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[Eagleon]

... middle-term goals (Dev_V1), which are supposed to be done (or at least begun) in the next year or two (but IMO it'll probably take several years, unless the current update feature a major structural rewriting which we'll speed up further updates) ...

I think that was the idea behind the mats rewrite, along with probably a lot of other stuff being done behind the scenes that isn't really interesting for the dev log unless you're into programming. I could be wrong, but either way, that sort of thing can eat up time like nobody's business. It's a balancing act, but given DF's scope, from what I understand Toady's emphasis has been on making things work nicely and smoothly with new additions first before adding actual new additions, as far as that's possible.

tldr, it might be that the next few updates might see similarly interesting features added without so much slog as this release. Here's hoping.

[Timst]

Yep, there could also be a "Windows Vista's syndrome" : Visible changes not so great, but major rewrites on the clockworks to make further coding way easier and up to date, that the common public miss totally.

Except that here, visible changes are already awesome, so we can just image what's going on behind the scene.

[Bricks]

Yep, there could also be a "Windows Vista's syndrome" : Visible changes not so great, but major rewrites on the clockworks to make further coding way easier and up to date, that the common public miss totally.

Except that here, visible changes are already awesome, so we can just image what's going on behind the scene.

Isn't that the opposite of Vista?

[Timst]

Well not exactly, Vista has poor visible changes but great underground rewrites, whereas DF might have great visible changes and greater underground rewrites.

[Thndr]

Well not exactly, Vista has poor visible changes but great underground rewrites, whereas DF might have great visible changes and greater underground rewrites.

More like Vista had poor visible changes, poor implementation of rewrites and buggy underground rewrites
Windows 7 rewrites those rewrites to not suck ass.

But this is becoming offtopic now.

Waiting over a year for a release of DF is understandable once you realise that most of things that are being coded now attribute for countless future releases (granted half of those are probably bugfixes, or "feature Nerfs").
And toady has admitted that he bit off a little more than he thought, but can't very well stop until it's very well done.

[Kusgnos]

Am I the only one who gets a huge kick out of reading the devlog? I don't even play Dwarf Fortress that often, and I've been around since the very beginning of DF, but I still haven't lost interest. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one, and the long wait hasn't bothered me.

[LordNagash]

Am I the only one who gets a huge kick out of reading the devlog? I don't even play Dwarf Fortress that often, and I've been around since the very beginning of DF, but I still haven't lost interest. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one, and the long wait hasn't bothered me.

No, I'm in the same boat as you. I haven't played DF for a while myself, but I love the simulation aspect more than I like the actual game aspect. So the upcoming release has a lot going for it, as far as I am concerned.

[MrWiggles]

The release, is okay with me.

I think in part, because there so much here that can be consider a complete playground game and because of the dev notes.

The dev notes get me so giddy, my major issue with Dorf fortress, is lack of micromanagement of skilled labors, and the military.

I lost one fortress due to the fact that half my military decided to eat, break, drink before going to their station point and some of those had to rush off to pick up equipment or couldn't place it on for wearing 3 cloaks and a man purse.

I would love to have construction dorf, and workshop dorf.

Next release will fix this quite nicely.

The other things, such as underground diversity and none generic statues, are quite nice.

The extra cosmetic layers to the dorf are warmly welcome, even if they have light game play element outside of combat. It'll help with my internal dorf fortress narrative.
So instead of being that dorf, will be the pudgy dorf with the scar across his left eye.

That just cool to me.

[Vester]

Hehehe, Toady mentioned this thread in the teaser podcast.

At any rate, DF is a great game.

Great things take time to do.

It's basically 2 + 2

[chaoticag]

You can complain as much as you want, but since in the next version you'll be able to make a university at about the same time that I am at a University make it ten times more awesome than the last release.

[Organ]

I heard it repeated many times that this next release will be scrapping a lot of the old stuff and laying the new foundations for the whole future of the game. I'd rather that Toady really take his time with something like that.

[SeaBee]

I didn't realize it had been a year ... not that I'm complaining or panicking. Feels like I've spent some time in the Tardis recently.

The dev log is always fun to read (and somewhat amazing, I admit) even when I'm not playing the game for a few weeks. DF is always on my mind.

The new release will be a nice big day for me -- playin' with all those new features. Mmmm, features.

[buman]

Every day, before I look at my emails, I click to the developments page eager for a glimpse of whatever's just been coded.

While the page is loading, there's always a tiny lump in my throat as I imagine an announcement that it's ready and being shipped out for playtesters.

But while I often wish that it was ready and I had my greedy little hands on it, I'm always glad that work continues, and progress is made.  I can wait for good things to happen.

Same, the first thing I do when I get to work is check the DF RSS feed.

[zwei]

...

All the concern trolling is just amusing. I'll agree that a year is a long time, but I've seen other indie games/mods go a long time between releases and still have a healthy fanbase, such as Mount & Blade, ADOM, FFH2 (Civ4) and RTR (Rome: Total War). If the product released so far is good, people will maintain an interest. Doubly so when there's almost daily updates from the developer, letting people know that it's not dying on the vine.

As a ADOM community member, I can assure you, it no longer has healthy fanbase. It has simply dissolved over years without updates and progress. Discussion used to number dozens of posts per day, now it is dozens per year.

I am at same boat like lots of people as far as DF is concerned: Did not play it for months (nothing new to try really) and without dev notes, I would stop following it (Frankly, i have no idea if i would come back later - i taged link for revisiting every month in my nomad, but actually following it ...).

----

Frankly, Weekly/Montly builds would be great. Not that hard to set up automatically to do with one mouseclick (or even without it). Sometimes they might be broken because of bugs or because Creator did not finish up something in time for release, but it is imperfection that is to be expected from unfinished version, but it would give players do something. To play, to look for bugs related to greened out items, to give instant feedback on new features. To get damn hospital running with crippled dwarf nicknamed to "House" as doctor.

[Baughn]

This is the point at which I should remind you people that the dev_now page actually has an RSS feed.

Reading the daily post there in google reader is one of the highlights of my day.