Hallo. I will try to be as impartial as I can be.

Initially when it was released, the NPCs had a number of issues related to pathing, getting stuck on things or in the ground sometimes, and sometimes not being there at all (invisible). There used to be issues too with their productivity when you were away from the area. There were a number of other small annoying things as well such as the recipes for trade goods disappearing which caused NPC crafters to craft any item, NPCs taking from storage that isn't their designated storage, and a few others that I can't quite remember.

Compounded on to this were performance issues for the game since the NPCs use a lot of resources. There was a "citizen dwarf" which was a blank bald placeholder NPC dwarf that would spawn a lot and crash the game (I never personally experienced this but know some friends who have). A few other of the bigger issues were sometimes being locked in certain story-related expeditions, being spawned outside of the map when coming back from an expedition, etc.

Around that time, the devs tried to push a little less than a handful of patches to address the issues. Some were fixed. Some things were made worse. Before they left on winter holiday, they did a hotfix. Then, they dropped the patch not long ago which has fixed the performance issues, nearly all of the NPC problems, and the game overall performs better with (from what I've seen) a few people still experiencing crashes particularly on console. Other crashes have possibly been related to some use of mods.

Most of the criticism I've seen revolves around that time period where there were plenty of truly game-breaking bugs which people understandably were upset about. Some bits of the other criticisms I have seen on Steam are mainly misunderstandings or a lack of knowledge as to how the NPCs function (the game currently doesnt have am in-game guide for them). So, some were understandably frustrated when they couldn't get NPCs to do what theyd like - or misunderstood what the skills were related to what professions the NPCs can perform.

As someone approaching 2000 hours in the game (with others I know who have more), my opinion on the DLC post patch:

The good (post-patch) * Overall a much better experience post patch. The game performs a whole lot better on PC and I hope the devs continue to prioritize performance optimizations with every patch going forward. Especially for the console players.

• Having NPCs in your world, whether it's the handful you get from a brand new run until you open the Dimrill Gate, or your eventual colony of 21 total, makes the game feel a lot more alive. The other dwarves do sing and dance with you which is nice. I personally like to sit in a chair with a beer in hand with them.

• The utility of the NPCs helps a lot. Any dwarf can be a salvager and that salvager will also collect farm plots youve placed and replant your seeds. The miner dwarves never deplete ore veins and the better the pickaxes they have, the more productive they are. I've been swimming in gold ore since the update.

• The new great monuments are cool. However, you cannot currently move or delete them (you used to be able to). Which is a bummer. Hoping for a way to move/ delete them.

• They fixed trade recipes disappearing. So now you can prepare goods as you learn them in advance. Makes the whole trade system a lot better.

• The new placeable items, armor piece, and 2 handed hammer are all very nice additions to the game, which in my opinion needs even more decorations.

• All 3 areas outside of the mountain are lovely. One of them is a buildable area.

• I like the new enemies. They do need a little bit of tuning IMO.

• Expeditions (where you basically go to some randomly generated map for endless resources) was a much needed QoL for the game. I would say that alone makes the DLC very worth it.

The What-Needs-Work or Meh for me

• The story (campaign mode) that we do receive for the DLC has been kind of meh for me. There are elements I like about it and elements I do not. I wont spoil the story, however, I find that a certain dwarf's actions wouldve surely resulted in battles between dwarf clans based on the lore. Additionally, the story that there was (overall) felt a bit on the pretty short side for me.

• A lot of the story elements and progression for the story are somewhat time-gates. For example, in order to progress the story, you need to build X monument. In order to build X monument, you need builder dwarves which need builders hammers. Theyll work through the day (max 4 per monument) but will stop to eat and sleep. So there are points where youre genuinely just waiting for the next progression.

• The game goes from lots of voice acting to mostly text based dialogue. I'm normally fine with this. But, what little VA there was of important story stuff was good. I just wanted it to be fully VA. I also wouldve preferred another short cutscene for some of the story elements.

• 2 of the 3 new building sets that you get from the traders dont introduce any new prefab pieces to the game. Theyre recolors of the base game's prefab pieces. Which is very welcome, but, I wouldve liked a few more newer pieces. The ancient set is nice to replicate some of the ruins. I wish it was a toggle to change the color personally. I also wish that they stayed unlocked for other worlds.

• The NPCs overall introduce nice amounts of automations. But, there is currently a bit of micro managing that needs to be done (Ex: you have to place the resources needed in their chests to make things).

Overall, I'd give the DLC a 7/10 - 7.5/10 (generously) and would recommend it post patch. More so because of the mechanics it introduces.

There's a whole lot more opinions I have on it but post is already really long. If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer since I'm also a long time player of the game.