Dwarf Fortress’ titular dwarves have learned how to lie. In the game’s first major update since the middle of last year, your favourite bearded boys will be able to tell fibs to get themselves out of tricky situations.
Dwarf Fortress’ is so culturally significant that its source code is destined for the MoMA.
Update 0.44.01 of the enormously ambitious colony management sim was released in late November, and focuses on the introduction of a world map. That gives you the option to send your dwarves out into the world on quests to retrieve special artifacts. That’s an option available not only in Fortress mode, but also in the game’s RPG system, Adventure mode.
In the patch notes, the game’s creator Tarn Adams says you can take on a “cover identity.” If that identity is linked to a particular civilisation, certain other civilisations (particularly goblins, apparently), might take that into account, so you can pick and choose your cover identities to suit the moment. Happily, however that means that goblin site denizens will demand an identity first, rather than attacking you on site.
Elsewhere in the update, players can view the new world map, send out squads to raid sites, gather and display their rare artifacts in cases and on pedestals. Over the next few days there might be a few more bug fixes, but after that prepare for another long wait, as it’s likely there won’t be another update until well into 2018 at the very earliest.