Point and click quantum stockpiles

Run gui/quantum and you'll get a visual, interactive interface for creating quantum stockpiles.

Quantum stockpiles simplify fort management by allowing a small stockpile to contain a large number of items. This reduces the complexity of your storage design, lets your dwarves find items more efficiently, and increases FPS. Until now, though, they were a bit fiddly to set up and it was easy to make a mistake that would prevent them from working correctly.

Quantum stockpiles work by linking a “feeder” or "input" stockpile to a one-tile minecart hauling route. Whenever an item from the feeder stockpile is placed in the minecart, the minecart is tipped and the item spills out onto an adjacent tile. The single-tile "output" stockpile in that adjacent tile holds all the items spilled out of the minecart and is your quantum stockpile. You can also choose to not have a receiving stockpile and instead have the minecart dump into a pit (perhaps a pit filled with magma).

The gui/quantum UI will walk you through the steps:

• Select a stockpile to be the feeder by clicking on it.
• Set configuration (like what the quantum stockpile will be named) with the onscreen options.
• Click on a free tile on the map to build the minecart stop and (optionally) designate the output stockpile.

If there are minecarts available, one will be automatically assigned to the track stop for you. If you don’t have a free minecart, gui/quantum will enqueue a manager order to make a wooden one. Once it is manufactured, you’ll have to run assign-minecarts all to assign it to the route, or you can open the (H)auling menu and assign the minecart manually. The quantum stockpile will not function until the minecart is in place.

See the wiki for more information on quantum stockpiles.

Extended unit info summary

gui/unit-info-viewer will give you detailed (but non-spoilery) data on the currently selected unit and their race. Among other things, this handy lookup tool will tell you if a creature needs grass or lays eggs. It will even tell you the unit's current size in cubic centimeters.

If you have any ghosts walking (floating?) around, you'll get some interesting info on them as well : )

PSAs

As always, remember that, just like the vanilla DF game, DFHack tools can also have bugs. It is a good idea to save often and keep backups of the forts that you care about.

Many DFHack tools that worked in previous (pre-Steam) versions of DF have not been updated yet and are marked with the "unavailable" tag in their docs. If you try to run them, they will show a warning and exit immediately. You can run the command again to override the warning (though of course the tools may not work). We make no guarantees of reliability for the tools that are marked as "unavailable".

The in-game interface for running DFHack commands (gui/launcher) will not show "unavailable" tools by default. You can still run them if you know their names, or you can turn on dev mode by hitting Ctrl-D while in gui/launcher and they will be added to the autocomplete list. Some tools do not compile yet and are not available at all, even when in dev mode.

If you see a tool complaining about the lack of a cursor, know that it's referring to the keyboard cursor (which used to be the only real option in Dwarf Fortress). You can enable the keyboard cursor by entering mining mode or selecting the dump/forbid tool and hitting Alt-K (the DFHack keybinding for toggle-kbd-cursor). We're working on making DFHack tools more mouse-aware and accessible so this step isn't necessary in the future.

New Tools

• gui/quantum: (reinstated) point and click interface for creating quantum stockpiles or quantum dumps
• gui/unit-info-viewer: (reinstated) give detailed information on a unit, such as egg laying behavior, body size, birth date, age, and information about their afterlife behavior (if a ghost)

Fixes

• Fixed incorrect DFHack background window texture when DF is started in ascii mode and subsequently switched to graphics mode
• Fixed misidentification of visitors from your own civ as residents; affects all tools that iterate through citizens/residents
• cursecheck: act on selected unit only if a unit is selected
• exterminate: don't classify dangerous non-invader units as friendly (e.g. snatchers)
• gui/create-item:
  • properly restrict bags to bag materials by default
  • allow gloves and shoees to be made out of textiles by default
• open-legends: don't interfere with the dragging of vanilla list scrollbars

Misc Improvements

• gui/gm-unit: changes to unit appearance will now immediately be reflected in the unit portrait
• open-legends: allow player to cancel the "DF will now exit" dialog and continue browsing
• suspendmanager: Account for walls planned on the z-layer below when determining accessibility to a job

Structures

• biome_type: add enum attrs for caption and plant_raw_flags

Documentation

• autoclothing: add section comparing autoclothing and tailor to guide players choosing which to enable