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New version of DF released. The Bay12 site is really slow, but I managed to download it. Will give it a shot and report back later.

Haha, it killed the site. I'll download it tonight before my d&d game. Love Dwarf Fortress.

Some preliminary findings:

Dwarves are now much more detailed, in terms of personality and appearance. This is cool.
All stones are now "economic" and can be selected or forbidden via the (z) menu. This is good.
The default embark size is now 4 by 4, presumably for performance reasons. Embarks might have shrunk in area, but they make it up in volume. My current embark region, for example, has a bottom of -159 z level. This is cool.
Dwarves will now not drop what they're doing if they're hungry, thirsty or tired, and will try to finish the job first. Not sure if this is good, thus far I haven't had any workaholics drop dead from thirst yet, but they do get the negative thought from being hungry, thirsty, drowsy etc.
Slight interface changes: Space is no longer the "cancel" key, it's now escape. This can be changed in the config files though. A dwarf's jobs are now grouped together in sub-menus, for example Carpentry, Crossbow-making and Wood Cutting are under the Woodworking menu.
The game no longer auto-pauses and zooms to the location when you strike something while mining. This is good, no more alunite and microcline spam.
New jobs, quite a few of them. This is probably good, though it does mean my preferred embark profiles will need tweaking.

No major bugs or glitches encountered so far, seems like Toady did a thorough job debugging. So far so good!

Thank god on the microline spam. The biggest question I have is on performance. Is it running faster?

I don't get it. What's Dwarf Fortress?

You run a society of dwarves. It has a complicated UI and a high learning curve. Once you start to get the hang of it, it's addicting.

Well, just lost my first fortress to an everyday, mundane, average, joe-schmo goblin ambush because I couldn't figure out how to use the new military system.

Also because I was too focused on the enemies coming from the new cavern system. Put all my traps underground, forgot to put some of them above ground to defend against goblins. I even got an underground megabeast, I think.

So Succession game time now?

Better wait, I think. I've encountered a few bugs and crashes, and the forums are filled with bug reports. Give it another release or two, which should be fairly soon. I hope.

Everytime you guys talk about this game, I wanna play it. But the one time I downloaded it, I felt like someone dropped me in the woods with a knife and a compass. Then they took away the knife and the compass.

Is this latest version a bit easier?

LordRavage said:

Everytime you guys talk about this game, I wanna play it. But the one time I downloaded it, I felt like someone dropped me in the woods with a knife and a compass. Then they took away the knife and the compass.

Is this latest version a bit easier?

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Knowing Toady and his ambition, it only got worse.

But believe me, Dwarf Fortress is supposed to be that way. Tilesets/Graphic Overhauls go a long way in making things a bit more comprehensible, though.

Wahad said:

Tilesets/Graphic Overhauls go a long way in making things a bit more comprehensible, though.

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this this this this this this this

LordRavage said:

Everytime you guys talk about this game, I wanna play it. But the one time I downloaded it, I felt like someone dropped me in the woods with a knife and a compass. Then they took away the knife and the compass.

Is this latest version a bit easier?

Click to expand...

It is not, it most definitely is not easier. Some things that are even HARDER now:

1. The military system is completely revamped, and I still haven't figured out how to use it properly. This may be due to certain features bugging out though.
2. Lots more jobs and skills for dwarves.
3. Lots more personality quirks for dwarves.
4. Injuries, diseases and healthcare have been revamped. In the past, you just had to drag an injured dwarf to a bed and let him recover by himself. Now there's sutures, surgery, setting broken bones, infections, etc...
5. Threats now arrive from both above ground, and below. In the past, you had kobolds and goblins attacking you on the surface, but now as you dig down you encounter underground caverns full of nasty critters. These caverns can appear quite close to the surface, too, for example I suspect my latest fortress has a cavern a mere 8 levels down. That means it's quite easy for a fortress to be overwhelmed by beasties quite early on if you're not careful.

It's still tons of fun though. I'm a veteran DF player and I'm losing fortresses left and right, because of all the new challenges.

LordRavage said:

Everytime you guys talk about this game, I wanna play it. But the one time I downloaded it, I felt like someone dropped me in the woods with a knife and a compass. Then they took away the knife and the compass.

Is this latest version a bit easier?

Click to expand...

Oh my no. The game keeps on getting more complicated. But trust us the game is fun once you are able to fashion your own industrial center.

You know how I suspected there were critters 8 levels down? I was wrong, they were 15 levels down.

Breached the cavern, crundles pour out, everyone dies.

Well, okay, that's not quite accurate. Crundles pour out, everyone gets injured, and then mass infection sets in because I haven't figured out how to use the healthcare system yet.

bhamv3 said:

Well, okay, that's not quite accurate. Crundles pour out, everyone gets injured, and then mass infection sets in because I haven't figured out how to use the healthcare system yet.

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That's what 1000 pages of Obamacare gets you, mister.

Dwarves are like the most conservative of the demihuman races. I'm surprised they have healthcare.

Yeah - taking a while to get used to the military here, too. I'd be up for another shot at a bloodlines game - as soon as I figure out how the new systems work. This time, I'd be able to actually commit to a bloodlines game, instead of having real life interfering horribly with my attempts as was the last Halforums bloodline game I tried to take part in.

So I take it the major changes are the army arc and the healthcare arc? How far did he take the army arc on this release?

Did you guys read about the guy who built a working computer using Dwarf Fortress?

I'd love to try a sucession game sometime. I've only been using an older version that is covered by this newbie guide, though, and there's still some things that I need to figure out.

But I think I know enough to keep my dwarves (dwarfs?) alive for a year. Perhaps. If I'm lucky.

We could all do write-ups in character like the legendary boatmurdered, as well. If it's entertaining enough, it might get halforums some attention.

Dave said:

Did you guys read about the guy who built a working computer using Dwarf Fortress?

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Google "Dwarfputer"

Also, with regards to a succession game, I'm down, but I want to wait until the bugs are ironed out of this release. I do need to learn the new dwarf fortress though....

Of course if I do start playing again, well, I'm going to be fucking my life again.