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[Fox Mulder]

Hello everyone, does anybody know if dwarves still read books in libraries in the latest DF version, and can they learn secrets of life and death by doing so? And can you still mine slade? I was away from the game for a few years and looking through changelog would take a plenty of effort.
It'll also be really great if you could tell me of the more interesting new stuff that's been implemented while I wasn't playing. Thanks in advance!

[Superdorf]

Dwarves still read in libraries given the chance, and they can still learn of life and death by doing so.
I thiink slade-mining still works? I don't think Toady's really touched that code, so it should be fine.

There's a good deal that's changed over the years, but two things in particular have really stood out among the most recent updates:
- Dwarves have memories now. When a dwarf experiences a sufficiently powerful thought, it will store that thought in its short-term memory, "reliving" or "dwelling upon" it every now and again. Doing so will cause the dwarf to experience that thought (to a slightly lessened degree) over and over again, greatly amplifying its effect. A dwarf can hold up to eight thoughts at a time in its short-term memory, and it generally won't hold two of the same kind of thought at once.

    When a dwarf has held a thought in its short-term memory for long enough-- usually one or two years-- the dwarf will experience a change to its personality or values. This change is randomized, and can be beneficial... or not. After experiencing such a change, if the thought is strong enough, the dwarf will move the thought to its long-term memory. The dwarf will still occasionally "dwell on" that thought for the rest of its days, experiencing a minor thought related to the nature of the personality or value shift.

    All this makes dwarves much more prone to stress-- tantrums and insanity are actually a thing again, though tantrum spirals are generally much slower-burning things now. Fulfilling the needs of your dwarves has become extremely important... even though a lot of the need-fulfillment related code is still buggy and old and hard to work with. This thread details many of the current problems with that system, and provides some tips for working around them in your forts.
- The world has become much more interconnected with your fort, and you can now take an active role in its shaping! If you so choose, you may send your military squads on missions to raid enemy settlements, hunt down precious artifacts, explore interesting sites, and the like. These missions are (of course) subject to a number of unfortunate bugs, but nevertheless worth looking into. You can find more information on the wiki.

- Furthermore, you can now gain control over other sites, allowing you to "expel" workers there or request workers back. You can send your militia to conquer enemy settlements, or-- if you're lucky-- wait for your civilization to create settlements for you! Your fellow dwarves will occasionally found hillocks nearby, and create an economical bond with you, allowing you to request or send over workers as with conquered settlements. You now must hold control over at least one other settlement before you can become a barony.
Sorry if this was a bit of a ramble. Welcome back!

[Fox Mulder]

Thank you, I guess it's going to be a bit hard for long-term projects with the memories now, unless I play it safe enough with the needs. By the way, when sending your squads to assault settlements, does the game take armor and weaponry into the account? E.g. if I give my vampire lord that artifact sladehammer, deck him in candy and send him out, will it make a difference? Oh, and are necromancer dwarves scared of corpses (including sentient ones) in that thought system?

[Superdorf]

I've found the need-fulfillment isn't as bad as all that, really. Sometimes a dwarf rolls up an unlucky personality change or two and becomes completely beyond help... but then you can just expel the unfortunate and get on with your life. It's a pain when a dwarf you like gets outawhack that way, but it's not fortress-crippling or anything.

More important than need-fulfillment is ensuring your psychologically weaker dwarves stay away from combat stressors. If at all possible, keep anybody with "doesn't handle stress well", "often nervous", "fearful in combat", and the like out of your military. If at all possible, only allow battle-hardened dwarves to see and handle corpses.
I'm not exactly sure how military force is calculated for raids. I'm fairly sure equipment is taken into account. I think combat skill is taken into account. The "Tactician" skill is extremely important-- if you can, make sure your militia commander has it!-- and the "Leader" skill plays a somewhat lesser, but still valuable role.

Notably, creature size makes a far greater difference in off-site combat than normal-- demon lords will often slaughter your adamantine-clad legendaries with impunity, no matter how many you send; elfin war elephants will massacre soldiers in similar fashion. Fortunately, you can make this fact work in your favor! War jabberers, war elephants, and the like are your friend in raid missions; field as many as you can.
Though I'm not certain, I belieeeve necromancer-citizens do still feel horror and unease at death and corpses respectively. They may still feel horror if attacked by an undead, but as they're undead themselves the question shouldn't really come up.

[Fox Mulder]

Thank you, though I guess being all gloomy due to seeing the corpses pretty often is a big no-no for denizens of a large obsidian necromancer tower I've had in mind, so I might want to get a version without residual thoughts despite the cool new features it brings.

Or should I just drown all of the psychologically weak and thus unsuited to be a necromancer in magma?

[Superdorf]

That. Do that. Shove all your dwarves in the military, put 'em through some fighting, then magmify the ones that start throwing tantrums. The rest get to learn the secrets of life and death, and reanimate the corpses of all the goblins they slew as their eternal slaves and meatshields.

[Sir Knight]

There's a good deal that's changed over the years, but there's two things in particular that have really stood out among the most recent updates:

Thank you, I find this a particularly helpful summary, too.  I'd heard all the pieces, but you just said it from a player's perspective, and now it feels more concrete.

[Superdorf]

Thank you, I find this a particularly helpful summary, too.  I'd heard all the pieces, but you just said it from a player's perspective, and now it feels more concrete.

I'm glad to have been of service!

[Fleeting Frames]

Regarding digging slade: When Toady changed how ramps in unrevealed areas are handled (iirc...44.05?), it meant that you could no longer dig into them (well, SMR at least) by placing ramp designations on them; unlike before when miner completes the job the ramp isn't dug.

I think this means you must use rather more labour-intensive obsidian/ice-casting methods, but haven't tested in the latest version.

If you want version without residual thoughts, 44.09 is the latest (but that loses fair bit in administration of other sites). It should be noted that while 44.12 has supposedly less crash issues with raiding going by devlog, it can still get save corruption from it; shown by the military individual weapon assign menu displaying non-weapons; to say nothing of the fps kill when one is stuck in a tree. Thus, it's better to save right before you send a mission and wait until they're back (which can take over a year in-game when they get lost).

[pamelrabo]

I've had few issues with bugs, and lots of fun with the new aspects of the game.

Sending raids with heavy war animals against necromancers, creating the Best Tavern in the Continent and watching the dances, or, ¡At last! constructing pedestal and display furniture for artifacts, coins or dragon skull totems.

Can't speak too much about engineering megaprojects, but stocking a library with books about mineral remedies or romantic literature or animal breeding is just great.