Dwarf Fortress 2 open beta coming soon (design notes - part six)

There are some other radical changes that you should be aware of before you download the beta client. One of the first suggestions Tarn came up with when I asked him what he wanted in Dwarf Fortress 2 was 'More dwarves', so you now start the game with 9 dwarves instead of seven. That's been the basis of the viral marketing ARG that we've been running, so if you see 7+2 =9 anywhere, you should strip search anyone nearby who is unusually short of stature or has a beard so you can find the next clue. My next few posts will also have sequences of letters randomly underlined, which should be used to send morse signals across an old Atlantic telephone cable we found to unlock a stenographic photograph of Scamps. And Microsoft have kindly reprogrammed Windows to randomly include a blue screen of death featuring an ASCII rendition of Gabe Newell which will haunt your dreams.