Thank you for your feedback on the game! Due to numerous player complaints, it has been decided to significantly reduce the number of orbs appearing on the screen.

These changes will take place in the next patch, which will be released as soon as possible.

I also ask you to stop review-bombing the game solely because of its difficulty, as I am working to address this issue and make it more accessible. Thank you!

Cheers,
Meepower

Check out Level 3 and Hard Mode if you haven't

- interacting with the gold trophy in the statistics room unlocks cheats (pressing the reset button resets this): Hitting L on a level will bring you to the next level (WARNING: Experimental, do not attempt to access a level beyond your chosen difficulty), there will also appear three buttons on the whiteboard in the trophy room to unlock all items from each level

- level three's enemies' animations needed to be adjusted slightly, they will now stand still if you are unreachable

- changed the how to play menu slightly, added cheat button etc.

Hello Urists!

We are back with another patch for Adventure Mode! The most notable update this time is the quest log and information screen which will help with keeping track of all the events in-game. We also have tons of new sprites for flowers, fruits and leaves for the over 180 different plant and tree species. And finally, we have baby sprites for dwarves! No more confusion about whether red-clothed adult dwarves are actually children.

Tarn has been busy with an international move but things should be settling soon and the patches should appear more frequently. Thank you for your patience through these major life events on the dev team! We’ve also created a new FAQ, specifically addressing the most common comments and questions we’ve been seeing on Steam. We’ve done a few of these community FAQs in the past but this one will be focused on Adventure Mode development and how things work behind the scenes.


Babies in the trade depot!

• Quest log and information screen in adventure mode
  
• Child and baby pictures for dwarves
  
• Many new fruit, flower, leaf pictures
  
• Updated dwarf clothing images
  
• Made good/bad thoughts about tombs work
  
• Fixed error with experiment portrait mandibles

All of the legumes and their flowers

It's quite possible you will run into problems with hair and clothing colors etc. so we still have some adjustments to make on that front.

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 and which ones are still left to do.




How is Kitfox Games involved with Dwarf Fortress development?

Kitfox gets the game on Steam, helps with promotion, and handles the money side of things. Technically the artists, audio folks, and programmer working on Dwarf Fortress are contracted through Kitfox, but are managed by Bay 12. Kitfox does not directly assist in the game’s development in any way, other than occasional playtesting or coordination. Tarn and Zach are the creators of Dwarf Fortress, and we want to preserve and protect their vision.

Besides, even if we wanted to send our programmers to help with Dwarf Fortress, they wouldn’t be able to help due to the nature of the game’s uniquely built codebase. Our job is to help Tarn and Zach grow Dwarf Fortress to fruition on their own terms. We take care of as many distractions and relieve as much stress as we can. It is not our role to tell Tarn how to work on his game. We do not force deadlines on him. We do not have shareholders to persuade.

We believe this is the only way to sustain Dwarf Fortress development in a healthy way that will allow Tarn and Zach to work the way they want to on the game, ideally for the rest of all our lives.

The game released in 2022 and is selling well. Why are updates so slow?

We can’t and won’t hire a bunch of programmers to make updates go faster, even if it is a huge project. So far, we’ve added exactly 1 programmer to the team (Putnam), who was selected based on extensive pre-existing understanding of the codebase and a relationship with Tarn. Dwarf Fortress is the single most complex simulation ever created, mostly by one programmer, and it was started in 2006. Work on this labor of love is necessarily based in trust. We are optimizing to make the best game, according to Tarn’s vision, no matter how long it takes, rather than trying to optimize for speed.

Modders have the freedom to move fast and break things, and we’ll continue to support them. This is a lifetime project. This is not a game that will ever be “finished”, but our pace is focused in the long-term. Updates will come slowly but steadily “forever”.

Selling the game on Steam does not change the way that Tarn and Zach will continue to develop. Dwarf Fortress is not like any other game on OR off Steam, and was far ahead of its time, partially because of its unique development approach. We know it can be frustrating to wait, but we will not interfere just because some fans are impatient.

Why aren’t there any updates to Fortress Mode right now when it’s the main game mode?

Many of the fixes going into Adventure Mode will improve Fortress Mode, but you’re right that the time between improvements for Fortress Mode are longer right now. Adventure Mode has been important to Dwarf Fortress for a very long time, and has its own cult following of fans who prefer its playstyle, as well as the interplay between the two modes. Tarn has to focus on completing the beta before returning to regular development. Putnam is continuing to develop other features and fix bugs, but there’s a lifetime of work to do.

How are updates going to work when Adventure mode is complete? What are the next updates after Adventure Mode is complete?

After Adventure Mode leaves beta, development of both modes can proceed in parallel. Fortress Mode and Adventure Mode rest on the same world simulation, so updates are often shared, but each mode has its quirks and special features and we'll be improving them both. You can expect Fortress Mode to be made more rich with each major update, which will be more regular than in years past, rather than waiting for literal years to get giant sweeping changes. We're looking forward to it!

Why isn’t (this known bug from 8 years ago) fixed by now?

Sometimes it’s hard to fix, sometimes it’s just not impacting most players, and sometimes it’s related to a feature that’s planned to have big changes or improvements “soon” anyway, so it’s more efficient to look at it then. Maybe check the bug database for more information, because the bug wranglers might have interesting discussions you can read about it, or contribute information of your own to help track it down.

Why are you selling merch or posting community updates when there haven’t been any patches in a while?

Currently our only merch is designed and sold by FanGamer, who takes care of everything for us. Tarn and Kitfox make final approval on designs before they are sold but otherwise have no involvement in that process. Community updates help us inform players of things outside of development but related to Dwarf Fortress. These updates are written by the community manager Alexandra and sometimes Tanya and do not take away from time spent working on development. We try not to do these too much and we can understand how it’s frustrating to receive these updates when you are hoping for patch notes or updates to the game.

What about the Mac build?

After investigating the programming requirements, we have decided it’s best to cancel the Mac build for the time being. Porting the game over to Mac would take significant time and resources away from improvements to Fortress and Adventure Mode that simply don’t make sense for us to dedicate right now, given the low number of Mac-only users. There is a significant amount of work that would be required for maintaining a Mac build that would delay all patches in the future, and as we know, you all want patches faster. We aren’t saying it will -never- happen but do not count on it any time soon. We are very sorry to all the Mac users who have been waiting patiently for an update on this.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this long development journey and have supported us thus far. Dwarf Fortress is truly a unique game that requires a unique but unconventional approach to development and we hope to continue being transparent about where that journey takes us.

See you for the next patch!

-Kitfox

Main Branch 1.0.73566 Release 2024-08-13

• Game of the Week Event Level now has a 4% chance to be each of the non-default settings
  
• Growth required for next citizen now increases quadratically after 20 growths. This makes very large population cities harder to achieve
  
• Revelry and Seek Political Allies missions more likely to succeed (Behind the Throne)
  
• Lowered Growth bonus for Rising Star governors from 50% to 25% (Behind the Throne)

• Major Unity version upgrade (2021.3.34f1 to 2022.3.39f1)
  
• AI performance and behavior improvements
  
• Improved the rare case of the AI defending a city when the city's territory is divided in multiple parts by a mountain range
  
• Exposed minimum turn for 1 city ambitions to XML for use by modders
  
• Moved some hardcoded AI parameters to globalsAI.xml for use by modders

• Added Notable Characters filter. All characters now have a mission to allow manually pinning and unpinning them to/from the notable characters list
  
• Added player notification when their previously hidden units become visible
  
• Converting a cloud game into a network game now removes it from the cloud so that there is only one active instance
  
• No longer possible to convert a network game to cloud if there are any unclaimed player slots
  
• MP setup screen now has an Advanced Settings header instead of hiding them behind a toggle
  
• Improved tooltip for specialist luxuries
  
• Per-specialist and per-religion yields are no longer considered "potential" bonuses in effectCity help text
  
• Added Game of the Week icon to Hall of Fame games
  
• Game credits updates
  
• Ambitions with multiple yield types now show yield progress in the same order as defined in the ambition
  
• Improvements to culture tooltips
  
• Context menus are no longer closed when clicking on a locked tooltip

• Fixed diplomatic missions in No Events mode
  
• Fixed GIF export path on Mac and Linux
  
• Fixed date completed not populating Hall of Fame entry when game completed
  
• Fixed some scenario leader names not displaying correctly in Hall of Fame
  
• Fixed some completed games being excluded from Hall of Fame
  
• Fixed Alliance Victory display in Hall of Fame
  
• Fixed AI assert
  
• Fixed AI thinking it cannot occupy a city tile with both land and water units
  
• Fixed opinion rates appearing over multiple lines in tab panels
  
• Fixed client assert on load
  
• Fixed invalid player index
  
• Fixed hotseat turn state button refresh
  
• Fixed hotseat selection issue on player switch
  
• Fixed MP join screen for teams with many players
  
• Fixed turn button label text in MP
  
• Fixed incorrect religion/city colors in turn summary
  
• Fixed general character tooltip not locking from unit widget archetype icon
  
• Fixed inconsistent ESC key behavior on scenario screen
  
• Fixed AI saying they refuse to declare war when they are already at war
  
• Fixed possible resources on urban terrain with mirror maps
  
• Fixed unit selection causing flickering on adjacent objects
  
• Fixed clicking on city widget selecting units first
  
• Fixed click issues with family seat icon and city healthbar
  
• Fixed display of units in stacks
  
• Fixed popups not always closing when the active player changes in hotseat
  
• Fixed improvement recommendations showing on tiles with recommended improvement already started
  
• Fixed issue with religion founding game log
  
• Fixed warrior built event not popping automatically in Learn to Play 2
  
• Fixed character filter lists not updating immediately
  
• Fixed errors occuring when rapidly scrolling lists
  
• Fixed double-submit in file browser when input field is focused
  
• Fixed nested link in tutor mission links
  
• Fixed Pharaohs of the Nile scenario 2 bug where Libyan raid could spawn directly at player city (Pharaohs of the Nile)
  
• Fixed rare Jerwan Aqueduct bug (Wonders and Dynasties)
  
• Text and event fixes

Bug Fixes

Fixed Woodcutting.

Updates

Adjusted Thieving Xp Rates.

• Bug fix: cards with upgrades that increased Expire were not ticking down correctly
  
• Played cards are processed before buffs/debuffs are applied (i.e. playing a block card when marked results in gaining block before taking marked damage)
  
• Added an overworld map button to view the map at any time
  
• When certain card selection screens are active and you view the draw/discard/dead cards, they no longer hide behind the card selection screen
  
• Bug fix: various random values were not seeded
  
• Bug fix: Bless didn't work on cards that were double-enshardened such that their mana costs were reduced.
  
• 22 new candies added
  
• 44 new treasures added
  
• 3 new Bottled cards added: Bottled Might, Bottled Lightning, and Bottled Solid
  
• 10 other new cards added: Crazed, Wild Strength, Wild Protection, Collector, Anomaly, Dragon Kin, Sorcerer Kin, Throwing Knives, Flashbang, Evermagic, and Swarmstrike
  
• Reworked how many bottled cards you can choose from with Make Ready, Disavow, and Ruin
  
• Card rarities are now considered more often when the game is deciding random cards
  
• Bug fix: cards with draw effects that added more cards to hand could result in 11 cards in hand
  
• Added the Glossary
  
• Renamed "aligned" magic to "wild" magic
  
• Added the Feral, Beast, Channel, and Buttress effects
  
• Added the Reaper, Electromancy, Gravity, and Scout abilities
  
• Added status graphics to the status animations
  
• Bug fix: the Magical Lantern treasure was not applying the Amplify ability correctly
  
• Bug fix: card actions now correctly halt immediately upon combat ending
  
• Widesweeping tweaks and reworks of cards and shard upgrades
  
• Various card art updated
  
• Reworked Stone Walker moveset

• Singularity has chance to summon guardians reduced to 25% on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Visually differentiated the remove buffs enemy action from a standard hex
  
• New Card: Divine Chalice (Standard Pack)
  
• New Card: Fleeting Refuge (Standard Pack)
  
• Added second shard slot to the Fleeting Shield card
  
• New card art for Blitz
  
• New Treasure: Golden Fishing Rod
  
• New Treasure: Lucky Lure
  
• Buffed the base rainbow starting bonus to +17
  
• Buffed the armor starting bonus to +55
  
• Drinking at the Magic Fountain now heals for +50 and gives +20 armor
  
• Improved incoming damage calculations

Hey y'all! I am so grateful for those of you who purchased Deck of Defense, it has been fun to see people playing the game. I added a small audio update this morning as well as some minor bug fixes. Keep enjoying the game and please leave a positive review!

Greetings Ballers,

We're excited to bring you our most recent updates today. Please check the
details below.

[System]

1. Equipment System Improvement

Get ready for a major upgrade in our Equipment System!

We’re excited to introduce the new Attribute Gems, bringing a fresh way to
enhance your character’s attributes.
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/event/18819


2. Character Generation System Improvement!

Dear, FreeStyle 2 Players!

We’re excited to announce a new update that enhances the Character
Generation process!

We’re bringing you a fresh way to create the characters you love.

Say hello to instant character generation with our new system!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18816


3. August Updates and Improvements

Exciting changes are coming this August! Dive into our latest updates and
improvements to elevate your gameplay experience!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18816

[Events]

1. Pop-Up Store

Exciting News, Ballers!

The Pop-Up Store is just around the corner, and it's your chance to supercharge
your gameplay!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18807


2. Roly Poly's Golden Mask

The Gold Fox Mask has been hidden within the enchanted Daruma Dolls,
and it's your mission to find it!

Are you ready to take on the challenge and claim the Gold Fox Mask?
The event is live, and the search is on—may the best explorer win!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18809


3. Hermit's Super Quest

Get ready for an adventure like no other with our awesome event:
Hermit's Super Quest!

Dive into the quest to claim the coveted Hermit's Peach Tree and unlock
exclusive rewards that will elevate your Freestyle 2 experience!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18805


4. The Incredible Store

Welcome to the ultimate shopping experience in Freestyle 2!

The Incredible Store is now open, packed with exclusive items and unbeatable
deals. It’s time to level up your game and style with our incredible offerings!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18808


5. Emergency Rescue Package

Attention FS2 Ballers! We're coming to your rescue!
To keep you in the game and ready for anything, we're giving away an
exclusive Emergency Rescue PKG to all players—no strings attached!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18810


6. Mysterious Glass Beads

Ready to unleash your Style?
Tap into the mystical energy of the Mysterious Glass Bead and watch your
wardrobe come to life.
Forget about ordinary outfits – you now have the power to create looks that
are as unique as you!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18812


7. 4vs4 Discount Event

Ready yourselves for another Discount Battle! We're excited to bring you back to
the 4:4 Discount Event!
Grab these goodies in this limited-time offer and enhance your edge for a
fraction of its cost!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18814


8. Stray Rebels: Lukas and Aurora PICK UP Summon Event

The Stray Rebels: Lukas and Aurora Summon Pick-Up Event has arrived!
Seize the chance to add the coolest characters, Lukas and Aurora, to your
lineup! These dynamic additions bring fresh perspectives and unique skills
to the game!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18813


9. Lyla's Stadium Shop

Welcome to Lyla's Stadium Shop!
Get ready for an unparalleled shopping extravaganza, because the doors to
Lyla's Stadium Shop are now officially open!
Your shopping adventure starts now!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18811


10. Access Time Event

Unlock the fun with our exclusive Access Time Event in Freestyle 2!
Simply log in at specific times, and fantastic rewards are yours for the taking!
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18806


11. Lucky Crystal Shop Update

We're excited to announce that the Lucky Crystal Shop has been updated
with new items and stylish outfits!

Don’t miss out on the latest additions—head over to the shop now and check
out what’s in store for you.
Link: https://freestyle2.joycitygames.com/news/notice/18818

=================================================

Thank you everyone, and we look forward to giving you all a much better game
experience. Enjoy gaming!

Be free to create your own style, Freestyle!

- Freestyle2 Team

We're happy to announce version 2.37.1 which is live on Steam right now.
Changelog below and also on our Website

Come join us on Discord!
Don't forget to check Discord events to see the date and time of when Games are played.

Did you know we are porting this mod to Unreal Engine 5?
You can follow its development on our Website and/or Discord

Changelog:

• Added the recycleGivesRefund (“Give Refund on Recycle?” in Hammer) parameter for building entities.
  • If set to 1 (the default), then when the building is recycled the resources are refunded.
  • If set to 0, then when the building is recycled, no resources are given to the team.
  • The commander will get feedback for what the refund cost will be when triggering a recycle on a building.
  • This change allows level designers to strategically place buildings without worrying about commanders using them to gain additional resources through recycling. For instance, pre-spawned turrets are placed in starting locations to prevent early rushes. However, in the past, commanders have used these turrets to gain small resource advantages during the early phase of the game.
  • Although none of the official maps have been changed to adopt the above behaviour, this may be implemented in the future.
• Buildings can now require research to be placed.
  • If a building has the “Research” parameter set to the name of a research node, then the building will not be able to be placed until that research is completed.
    • Previously, this parameter was only used for turret upgrades.
  • If a building is unresearched, then it will show up in purple in the build menu.
  • The highlight color of unresearched buildings are purple, and have a tooltip indicating that they are not researched.

• Reverted grenade physics behaviour back to how it was prior to 2.37.0.
  • We now fake the grenade bounce sound without detecting surface type. The previous VPhysics based detection did not actually detect the right surface type most of the time, so this is not much of a regression.
• Changed physics timestep to match server tickrate. (Instead of DEFAULT_TICK_INTERVAL - for Empires that’s currently 66 tick)
• Removed code that disables vertex-lit materials being applied to detail models. (It no longer replaces the model with error.mdl)
• Comprehensive refactoring of vehicle code, both client & server. The aim of this is to improve code readability & maintainability while implementing minor bug fixes and reducing code complexity. It will allow us to iterate easier in the future when adding new features. Some related bug fixes
  • Fixed some bugs caused by the vehicle self-destruct functionality. When the self-destruct timer had elapsed it would cause the self-destruct damage to be applied first, then ignore any subsequent damage/regeneration that may happen in that frame. Essentially, if a vehicle was taking self-destruct damage it would be invincible to biological damage-over-time and armor would stop regenerating.
  • Fixed a number of potential crashes.
  • Fixed some issues with how vehicle water level is detected/set in code. This has no impact on gameplay but is now working as intended.
  • Fixed a bug with vehicle damage assists. Assists had the potential to be awarded because other entities had damaged the vehicle. (trigger_hurt for example).
  • Significantly reduced memory required to store a vehicle object through removing unused variables and optimization.
  • Reduced CPU usage by optimized code in various places.

• Modified the Heavy Machine Gun for both teams to deliver sustained fire with decent accuracy, despite initially lower accuracy compared to rifles and SMGs, thanks to its low increment for longer, stable bursts.
  • HMG spread is based on DuckingSpread
    • HMG is 100% less accurate while Standing
      • HMG is 200% less accurate than Standing while Jumping
    • HMG is 20% more accurate while proning
  • HMG Spread Modifier is based on Spread
    • HMG is 200% less accurate while moving
  • HMG increment is based on Standing Increment
    • HMG increment is 20% slower while Crouching
    • HMG increment is 40% slower while Proning
• Adjusted the cycle time for the following weapons to align with servers operating at a 100 tick rate.
  • SMG 1(Both teams)
    • CycleTime 0.09 -> 0.08
  • SMG 2 (Both teams)
    • CycleTime 0.075 -> 0.07
  • NF Assault rifle
    • CycleTime 0.106 -> 0.1
• Engineer Tool
  • Increased heal amount from 4 to 6
  • Reduced Heal Modifier from 3 to 2 (Heal upgrade multiplier)

• Biological Machine Gun
  • Reduced Clip Size from 80 to 60
• High-Explosive Machine Gun
  • Reduced Clip Size from 70 to 50
• Depleted Uranium Machine Gun
  • Reduced Clip Size from 100 to 80
• Railgun
  • Increased Clip Size from 30 to 40
• Biological Cannon
  • Reduced Bio Time from 10 to 5 seconds
• Homing Missile Launcher
  • Increased Lock On Time from 0.4 to 0.5
  • Reduced Lock On Modifier from 0.4 to 0.25
    • Homing Lock On Time reduced from 0.4-3.6 to 0.5-2.5 seconds
      • Homing Lock On Speed increased is 25% faster on average

• All armors
  • Increased Sticky Resist from -0.714 to -0.6
    • This reduces Sticky Bomb damage from 300 to 280 which means they won’t destroy LT/APC with 1 grenade when equiped with plain or absorbant armor
• Plain Armor
  • Increased Health from 60 to 70
• Absorbant Armor
  • Increased Speed to Damage Modifier from 0.00005 to 0.00007
• Composite Armor
  • Increased Speed to Damage Modifier from 0.000025 to 0.000035
• Introduced new Capacitive Armor research under Electrical Engineering.
  • Research cost: 240 resources
  • Research time: 60 seconds
  • Capacitive Armor is intended to be resistant to infantry weapons but vulnerable to enemy tanks, key armor statistics below:
    • Weight: 13 per plate
    • Cost: 20 resources per plate
    • Health: 80 per plate
    • Damage to Heat Absorbed: 0.02 (2% of damage received is converted to heat)
    • Resistances:
      • HE Grenades: 70% resistance
      • Mines: 55% resistance
      • RPG: 45% resistance
      • Mortars: 45% resistance
      • Explosive Sticky Grenades: 42.5% resistance
      • Stun Sticky Grenades: 42.5% resistance
      • Squad Arty: 55% resistance

• Standard Engine
  • Increased cooling by 0.5

• New Research
  • Vehicle Factory
    • Parent: Structural Engineering
    • Time: 60s
    • Cost: 240
  • LT/AFV Chassis
    • Parent: Mechanical Engineering
    • Time: 60s
    • Cost: 240
  • APC Chassis
    • Parent: Mechanical Engineering
    • Time: 90s
    • Cost: 360

• Radar
  • Reduced Cost from 600 to 300
  • Reduced Health from 250 to 200
• Vehicle Factory
  • Reduced Cost from 700 to 500

• Updated armor descriptions

• Armor impact sounds are often too quiet to be heard well. (Carried over from previous update.)