The stonesense stands up

Stonesense, the beloved tool that renders your fortress in 3D, has seen some serious love in this release. Thanks to the efforts of new contributor Squid Coder and our own Rome of Oxtrot, longstanding crash bugs are fixed and many quality of life features are added.

Here are some new things to try:

• Hit semicolon (;) to toggle fog (huge performance boost)
• Hit a to toggle announcements (which are now neatly tucked away in the lower right corner)

You can edit the startup configuration in the new dfhack-config/stonesense/init.txt file. For example, you can set the initial window size to 1920x1200 or increase the size of the font used to render text.

Give it a try if you haven't already! It can be breathtaking to see your fortress creations in full 3D!

Rescue missions for lost squads

Occasionally, squads that you send out on a mission get stuck on the world map. They lose their ability to navigate and are unable to return to your fortress. This tool allows a messenger that is returning from a holding or any other of your squads that is returning from a mission to rescue the lost squad along the way and bring them home.

This fix is enabled by default in the DFHack control panel, so you don't need to do anything special to benefit from it. However, it is still up to you to send out a messenger or squad that can be tasked with the rescue. If you have a holding that is linked to your fort, you can send out a messenger – you don’t have to actually request any workers. Otherwise, you can send a squad out on a mission with minimal risk, like “Demand one-time tribute”.

This tool is also integrated with the DFHack notifcation panel, so you will get a notification when a squad is stuck and there are no squads or messengers currently out traveling that can rescue them.

Note that there might be other reasons why your squad appears missing – if it got wiped out in combat and nobody survived to report back, for example – but this tool should allow you to recover from the cases that are actual bugs.

Rename anything that can be named

Sure, you can rename your fortress before you embark, but what about second rename?

Fire up gui/rename, and you can choose from a list of nameable entities in your environment to give a custom name to. This tool works with DFs in-world languages, so you get an interface similar to the one you use to give names to fortresses and governments on embark. It is a little more informative and flexible compared to the vanilla UI, though. For example, you can search for or sort by the English word or the translated language word. You can also change the language of a name, and you can give units new "real" first names.

You can click on something (e.g. a unit) and then run gui/rename to rename it, or you can choose any of the following from an in-tool selection dialog:

• An artifact on the current map
• A unit on the current map
• A squad belonging to the current fortress
• A location (e.g. tavern, hospital, guildhall, temple) on the current map
• The current fortress (or adventurer site)
• The government of the current fortress
• The civilization of the current fortress
• The world

If you run gui/rename while on the “prepare carefully” embark screen, you can choose new names for your starting dwarves.

Modders and power users can also pass game IDs on the commandline to rename other entities like foreign sites or religions.

gui/rename also comes with an overlay for convenience. When generating a new world, you'll get a button for renaming the world before you save it for the first time.

As a side bonus, this tool transparently fixes a DF bug on the embark screen where you are unable to give your starting dwarves nicknames. You'll be able to set nicknames normally now.

More info here: https://docs.dfhack.org/en/stable/docs/tools/gui/rename.html#gui-rename

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.

Some 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 listed as "unavailable" in the docs do not compile yet and are not accessible 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

• fix/stuck-squad: allow squads and messengers returning from missions to rescue squads that have gotten stuck on the world map
• gui/rename: (reinstated) give new in-game language-based names to anything that can be named (units, governments, fortresses, the world, etc.)

New Features

• gui/notify: new notification type: save reminder; appears if you have gone more than 15 minutes without saving; click to autosave
• gui/rename:
  • add overlay to worldgen screen allowing you to rename the world before the new world is saved
  • add overlay to the "Prepare carefully" embark screen that transparently fixes a DF bug where you can't give units nicknames or custom professions
• gui/settings-manager:
  • new overlay on the Labor -> Standing Orders tab for configuring the number of barrels to reserve for job use (so you can brew alcohol and not have all your barrels claimed by stockpiles for container storage)
  • standing orders save/load now includes the reserved barrels setting
• orders: add transparent overlays to the manager orders screen that allow right clicks to cancel edit of quantities or condition details instead of exiting to the main screen
• stockpiles: add simple import/export dialogs to stockpile overlay panel
• stonesense:
  • added hotkey to toggle fog ; (default keybinding)
  • added hotkey to toggle announcements: a (default keybinding)
  • added hotkey to toggle debug mode: ~ (default keybinding)
  • added init file config to show announcements (on by default)
  • added init file config for whether Esc is recognized for closing the stonesense window (on by default to match previous behavior)
  • added init file config for whether creature moods and jobs are displayed (off by default)

Fixes

• caravan: no longer incorrectly identify wood-based plant items and plant-based soaps as being ethically unsuitable for trading with the elves
• fix/dry-buckets: don't empty buckets for wells that are actively in use
• gui/design: don't require an extra right click on the first cancel of building area designations
• gui/gm-unit: refresh unit sprite when profession is changed
• gui/unit-info-viewer: skill progress bars now show correct XP thresholds for skills past Legendary+5
• preserve-rooms:
  • don't erroneously release reservations for units that have returned from their missions but have not yet entered the fort map
  • handle case where unit records are culled by DF immediately after a unit leaves the map
• preserve-tombs: properly re-enable after loading a game that had the tool enabled
• stockpiles: don't set use_links_only flag to a random value when the flag is not set to anything in the settings that are being imported
• stonesense:
  • fixed crash when maximizing or resizing the window
  • fixed crash when turning the onscreen display (OSD) layer off
• strangemood: ensure generated names for artifacts match what the game itself would generate
• zone: assign animal to cage/restraint dialog now allows you to unassign a pet from the cage or restraint if the pet is already somehow assigned (e.g. war dog was in cage and was subsequently assigned to a dwarf)

Misc Improvements

• caravan: add filter for written works in display furniture assignment dialog
• dig-now: handle digging in pool and river tiles
• fix/wildlife: don't vaporize stuck wildlife that is onscreen -- kill them instead (as if they died from old age)
• gui/sitemap: show primary group affiliation for visitors and invaders (e.g. civilization name or performance troupe)
• immortal-cravings: goblins and other naturally non-eating/non-drinking races will now also satisfy their needs for eating and drinking
• stonesense:
  • changed announcements to be right-aligned and limited to only show the most recent 10 announcements
  • init.txt config file is now read from dfhack-configs/stonesense/init.txt
  • creature names are now hidden by default (they can still be shown by pressing n (default keybinding) while stonesense window is active)
  • use smaller increments for zooming in and out
  • OSD is now hidden by default; hit F2 (default keybinding) to show it again
• strangemood: add ability to choose Stone Cutting and Stone Carving as the mood skill
• suspendmanager: add more specific messages for submerged job sites and those managed by buildingplan

Documentation

• Added example code for creating plugin RPC endpoints that can be used to extend the DFHack API

Removed

• dfhack.TranslateName has been renamed to dfhack.translation.translateName

API

• Persistence::getUnsavedSeconds: returns the number of seconds since last save or load
• Translation::generateName: generates in-game names, mirroring DF's internal logic
• Units::getVisibleName: when acting on a unit without an impersonated identity, returns the unit's name structure instead of the associated histfig's name structure
• Units::isUnitInBox, Units::getUnitsInBox: add versions accepting pos arguments

Internals

• Errors when unloading a plugin's DLL are now checked and reported
• Plugin command callbacks are now called with the core suspended by default so DF memory is always safe to access without extra steps

Lua

• dfhack.persistent.getUnsavedSeconds: Lua API for Persistence::getUnsavedSeconds
• dfhack.translation.generateName: Lua API for Translation::generateName
• dfhack.units.isUnitInBox, dfhack.units.getUnitsInBox: add versions accepting pos arguments
• widgets.FilteredList: search keys for list items can now be functions that return a string

Structures

• fixed incorrect vtable address for widget superclass on Linux