Hey Urists,

We have a Fortress Mode patch this week, with a bunch of fixes and tweaks and most notably with the new container graphics. See exactly what's inside your barrels and boxes for easy sorting!

We are still working on Adventure Mode things but won't have a patch for a few weeks which means this will be our last update before the holidays. But not to worry, it will be coming VERY SOON! When Adventure Mode leaves beta, it will unify both branches so a lot of upgrades in Adventure Mode will be making their way to Fort Mode as well. We hope you have a relaxing and restful holiday!



Graphics additions/changes

• Expanded graphics for containers
  
• Added ability to view worn clothing by dye or by profession
  
• Shields in right arms displayed in correct order

Major bug fixes

• Fixed crash in Linux related to object pools

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• Added some safeguards to ages of generated migrant children
  
• Made tutorial close button behave consistently when tutorial is minimized
  
• Made the agitation decay setting work properly
  
• Removed case sensitivity on unit filters
  
• Fixed some issues with list sorting
  
• Fixed crash related to possible null building in sheets
  
• Fixed a crash with creature variation mods
  
• Fixed some threading issues in unit loops
  
• Fixed problem with mod version compatibility setting
  
• Fixed command line world generation
  
• Made game respect caste population ratio in more places
  
• Fixed some possible null pointer references
  
• Added more information to crash log headers

-Kitfox and Bay 12 Games

Hey Urists,

We have a large Adventure Mode beta patch today, including the introduction of "Chosen Mode" which gives you access to 'divine quests' from the gods. It's designed to give more guidance to players looking for a more traditional RPG experience. It's not complete yet, and this with the tutorial are the only things left to work on before we can release Adventure Mode out of beta!

To access Chosen Mode you will need to build a new world, and it should be at least 100 years old, but the god stuff kicks in right after the tutorial if you have selected Chosen Mode. Almost all 100+ year old worlds support it, but it requires the correct configuration of temples etc. so occasionally it doesn't work, we don't yet have a fall back position for that quite yet. If you un-check the tutorial on the start screen, it'll still do the Chosen stuff immediately when you start. But it's just a 'quest' to go speak to a priest in a nearby temple, and it gives you a compass to the priest. We need to do more with ensuring that players can make it to the temple. Some helping popups from the god and fixes to being stuck in castles and unable to travel will be coming as well. We are trying to catch all the cases to make it more friendly.

Players who are a bit more used to things should be able to go through the whole cycle now, and have some reasonably hard though somewhat one-note dungeons to go through with their parties. The god/temple stuff is ultimately pretty simple, but we'll have a chance to hone it through December now.


In case you missed it, we uploaded a new devlog by Tarn on Youtube where he highlights some of the biggest features that have made their way to Adventure mode over the past few months!


Toward finishing Adventure Mode beta

• Added some mythical dungeons, materials, and related temple quests
  
• Added a few magical items
  
• Added initial god quest for chosen mode
  
• Added mythical healing substances in mythical sites
  
• Added messages for healing effects
  
• Chosen/hero get bonus reputation for the purpose of gaining followers
  
• Environmental display in top right (weather, light, temp, etc.)
  
• Quest journal outline on right side of main screen
  
• Vampire blood sense markers
  
• Memory map
  
• Stealth vision cones
  
• Goblin/kobold glowing eyes in the dark
  
• Added liquid/ramp arrow toggles to adv mode
  
• Announced when somebody pushes past you and cancels your action
  
• Made people stop moving when you talk to them (if they aren't fighting)
  
• Added shared items to wrestling interface so you can struggle for possession without using inventory screen
  
• Fixed audio for snow/mud footsteps
  
• Added buttons so ramps can be used with hatches
  
• Separated adv/fort volume settings
  
• Fixed jump tooltip
  
• Stopped adventurers from starting in pits if other sites are available
  
• Stopped rbut from quitting out of character creation
  
• Removed adventure mode feature discovery announcements
  
• Updated more classic tiles and brought back cursors

Other changes

• Dye vs profession coloration toggleable in both modes
  
• Stopped migrant families with negative age younger siblings in young worlds
  
• Removed case sensitivity from unit filters
  
• Fixed a crash from subtabbing to certain buildings
  
• Made help close button act consistently when help is minimized
  
• Fixed bug where syndrome would target too few tissues
  
• Fixed issue with occasional infinite loop on population placement
  
• Fixed bug where many priests would move to different homes after world generation

- Tarn + Alexandra

-Fixed crash involving river audio polling

Hey Urists,

Beta 24 is now live and includes the beginnings of a tutorial and audio on chargen and in the log screen. There's also a few crash fixes regarding creature variations and threading behaviour thanks to Putnam and some fixes to the audio. There's only a few little things left to clear up before Adventure Mode is ready, and one big thing (the tutorial), and then we'll be able to turn our attention back to the underlying simulation, which will generally improve both Fortress and Adventure modes.

• Started adding tutorial (camera, movement, menu options, popups for many menus)
  
• Menu sounds during character creation and the adventure log
  
• Improved river and campfire audio loops
  
• Can click on portrait for status
  
• Hive no longer looks like clothing
  
• Made string display more compatible with fan translations
  
• Made threading more stable
  
• Fixed modding crash involving creature variations

We wanted to let you know that NOW is the time to buy copies of the game as a gift, or tell your friends who inexplicably still haven't bought it. The game is 20% off right now (which it hasn't been since April), and that's as low as it's going to be for quite awhile... at least six months but maybe more.

But if you're here you probably already own the game so maybe here's a more relevant tip... Caves of Qud and Tales of Maj'Eyal are also going on discount in a day or two, so you can get them for an extra 10% off if you own Dwarf Fortress, in the Legendary Roguelikes bundle.

Also, Fangamer put up their preorders for the Dwarf Fortress guidebook[www.fangamer.com], a lovingly crafted codex of insight and tips. A perfect gift for yourself or other fans of fungal cuisine. You can also add an "Expedition Leader's Journal" for $5, which is a logbook specifically created for tracking the details of your different fortresses and worlds.

Tarn's been away for little events like moving countries and getting married! But now he's settled into his new life, and back to work on Adventure Mode. Look how happy he is! You all helped make this happen with your support for the game. Congratulations to Tarn and his love both.


Meanwhile, the artists have been busy, as usual. Carolyn has started designing the portraits for children, though It might be a bit before we see them in-game. Here you can see dwarf children on top versus the adults below. They'll need adjusted clothes since their bodies are a bit smaller, and we won't be showing in detail the injuries they can sustain, but a head-bandage should communicate quickly that they're not in good health.


We know some folks are still experiencing new crashes, even though updating C++ redistributables [learn.microsoft.com]fixes it for most people. It's very mysterious to us but if you have any clues to share with us, please let us know, especially if the whole game exe just won't start, we'd love to know your OS details, driver setup, etc.

That's all for today, but we'll see you at the next patch!
Tanya, Alexandra, Kitfox and Bay 12

Hey Urists,

Another patch this week before Tarn heads off for a very special, important life event! In this update you'll find graphics for tracking including animal prints and prints through various materials (like water). Barrel graphics have also been updates so you'll be able to see their contents at a glance. Also classic glyphs are now in!

An update for those experiencing crashes: We are still working on a fix for this. We are currently in talks with someone from Steam to figure out if it's an issue on their end or ours. In the meantime, we have a thread on the Steam forums with a temporary fix that seems to be working for almost everyone. We are monitoring the thread and appreciate any reports, especially if you've tried repairing Steam C++ redistributable (x64 version) and are still experiencing crashes. Thanks for all your help!



- Audio crash fixed
- Update to bin/barrel container graphics so they show their contents in more detail
- Added tracking symbols (shift + K for now)
- Added classic glyphs (still need to work on screen layout)
- Fixed Linux crash-on-exit
- Better respected caste population ratios
- Added more information to crash logs
- Fixed command line world generation

That's all for now!

-Alexandra

Hey Urists,

We have a Fortress Mode patch this week which adds in a bunch of graphics that we added to Adventure Mode beta as well as some bug fixes. We are still primarily working on getting the last few features for Adventure Mode finished so there won't be regular patches for Fortress Mode quite yet. But we wanted to do this as a little thank you to the Fortress players who have been extremely patient while we've been busy with Adventure Mode. We are getting close now!

There is a risk of losing your saves with this update. There's been an issue related to the Steam C++ redistributable, which we think may be resolved. We recommend playing the new patch with a save file you don't mind potentially losing just in case there's any issues that come up in the next few days. We will update you when this risk no longer an issue.



Major bug fixes

• Linux trainer crash fixed (again)
  
• Added crash guard for bad civilian alert

Graphics additions/changes

• Dwarves/humans/elves/goblins/kobolds have child and baby images, new equipment, and palette support
  
• Garden and crop plants have more images
  
• Mandible portrait fixed for experiments

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• Good/bad thoughts about tombs work
  
• Poisonous forgotten beasts work more reliably
  
• Various minor tweaks to input/layout
  
• Fixed drinks being destroyed on unretire
  
• Fixed a few broken sorts

We also just released a video from programmer Putnam showing off a new feature we're working on, in which players will be able to use Lua in their mods to literally change the code to make custom behaviours and adapt the systems more expansively than ever. This also acts as the foundation for the upcoming procedural magic system which will be added to all modes. Watch the full video on Youtube:

See you in the next patch!

-Alexandra

Hey Urists,

We have another patch this week including a hotfix for the crashes that were happening with the beta 21 update. This issue was related to the audio engine crashing, thanks to everyone who reported the issue. Also in this update is the ability to assume different identities in Adventure Mode, palettized equipment for all the units who have dynamic portraits as well as baby sprites for humans, elves, goblins and kobolds. You should be seeing a lot of these new graphics over in Fortress Mode in a future patch very soon.


- Fix for recent audio crash
- Palettized wieldables and wearables for dwarves/humans/elves/goblins/kobolds
- Graphical left/right hand distinction on wieldables
- Child/baby images for humans/elves/goblins/kobolds
- Visible soldiers/groups on world map in adventure mode
- Adventure mode sound indicators in unseen areas
- Ability to assume identity in adventure mode
- Can view wounds in dwarf mode arena without diagnosis

See you next patch!

- Alexandra

P.S.

Today Kitfox announced we are publishing the hardcore noir space-sim Ostranauts. So if you like dying in space in weird and interesting ways, then I highly recommend checking it out. It's currently in Early Access and available now with a 20% discount: https://steamoss.com/steamstore/app/1022980/Ostranauts/