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[MrWiggles]

Do people in Britain wear suntan lotion?
 

[Valtam]

Oh, thought of another one:

Will civilizations ever own artifacts? I know bloodlines can, but I mean like governments/institutions controlling art; the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, for example. On that note, will we ever have procedural flags, anthems, or dances that are unique to/associated with a civilization? Can you play someone the song of your people? I could imagine playing a national anthem for people that are currently at war with that nation would probably result in a bar fight.

Those are not close goals for the current release, so the most reliable answer you will get from Toady will be "yes, no timeline yet".
Also, some of those things are already implemented ingame, such as the flags, dances and lyrical forms. Given that institutions do not exist yet the way (I assume) you envision them, then there's no reason to improve on those features.

That could change as soon as Toady returns to the Religion and Law arcs, where maybe artifacts or other objects could be seized or controlled by a specific entity, but who knows how that might play out in the long term.

Do ceiling fans even exist in British homes?

Toady One and Threetoe live in the pacific northwest of the United States, so I'm not sure why you are asking this.

Coming from a Escaped Lunatic, I think it could be a garden-variety bot.

[Random_Dragon]

In the event of adventure-named artifacts, how will naming them be handled? Will they just use the old system of randomly naming a weapon they grow attatched to, or will the player be prompted to construct a name for it? Because the latter system is bad enough about creating "the spurting banana" levels of derp for titles and such. :V

[Qyubey]

Oh, thought of another one:

Will civilizations ever own artifacts? I know bloodlines can, but I mean like governments/institutions controlling art; the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, for example. On that note, will we ever have procedural flags, anthems, or dances that are unique to/associated with a civilization? Can you play someone the song of your people? I could imagine playing a national anthem for people that are currently at war with that nation would probably result in a bar fight.

Those are not close goals for the current release, so the most reliable answer you will get from Toady will be "yes, no timeline yet".
Also, some of those things are already implemented ingame, such as the flags, dances and lyrical forms. Given that institutions do not exist yet the way (I assume) you envision them, then there's no reason to improve on those features.

That could change as soon as Toady returns to the Religion and Law arcs, where maybe artifacts or other objects could be seized or controlled by a specific entity, but who knows how that might play out in the long term.

Yeah I suppose that would naturally occur when he implements a proper society structure for entities; law, guilds, and social stratification. I mainly wanted to know if we could expect artifacts to be considered National Treasures by an entire entity, but i guess if there's no real government yet, that might not be feasible.

Y'know... so we can steal the declaration of independence.   

[Mephansteras]

I somehow totally missed that there was a new thread for FotF.

[Infinityforce]

Lots of questions, I highlighted the main ones in green

DEVELOPMENT
How extensively (do you think) DF will need to be rewritten, code-wise? How extensively is it rewritten between updates?
What were the biggest updates in terms of features and code changes?
What was the easiest thing to implement? The most difficult? What did you enjoy/prefer? What do you hate/regret?
What do you intend to get rid of/replace that is currently existing?

When will labors be overhauled?
Would we, for instance, be able to sort dwarves by attributes and put them into groups, or create groups with conditions (only dwarves with X skill or Y attribute?)
When you have 100+ dwarves, it's difficult to manage.
Will the 'O'rders menu be reworked with more options or less options? So far I think 'O'rders is a great way to get dwarves to something/forbid them from doing things.

How will the individual dwarf interface be overhauled?
I don't think I'd like it if you got rid of the sentences. But having a graphic representation would make at-a-glance or summarisation easier.
Will we be able to view more of a dwarf at once (seeing attributes alongside skills, for example)?
How will creature traits be handled in the future? I love how every dwarf is completely & absolutely unique. Even modern game developers can't get this right, to this level of detail and interactiveness! Truly, you've done a good and special thing.

Do you think these things will come about towards the end of DF's life? Towards version 1.0?
How much do you think it will retail for? What will be the major difference between it and the current free versions? Are there are a lot of features you're witholding for the retail product? I'm sure you make a tonne of money already. Do you live in a mansion? Did you ever dream you would be so successful? Do you believe in God and thank him? or are you more Armok-oriented?

How long till the code supports full graphicsets, tileset overrides etc.? Is it envisioned in the future? Perhaps towards the end of it's life?
I'm curious for the future and grateful for getting to play this AWESOME game, literally unique and one-of-a-kind which everyone should play (hence my interest in GUI and graphic sets, it'd make the game very accesible)
One of the best rls is NETHACK ON MY PHONE. A few years ago, I couldn't even dream or comprehend playing it without a keyboard.
It has assignable, macroable buttons that can be scrolled through on customisable panels.
It's one of the best improvements to nethack ever! A plethora of commands condensed and at my fingertips
Just noting how adding customisable buttons and custom toolbars,made it ultra-accessible on my mobile phone, whereas once it was the domain of the keyboard/PC now I don't need to press a single key once I've configured the buttons/panels)
Do you foresee clickable buttons in menus, perhaps to move the game to tablets and phones? For that matter, what do you think about adding graphic elements to make a full GUI, along with icons etc.? For that matter, will hotkeys be improved and expanded? Or some form of customisable interface?

TBH this is the most amazing game I have ever played. It is so comprehensive, detailed, thorough and well thought out.
It's a joy and a thrill to live out the industry and history which our ancestors may have experienced and lived (in a simplified way) themselves.
Nearly every major industry is represented! Not to mention animals, trees, and in the future commerce etc.... Truly a labour of love x and playing it is love x
Sorry if so many questions, it must make you tired, huh? I'm sure most of these questions have already been asked, forgive me if it's the case.
Whatever your decisions are, I'm sure they'll be great and for the best.
Also, sorry for focusing on fortress mode. I know you put a lot of effort into adventurer. Once the myth update comes about, I'm sure it'll be a billion times more FUN!
The only problem I have with adventurer is having to sort through so many lists of procedurally generated information. I find it difficult to navigate because the world is bigger than the content, the content ends up getting buried or lost If there were some way to make objectives, quests etc. more obvious and stand out more. (I'm thinking how in games they have glowing, revolving, brightly coloured POIs and stories that guide gameplay. Maybe there will be some form of standard objectives/achievements such as ranks, titles, rewards more akin to RPGs? Or a world will spawn various archetypal quest givers instead of just civilians?)
Otherwise I enjoy running after crows and wrestling them to death, jumping and climbing trees (sheer genius, btw) and seeking out lairs.
Sincerely yours, a devoted player and ardent watcher: 74s (Seven Fours - a pun on Sevenforce)

edit: I heard that defensive forts will be nerfed in the future, such as more balanced traps and enemies that can dig through stone. How long will it be before we see this kind of thing?

[Shonai_Dweller]

Lots of questions, I highlighted the main ones in green

DEVELOPMENT
When will labors be overhauled?

How will the individual dwarf interface be overhauled?

Do you think these things will come about towards the end of DF's life? Towards version 1.0?

How long till the code supports full graphicsets, tileset overrides etc.? Is it envisioned in the future? Perhaps towards the end of it's life?

Last month's FOTF Toady talked about labours interface and so on. Probably the Scenarios release will see some sort of shake up of the interface.
Additional graphics support is in the long-term dev notes, so at this stage answer will probably be 'Yes, one day. No specific plans yet'.

[Infinityforce]

Thanks Shonai_Dweller!

[PatrikLundell]

@74s: Regarding Toady's luxury life style, you can check the monthly updated link at the top of the page for money http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=160337, and the progress (with hints of his jet set life style) here http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/.

In summary, Toady would make a fair bit more from a decently paid regular job (with regular working hours...).

[FantasticDorf]

Do people in Britain wear suntan lotion?

Do ceiling fans even exist in British homes?

He wasn't actually asking the question as related to the previous sentence, he was just asking an unrelated question.

By the way, do people eat pears in Britain?

As your captive british person

> Yes, not that there much reason to put any on.

> No we have little vents (with tiny minute gap holes too small for insects) to catch a breeze because the big shiny thing few british people have lived to have ever seen and get nausated and moan about (much like dwarves) is rarely seen

> I personally detest pears but other british people do eat them, though citrus is more popular because of a inbuilt fear of scurvy.

Now back on topic please with DF orientated questions and PM me if you have more british culture specific questions.

[Dirst]

We could derail the thread for several pages with a debate on how to pronounce Urist, but I agree more stuff worthy of being in lime green.

[Max™]

I am still hurt that Toady says "oo-rist" rather than "your-ist" (not exact phonetics there as it's closer to the redneck "yer", like "yer the yer-ist dorf I ever met, yer-ist') and I still wake up in a cold sweat from time to time hearing him say it, yet despite my normal response of defaulting to the pronunciation of the creators (jif, ping) unless it is hilarious (jayfeg, scuhbuh) I just can't find it in myself to say it like that, not just because I have a stutter triggered by certain sounds, but because it hits my ear so wrong.

WOE I SAY, WOE AND ILL TIDINGS HAVE FALLEN UNTO ME!

[Urlance Woolsbane]

Some questions concerning .dat files:

1) What is stored in the "art_image" files?

2) What is stored in the "feature" files?

3) What is stored in the "site" files?

4) What is stored in "unit" files?

5) What is the significance of the ubiquitous hex-sequence "D08A"?

More may follow.

[Putnam]

1. Named images, such as engravings and player-specified things.
2. Volcanos, rivers, peaks, magma tubes, other terrain features. IIRC caverns too?
3. Sites, such as cities, towns, player fortresses, caves, lairs, shrines, forest retreats, dark pits etc.
4. Units. Critters, creatures, and so on. Everything that can move, attack etc.

[timotheos]

When the fantasy level slider is in place do you have any plans to keep some sort of dangerous creatures deliberately attacking the fortress even at low fantasy levels?
Ie. High-moderate fantasy we have the titans, megabeasts, weres, etc. Will anything scary attack at low fantasy level? Giant (enraged?) creatures maybe?