v0.34:Announcement
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
An announcement is a message displayed at the bottom of the game screen used to indicate something important. Major announcements will pause gameplay and center the camera on the event in question, and game-changing ones will both do that and provide a framed message box presenting the event in question. The announcements list (a) lists all game announcements in dated order; some (but not all) can be zoomed to. Announcements are not to be confused with reports, which detail combat results.
Contents
Controlling which announcements pause and recenter[edit]
You can control which types of announcements do and don't pause and/or recenter the game by editing the announcements.txt file, found at Dwarf Fortress/data/init/announcements.txt. An announcement type containing P will pause when that announcement type is made, and one containing R will re-center when that announcement type is made. For example,
- [MIGRANT_ARRIVAL:A_D:D_D:P:R]
means that the game will pause and recenter upon the announcement of migrants arriving. You could change it to
- [MIGRANT_ARRIVAL:A_D:D_D:R]
to cause the game to recenter on the arriving migrants, but to not pause the game.
Minor announcements[edit]
These are the simplest and most common announcements, and will flicker through the announcements window very quickly:
- Job cancellation with a stated reason (building site submerged, item blocking site, dangerous terrain, needs rough picture jaspers, etc.), followed by a suspension notice if the job is furniture placement or building a construction. The standing orders menu (o) allows you to filter job cancellation spam, between none, some, most, and all (default is some).
- Normal changes in weather: "It has started raining," "The weather has cleared," or "A snow storm has arrived."
- Changes in season. In certain tropical biomes, a "wet/dry" message will be displayed in addition to a "spring/fall/etc." message.
- Freakish rain in evil biomes.
- Creatures and dwarves (and apparently ghosts as well) growing up and progressing from baby to child to adult. Animals jump straight from babies to adults.
- The creation of masterpieces. Can get quite annoying in mature fortresses, when the announcements will stack up the products of legendary dwarves.
- Striking new types of stones, gems, or ores when mining (you don't want to dig through a vein of gold and fail to notice, do you?)
- Changes in profession, for both civilian and military dwarves. The start of every month is usually marked by rotations within your militia and thus a bevy of messages of this type.
- When an animal is slaughtered or a tame animal or dwarf struck down within view of other dwarves.
- Animals giving birth.
- Dwarves getting spooked by hostile creatures and cancelling their jobs. Interruptions by crows are bothersome, interruptions by goblin crossbowmen extremely dangerous (and seldom survivable).
- The promotion of your humble abode to a barony/county/duchy.
- The raising of a ghost.
- Putting a dwarf (and an associated ghost) to rest with a memorial slab or a coffin.
- The announcement of the missing (after one week) or dead (after a dwarf sees their corpse) status of a dwarf or tame creature.
- Dwarves growing attached to their weapons or armor.
Major announcements[edit]
These announcements are more important than minor announcements, and in addition to playing their message will pause the screen and zoom to the place of the event.
- A tame creature going semi-wild (feral), the last stage before becoming wild again. Time to train your dragon again.
- The arrival of a caravan. Best to get ready for thieves and ambushes as well.
- The arrival of the outpost liaison, although this always happens at the same time as the arrival of the dwarven caravan.
- The arrival of migrants.
- Uncovering of a thief. Quick, kill it!
- Uncovering an ambush. Very nasty if the dwarf in question is just a poor old wood cutter out doing his job.
- Discovering a gremlin.
- A dwarf entering a strange mood, claiming a workshop, setting to work, and either completing a legendary artifact or going insane in the attempt. (Each step gets its own announcement.)
- The birth of a dwarven baby, closely followed by "Urist McMom cancels Everything: seeking Infant."
- The arrival of the king or queen.
- The arrival of a semi-megabeast.
- The appearance of a creeping cloud in evil biomes.
Game-changing announcements[edit]
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This article or section contains minor spoilers. You may want to avoid reading it. |
| An example of a game-changing announcement | |
|---|---|
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These announcements pause the game, zoom to the location, and present a message box detailing the occurrence, in addition to repeating the message contained therein in the main feed after you close the box, for good measure.
- The creation of an artifact, whether from a strange mood or from a soldier bestowing a name upon his/her equipment
- The arrival of a big bad: be it a megabeast, titan, forgotten beast, transformed werebeast, or the undead. The announcement will give their description.
- Discovering a cavern layer or the magma sea
- Discovering a deep pit, magma pool, or downward passage in a cavern.
- Discovering a pillar of adamantine - praise the miners!
- Discovering a curious underground structure
- Discovering HFS, and another message a frame later when its inhabitants come up to meet you. This is referred to as the "endgame" in the announcement file.
