History VideoGame / DwarfFortress

* EatTheDog: Often considered to be the ideal solution to the "catsplosion" problem. Dogs and cats are also ''the'' most cost-efficient source of live meat at embark, costing nearly 3/4 less per unit of meat than cows.
** They also produce a steady supply of skulls for totems, which can be traded for goods, and bones, which can be used for a variety of things, but the most common and useful is making training ammo for your military.

** Dwarf Fortress has cats, which breed quickly: it's up to you whether you choose to see this as an annoyance or as a plentiful supply of [[EatTheDog meat]] and leather... (or trade goods if you don't feel like indulging in VideoGameCrueltyPotential.)

* SubsystemDamage: For practically every living creature, the game keeps track of the health of individual body parts, down to fingers, toes, internal organs, skin and tissue layers, teeth, and individual bones. It also monitors ''what kind'' of damage: bruise, cut, puncture, break, etc. Nausea, pain, exertion, and blood loss are also tracked. A framework for poisons, venoms, and diseases also got installed.

* GroinAttack: You can't quite ''aim'' for these without mods yet, but occasionally, in reports, strikes to the lower body will be helpfully announced as "a gelding blow!" The details will be left to your imagination. Since the 2014 release, the player can geld pets to prevent overbreeding.

* EndlessGame: There are no actual winning conditions as of yet. Earlier versions had the potential to end in a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''-esque "you DugTooDeep and [[spoiler:unleashed a horrible demon]]" ending, but this was removed in favour of letting you play with essentially no time limits. (Though it is still quite possible to dig too deep, you now have the chance to fight and ''win'' against [[spoiler:the forces of the Underworld]].)

* DropTheHammer: The appropriately-named Hammerer, who administers dwarven justice with a big hammer and a worse attitude. It's advised you build a jail as soon as possible, because if the Sheriff doesn't have one, a noble can have an important dwarf executed because they didn't get their diamond-encrusted, soap-carved spoon.

* ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving: A few skills have such limited use that any migrants that arrive with levels in them under their belts are highly likely to end up working as haulers or janitors, or having to learn a different trade skill from scratch via practice. Examples include Cheese maker, Fish dissector and Wax worker.

** There's also the [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.34:Danger_room Danger Room]] method of training dwarves in Fortress mode. A room filled with spikes moving in-and-out of walls at dangerous speeds, combined with a bunch of soldier dwarves with little to no armor and shields until they learn how to dodge or block dependably. The mortality rate is usually high, though less so if you use wooden spikes. In that case, the only thing to die are babies carried by mothers, which, sadly, many players consider to be a "feature" and not a design flaw.

* KickedUpstairs: Dwarves with little-used occupations, like cheesemaking, soapmaking, and fish dissecting, are better suited for promotion to management positions than hard-working miners, carpenters and masons, since noble dwarves cannot do real work apart from hauling goods to and from the trade depot.

* {{Pilgrimage}}: Pilgrims are roaming the roads to go to sites with temples dedicated to their god and then pray thre. Some of these pilgrims can become prophets.

* ObviousBeta: See [[GoodBadBugs/SimulationGame Good Bad Bugs]]. Still pretty damn good for a game that's technically still in ''alpha''.

On March 13th 2019, Tarn announced that ''Dwarf Fortress'' was coming to UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and itch.io with a new tileset and enhanced graphics support and audio. He said that he would continue updating the free ASCII version on the Bay 12 web page as ''Dwarf Fortress Classic''. The non-free version was released on December 6th, 2022, with the free version released a couple weeks later.

** When the rendering engine was rewritten, a UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}-only command line display was added. It's not used much, except for screencasting; using a terminal to watch someone play DF takes a lot less bandwidth than streaming video, and is easier to host.

** [[FunetikAksent On th' other other hand,]] [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame wha' sort o' pansy dwarf don't need lots 've rocks?]]
** The non-meat, non-metal portion of goblinite becomes this. Until industries pick up, a "Goblin Christmas" is a windfall, but after the inferior loot piles up, it becomes such a chore foisting it on the caravans that players come up with more selective disposal methods.
** And now that clothing deteriorates and dwarves get bad thoughts from wearing old clothes, after a couple of years, your fort will start getting littered with old clothing that dwarves trade in for newer stuff. Atom-smash it, toss it in magma, or sell it to caravans and tell them it's "vintage."
** Mugs eventually became useful for drinking in taverns (and [[ImprovisedWeapon armament]] for the occasional BarBrawl), children can play with toys, musical instruments can be used by performers, and dwarves can claim random wearable crafts to sate their needs to acquire something and/or be extravagant.
** Many plant and creature extracts do absolutely nothing, but the caravans like them a lot. Golden Salve has 100 value (and comes in lots of 5), but you can't do anything with it, not even show it off for dwarves to admire (which you can do with crafts). Gnomeblight has the same value, but since there's no mechanic for putting poison on things, you have to do some serious planning if you want to see it actually work.
** It bears mentioning that an excess of clutter, including large amounts of shop fodder and actual trash you have no use for, can affect the framerate and generally slow the game down, so disposal becomes a relevant topic if you plan to run a fort for more than a decade.