Known bugs and issues

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Dwarf Fortress is a constant work in progress, and is thus full of bugs. Some of them are minor and completely harmless, some are small and annoying, and some are major and even game-changing. Some of the best-known bugs are compiled below; an official compilation of all bugs, and their development status, can be found on the bug tracker and an informal poll of the worst bugs is available in the forums. Please do not report bugs here; they should be sent to the Mantis BT instead. If you have issues signing up for the bug tracker, see the forum bug tracker board for instructions (but don't report bugs on the forum either).

Some bugs were fixed in v0.34 by a temporary binary patch made by Quietust and other users; most of these fixes have been rolled into v0.40.

Severe bugs

These bugs can significantly interfere with play.

• Bug 9438: Caravans/invasions do not come reliably from accessible civilizations
• Bug 9780: Traded masterworks result in "Masterwork has been lost" message
• Bug 9496: Tiny undead creatures immune to pulping, ridiculously difficult to kill
• Bug 9440: Wounded dwarves die of dehydration if they grab a goblet they can't use
• Bug 7161: Morale is screwy.
  • Partially fixed in 0.40.10. Bugfixes for morale are ongoing.
  • Workaround: mod creatures to have natural Discipline skill
  • Workaround: barracks training raises Discipline
  • Workaround: continual exposure to sentient corpses raises Discipline (along with feelings of horror)
• Bug 7185: Scared traders immediately scuttle wagons and leave.
• Bug 6586: Dwarves climb trees and fall out of them for no obvious reason.
  • This may be partially fixed; more information is needed (see bug report).
  • Workaround: make sure there is always at least one meeting zone or sculpture garden where dwarves can idle.
• Bug 9004: Items in containers are "unavailable" while a dwarf is hauling another item to store in the container.
  • Workaround: new STORE_DIST_* settings in d_init.txt can tweak the behavior.
  • Workaround: clever Stockpile Designs can reduce the impact.
  • Workaround: avoid using containers (use quantum stockpiles and minecart stockpiles instead).
• Bug 7107 Fighting berserk citizens and citizen werebeasts causes defenders to lose loyalty.

New bugs

These bugs are new in recent versions (v0.40+). (There are many more; these are just a few of the most prominent.)

• Bug 9787: Scribes intermittently stop copying works in the library
• Bug 8426: Foreign nobles elevated along with fortress nobles, make regular mandates and demands
• Bug 9221: Visiting scholars leave carrying fortress books/scrolls/copies/codices
• Bug 9567: Animals get distracted over time by "unmet needs"
• Bug 7274: Dwarves occasionally attempt to perform jobs at a distance, with predictably poor results
  • Related to Bug 7825 marked as fixed in 0.40.07 -- #7274 needs verification.
• Bug 7444: Sparring dwarves can knock each other through walls with charge attacks.
• Bug 7872: Trees grow through bridges, can make the bridge unusable.
• Bug 8698: Dwarf entering a strange mood when isolated (e.g. on a stepladder) causes severe lag
• Bug 7760: Dwarves construct walls from wrong side, wall themselves out of fortress or into alcove
• Bug 7447: Problems reported brewing.
  • Bug 7423: Embark-purchased fruit must be removed from bags for use.
  • Bug 9004: Items in containers are "unavailable" while a dwarf is hauling another item to store in the container.
  • Corrupted raws will remove brewing options from the still.

Lingering bugs

These bugs are not new to v0.40/v0.42, but have been confirmed as still existing. Any workarounds that involve binary patches or DFHack will not work until those tools have been updated to the new version.

• Bug 1451: Military equipment interferes with civilian equipment (picks/axes/crossbows/quivers). It is not possible to use a single axe for both wood cutting and combat, or a single pick for both mining and combat. Crossbows in the hands of hunters can also cause problems.
• Bug 4552: Siegers waiting by bodies of dead leaders. (fixed?)
• Bug 94: Seriously wounded dwarfs sometimes don't get taken to bed.
• Bug 2712: Weapons, especially whips, cut through steel armor like butter.
  • Workaround: appropriate modding to nerf these weapons
• Bug 2780: Pond/pool populations (e.g. pond turtles) do not replenish, gradually become extinct
  • Supposedly fixed in 0.40.01 but reported to still be happening with ponds
• Bug 535: Equipping weapons/armor on military is erratic. This is a long-standing bug that has been slowly but surely rolled back.
• Bug 296: Pools/smears/spatters of blood, dust and other materials multiply themselves, get tracked around too much. Contaminant physics are strange in Dwarf Fortress; instead of washing away, when exposed to running water, it will actually multiply to other tiles.
  • Workaround: routinely run clean in DFHack
• Bug 4550: Dodging into river/lava/pit etc. Apparently, dwarves are stupid. Related: they tend to get thrown off of waterfalls and die from fall damage because they did not account for the current.
• Bug 425: Dwarves perform cleaning erratically at best.
  • Workaround: routinely run clean in DFHack
• Bug 5986: Designating large areas for smoothing slows game to a crawl.
• Bug 136: When embarking on large area, DF hits 2GB memory limit and crashes (Windows only).
  • Workaround: Until a permanent fix is made, the player can use NTCore's 4GB fix, which will not only increase the memory limit, but will improve performance overall. (This is not a permanent solution for the devs; it could lead to unforeseen problems if incorporated within the .exe downloaded from the server.)
• Bug 797: Animals repeatedly path through "tightly closed" doors causing lag.
• Bug 4065: Untradeable creatures (hostiles, wild animals) are released from cages when the cages are ordered taken to the trade depot.
• Bug 1582: Injured dwarf in bed in stocked hospital ignored by idle doctors. Medical jobs are too low-priority, and will be ignored in favor of pretty much everything else, hauling included, forcing players that need to administer medical care to disable all other labors; and even then, doctors tend to idle a bit in between their jobs.
• Bug 5097: Names overwriting text with TrueType and Bug 5696 strange gaps in report texts.
  • Workaround: Hitting F12 to toggle True Type can often get you around this problem.
• Bug 2587: Saving fails silently when folder is not writeable (due to full disk, permissions, etc)
• Bug 8383: Flying/swimming/climbing creatures can move vertically-diagonal through walls with down-stairways/twigs above