The best Dwarf Fortress mod is nearly ready for the Steam version

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A test version for Dwarf Therapist is here.

A screenshot from mod Dwarf Therapist.
(Image credit: Resident Mario)

Praise Armok, a beloved mod for Dwarf Fortress is advancing to the Steam release as Dwarf Therapist has released a pre-release version that works with Dwarf Fortress' biggest update ever. Dwarf Therapist is well known among the community as one of the cornerstone mods for surfacing information from within the game's formerly labyrinthine, now simply mazelike, user interface.

The basic use of Dwarf Therapist is that it's a dedicated second window to help you find, sort, and manage huge piles of information from inside Dwarf Fortress. Its old primary purpose, to help you assign labors, isn't quite working yet, but it'll still do a big thing: Let you sort through, understand, and manage your dwarves' status far faster than in the core game. Its sortable views include stuff like attributes, personalities, happiness, how long the dwarves have lived in the fort, and more.

While some of the things Dwarf Therapist did in the past aren't needed anymore due to updates that came with the expansive Steam version's new user interface, the UI still can't quite filter, sort, and seamlessly gather all the information you might possibly want in a straightforward way. 

Again, this is a test, and it's going to need more tweaking before it's up and running, but the go-to mod for all hardcore Dwarf Fortress players for over a decade now is still in the game. Most notably, the automatic labor assignation system isn't working. For some, that's fine, because the new labor system does its job, but if you're jonesing for that spreadsheet-box-ticking classic Dwarf Fortress labor experience then Dwarf Therapist is what you're waiting for.

If you want to help test it, you can find Dwarf Therapist 0.50 Test1 on Github. If you don't even vaguely know what a Github is, probably just... stand back and wait excitedly, for now.

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Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.