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Release notes for 53.01 (November 3, 2025):

This is the Siege Update.  Invaders should cause some more trouble now.  Aside from a few minor things mentioned below, you don't have to create a new fort or world for this update.

We've done about half of the possible changes we were contemplating on the roadmap and we will certainly be doing some more, especially the magical stuff, as work continues.  This update is a nice self-contained improvement for regular siege behavior, so we're posting it without further delay.

Siege update - Attack
   (*) Invaders can build stairs and floors.
   (*) Invaders can break down constructions and many blocking buildings
   (*) Invaders can bring battering rams to bash through constructions and buildings.
   (*) Invaders can dig through natural walls (including trolls with great picks in new worlds.)
   (*) Invaders can be lead by historical military-related position holders.
   (*) Invaders track where deaths and trap incidents have occurred and eventually plan to avoid them.
   (*) Invader army composition is more varied, and invaders have different behavioral roles.
   (*) Invader can be more skilled and have better equipment.
   (*) Invaders can free their caged companions.
   (*) Goblins use more of the underground creatures (in new worlds.)
   (*) Flying invaders and invaders with flying mounts behavior improved.
   (*) Invaders enter over a wider edge width.
   (*) Difficulty settings allow you to change invader behavior and add restrictions.

Siege update - Defense
   (*) New bolt thrower siege engine.  These fire regular bolts and can be freely rotated to any direction if an operator can stand behind it.
   (*) Catapult and ballista siege engines are placed with fixed firing arcs but can target in the full arc rather than firing only in cardinal directions, and they can fire vertically somewhat.
   (*) Boulders thrown by catapults explode on impact, ejecting sharp rock shards.
   (*) Reinforced walls can be made with two building material and one metal per tile.  These are much more resistant to damage.
   (*) Materials of constructions and buildings matter more for damage amount.
   (*) Siege operators aren't as quick to abandon their positions.
   (*) Added siege operator default work detail (in new forts.)
   (*) Made fortress patrollers more careful to hit the nodes of their routes exactly.
   (*) War dogs should stay with their masters when their masters have squad orders.

Audio updates
   (*) New song Danger Room!  Plays in the lively tavern.

General updates
   (*) Made carrying of the wounded more reliable.
   (*) Fix for non-square worlds.
   (*) Fix for archery training so they use unquivered ammo stacks properly.
   (*) Fixed issue with cavern critters sometimes failing to enter the map.
   (*) Fixed issue causing wilderness populations to slowly drain.
   (*) Fixed necromancer experimentation.
   (*) Fixed a typo in post world generation settlement placement.
   (*) Major optimization for pond filling.
   (*) Some general optimization and memory safety cleanup.
   (*) Fixed some plural names.

Release notes for 53.02 (November 4, 2025):

Here's some cleanup for the Siege Update to fix a few issues.

General updates
   (*) Hospital patients and babies don't shut off the brains of people carrying them, again.
   (*) Made siege engine operators leave their engines when not commanded to be there.
   (*) Added practice fire mode for siege engines.
   (*) Fixed a crash if world population is uncapped.
   (*) Corrected minor issues with siege engine target selection and skill use.
   (*) Stopped wagon goods from creating incorrect transparent pixels in wagon.
   (*) Fixed typo with some plurals.

Release notes for 53.03 (November 10, 2025):

Here are some more fixes for the Siege Update.

(*) Fixed crash when loading certain historical figures from the disk.
(*) Fixed an occasional crash when doing multi-stage construction.
(*) Fixed issue where battering ram operators could get stuck in ground when the ram turns.
(*) Stopped brewing jobs from searching for improper items.
(*) Stopped babies born in fort from worshipping extra deities.

Release notes for 53.04 (November 17, 2025):

Continuing to improve the Siege Update.  You can now view and set the status of your siege engines from a centralized tab.  Lots of improvement for invader AI, and ogres look properly scary now.  There are also some general improvements to item pictures, as well as various stability fixes.

Siege updates
   (*) Randomized attack times throughout a given season.
   (*) Added siege engines to Places.
   (*) Fixed some issues with invader building targeting.
   (*) Fixed issue causing humans and elves to sometimes be unable to send serious attacks.
   (*) Fixed an issue causing more brazen thieves to not have their support groups.
   (*) Fixed issue stopping beasts from exploring the map.
   (*) Stopped immediate fleeing of non-ranged support groups.
   (*) Made support groups want to leave soon after the group being supported is done or aborts.
   (*) Ogres and blind cave ogres have new graphics, including respect of blocks and great picks.
   (*) Fixed error making certain creatures like ogres appear with incorrect ages.
   (*) Fixed issue causing catapult/ballista firing job not to cancel when requested.
   (*) Fixed catapult and ballista hover instructions.

General updates
   (*) Updated various item graphics.
   (*) Fixed occasional crash in the justice screen.
   (*) Fixed justice menu in Classic Mode.
   (*) Fixed potential crash from constructed walls without materials.
   (*) Fixed potential load crash from corrupt strings.
   (*) Fixed issue causing necromancers to always have summons.
   (*) Fixed lua type issue with world gen seeds.
   (*) Fixed issue with kitchen ingredient hash.
   (*) Made multithreading option save after choice during popup.
   (*) Fixed issue with identity selection of infiltrators versus buildings available for visitors.
   (*) Some additional stability changes.

Release notes for 53.05 (November 18, 2025):

General updates
   (*) Fixed crash with animal domestication status sorting.
   (*) Fixed happiness sorting.

Release notes for 53.06 (November 24, 2025):

Continuing to add improvements to the Siege Update.  Some sources of siege freezes/lag are gone, and the invaders should be a bit smarter with more active rams.  Some new graphics tweaks, and a new song, "Nabidas"!  The problem with inter-party fighting in adventure mode on ambush is fixed.

Siege updates
   (*) Fixed slowdown associated with invaders trying to break through certain floors from below.
   (*) Made builders always try to connect staircases even if the main siege path has changed.
   (*) Fixed issue causing siege path to sometimes reset if it required both miners and builders.
   (*) Fixed issue causing battering ram pathing spam.
   (*) Added some more pathing spam prevention to invader planning.
   (*) Made building invaders give up on stale irrelevant far away build jobs.
   (*) Improved siege composition to stop overemphasis on heavily armored unskilled invaders.
   (*) Fixed some exploration behavior that got invaders stuck in trees too often.
   (*) Made rams more active.

Audio
   (*) New song "Nabidas" plays in any context.

Graphics
   (*) Updated dwarf and human skin tones/eyes in full body pictures.
   (*) Blind cave ogre fingers and toes properly represented.
   (*) Updated snail people graphics.
   (*) Updated gem graphics.
   (*) Updated jeweler's workshop graphics.
   (*) Added palettes for leather and skins.
   (*) Creatures without corpse pictures show a skeleton or liquid blob.
   (*) Centered cave swallow and serpent person images and fixed serpent person corpse image.

General updates
   (*) Stopped adventure mode party members from feeling instinctual need to hunt and kill other party members when ambushed by wild animals.
   (*) Stopped glob spitting procedural creatures from spitting unknown material rather than poison.
   (*) Fixed issue that could cause adventure mode bandit harassment from ending prematurely.
   (*) Added more medical job exemptions to mount-being-controlled-by-rider rule.
   (*) Stopped ghosts that return from the dead twice from reporting an improper location as the site of the return.