40d:Changes in v0.27

Dwarf Fortress has a huge planned feature set (see Bay 12 Games for a list), and has evolved considerably since its first public release on August 8, 2006. The following is an overview of major changes made to the game, and when they were made. There are currently many omissions of important changes (for instance, a period during which sieges were broken and finally fixed).

Release History

• Near future: The army arc is Toady's next planned major change.
• 0.28.181.40a (08/18/2008): Customizable forbid orders added (used ammunition, dead creatures' possessions, etc.)
• 0.28.181.39f (08/09/2008): Custom grid sizes added
• 0.28.181.39d (07/23/2008): Site finder and the ability to display hidden map features when choosing a site added
• 0.28.181.39a (07/14/2008): World generation is now customizable in various ways
• 0.27.176.38b (02/23/2008): First Macintosh-compatible release
• 0.27.169.33b (11/16/2007): Carp and other fish no longer gain swimming skill, making them somewhat less dangerous
• (unknown version): The encumbrance system was changed; the Γ unit was made 1/10th its former weight, and much greater variation in material weights was introduced.
• (unknown version): Dwarves who have created artifacts no longer carry them around for years and years.

The 3D version

0.27.169.32a (10/29/2007 - 9 months since prior release)

With the release of the 3D version, a huge number of changes were introduced. The central change was the introduction of a Z dimension to the game map; previously, all fortresses were built on a single, two-dimensional plane -- with the new release, fortresses could span dozens of levels. The layout of terrain on the game map also changed radically.

The 2D version: Features

The following is a list of major aspects of the 2D version that changed completely with the release of the 3D version.

• Channels were no impediment unless they were filled with fluid. There was no fluid "pressure"; fluids were infinite, and if a floodgate was destroyed or otherwise unclosable, the resulting flood could easily destroy your entire fort. Being infinite, it also had no "depth" (x/7).
• The chasm would contain primarily antmen, ratmen, or batmen, and 5-15 of them would spontaneously crawl out of it on a fairly regular basis until you poured enough magma in there to "kill" the chasm. Frogmen, snakemen, or lizardmen would also show up spontaneously along the banks of the river (and also crawl out of wells), though much less often. The underground river would flood once each spring, summer, and fall (in the form of waves sweeping out up to 20 tiles from its banks), and the floods would tend to sweep dwarves into the river, who would almost always drown. Items swept into the river would permanently disappear.
• Terrain layout -- previously there was just an "outside", with a river zig-zagging north to south (except in scorching/freezing climates), a nearly flat cliff face, and cave river, chasm, magma river and demon pits at fairly regular distances eastward from the cliff face, that were present in every fortress. Behind the pits, forming the eastern edge of the map, was an adamantine-lined impassable chasm (containing no creatures -- at least, none you ever saw). Oh, and the cave river was always lined with limestone and the magma river was always lined with obsidian. Gold, platinum, hematite, and coal could be found in any mountain, though always to the east of the chasm. Gem types were also tied to depth. There were no geographic-style stone layers, and there were only a handful of different types of stone, which were either "light" (limestone, moonstone, or marble), "dark" (obsidian, jet, or onyx), or just "stone". Limestone was the only usable flux, and coal was coal (no lignite or bituminous, and it always produced 2 bars from smelting).
• Mining even a little bit of adamantine set into motion an eventual and unavoidable end-of-game ("Too deep"). Mining a lot of adamantine would cause it to happen at the start of the next season.
• Starting location choices -- Previously there were only a few dozen fixed locations on each map you could choose, all with the same layout and size; the only thing that varied was biome (climate, creatures, trees, and shrubs), and each location had only one biome. (Accessibility by different civilizations also varied depending on starting location -- this is perhaps little changed in the current version.) Now you can start just about anywhere on the world map, with a variable-size fortress map, which can span several different adjacent biomes and terrains.
• Cave-ins would happen in short order if you mined out a 7x7 area or larger without leaving an unmined natural column in place (or built a pillar).
• Choice of starting goods was very limited. You couldn't bring an anvil (one would automatically be brought in the first summer by a metalsmith). Starting points were very tight... something like a quarter of what they are now.
• Trader wagon access required an actual 3-wide road (not just a clear path) stretching from the western edge of the map to the depot (which had to be near the cliff face or inside the fort).
• You couldn't build traps or farms outdoors. You could build bridges outdoors but not make them raisable/retractable.
• You couldn't build/rebuild walls or any of the other constructions.
• Activity zones, including dumps, were introduced with the 3D version.
• Sand was always available, from the banks of the indoor or outdoor river.
• Machines (gears, pumps, windmills, etc.) did not exist. There was a "mill" workshop that had to be built on one of the rivers.
• Nobles changed a lot. There used to be "guildmasters" corresponding to different professions (farming, mining, masonry, etc.). The manager was your first noble, who arrived after hitting 20 dwarves. There was no "trader" noble or trade skills; you could trade at any point after the caravan fully unloaded. You couldn't do workshop profiles until the manager arrived and couldn't use the stocks screen until the bookkeeper arrived, which would start the dwarven economy. The mayor, manager, trade minister, and treasurer were all different, full-time nobles, and the baron/count/duke (and their consorts) were all separate as well. Add to this the guildmasters and "Order of the <weapon>" nobles and you could easily have 30 nobles in your fort.
• Dwarves who created artifacts would carry those artifacts non-stop for the next several years.
• Mining would leave behind stones or gems 50% of the time, regardless of miner skill. Ore would be left behind 100% of the time by legendary miners, less often for lower skill. All mining byproducts now follow the "ore" formula; up to 100% of the time, dependent on skill.
• "Discovered" features (chasm, underground river, etc.) would only be partly revealed according to what was within line-of-sight from all dwarf-accessible tiles.

The 2D version: Release History

• 0.22.121.23b (12/16/2006): Temperature and fire were added. Extremely buggy at first.
• 0.22.120.23a (11/23/2006): The ability to use custom graphics sets was added
• 0.22.110.23a (11/17/2006): Dyes and dyeing were added
• 0.22.110.22c (10/29/2006): Custom stockpiles were added (previously, there were only 16 basic stockpile types; things like potash would be stored with your metal bars and you could not force seeds to be kept near the farm).
• 0.22.110.22a (10/21/2006): Inventory system changes (most notably, gloves and boots were split into two items (left & right))
• 0.22.107.21a (10/02/2006): Various changes to adventurer mode
• 0.21.104.21b (09/16/2006): Workshop profiles were added
• 0.21.104.21a (09/08/2006): Designating with the mouse was added
• 0.21.104.19a (08/27/2006): The ability to "chasm" items was added
• 0.21.93.19a (08/08/2006): Initial public release