ha ha. They'll just be shinier now.

Scamps, my cat, turned 11 this week! (Picture included.) I have to revert most of his code additions, but he's always kept up his confidence and continues to try his best on the keyboard nearly every day.

- Tarn

Hello!

Yesterday we put up the last major solo release of Classic DF! There'll be some bug fixing now (which applies to all versions, including the future Steam release), and then we'll be pivoting entirely to Premium DF graphical work, which should be pretty exciting.

So far, the bugs don't look so bad... we did change the mount code, and apparently babies carried by their mothers (who are treated as 'riders') now control their mothers' actions with their random crawling AI, making the mothers wander aimlessly. It's straightforward to fix, but another odd tale for the DF chronicles. A mercenary company was hired to attack its own fort... a world history crash... it all seems manageable. We also need to fix an old raid crash, something to do with equipment settings. Once the worst is handled, the next era of DF can begin in earnest.

- Tarn

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[h3]Kitfox's Note[/h3]
Don't forget to sign up for the DF newsletter! Once work on Premium DF starts, I'll be sending emails out there so you get these updates right in your inbox. :) Or, of course, find us on Twitter and the like.

- Victoria (manavee)

Hello again, and welcome to 2020!

We're still on track for January to be the month where the update to Classic DF is released. (Remember, the Steam version of DF is called Premium DF.) I've been cleaning things up and adding the last few features. For instance, dwarves in craft guilds can now hold skill demonstrations, and priests can give various types of sermons and console worshippers that are stressed out. Player adventurers can also give sermons if they choose.

Once that release is up, and we've handled whatever issues arise, the code work on a Premium DF will begin. I imagine that'll change the nature of these news posts a bit! The first order of business will likely be getting the artists fully up and running with the ability to see more of their work in play. I have to rework most of the guts of the display, so it'll take some time before we have new screenshots together. We'll be doing that before moving on to the broader interface updates and quality-of-life changes.

This should be an exciting year! I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together.

- Tarn

Happy Holidays everybody!

Holidays have been hectic and enjoyable as usual, and there's not much specific to report, as the days where work does happen are more for testing and administrative stuff. However, we can say now that the final pre-Steam Classic DF release will be in January. After any fires are put out, my full-time Steam programming work to catch up with the artists will finally begin.

I hope all of you have a great New Year's!

- Tarn

[h3]Kitfox's Note[/h3]

Hey everyone!

Nothing much to report on our end either, but thanks for all the support and excitement this year. :) Can you believe we only announced the Steam version this year? Thanks for being a part of the community! Hope your 2020 goes well, and remember that wishlisting Dwarf Fortress on Steam helps us out a lot in the backend. Otherwise, we'll see you next year here (or Twitter/the newsletter!)

Cheers,

Victoria

Hello again!

The first step on the villain release this time around was to build up justice information around the artifact heist from last time. This includes several sorts of witness reports: dwarves can notice when artifacts are missing from position or when they have been moved, and they also keep track of who has been admiring artifacts in case that ends up being of use (the thieves can hesitate before snatching the item when witnesses are around, and this leads to extra admiration, so it works out.) Your sheriff or guard captain can detain and interrogate anybody regarding the crime. That is, anybody you tell them to interrogate, as sifting through witness reports and deciding on a course of action is your job.

The second part of this most recent fortnight of work took place while I was on call for jury duty, so I didn't try to start any major push where I might be called to the court house the next day. This was a good time to do some of the pre-release testing that needs to be done. The main subject was the variously-improved undead invasions that can now happen in fort mode. We've done a lot of work with undead lieutenants and experimental creature and so forth, but hadn't tested invasions, which'll be a key method of interacting with them. It was good to see the failed experiments still manage a showing, with some procedurally-generated scaly horned maggots bringing up the rear behind the typical zombies. For some reason the two lieutenants (pale ghouls in this case) were obsessed with casting pain spells on my poor horse, but they also managed to make short work of all my test civilians.

To finish dwarf mode for the villains release, the main bits we need to complete are the wider investigations and some interactions with them (for instance, villains taking revenge.) Combined with the other additions already completed, this should be good enough to move on from Classic-only releases and get to the Steam work!

Reminder: we're working on villains and investigations to finish off the material we were working on for the last DF Classic release before we transition fully over to work on Steam (the artists are already way ahead of me.) Since we completed villains in history generation, we're now focusing on adding these elements to the play modes.

- Tarn