Fixed a timing error introduced by ammo loading that caused many actions to be performed in slow motion, leading to all of the dwarves dying over a long period as drinking could not catch up with thirst.
Adventurer can wait when under attack while nocking or loading.
Ranged Weapon Fix and Forgotten Beasts 🏹Dwarf Fortress Update 51.12
Hello! Here's a new update, focusing on ranged weapons and colorful beasts.
We've reworked ranged weapons and archer behavior in preparation for the siege update.
Ranged weapons can now be nocked/loaded, which takes the bulk of the time, and this can be done before firing ('n' in adventure mode.) This allows archers to be a bit safer, since they won't be paralyzed for a long while after firing a shot. The firing force of bows is affected by strength and skill up to a point, whereas crossbows are slower to load but don't require skill and attributes to get their full force. Crossbows are also easier to aim. Loading speeds of all weapons can be improved with skill.
Ranged projectiles (shot or thrown) can be aimed at specific body parts. It's now also harder to hit targets that are farther away. Adventurers, fortress defenders, and enemies all have access to aiming.
In the fortress, your defenders will try to use nearby fortifications, stay away from the enemy, and not use their crossbows as clubs unless very desperate. Enemy archers will also use fortifications if they can get close. Fortress archers will try to reload from the squad ammo pool rather than engage in melee combat.
We've also brought back the ammo and supply management menus and worked out some old issues with them so they should function more smoothly.
The squad's ammo reserves can be set by selecting a single squad, going to their equipment, and selecting the ammo button. Multiple ammo pools can be set by material, amount, and whether they are used for combat or training (or both.) This allows you to eventually separate out metal bolts for combat and wood/bone bolts for training if you choose. Squads can store ammo in chests in a barracks if the barracks is set to hold that squad's equipment to give you some control over where squad bolts end up. Hunters also have an ammo pool you can set under Labor / Standing Orders / Other.
Here's a gif with some archers firing back and forth and making use of fortifications.
You can also set a squad's food and drink settings from Equip / Supplies. This allows you to set how many rations are carried in their backpack and whether their flask gets alcohol, water, or nothing.
Forgotten beast and titan graphics have been updated. In new worlds, they will now be generated with colors and multiple decorations.
Also, dwarves that die will lose their room assignments properly and a few crashes and other issues have been fixed.
Have fun!
Tarn
Patch Notes for 51.12
Ranged weapon update
Stopped ranged soldiers from aggressively entering melee combat when out of ammo.
Made ranged units step away from close enemies and try to use any nearby fortifications.
Ranged attackers can aim at specific body parts.
Added loading and nocking states and actions for ranged weapons.
Made firing take much less time than loading.
Differentiated shooting and post-shot recovery times.
Added weapon-specific attribute and skill effects for aiming and delays.
Can set ammunition, food, and drink assignments for squads.
Fixed various issues with extra ammo being kept in quivers and ammo not being picked up.
New graphics
Added colorful forgotten beasts and titans.
General updates
Dwarves that meet with misfortune lose their room assignments properly.
Changed how item deletion works to fix some army crashes.
Stopped crash from unspecified inorganic dusts.
Stopped keyboard cursor from skipping large distances when scroll distance is larger than 1.
Made modded night trolls appear even when no night trolls are generated.
Made NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN/RUST add/remove syndromes work properly.
Stopped requiring music and sound definitions to load saves (makes classic saves compatible again).
Dwarf Fortress Update 51.11: Quality of Ice Updates
Hey everyone!
Alexandra here with a bit of community news and patch 51.11. In the patch, we fixed some lost information when people leave and when they arrive. We also turned off the broken underground invasions until we fix them with the siege update and a bunch of ice related bugs that have been around for years. There’s also some new graphics going in for divine/artifact weapon tiles and the leather/metal caps in the portraits which you can see here:
Happy Birthday Tarn!
We wanted to wish Tarn a belated Happy Birthday, which was on April 17th. We got together at Kitfox and made a card for him with our artistic interpretation of “Toady One” in honour of the day. You also might have noticed the preview of animal people clothing in portraits! The art is now done but it’s going to take a while to get every single portrait into the game. We are pretty busy with siege-related stuff right now but you’ll see the new art in a future update.
1,000,000 Copies Sold!
And more good news: Last week we officially surpassed 1 million copies sold on Steam. This number represents countless dwarves, trials and tribulations from your generated worlds. Dwarf Fortress wouldn’t be the game it is today without the stories you bring to life in these worlds. So thank you from the entire team for supporting us throughout the years. If you haven’t already, consider sharing your story in a Steam review.
Dwarf Fortress Documentary
Over the past three years, the video game documentarians at NoClip have been working on a Dwarf Fortress series. It covers everything from Tarn and Zach’s early days all the way to post-Adventure Mode launch on Steam. We think they did a great job of sharing such an incredible dev story. All four parts of the documentary are now available on Youtube:
Patch Notes for 51.11
Fortress Mode
People that leave the map no longer lose their room ownership associations
Stopped immigrants from losing their religions and some other affiliations
Added settings to customize keyboard scroll amounts
Turned off underground humanoid invasions until they are fixed
Add grazer text to creatures in unit selectors
Setting somebody to a work detail now properly disables others not in the detail
Removed ramp spaces above non-ramp constructions if the constructions are placed on ramps
New Graphics
Differentiated metal caps from wood/bone/leather/shell/woven caps in portraits
Images for weapon items that are artifacts / special materials
General updates
Stopped certain interaction of ice and constructions from creating void tiles
Made cave-ins happen more reliably with constructions vs frozen liquids
Stopped frozen squares revealed under removed constructions from lingering
Shrubs covered with frozen water no longer lose their species when they unthaw
See you in the next patch,
- Alexandra
Hotfix: Patch 51.10
Patch 51.10
Fixed up some issues with the pathing overflow changes.
Readded the only-selected-do-this / everybody-does-this toggle when the first or last dwarf is added/removed from a work detail.
Update 51.09: Forbidden Coffins now unusable
Hey Urists!
We are back from GDC with an update for Fortress and Adventure Mode. Next we'll be starting work on sieges, while also keeping a pace of regular fixes and improvements.
Tarn Time Spring 2025 Edition
In case you missed it, we also have a seasonal update video from Tarn. He goes over the last few months of updates as well as lua, the upcoming siege and site building updates. Watch on Youtube:
Patch Notes for 51.09
Fortress Mode
Stopped dwarves from using forbidden and uncompleted coffins for burial
Stopped greyed out "everybody does this" for mining/hunting/chopping labors from being pressable
Stopped Mining, Woodcutting, Hunting from being able to be assigned to the same dwarf
Stopped reclaimed/unretired forts with magma features from having magma overflows
Stopped unretired forts from being marked as capitals
Reordering manager work orders no longer causes display issues in workshop view sheet
Can now set pressure plates to include zero depth for water/magma
Made squad scrollbar responsive to clicks
Fixed custom difficulty settings for irritation in the embark screen
Random improvements are no longer applied instantly to fort-made crafts
Fixed typo on squad equipment assignment screen
Adventure Mode
Made adventure mode respect manual disabling of sound in init file
General Updates
Fixed pathing overflow errors in very large and/or twisty forts
-Alexandra
Hotfix: Patch 51.08
Patch 51.08
Adventure Mode
Fixed an input issue when discovery popups appeared
Update 51.07: Easier reconstruction and pet protection
Hey everyone,
It's Alexandra here as we continue along with the routine patches after Adventure Mode release. We have quality of life fixes for Fortress Mode including the new ability to use the previous material when replacing constructions. No need to go back through the menus over and over again! Over in Adventure Mode your speed is now displayed properly. Lots of other adjustment and fixes here as well.
So far the lua tests are going smoothly and we are receiving really great feedback. If you're a mod-minded urist and want to play round with the lua update, you can check it out on the Experimental Branch.
Release notes for 51.07
Fortress mode
Allowed use of last material when placing simple one-stage buildings and constructions
Stopped land holders without a residence from automatically moving to and gumming up capitals
Animals marked for slaughter and then assigned as war animal pets are now unmarked for slaughter
Stopped hidden zones in NPC fortresses on reclaims from clouding information in tomb and dungeon sheets
Work orders: changed "stone stones" to "stone boulders" and "stones" to "boulders", because they can be made from ice
Adventure mode
Allowed ordinary destiny adventurers to start anywhere in their civilization
Handled infinite loop having to do with sites near oceans
Unstackable items no longer stacked in character creation
Movement blocking announcements are displayed during travel properly
FPS display no longer blocks the speed readout
Potential containers are no longer shown with nonsense directions when placing items
Classic combat indicators are displayed in the correct position
Changes to fort mode sound level sliders no longer affect adv mode sound levels
General updates
Stopped projectiles and falling creatures from falling through thin floors if they hit a sideways obstacle first
Creatures with multigrasp weapons should no longer be generated with shields
Fixed potential troublesome loop involving stone inclusion loops
Creatures without exertion have their exertion set to zero
Handled situation where FPS caps could underflow
Fixed potential overflow in corpse sizes
See you in the next patch,
Alexandra
Lua Beta + Patch 51.06 ⛏ Dwarf Fortress Dev News
Hey again!
It’s Alexandra with a big update including patch 51.06, the Lua beta and a few things from the community too. Patch 51.06 includes a few fixes and tweaks for Fortress Mode and Adventure Mode.
Patch Notes 51.06
Fortress Mode
Made some strange mood dwarves not get stuck at workshop selection stage
Stopped people from claiming and using inactive bedroom zones
Stopped the dead from claiming inactive tomb zones
Decreased prepared food item value
Made custom announcement settings load properly
Added setting to turn off visible rectangle dimensions
Added crash safeguards to report popups and other widgets
Fixed seed cap limit and made deletion of seeds over cap respect planting status
Adventure Mode
Added escape/rbut to leave adventurer difficulty selection
Fixed issue with adventurer race selection lists not being unpopulated on exit
Fixed buffer overrun involving tents
Fixed crash related to site plot use allocations
Added highlight to adventurer destiny selection in Classic mode
General updates
Added crash safeguard for syndromes
Updated some metal elasticities
Fixed graphics for tiger, whale, and whitetip reef sharks
Lua Beta is here!
We have the new Lua upgrades from programmer Putnam up on the Experimental Branch for you to try out. If this is the first time you’re hearing about Lua, read our update from September. The old modding format still works, but now formerly hard-coded features like forgotten beasts and vampiric curses will make their way out into moddable text files. Not only will you be able to create more powerful mods but this is also a necessary update for the future Myth and Magic system. You can experience the beginnings of that system with the magical items in Adventure Mode!
The Experimental Branch update also adds a distinction between portable and roaming save data. Saves will now go into AppData/Roaming instead of the local save folder, unless you set the portable option from settings. This only applies to the experimental branch.
If you’re interested in playing with the Lua, check it out on the Experimental branch and let us know what you think! We also have two modding channels and a forum on the Kitfox Discord in which you can discuss your mods with your fellow urists.
Plump Helmet Man in love?
We’ve with collaborated with Quendelf to make a music video for her song “Plump Helmet Man”, a love song about a tavern keeper’s wife and a plump helmet man. Check it out on the Kitfox Youtube but also make sure to visit Quendelf’s Twitch channel and Patreon if you want to support her work.
Community Mod Spotlight
While we look forward to some extra cool mods to come out of the Lua beta, we also wanted to take a moment to highlight some existing community mods. If you enjoy scrolling through your world’s generated history in Legends Mode you might like this first mod. LegendsViewer by Kromtec adds visualizations to the rich history generated from Legends Mode at a glance, now updated for the Steam version.
If you’re looking to a new look for your armour, check out the Auric Steel mod by Daedalus127 to add some golden flair.
What are your favourite Dwarf Fortress mods? We’d love to highlight even more in future updates!
It's an exciting time in Dwarf Fortress development and we can't wait to see the potential of the Lua upgrade. You’ll be hearing from us again soon.
-Alexandra
Next Steps for Dwarf Fortress + Patch 51.05 ⛏ Dwarf Fortress Dev News
Hey Urists,
It’s Alexandra from Kitfox! We are back and hope you’ve been enjoying your time with Adventure Mode. It’s been so much fun seeing you discover magical items, creating your adventurers and running into giant snakes (a more common occurrence than I thought would happen). It’s officially time to enter a new era of Dwarf Fortress development.
Now that both modes have been updated for the Steam version, we can focus on quality of life fixes, more modding support and brand new features Tarn’s been excited to add. We will be busy with Dwarf Fortress development for a long time!
To start, today!
Today we have patch 51.05 with some crash fixes and some other helpful changes. We also now have art for all of the tree growths, like fruit, flowers, and leaves.
Patch Notes 51.05
Fortress Mode
Fixed crash on justice screen and adjusted convicts menu position
Fixed crash relating to empty work details list
When choosing rectangles, shows dimension of rectangle
Allowed numbers and symbols in unit list search
Adventure Mode
Display speed and gait and momentum on main screen
Summoning abilities should work now
Stopped creating beast rumors (and thereby kill quests) for civilized predator/subterranean creatures (new worlds only)
Added button to go back to destiny/difficulty selection from character creator
Classic mode travel maps now show up properly
Graphics additions/changes
Tree growth pictures (leaves, flowers, fruit, etc.)
Added zombie syndrome class to husks so they'll display properly (new worlds only)
Option to print only periods for the ground in Classic mode returns
Next few updates
Very soon we will also have Programmer Putnam’s Lua upgrade which will allow you to create more powerful mods and lay the foundation for future Myth and Magic updates. We just have a few more fixes to make and then we will be ready to put it out on the experimental branch. Stay tuned!
Our first Fortress Mode releases will focus on improving sieges. We want to give players the tools and abilities to be more properly prepared for an attack.
The update will also add the first Fortress mode abilities to interact with magic systems (beyond necromancers and mods.) Here are some possible changes, none of which are guaranteed, but which we are aiming for:
Allow siegers to plan and learn, tracking where deaths occur and using alternate routes
Properly equipped siegers should be able to build, demolish and dig (default on, can be turned off in difficulty settings)
Kidnapped humans and dwarves should be more interesting - warlords and demon-trained sorcerers focused on siege warfare and infiltration (for now)
Temple/etc.-based defenses for any magic that proves too annoying to combat with soldiers
Ranged weapon/squad fixes
Changes to defensive siege weapons to make them more useful
If ranged weapon changes remove the delightful effect of fast-shooting crossbows, add a repeating defensive bolt thrower emplacement that uses regular bolts
Changes to cage traps to make it more intensive but still possible to e.g. capture megabeasts
Make megabeast and kobold attacks more functional and interesting
Fix and improve underground civilization attacks (as far as we can without future map changes)
Anything from Combat Flow and Combat Styles that comes up, also a notion of reach
We don’t know how many weeks it will take, but Tarn will be working through the list steadily.
After That: Site Building (Adventure Mode)
We’d like the add the ability to make your own settlements, also known as “Site Building” as the first major Adventure mode feature post launch, since it used to be in the classic game but didn't make it in for the graphical version. This will happen after Fortress Mode gets updated with the siege improvements above. It does involve some new interfaces, and so will be a fair bit of effort, but we know some of you are eagerly awaiting it.
After That: Maps
Next, we’ll focus on world map rewrites and additions and beautifications, especially those needed to get us prepared for a more magical and procedural, dynamically-reactive future. You’ll see this in Fortress Mode since a lot of these changes are underground but there will also be changes aboveground.
We'd also like to further differentiate the existing natural biomes, plus of course anything magical or strange we add.
Eventually: A Return to Systems
Before the Steam version, Tarn was working on various features. Villains, army warfare, civilizations, etc, and this (after Maps) is when Tarn would turn to look at those again.
When will that be exactly? Well.. after siege improvements and Lua becomes more stable we will have a better idea on what will come first and how it will be implemented. We don’t have timelines or exact promises for any of this right now and there’s lots to do beforehand but it’s all coming! We’ve tried to predict how long things take before, and it’s never worked out well for us, so we’ll just take it one release at a time.
Every step of the roadmap above will also include art additions, and even more myth and magic changes and content that make sense to add along the way, and keeps Tarn’s morale high, as he’s been looking forward to those since Tanya met him all those years ago.
So this gives you a general overview of our plans for Dwarf Fortress for a while. Thank you for joining us on this journey beyond quality.
