“Patch Notes” for the next Dwarf Fortress

As of the release

Cities

Cities have gone through a major change, both in their size and function. Ideally an adventurer will be able to start the game in a city and have an entire playing arc without ever leaving.

Layout

• Cities are huge, about as large as a 3x3 embark square
• They consist of houses, markets, keeps and castles, farms and other such areas
• Each city will differ in size and rural vs. urban, but they’ll all mostly be the same shape
• They’re walled off, consists of gates and roads, and may even have an inner keep
• There are farmers markets that contain food and the like
• There’s a brand new travel map to help you traverse cities in a pseudo-fast travel
• Bridges have been revised to make more sense.
• Cities will only be placed in places with access to fresh water, but they can access aquifer water using wells.

The undercity, dungeons and monuments

• Consists of sewers, catacombs, and dungeons
• Sewers can contain wildlife, bandits, and other nasties
• Certain important historical figures will get independent monuments in their honor. These take the shape of pyramids
• Traps now work in adventurer mode, and monuments may be trapped, so treasure hunt safely
• Traps can be detected and are harmless if you can see them
• Basically every NPC that dies in a world gen city has a findable grave now
• Also expect to see kobolds, animal-peoples and other such critters in the deepdark
• You’re probably going to get lost a lot
• Bodies to find, respecting historical context.
• There are criminals, kobolds, subterranean animal peoples and beasts underground, in addition to tombs with disturbable critters.

Buildings

• Furniture is no longer just randomly generated, but comes from world gen stockpiles of that particular civ
• Likewise, all items in a city will have some significance - maces with goblin legends on them, tower cap beds with Dwarven symbols, etc. Lots of paving the way for trade
• Temples make their return, and may have an entrance to a catacomb
• A buying and selling rewrite is eluded to in the the 15th DF Talk, so buying from merchants should be easier

Farmland

• Land outside the main city is sectioned off using the manor system
• Towns contain pig yards
• Outlying land is divided into 3 crop areas, pasture, meadow, woodland and waste

Interactions

In general, interactions refer to the notion of one creature somehow affecting another. This has opened up a whole range of gameplay possibilities

General

• You can add or remove tags via interactions
• All existing undead reactions are now replaced by this system
• Dead bodies (and body parts!) can be raised in evil areas automatically
• Creatures can change their tile as well - for example, zombies flash between the original critter tile and a night creature symbol
• Ingestion of materials can now pass on syndromes
• This is usable in adventure mode

Curses

• You can be cursed with “bad luck”
• It is assumed that there are several undisclosed curses and interactions, all of which are generated in world gen and are unique to that world
• Mists of varying curses now plague evil lands, causing interactions such as turning dwarves into bloodless hulks
• Rain consisting of blood can also be found in evil regions, and they too might be cursed

Secrets

• Secrets are special abilities (close to magic) that both NPCs and the player can learn
• Examples include immortality and the ability to raise the dead
• Secrets can be passed on by gods and by stone tablets, and world gen treasure hunters may search for them
• If written on a stone tablet or slab, it may be hidden as treasure elsewhere, such as under a city. Players can find them

Animals

• Many of the new animals, and perhaps others, use this framework to help flesh out behaviors. Narwhals have tusking, falcons can dive, tortoises curl up inside their shell
• Squids shoot out ink, and this prompted a material breath rewrite
• Spider webs and dragon breath are integrated, and thus will be available when modded in adventure mode

Creatures

A great many new types of creatures now inhabit the game, ranging from “boss” enemies like the necromancer, hoards of new undead and night creatures, and of course mundane “donation” animals

Undead

• So long as a part has a grasp tag or a head, it can be raised, such as arms!
• Save for exotic critters which don’t require either to be alive - in that case, you might want to target them first, as their pieces can be raised no matter what
• Rejoice! Bodies and souls are properly separated after dead, so it is entirely possible to be haunted by a ghost of someone recently raised as a zombie.
• You’ll be happy to know that world gen undead populations properly follow actual populations - if 100 people died in a city, you can only encounter 100 zombies
• Even skin can be raised, so look forward to hollow skin, walking abominations

Necromancers

• World gen NPCs that are afraid of dying may search out (either through their gods or artifacts) the secret to immortality. Naturally they use it for evil
• They run off and build their own towers, and send hordes of undead to attack both world gen cities and fortresses
• They can pillage old battlefields for their zombies. It implies there’s a finite number of zombies, directly linked to how many historical figures died in world gen
• In addition to world gen zombie making, Necromancers can raise the dead any damn time they’d like, even in the middle of battle, and even when what they’re raising used to be your severed arm
• Necromancers sometimes take apprentices.

Mummies

• Mummies are dead, important historical figures entombed in a memorial. Disturb them and they may raise, bringing along their old followers
• It is assumed mummies can pass along curses, such as the aforementioned bad luck, via interactions

Were-Critters

• Not content with having just werewolves, creatures may now be cursed as a were-whatever - look forward to werelizards, werecavies, and weregoats
• Were-critters initially come about when a world gen NPC defiles the gods, but can later be passed on through an interaction. This includes dwarves in fortress mode!
• Weres make a mad dash during a full moon to attack someone in fortress mode due to the compressed time
• As of right now they flee when cursed and live in lairs
• Weres are strong against most type of materials, but weak against others, and even a small strike with an object made out of this material can shatter bone
• Fortress Mode now includes a lunar cycle indicator

Vampires

• Pretty traditional stuff here, though the nitty-gritty details will actually be randomized: certain vamps can pass for human, others burn in the sun, etc.
• Vampirism is passed on by drinking vampire blood, so, uh, don’t go doing that if you don’t want to be a vampire
• As world gen NPCs are vamped, they will begin to feed on townspeople. The longer they do this, and the smaller the town, the more likely they are to be caught, forcing them to flee, sometimes to other towns
• Vampires can entice townsfolk and form cults. They can also challenge leaders and possibly become the king of a civilization
• Vampires don’t age and are faster than normal
• Vampires suck blood from sleeping victims in Dwarf mode and you may do this in adventure mode.
• The word “Thirsty” will appear in red to denote a need to feed.

General

Identities

• Characters can assume a false identity
• Demons and beasts pretending to be gods use this, as do vampires
• Kill lists are hidden
• Walk at speeds in keeping with their identity

Justice

• Dwarves are now announced only as “missing” until someone finds the body
• You now select a person to be punished from the justice system
• Dwarves may witness a crime and report it to the sheriff
• Dwarves won’t report a crime to the sheriff if that’s who committed it
• Dwarves with grudges may level false accusations
• The Hammerer is now an appointed position.

Other

• Creatures can now be weak or strong against certain materials
• New sponsorship animals: Kiwis, squids, red pandas, peregrine falcons, ostriches and narwhals, wombats, storks, octopuses, brown recluse spires, elephant seals, and all the rest of the animals. Many include new interactions. Some aren’t fully complete.
• Gems can be cut hella good now by dwarves. Several different types of gem cuts are now possible
• Designations can now be made across z-levels
• The world is now full of randomly generated books about historical events and figures
• Historical figures now immigrate normally. The game tries to give you families.
• Flesh now burns properly, so melting off all your fat doesn’t make you immune to fire.
• Units list is divided into four categories (citizens, pets/livestock, others, dead/missing).
• Genetics and animal breeds work properly for animals associated with each entity. The lineage of individual animals is not tracked.
• You can select and purchase portions of a stack in both modes.
• Money and goods teleport to you when you purchase things.
• Hunger and thirst added, killing after 30 and 5 days, respectively, and negatively effecting rolls after 8 hours.
• Historical figures can now lead bandits.
• There’s a “valid direction” indicator which will appear when you cannot move in every direction.
• In evil regions, it can rain blood, and there are mists which can bestow horrible curses
• Quite a bit more information has been added to the “Historical Figure” XML dump
• No more material based mandates!
• Some optimization and bug fixing.