Dwarf Fortress is a management game about running, well, an underground fortress full of dwarves. You might think that the best way to earn money in a game like this is by digging for gems and metal and forging high-quality weapons and jewelry, but no - the real money is in food production. The devs have just issued a nerf to meal value, and are already (quite jokingly) apologizing for wrecking everybody's food-based economy.
Version 51.06 went live this week, and among other things, it "decreased prepared food item value." In other words, the meals created by dwarven chefs no longer fetch quite as much money as they used to. "We also apologize for destroying your food-based economies in this update," publisher Kitfox Games, which helped bring the graphical version of Dwarf Fortress to Steam, says on Bluesky. "Didn't realize so many of you were living that way."
There are a few people disappointed with the newly cheapened food in the Steam comments on the patch notes, but broadly it seems the community thinks this is a good change. The value of a prepared meal is based on the value of the individual ingredients and the quality of its preparation, and these factors can compound into some genuinely ridiculous food prices. The Dwarf Fortress subreddit is filled with anecdotes about things like a pile of roasted vegetables accounting for 10% of an entire fortress's wealth, or a single crocodile egg roast worth a king's ransom.
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Some players have been calling for nerfs to meal prices for some time. Many hardcore Dwarf Fortress fans had sworn off selling meals altogether, considering a game-breaking exploit that ruins the challenge of earning money. The long-term ramifications of this nerf remain to be seen, but hopefully, it'll get entrepreneurial dwarves back where they belong: in the mines, not the kitchens.
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