There are several significant changes with the release of Dwarf Fortress on Steam. It can take some time for seasoned players to acclimate. After spending roughly 40 hours on the Steam release and a quarantined-with-COVID amount of time with the previous version, we’ll list the top 11 changes below.
It’s a significant deal that Dwarf Fortress now has a tutorial. A tutorial has never existed before. Players have been dropped into the game without explanation for almost 20 years, and they are now expected to navigate its legendary complexity on their own. The learning curve in Dwarf Fortress is known as a learning cliff for this reason.
Dwarf Fortress Has Fun New Changes
The new tutorial helps you grasp the mechanics by taking you through the first few steps of building your stronghold. Even afterward, you can come back to it. The menus have been updated graphically as well. There are cascading menus with a useful icons instead of merely changing text-based listings. Let’s genuinely discuss the menus. The majority of the menus in Dwarf Fortress have been redone to make sense. Unfortunately, if you’re used to the old form, this somehow makes it more perplexing.
The inclusion of the Vermin Catcher’s Shop is a more significant modification here. The Capture Live Land Animal task, which was formerly performed in butcher shops and kennels, is now handled by this new workshop. If you’re used to the vanilla version of Dwarf Fortress, it won’t take you long to relearn all of the keyboard shortcuts that are different from the Steam version.
The labor and skill menus in Dwarf Fortress have undergone a rather significant makeover. There is now a straightforward menu to manage each dwarf rather than handling them individually or even indirectly by using add-ons like DFHack or Dwarf Therapist.
