I have to say that while I love all the new features and all, it has been over 2 years since DF has had a stable release, as in free of critical bugs. Please, could you focus the next couple of releases on fixing bugs that undermine gameplay and game-breaking bugs.
That's what the bug fixing phase is for. The one he's doing right now. Which if past releases are anything to go by still has another 10-15 releases to go.
That we're also getting long asked for features at the same time as the bug fixing is just an added bonus.
42.01
Major bug fixes
(*) Fixed some army pathing issues
(*) Goblins have mounts again
(*) Fixed long-standing flow bug with unit occupancy
(*) Stopped some issues with brawls escalating to non-lethal
Other bug fixes/tweaks
(*) Looking at reaction screen for redded-out reactions in workshop will indicate missing reagents now
(*) Fixed inversion problem with half of the child/parent conversation thoughts
(*) Lots of historical figures that weren't around from the beginning didn't have deities when they were supposed to
(*) Allowed site finder to look for 1x1 sites
(*) Human civilizations now have randomized values
(*) Added ability to set invasion wave cap size
42.02
Major bug fixes
(*) Fixed world generation freeze caused by error in poetry refrains
(*) Fixed crash from building constructions on tree leaves etc.
(*) Fixed calendar crash from bandit bar hoppers
(*) Fixed crash with children joining socialize activities (most common with migrant waves)
(*) Made worship activity branch properly (so prayer needs can be satisfied)
(*) Fixed world gen seed not repeating after abort
Other bug fixes/tweaks
(*) Can see deity for temple in location screen
(*) Cannot spot vampires from occupation list anymore
(*) Fixed a few typos
42.03
Major bug fixes
(*) Fixed world generation crash from wandering artist writing a book
(*) Fixed crash from retiring locations in certain circumstances
(*) Fixed crash associated to adventurer sleeping in inn rooms
(*) Fixed issue with militia not picking up armor
(*) Fixed error causing some instruments in chests to not be played
(*) Fixed error causing instruments and drink service to fail in dining rooms
(*) Fixed error causing scribes not to use some blank writing materials
(*) Fixed error causing overall scribe operation to be stalled by a bad target codex
(*) Made training marksdwarves want both combat and training ammunition and fetch stacks appropriately (thanks to ag for analyzing this one)
(*) Fixed issue with starting instrument causing it to duplicate
(*) Fixed one way for horses to become playable (not sure about dogs/donkeys)
(*) Stopped dead/caged commanders from stopping invaders from moving (thanks to vjek for preparing a very useful and funny save)
(*) Stopped cats from dying of alcohol poisoning after walking over damp tavern floors and cleaning themselves (reduced effect)
(*) Put new caps in place on animals in towns during world generation
(*) Stopped bookbinders and string makers from trying to use loose spider webs (thanks to Knight Otu for reminded me about raw tag)
Other bug fixes/tweaks
(*) Made the add new task list remember where it was again
(*) Tweaked how distance is calculated for certain jobs
(*) Stopped certain ramp/channel digging jobs from temporarily disturbing pathing and distance calculations (thanks to Loci for reproducible procedure)
(*) Made edible seed-type growths gatherable
(*) Stopped wander history spam for adventurer
(*) Stopped nobles from other civilizations from making mandates and demands
(*) Stopped weapon slayer list from giving away fort vampires
(*) Handled some basic shaped conflicts with clothing vs. armor
(*) Changed how owned objects are managed with clothing -- might be some trinket drops in old saves
(*) Allowed goblets on embark
(*) Made modded wood furnace reactions list properly
(*) Fixed typo with untitled written content
(*) Fixed typo in haunting conversation
(*) Fixed several typos in personality/value strings
(*) Fixed instrument values in old saves
42.04
Major bug fixes
(*) Allowed dwarves praying at temple dedicated to no particular god to choose prayer target according to need
(*) Stopped adv mode goblin animals from fighting gobs and each other
(*) Fixed error causing underground sewer dwellers to copy town stockpile, lag-killing certain towns
(*) Stopped crash with goblet trading
(*) Made retire store away merchants and diplomats and not mark visitors and residents as hostile
(*) Made non-military visitors do citizenship petitions properly
(*) Fixed broken merchant-elevated-to-liaison that sits at trade depot for entire life
Other bug fixes/tweaks
(*) Fixed error with building profiles causing underground bandit leaders to roam streets
(*) Vampire guests of various kinds give themselves cover identities (those on-site will still be revealed in old saves)
(*) Stopped some position elevation announcements from giving away vampires
(*) Removed trade goods from retired sites if living merchant is still present
(*) Made animals less afraid of casual relationships
(*) Various animal tweaks that came up during the peopling (see file changes.txt)
(*) Marked visitors correctly in site text export
(*) Fixed a cause of string entry key conflicts
(*) Made it list proper subregion when talking about certain adventurer rumor sites instead of subregion where speaker is standing
42.05
Major bug fixes
(*) Made drunken dwarves spar properly again
(*) Stopped dwarves from carrying mugs forever
(*) Stopped adv goblin performance troupes from attacking strangers while traveling
(*) Stopped reanimated corpses from being stuck on wrong side of conflicts
(*) Gave underground populations zone assignments to stop them from erupting outward
(*) Fixed inconsistent underground vegetation generation (which caused underground site maps to generate inconsistently)
(*) Fixed various city vegetation clearing routines which were causing holes in the ground above sewers and catacombs
Other bug fixes/tweaks
(*) Zombies no longer dodge, parry, block, wrestle or run, and they do charging attacks whenever possible
(*) Zombies don't get defense adjustments for body part type and they don't find or stop combat opportunities
(*) Reduced zombie strength bonus (old saves will still be strong)
(*) Made severing all non-smashed heads put down a zombie (can be reanimated if has working grasp, smashing heads already worked)
(*) Made severing/smashing any working grasp put down a headless zombie (can be reanimated if has another working grasp)
(*) Neck gets same combat chance adjustment as head
(*) Made bandits that run off cancel town harassment goals
(*) Bandits camps don't immediately send new armies to re-harass towns
(*) Stopped camp bandits from being placed in trees so often
(*) Allowed save/load in arena
(*) Made creature object load bar page properly
(*) Labeled xml encoding as cp437 instead of utf-8
Bugs like never dropping goblets, poor use of barrels, random rearranging of fortress parts while sleeping and other such bugs have also been fixed for 42.06. Dwarf Fortress won't ever be truly 'stable' until ver 1.0. That's what alpha means.