Maybe I used too many monkeys...

Alright. So, you're seeing the same pattern here I am, right? I disappear off the face of the earth for weeks and months on end. Then a new version comes out, I give the site a face lift and vow that I'll start updating again. And then...I don't. It's really very sad.

But this time is different! This time I plan on actually keeping this thing updated.

Hopefully.

Soon I'll have the design down. I'll then talk a bit about the new version, then off I go to brainstorm ideas.

Wish me luck!

More Mayday updates and another d-series up ahead?

Mike Mayday has been hard at work releasing even more updates to his popular "modded" version of Dwarf Fortress. You can find the latest version and news at his website here!

In addition to unofficial updates we also have another d-series update (marking this 40d12) coming out with further bug fixes and optimizations. Notably, this should fix quite a few problems associated with the keyboard including button press timing and support for non-qwerty keyboards.

What else can we expect? Well it's been a long while since we had a new d-series update, and as far as I know the people responsible for it have been working on various optimizations and the like. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Still, any update is cause for celebration.

Dev Notes: Lazy Edition

So I've been putting off talkng about the dev notes and such. There honestly hasn't been that much interesting going on, and with the beginning of the summer (and transition into job mode!) I haven't had the most time in the world.

Still, let's take a look at once has been happening this last week.

Any of the new positions can be linked to creature graphics in the same way as before now. I've also put in my first code-generated positions using the religions. It should give the high priest a position name related to their religion, for example, though until I fix up the human entities I won't be able to test it and share some of them. It'll also use this sort of generation procedure for all of the goblin positions, hopefully in a somewhat more involved fashion.

The big kicker here is that we can have code generated positions, which could lead to some pretty awesome scenarios. I don't want to read too much into it, but I believe this means that instead of having a "Priest" we could have a "Blood Priest of Armok", or whatever, depending on what the Priest worships

This could easily extend into other positions. Maybe if it finds a King who happens to have a lot of evil/controlling traits it could generate the position name "Tyrant" or some such.

Continuing along with yesterday's work. The administration of conquered sites is up now, and it'll create a position from scratch if one isn't provided in the raws (or if the one in the raws can't be filled by current critters on account of requirements). We won't be to any noticeable difference until I get to dwarf mode in a day or two though.

This one is interesting if only because of the possible changes this could have to leadership. Could we be seeing Dwarven Druids if they conquerer an retreat? Or will it generate a new position because dorfs don't give two shits about nature?


Anyways, that's really all that has been posted that's interesting. Toady is planning on possibly working all month (without breaking for his month end project) just to get this finished, which is encouraging. I think I speak for everyone when I say it's been far too fucking long since the last update, and though this one will definitely be one of the biggest and best...it just needs to come out already.

Mayday finally releases bundled d11 + graphics pack

You can grab it here!

Basically Mike Mayday has made one of the most used graphics set in all of DF's short history. It's basically the thing you link your friends who just cannot stomach the ASCII.

Unfortunately for the longest time the newest version of DF - the one with all the OpenGL updates, otherwise known as the d series - has been left in the dust. There were obviously ways to fix it, but installing graphical packs is a surprisingly hard task for someone new to the series.

Thankfully this new version does everything for you.

So if you want to play DF with some pretty nice "graphics" and also have a possible speed boost - well, check out Mike Mayday's release. You won't be disappointed.

Future of the Fortress grab bag: The highlights

ToadyOne was kind enough to answer a slew of questions over at the Future of the Fortress on the forums. He had a lot to talk about today as he hasen't had the chance to answer any questions for a few weeks now. I decided to grab the "important" things from his answers and compile them into a useful "highlights" section. And yes, there is actually a LOT of new and interesting info revealed, so have a look!

*SEVER_ON_BREAKS is currently gone. This tag was used for entities which did not have muscles or ligaments to hold a bone in place if it broke. Indeed, you'll see skeletons, Spirits of Fire, etc. all had this tag. It is unknown if it'll be updated or replaced with a new tag, though one can imagine the new body work is what invalidated this token.

*No flowing underground rivers...at least not yet.

*Underground critters may get some sort of nest/camp if there's time. After all, their weapons had to come from SOMEWHERE.

*The standard amount of layers (usually 15 z-levels down from the surface) has been thrown out entirely, though how is currently not known.

*We now know (at least I didn't know before!) that some of the major pathfinding issues causing FPS lag are actually bugs - namely with flying critters and trapped animals. Interesting!

*Map revealing update revealed: 60 tiles "spill out" from a dwarf as he explores the underground. If he travels 30 tiles in this spillout it'll redraw itself around the dwarf in a "chunking" sort of method. No more psychic revelations! Ms. Urist McCleo jailed for fraud.

*Squads currently cannot be stationed into the "great unknown" areas. They must be explored first.

*Bottom pits/chasms....are gone! At least as we know them. All vertical drops will be finite, though HFS might allow for bottomless pits to return in some fashion.

*HFS as we know it are ALSO gone! New HFS should take its place, but in terms of where it's located it'll be entirely different. Some HFS creatures might not make it as well.

*Water can leave (and come from) world map edges, which makes it much more difficult to simply "flood" a cave to kill all the nasties. It also allows for infinite water to come in.

*Demons and goblins are not forced to be tied together, though given that the other 4 civilizations want nothing to do with a demon (or a goblin, for that matter!), it'll probably still play out roughly the same. Still, demons have to fight for their positions of power.

*Dreams can come true: underground caves can also be flooded with magma, not just water. Watch your step.

Dark Diamond interview with Toady

Though this happened last week, it's still good to advertise such an interview for the masses looking to glean ANY info about Toady and DF. The interview is set up in a podcast.

Unfortunately this one suffers from some pretty crippling problems - namely, the audio for Toady cuts out frequently and during the most important parts. Conspiracy, perhaps? Hmm. What an ingenious way to conceal new info! Say you revealed all this new information but claim you had technical difficulties and thus no one could hear it! Perfect!

Anyways, you can find the actual interview here. You can also find even MORE interview footage here, though this is more of a "banter" back and forth between Toady and the interviewer rather than any actual interview.. Finally, certain DF forumgoers were kind enough to write up a transcript of the entire thing. You can find said transcript here, and you can thank Turgid Bolk for the majority of it!