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[Neonivek]

Wow... Toady is sooo close to getting to the genuin potential of Dwarf Fortress.

I can hardly believe my eyes that Toady is actually finally getting onto the living world aspect of the game.

[Peacemaker636]

This is incredible news!  I think this will be a fundamental restructuring of the game.  Where before we were merely scratching our marks on the pre-built generated world, now we will be tearing down, building up, waxing and waning. The world is about to come alive.

Does anyone happen to know what is meant by "entity claims"?  Are these meant to be rudimentary thoughts for classes of citizens or even entire civilizations (presumably similar to other raw tokens)?  If this is what it means...can you imagine the possibilities? Syndromes could be tied in and can change entity claims!  A noxious cloud sweeps through a town, turning the dead into zombies which then flock by the hundreds to a necromancer's tower, swelling his undead army's ranks.

I cannot wait to see where this goes.

[Neonivek]

Entity Claim as in "This is mine". Right now a necromancer meerly lives inside his tower. He doesn't own it in anyway.

[EmperorNuthulu]

Entity Claim as in "This is mine". Right now a necromancer meerly lives inside his tower. He doesn't own it in anyway.

 I can already see the hilarious bugs.
 "Human mcHunter has claimed the empire of dawn!"
 "Human mcHunter has been struck down by Human McSurgeon!"
 "Human mcSurgeon has claimed the empire of dawn!"

 And so on.

[Peacemaker636]

Entity Claim as in "This is mine". Right now a necromancer meerly lives inside his tower. He doesn't own it in anyway.

Ok that makes sense now that I think about it.  Very exciting indeed.  There appears to be a strong possibility that retired forts will now actually be useful.  The current dwarven populace can simply become its own entity upon retirement, with the claim to the site.  Then it seems quite natural for new entities to try to move in.  Imagine a chieftain taking the place by storm and raiding your armory...we could get goblin axe lords wandering the land in full steel-plate armor and wielding adamantine battle axes.  That would be quite the challenge for an adventurer, and would make the end-stage of fortresses more strategic.  Do you melt down your weapons to avoid the risk or keep them for an adventurer to take?  We may even soon see adventurer-owned hovels or even castles if you are so ambitious!

[Jacob/Lee]

Wow... Just as I feel like Toady couldn't crank out something even just a little more amazing than what he has done he blows me off my feet with that dev post. This is a new era for Dwarf Fortress!

[Elone]

I keep feeling that I dont have the proper mindset for this, but I dont see how these changes will much affect the overall game in practice. I mean, I'm sure that it's there, just that I dont see it. The DF mode is a bit too slow to really see a worldgen progress during its existence, which actually would not be too slow, if lag decay did not force me to abandon every single forth by the year 6 (at most). The performance solutions interest me greatly. What will be done about that?

But if this means being able to retire your fortress, then I can finally stop creating one pocket world per fortress, so this is a great thing.

Also, the 3D veins got pushed back, so that's also a bonus.

[Willfor]

Dwarf mode is set to see expansions where your fortress has an effect on world politics by sending groups of your own out into it. This is the first hurdle that has to be overcome before that can become a reality. However, it's going to have a drastically profound effect on Adventure Mode almost immediately. I'm very, very excited to see those things be put into effect for it.

[MrWiggles]

I keep feeling that I dont have the proper mindset for this, but I dont see how these changes will much affect the overall game in practice. I mean, I'm sure that it's there, just that I dont see it. The DF mode is a bit too slow to really see a worldgen progress during its existence, which actually would not be too slow, if lag decay did not force me to abandon every single forth by the year 6 (at most). The performance solutions interest me greatly. What will be done about that?

But if this means being able to retire your fortress, then I can finally stop creating one pocket world per fortress, so this is a great thing.

Also, the 3D veins got pushed back, so that's also a bonus.

It probably wont really change anything really, at least not greatly. Right now, quests sorta just pop into existence, and vampires sorta do their thing, and Necromancer just build towers blindly but they dont acknowledge they actually own it.

The wars and trade during World Gen lack actual reason behind them. They just happen. It does a good job of looking like there depth, but there isn't. Trade is bit better recently.

They lack the ability to form motives, goals and relationship with each other and with objects.

What this change will do, is allow the NPCs to be their own person, and set up their own goals and try to achieve them. With, probably a surprising few rules and systems (assuming their scalable), you can have Thief guild run on the system as a city council or a King of an entire kingdom.

So yea, now you'll have folks deciding to do things based on motives, goals and relationships. Which will then provide a great back drop, and stories behind the actions for Dwarf Fortress. You'll get more real actions, and unexpected results.

This'll get put into actual play for Adventure Mode and Fort Mode. The goblins wont be attacking you, because you've hit arbitrary wealth requirements, but because they want something. They'll have a goal. If they have a goal, then they can function in smarter ways.

This isn't about really effecting game play. This is about getting the world to be living, and breathing, reacting and thinking independently from the players working on its. Its about letting  DF actually grow and change as the player plays, which has been a long term goal for DF.

DF overall goal has been about being a Fantasy World Simulator. Its about being a tool for generating narratives.

And with these changes, it'll /finally/ start to be a Fantasy World Simulator.

[Bulwersator]

Improved Hauling is marked on http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php as [IN PROGRESS] and "This item is currently being developed. Votes will be cleared when the next version is out.". What else will bring the next version? Stacking? Maybe better decisions for using bins ("Same goes for fisherdwarves. They catch a fish, go get a barrel, put the fish in, go get a wheelbarrel, get the barrel, and take it to the stockpile." - bug #5895). Or maybe it is finished and votes should be cleared?

[Caldfir]

Exciting stuff in the devlog. 

I am sad that very likely the worldgen-based trade modifications reaching fort mode seems to have gotten pushed off because of this, but overall I would agree with most other people here that getting the world to continue existing after worldgen is getting very important.  I've been playing several adventurers/forts in a single world at the moment, and it really does start to get strange when you're wandering around a town and everyone historical dies of old age as you approach. 

I wonder if the current "claims" are going to end up extending to civilization borders.  I remember some mention in an old DF-Talk that the way civilizations will just build sites in any old hodgepodge around each other was on the list of things to fix.  If a civs can "claim" a region and "contest" regions that belong to others, you can get decent border-disputes happening.  Then you can end up starting wars by plopping down fortresses in the middle of another kingdom.

Stuff to look forward to as always. 

[MrWiggles]

Improved Hauling is marked on http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php as [IN PROGRESS] and "This item is currently being developed. Votes will be cleared when the next version is out.". What else will bring the next version? Stacking? Maybe better decisions for using bins ("Same goes for fisherdwarves. They catch a fish, go get a barrel, put the fish in, go get a wheelbarrel, get the barrel, and take it to the stockpile." - bug #5895). Or maybe it is finished and votes should be cleared?

My guess, is that Hauling is done with, with this release cycle. Toady has one more promise to fullfil with the next release, and thats more sane behavior of dorfs that are set on fire. Though that was slated for the last bug release cycle, and that seems to be over.

Stacking is a none trivial issue. Adding Minecarts, and its associated physics, was probably easier to do then reworking on how DF stacks and unstack items. (It was also probably more fun to.) My bet is that it wont be touch until either World Gen Trading is integrated into Fort Mode and or Inn are put into place. That'll probably highlight Dorfs behaviors in choosing Bins and Wheelbarrows and Stacking issues.

[malvado]

If only Dwarves could use backpacks to gather some items then return them to the stockpile.
Would need them to que up a few actions i guess.

[MrWiggles]

If only Dwarves could use backpacks to gather some items then return them to the stockpile.
Would need them to que up a few actions i guess.

Essentially that what using Bins do. Its just that, they dont use them well enough. They use them correctly, but without fore thoughts.

[LordBaal]

I would like to the squad members eat and drink when on duty out of their backpacks and flasks instead of waiting to be out of it. But meh, that's something I can live with.