Showing posts tagged #Dwarf Fortress - Show all

Digital Ocean pricing change – cheaper and faster Dwarf Fortress Remote servers

January 18, 2018

Digital Ocean is a great way to run Dwarf Fortress Remote server in the cloud — it's cheap, easy to set up, and provides decent performance, especially for newer players who don't have very big forts.

Recently I got wonderful news from Digital Ocean in my inbox. They've updated their pricing and doubled the amount of memory available on $5 and $10 plans. Also, apparently in the very end of the last year, they introduced a $15 plan with even more memory. Dwarf Fortress is single-threaded, so here I'm talking about plans with 1 CPU only.

So, current plans best suited for running Dwarf Fortress Remote server are the following:

Monthly PriceCPUMemory
$511GB
$1012GB
$1513GB
$1522GB

The $15 plan is flexible and although I said that DF is single-threaded, it may make sense to have less memory but one core just for simulation and another one for everything else. More testing will be needed to find out what's actually faster.

Remember that by signing up using this link, you will receive a $10 credit — that's up to two months of playing Dwarf Fortress.

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What’s new in Dwarf Fortress Remote for iOS 1.70

January 10, 2018

Version 1.70 released today is a huge update that adds support for many Dwarf Fortress features there were not previously accessible via the app:

  • Hauling routes and minecarts
  • Stockpile/workshop linking
  • Designation priorities, marker mode, standard/marker toggling
  • Viewing kill lists for units
  • Outdoor access status for hives
  • Removing individual activity zone tiles
  • Viewing engraving descriptions
  • Checking/active/ready status info for manager orders
  • Choosing an image related to a historical figure for a job/order

Bug fixes:

  • Fixed pressure plate trigger configuration
  • Fixed some issues related to setting job/order details
  • Various UI fixes

Support for configuring manager order conditions didn't get into this release but will also be available in the next update soon.

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What’s new in DF Remote server 1.11.3

January 6, 2018

In preparation for an upcoming big app update, new server update fixes activity/job titles shown for units in some cases, fixes issues with job/order details specification and shows the currently set image for a job/order.

Also, support for DF 0.40.24 has been removed, and support for 0.43.03 will be removed soon as well. If you're still using those and having troubles upgrading, feel free to contact support for help.

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On Dwarf Fortress versions support in DF Remote

November 30, 2017

It looks like it's time to discontinue support for DF 0.40.24 in Dwarf Fortress Remote, and probably 0.43.03 if analytics shows that no-one is using it nowadays.

On the other hand, DFHack 0.43.05-r3 is now likely to be the last release of DFHack for 0.43.05, support for it will be added soon.

DF 0.44 is out now, with the biggest and exciting new feature is being able to send dwarves away from your fort to raid other sites, or recover people or artifacts. This is done using what before was Civilizations screen, which now also includes world map, news, known world artifacts, and missions sections.

As usual, I'm not planning to support this version officially until bug fixing is over for it and there's a stable release of DFHack. However this time I may consider adding experimental support once this new screen is reverse-engineered so that its functionality can be implemented in Remote.

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November 23, 2017

Dwarf Fortress Remote 1.67 is now available, bringing support for iPhone X and iOS 11, and fixing number of other issues and crashes.

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Bug fixes in the latest DF Remote iOS app (1.66)

September 25, 2017

The following bugs are fixed in the latest version 1.66:

  • Occasional crash if connection to server fails
  • Crash on unit info and workshop profile screen if unit has a certain skill level
  • Crash when touching traffic configuration row in designation menu
  • Crash when adding jobs in a workshop in some situations
  • Crash when upading minimum member count for a squad order in some situations
  • Failure to delete or modify squad orders in some situations
  • When viewing unit info from a workshop profile screen, info is shown for a wrong unit
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Online 3D Dwarf Fortress map viewer

September 21, 2017

3D view is one if the "bigger" features (alongside sound effects, command bar/voice control, unattended operation and ████) that I ultimately want to add to Dwarf Fortress Remote.

Last year I've already experimented with 3D rendering of Dwarf Fortress maps ([1], [2], [3]) but then took a long break because I wasn't satisfied either with the performance or something else, don't remember. This month I started again from scratch and did things right, so there's more chance Remote will get this feature.

However there was also another part to that project - to make an online 3D map viewer/map archive, sort of a 3D version of DFMA. This is because mobile and browser/WebGL environments are somewhat similar - both are OpenGL ES-based and have constrained resources. Basically I can take iOS rendering code (shaders, mesh building), make just minor changes to convert C to Javascript, and then it works in browser.

So here it is -

mifki.com/df/3dview

You can export your map by copying/pasting a command from the page to DFHack console, or just upload a save if not using DFHack. In either case you'll get a link that anyone can use to view your fort in 3D. I've exported several community games as an example: Constructivory, The City of Air, Breadbowl.

This is a work in progress, some models are missing (namely most of the workshops and furnaces) but otherwise I'm quite happy with it. Obviously a modern browser with WebGL support is required, and right now it won't work on mobile devices becuase I need to support touch controls.

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Designation menu grouping

August 28, 2017

In the latest version of Dwarf Fortress Remote app, I added some colours to group designations related to mining, nature-related, cancel/removal, and submenus. Initially I was going to keeps items in all menus ordered exactly as they're on desktop however now I really like the new look, so I will probably reorder the building menu slightly as well at some point.

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Please report all issues you experience with Dwarf Fortress Remote

June 22, 2017

Recently I released several new Remote server plugin versions, and one iOS app update. They fix number of gameplay and stability issues (including a plugin crash when it's active for a very long time), and also improve error reporting so I can fix further problems faster.

However I ask users to report any issues they stumble upon using the built-in support/feedback functionality. Due to the complexity of the game, there's a lot of in-game situations that I've never seen when playing or testing myself and which may also be impossible to recreate at will.

So if you open any screen, and the data can not be loaded or something doesn't work, please report this (I basically will need to know what was happening in the game and what you were doing in the UI), and with enough information I will likely be able to fix any such issue within a day or so, and make DF Remote a better experience for everyone.

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Dwarf Fortress 0.43.05 support is now available in Dwarf Fortress Remote

May 24, 2017

Dwarf Fortress Remote now supports Dwarf Fortress / DFHack version 0.43.05-r1 (64bit version only). This is the first 64bit version of Dwarf Fortress, and it can support bigger worlds without hitting a memory limit, and purportedly a little bit faster in some cases (as well as having a few bugs fixed in the game itself, as usual).

The new version is compatible with saves from older versions so feel free to update (however you need to have a 64bit OS to run this and future versions). The easiest way to update is just to install a new package from mifki.com/df/setup, and copy saves located in data/saves folder. You can then re-add your server to the application, or copy data/init/remote.txt file to preserve settings like published name and password.

I've also added an article how to update to a newer version of Dwarf Fortress if you have Remote server running in a Docker container, for example, on a cloud server.

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