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[SirPenguin]

So, this is probably going to sound insane, but awhile back I decided to start compiling a list of all the changes and features we're going to see in the next version. It was going to be a project for the community as well as Toady, and serve as a neat reminder as to how insanely huge this version coming up is going to be. I ended up abandoning the idea so I could focus on school. However, I'm back to it now with finals almost over.

I present to you...The List



http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AT8EQVUjrv96ZGc5cnBwOHZfMjgyY3FzZHFtanA&hl=en

(You don't need to a Google Docs account to see it)

I went through the entire devlog from the last version up until the start of December to gather the info. I'm now going to march through the various Future of the Fortress questions Toady has answered as well as the podcast transcripts to try and fill in as many more things as I can.

This is where you guys can help. I can guarantee you I didn't catch everything, and there's a good chance I may have gotten things wrong. I tried to play it safe, and any time Toady said he "planned on doing something" or felt it "definitely was going in", I didn't actually put it into the notes unless he said for sure it was done.

Also, don't worry too much about the structure of it - I'm purposefully leaving it very freeform right now so I can make sweeping changes as I see fit. After everything is put in I'll worry about the ordering of the list itself.

So! Find things I missed and let me know and I'll toss them in. After this is done - well, more done then it is - I plan on sharing it with as many places as I can find, if only to help build hype for those who haven't DFed in a long time. It might also be useful to Toady when he releases this version so he has a starting point when making such a huge list himself!

[Danarca]

Niice one mate!
VERY much appreciated!
3+ internets

[Brian]

Totally awesome. Thanks for it.

This one is just a little funny:
"Tissues now come in layers. You must bypass a layer to reach one below it. Some layers are dependent on others (hair can only exist if there's skin underneath it, etc.)"

I know what's being got at here, but what I am thinking is you don't need to bypass the skin in order to break a bone with a hammer. The skin might just be badly bruised. That's probably what that means--no layer can be skipped with no effect.

[Fieari]

Armor can be dented, bladed weapons can become dull, all equipment can eventually break

I'm pretty sure this is not true. To my memory, Toady said that the new system will allow for this far more easily, as "low hanging fruit", but that it's not in just yet.

Small creatures are now able to take on larger creatures by pecking away at their bodies, something which was impossible in the old version.
Thanks to the material rewrite, though, a well armored knight will fare without many problems against 20 groundhogs.
Multiple small attacks will have a cumulative effect

Source on this? Because my understanding was the exact opposite -- small creatures can now inflict harmless, cosmetic injury to larger creatures, like mice giving a thousand paper cuts to a giant. They'll cumulatively ANNOY the giant, but unlike a numerical damage system, will do no REAL damage, and will not combine with other more serious damage (say from a ballista) to make other wounds worse.  Each wound is a seperate entity, acting on its own to cause an effect on the creature. In the mice bite example, each mouse bite would individually annoy the giant, to a combination of GREAT annoyance-- but no closer to death than being unharmed.

"I had a dragon fight some lions, and after a little bit of dragonfire and close combat, I ended up with a dragon covered with the gramatically-in-progress "lion melted fat spatter"."

Toady had a thread about this, and after discussion with us fans, corrected it to "lion grease spatter" instead of melted fat spatter.  There was debate whether it should be grease or schmaltz, and grease was settled on.

[Foa]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Okay, gremlins are coming back, and they will play with your switches.

There is a new skill ( the spotting skill ) which increases the likely hood of spotting stealthed entities from greater distances.

The new hfs system is really incredible.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Underneath the ground on all parts of the map in all regions, there is always going to be an hfs.
The hfs is a cave system.
This cave system has "fog of war", so you can only see what your a certain radius around the dwarves in the hfs.
The cave system also goes through the edges of the map so more creatures can join the party.
There are three parts to the hfs.
There is always lava in the deepest level.

Fieari, this is true, if a said creature is smaller than another by a certain degree, the smaller creature has to climb the bigger creature's body to damage certain places of the harger creature. ( From DF talk )
And toady is thinking about how creatures can clean themselves... apparently dragons use fire.
And happily the damage system, and all weapons are now balanced out, no more anti-!!clown!! socks guys.

There are entities called the forgotten ones, they are fun, and have no history, and this entirely so that there is mystery, and toady can be lazy.

Dude, you seem to haven't yet tapped the transcripts, flasks can now carry alcohol!

[SirPenguin]

Fieari, I'm almost postive armor denting is in. I mean for instance, you can dent iron men creatures, and that's definitely in the devlog. I think I pulled the equipment thing from memory of an instance Toady answer in the FotF thread. I'll make a note to remove it.

Toady mentioned several times the ability of small critters. In one of the early FotF QnAs he mentioned how small damage accumulates.

Finally, I only added that direct quote because of cool it was

[Foa]

I know what I'm going to do in the next update...
Dragoons!

Spoiler: Dragoon Ramble (click to show/hide)

Though they are a variety of the knights, they are basically the combination of the cavalry and infantry knight.
They ride around on steeds hauling lances, jousting, and shooting things with their ranged weapons.
These types of knight usually fought on foot so they usually brought ranged weapons, and short weapons, with their lances.
They died out soon after the creation of guns. D:

I'm going to breed fast and burly horses!

[Footkerchief]

Fieari, I'm almost postive armor denting is in. I mean for instance, you can dent iron men creatures, and that's definitely in the devlog. I think I pulled the equipment thing from memory of an instance Toady answer in the FotF thread. I'll make a note to remove it.

Nope, unfortunately.  It's this delayed item in the List, under "Wounds/Combat": "Item/attacking part damage."  Item damage is very distinct from creature damage, although ideally it would work in a similar fashion like you mentioned for iron men.

Found a quote:

will that mean that armor will start to act like a layer of metal around your character that needs to be breached and torn to do damage to the soft creature inside

armor damage won't be specified this time around, so there will still be some weirdness to it.  It should be better than before anyway.

[SirPenguin]

I'm surprised it's a very distinct problem, especially considering the material rewrite was meant to address problems such as that. Ah well, thanks for the correction, Mr. Kerchief!

Anyways, back at it for a bit. Diving through old FotF posts has made me realize 1) Toady is a madman for even attempting to answer all of our questions and 2) he has a great sense of humor

[Retro]

I had a great time reading that. Thank you, and my god is there more than I would've imagined being implemented.

[pluckcitizen]

Awesome list, I can't wait.

Hopefully the existing tilesets will be somewhat compatible or at least updated soon after the release. I'm not hardcore enough for ASCII.

[Aegis]

Awesome job! I'm very excited now!

[Footkerchief]

I'm surprised it's a very distinct problem, especially considering the material rewrite was meant to address problems such as that.

Kind of.  A lot of the tissue damage stuff would carry over to armor damage -- the new wound system supports stuff like getting stabbed in an previous stab wound, which implies that armor holes would be straightforward to implement.  I think the main obstacle was ambiguities concerning what happens to damaged armor -- under what circumstances should it be repaired/discarded, how does it relate to squad equipment management, etc.  Weapon damage is slightly more problematic, since weapons don't have individual components yet, and you'd want to know, for example, whether it was the handle or the blade of the sword that just got broken.

(I'm only going on about this because I think it's interesting, not because I'm anxious to prove you wrong in detail or whatever)

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Sweet! I've been looking for a list of detailed changes for a while now; "List of remaining items" doesn't explain the changes much.

Quick question: Does this mean we will be able to breed, say, wild boars, and have an army of Boar Knights?

[SirPenguin]

Sweet! I've been looking for a list of detailed changes for a while now; "List of remaining items" doesn't explain the changes much.

Quick question: Does this mean we will be able to breed, say, wild boars, and have an army of Boar Knights?

No, but leaders of civilizations can it seems

(I'm only going on about this because I think it's interesting, not because I'm anxious to prove you wrong in detail or whatever)

Yeah, I definitely agree. I love talking about this stuff anyways