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[uncool]

I've been on a long break from DF, and am coming back to the game. Currently I'm re-playing an old save from 31.18; that's the latest version I've played. What's new since then? Is there an update list I can look at to see what's new? Also, can this be directly imported into 34? Finally, have a large number of the lag problems (ghost, lava pumping, etc.) been solved?
=Uncool-

[Girlinhat]

First thing you'll notice is that the forum displays your username over to the right.  You don't have to "sign your name" at the bottom

Sorry, that's always bugged me.  Ghosts are lagless (or less laggy, at the least), temperature will always cause lag, saves are rarely (ie, never) compatible, and the best way to learn is to hop in a terrifying biome feet first and pick in hand.

Also: Do not post "why are my animals fighting" or "There's so many teeth" or "why are all the bones rib bones" or "My FB is an ass".

[NedeN]

First thing you'll notice is that the forum displays your username over to the right left.

[Thelogman]

More or less, if you go to the main page of Dwarf Fortress (http://bay12games.com/dwarves/), the entire page is what has changed.

Almost immediately after you left, we started the Sponsorship drive, which added a TON of new animals to the game.

Along with that came the advent of farming dwarves, with improvements to milking, cheesemaking, the addition of shearing woolly beasts, the need to feed grazing animals by pasturing them, the addition of bees, wax making, and honey harvesting. Oh, and egg laying.

Then some time passed, a lot of bugs got squashed, some more popped up. Game should run faster now, but new stuff also makes it run slower in some cases.

The site finder got improved, so you can search for what kind of place you want a little easier now.

Clay, pottery, earthenware, and glazing was added. Hospital bugs were fixed...

And then we got another major release.

Huge changes to adventure mode, to create a rudimentary economy, town growth, sewer systems, bandits.

The addition of more "night creatures", including werewolves and vampires that can come to your fortress in disguise.

The ability for spellcasters to learn "the secrets of life and death", which give them the ability to raise the undead and attack fortresses.

Tons of other neat stuff, new creatures, rewrite to the way dragonfire works (interaction system), the ability to ingest poisons and syndromes now, and lots of bugfixes. Oh, and now "evil" biomes raise dead on their own, get some neat weather effects, and have crazy eyeball grass.

But this is all summarized on the front page at http://bay12games.com/dwarves/, just scroll to the bottom and read up. Stuff with bullet points is fixes/additions.   

[Girlinhat]

First thing you'll notice is that the forum displays your username over to the right left.

*Holds up her hands pointing "fake guns" towards the ceiling* Ok, my left hand makes an L shape...

[NecroRebel]

Major new things:
Pastures: these zones allow you to assign animals to them. Dwarves will drag the animals to the area beneath the zone and the animals will attempt to stay within them.
Grazers: Some animals need to eat grass to survive. This mostly involve pasturing them in a grassy area, though some larger grazers, especially elephants and rhinos, cannot eat enough to survive, so pasturing them is futile.
Eggs: Some animals lay eggs in the new nest box buildings, made using the new nest box items. Eggs will hatch eventually if left in the nest box, or can be gathered and cooked for food.
Ceramics: Clay can now be gathered at a kiln (similar to sand, except without needing a bag) and used to make ceramic objects.
Necromancers: Sort of a showcase of the new interactions system, necromancers will make towers in world gen and can attack your fort. They can raise any corpse near them that they see into undead minions.
Vampires: Another showcase of the new interactions system. These will migrate to your fort in disguise, appearing as regular citizens, and will prey on your population until discovered. The justice system has been overhauled to assist in identifying them.
Werecreatures: Yet a third showcase of the new interactions system. These basically come as pseudo-megabeasts, but are only openly hostile during certain moon phases (which were also added).
Evil rain: In Evil biomes, sometimes various liquid substances can rain from the sky. This could be blood, or it could be syndrome- or interaction-causing sludge. Interaction-causing sludge is less common, but more dangerous, as it can turn victims into husks or thralls that are inimical to all life.
Evil fog: Like evil rain, in Evil biomes sometimes cursed clouds also can appear and move across the land. These are much more likely to cause interactions that turn victims into horrible undead monsters, some of whom are contagious.

Evil biomes also have a good chance of raising any corpses in or below them as undead, making proper siege cleanup about 1000 times more important than it is elsewhere.

[uncool]

First thing you'll notice is that the forum displays your username over to the right.  You don't have to "sign your name" at the bottom

Yeah, I know, it's just a thing I like to do. Dunno why.

Sorry, that's always bugged me.  Ghosts are lagless (or less laggy, at the least),

Sweet, that's what used to be killing this fort until I finally managed to find their body parts.

temperature will always cause lag,

Has anything been fixed with regards to this? My fort is on a glacier, and I have lava pumping 2 levels above the ice (that is, 1 level of air between lava and ice) and it's really killing the framerate (30 -> 1); this was alleviated when I put some walls in that level.

saves are rarely (ie, never) compatible,

Darn.

and the best way to learn is to hop in a terrifying biome feet first and pick in hand.

Of course; that's soon to be the plan.

Also: Do not post "why are my animals fighting" or "There's so many teeth" or "why are all the bones rib bones" or "My FB is an ass".

Aww, but those are the most fun threads!
=Uncool-

[NecroRebel]

On magma pump lag: Actually, the new-style magma pump stack which causes much less lag for most people was developed during 31.18's life cycle, so if you stopped playing before it was developed, you might not be aware of it. Basically, it's believed that magma pumps cause the temperature in the tiles they pump in and out of and the tiles around those to have their temperature recalculated repeatedly, causing lag, and that by keeping magma adjacent to all those tiles at all times you stop that from occurring.

[uncool]

On magma pump lag: Actually, the new-style magma pump stack which causes much less lag for most people was developed during 31.18's life cycle, so if you stopped playing before it was developed, you might not be aware of it. Basically, it's believed that magma pumps cause the temperature in the tiles they pump in and out of and the tiles around those to have their temperature recalculated repeatedly, causing lag, and that by keeping magma adjacent to all those tiles at all times you stop that from occurring.

I left just after, because I remember reading that; I don't think it's relevant to what's happening at my fort though because I'm not referring to a pump stack, but rather to a raised tube that carries lava from a volcano to a tunnel. I've figured out a way to get it to go more quickly, but I shouldn't have to build a wall under the entire tube in order to play properly.
=Uncool-

[Girlinhat]

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, but it sounds like you may have a flow issue instead of a temperature issue.

Also get DFHack.  There's so much win just waiting to be installed it's embarrassing.  (Though not as embarrassing as forgetting your left from your right.)

[uncool]

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, but it sounds like you may have a flow issue instead of a temperature issue.

Also get DFHack.  There's so much win just waiting to be installed it's embarrassing.  (Though not as embarrassing as forgetting your left from your right.)

A mac unfortunately makes that impossible.

In other news, I have committed my first atrocity since coming back; the second cavern is now burning, as is the Trade Depot. I'm back!

(I'm currently working on turning my fortress into a dorm at Clown College, including trading there; unfortunately, all of the caverns have one level of water, so I have to flood them with magma to carve out the road downwards).
=Uncool-

[Girlinhat]

...

...carry on.

[Psieye]

I think the latest posts just today on the DFHack thread was discussing making it work for Macs through wine or something. I may be misremembering, I thought wine was only for Linux but I know Macs can do a Linux-like command line.

[ASCIt]

As long as there's alcohol involved, Dwarves will find a way!

[KtosoX]

The feature I love most in the current release is:

Any dwarves from your abandoned fortresses should also show up in subsequent forts, whether originally historical or not, as long as you are with the same overall dwarven civilization.

Though I didn't see it in action yet...