Ever since we first got a look at the upcoming version of Dwarf Fortress which, for the first time ever, will have pixel graphics rather than indecipherable ASCII, I've been hankering to see how they'll give a proper UI to characters. The new version coming to Steam has been powering along for a few years now and we've got a proper look at what makes a Dwarf a Dwarf.
The incredibly influential and detailed colony sim will now have proper interfaces for the characters, and developer Tarn Adams has given a breakdown of just what that's going to look like. Figuring out why Dwarfs do what they do is one of the delights of Dwarf Fortress, and the newly linked and collated Personality, Traits, Thoughts, and Memories tabs will finally give you a real look at what's going on in a centralized, accessible way. There's also a properly-done Relations tab that lets you jump to the other dwarfs and gives you a little sprite for those characters.
Meanwhile, other tabs like inventory, health, and history are much more usable. Wondering why the character has sutures on their wrist? You can look and see when that happened, how it was treated, and what combat event made it go down. You can even access a character's knowledge and drill down from there into their philosophical or musical education.
You can read the full developer log on Steam.
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