Bay 12 and Kitfox have released a new preview for Dwarf Fortress' next revamped adventure mode, the classic RPG side descended from the colony builder's famous slash fantasy world simulator. The preview itself focuses on menus and combat actions, with Dwarf Fortress creator Tarn Adams walking the viewer through the basics of the UI and how it works.
The preview shows a group of three adventurers – Dwarf, Human and Wombat-Man – setting out to fight a camp of goblin bandits harassing local commerce.
The combat menu, which appears after about six minutes, is particularly interesting for those interested in the level of detail in Dwarf Fortress. It presents a pretty exhaustive list of things to pick up on the bad guys. Normal things like their hand, weapon, etc. of course, but also very, very specific things. Things like individual fingers, for example, or maybe specific teeth. There's nothing like pulling a goblin's molars to start your day.
More seriously, the preview also shows how you control your team in tactical mode, where you can issue orders to each member of an adventuring party and have them play at the same time. It seems pretty neat to let you go back and forth between your little heroes when they need information, such as choosing how you want to block an attack.
The video features some of Adventure Mode's most dynamic and ambient sound effects, but Kitfox notes that it's still a work in progress.
The release of Adventure Mode for the Steam graphical version of Dwarf Fortress will occur later this year. You can follow its progress on the Dwarf Fortress Steam page.
