Hey!

It's Alexandra again from Kitfox with a bit of dwarfy news. I know I said last time things were going to be a bit slow, but we still have a few things to share. We wanted to show you what a fully generated world looks like and Jacob has created a map legend with all new sprites!



See the full size image: https://imgur.com/a/StnOP0J

This is a medium sized world and we are still working on a few visual details here. You'll notice there are no caves for example, because they end up being very numerous and mess up the look a bit. The rivers are also a little wonky at the moment but they will be fixed. The underworld spire goblin cities should be distinguished - right now they look like the regular goblin forts (in ASCII, these were the difference between dark magenta and the much rarer light magenta symbols).



In our next update, we will be sharing a roadmap of what is left to do and approximate time it will take to finish. These aren't going to be firm, but we want to be as transparent as we can about development.

See you next time!

- Alexandra + Bay 12

P.S.
An earlier version of this post said the sprites had been created by Patrick. I later edited it to reflect the correct artist, Jacob. Sorry about that to both artists!

Hey!

It's Alexandra again from Kitfox with a bit of dwarfy news. I know I said last time things were going to be a bit slow, but we still have a few things to share. We wanted to show you what a fully generated world looks like and Jacob has created a map legend with all new sprites!



See the full size image: https://imgur.com/a/StnOP0J

This is a medium sized world and we are still working on a few visual details here. You'll notice there are no caves for example, because they end up being very numerous and mess up the look a bit. The rivers are also a little wonky at the moment but they will be fixed. The underworld spire goblin cities should be distinguished - right now they look like the regular goblin forts (in ASCII, these were the difference between dark magenta and the much rarer light magenta symbols).



In our next update, we will be sharing a roadmap of what is left to do and approximate time it will take to finish. These aren't going to be firm, but we want to be as transparent as we can about development.

See you next time!

- Alexandra + Bay 12

Hey!

It's Alexandra here from Kitfox. We have just a bit of news this week building off of the major update to Legends Mode. During world generation, a text box will appear displaying the significant events of the area.



The most important of the last 1000 events are added every second. Players will be able to pause and browse the chronicle at their speed so you can dive into the lore of your world before it's even saved! Unlike in Legends mode, the colourful text isn't clickable although this could change in the future.

Work is moving along very well but the news for the next while will be a tad dry and lacking graphics. This means that there might not be an update every two weeks, but rest assured we are moving forward. To make up for it, here are some new pictures of Scamps and Jojo:





-Alexandra + Bay12

Hello!

Back to work in 2022, and something different: Legends Mode! When you start Dwarf Fortress, you generate a world that you can play several games in, and this world's history can be quite involved. Sometimes it's fun for a change of pace to sift through the details. Once you've played a fortress, your fortress's characters and events are also incorporated into the legends.

In the text version of Dwarf Fortress, navigating legends is quite difficult; you can only view one page at a time, and you cannot move directly from one entry to another. To build up any kind of meaningful story or to view even a few different pages of information, you'd pretty much need to be writing things down on paper or in an outside text editor. Now, we enter the Age of the Hyperlink:



Every colorful word, which I'll probably also underline before the end, can be clicked to open up a new page. You can keep as many tabs open as you like.



I wanted to figure out a little bit about the master goblin poet and their spouse and such. It only took a few seconds and I didn't need to take any outside notes, ha ha. So far, so good!

- Tarn

Greetings all!

Yes, it's true! Tarn is back with a new video for an update many of you have been waiting for.

This time around we get to see the new and improved embark screen in all it's glory!




The highlight for old players is that it is not at all like the stunningly crappy embark screen from the ASCII version. This isn't an overstatement at all - the old embark screen is remarkably bad; people have made many remarks in fact.



For new players/future players, the highlight is perhaps that you can embark anywhere in a massive generated world with various meaningful differences, and also the general new shininess, and of course the new artist!

Check out the full video on the Kitfox Youtube channel.

You can catch us and other rad Dwarf Fortress fans over at the Kitfox Games Discord.

Thank you to all the Dwarf Fortress content creators for reaching out so far, it's been lovely meeting all of you and please do continue to reach out if you haven't yet!


See you next time,
Alexandra and Bay 12

Hello!

We are happy to announce Jacob Bowman to the Dwarf Fortress Steam edition team as our new pixel artist. You might be familiar with his work as Ironhand, as he created a rather popular tileset some years ago. We're excited to work with him, and he's already off to a great start making brand new tiles for us.

Here is a look at some of the art (both are works in progress!!) Jacob has made so far on the world map:





Look at those wormy hills and deep water! A world worth generating and spiralling into madness in, surely.

We will have more detailed updates with more images and video coming in the future as Jacob and the team works together, but I'm sure you'll agree that it's best not to rush Tarn and Zach so much that we add more bugs in haste. Thank you for being patient with us while we sort things out.

We are also still interested in talking to content creators (streamers, YouTubers, etc) interested doing more with Dwarf Fortress. If that is you, then let's chat on Discord! (Alexandra #0007)


-Alexandra, Tanya, and Bay 12 Games

Hello!

This week's video is all about setting up patrol routes with the new military screens. The gameplay is from Zach but we also have guest commentary from Dwarf Fortress Youtuber and Twitch streamer, Blind.



This time, we see a fort in need of defending and we must create and equip squads of dwarves to patrol the outside walls. In the military screen, we can designate the type of equipment each dwarf should use, allowing them to seek it out and equip it.



Once we have our squads formed, we can map out the patrol route (as shown below with the dotted lines) and watch as the dwarves follow the path.



For the full video and a list of timestamps, check out the video on Youtube. Thank you to Blind for helping us with this week's update. If you're a Dwarf Fortress content creator (or want to be one), please visit us on the Kitfox Discord and/or say hi to me (Alexandra#0007) and the rest of the urists!

-Alexandra and Bay 12 Games

Hello!

We a special video this week featuring Zach Adams of Bay12 Games showing how to defend your fort from a goblin siege.



This time, Zach has set up a waterfall fort with a pen of exotic large animals. It's a very appealing site for goblins! But as you'll see, in the video, they will face a hallway full of different traps to stop them.



For the full video and a list of timestamps, check out the video on Youtube. Thank you to everyone for the feedback on these last few video updates. Please continue to do so and as always, come visit us on the Kitfox Discord!

-Alexandra and Bay 12 Games

Hello!

We have another video update this week. We have listened to your feedback so this time, we will be showcasing one specific task. This video shows digging out an underground well and setting up the cistern/water supply for it.



It's a little confusing because of the Z level changes, but I think that'll always be true without a voice over, and even then, it's still there. It's much easier to understand Z levels when you play, so this may end up being one of the more challenging subjects for a video, since it involves several Z levels.



Over in Tarn land, I've been working on the military screen, and progress has been good.The internal rewrite that I thought might take days or even a week or more is done, quickly, so we're in good shape. I've done all the squad assignment stuff and the new order interface. Now, having done the internal equipment rewrite, I need to do the equipment and scheduling interface.

For the full video and a list of timestamps, check out the video on Youtube. Please continue to give us feedback on these videos as we continue to go through these menu-heavy updates.

-Alexandra and Bay 12 Games

Hello!

Tarn has been busy working on all the menu updates so while he's busy with that, we have 10 minutes of new gameplay footage from Zach in a new desert fortress! You'll be able to see many of the new menus discussed in previous updates in action:



Watch as Zach digs out new areas for workshops and bedrooms using the labor and nobles menus to designate the proper spaces.



Here is a first look at the desert terrain:



Here is what it looks like underground where you can see a well and some mushroom trees:



For the full video and a list of timestamps, check out the video on Youtube. During this menu period of development we thought that showing more videos a couple times a month would be a bit more interesting so let us know what you think!

-Alexandra and Bay 12 Games