Fishing is normally a relatively tranquil pastime, but it hasn’t been lately for many dwarves. A Dwarf Fortress bug that appeared after the launch of the Steam edition this week caused local wildlife to fly into a murderous rage if your dwarves went fishing in a nearby stream in the management game.
Since Dwarf Fortress’ Steam launch, players have been sharing stories of over-aggressive wildlife. They’ve been attacked by bluejays, koalas, and (in this reporter’s case) a never-ending army of furious badgers. While many of these creatures aren’t threatening individually, fighting off wave after wave of them can eventually take a toll, and incidental injuries early on in the game can easily lead to the loss of a dwarf or two – and the collapse of a settlement.
For years, Dwarf Fortress has been the source of stories about tragic encounters with wildlife, and initially, publisher Kitfox Games reckoned this was more of that – players were encountering the often unforgiving nature of, well, nature as it’s modelled in Dwarf Fortress’ highly detailed simulation.
However, something was off. Kitfox Games’ Tanya Short said creator Tarn Adams took a look at the code and “noticed fishing was set to agitate local wildlife way too much,” which effectively led to the Battle of Endor going down outside many fortress gates.
Short says an update for this has already been deployed, so things should be somewhat calmer, at least on the wildlife front, from now on. So, happy angling.