I've been playing DF since about 2012, but off and on starting about 6 years ago. The reason: the developer, Neil Yates, only uses this game as a cash cow. He updates it only when enough complaints come in or he's not making enough money. If you notice, special events are a means for credits which cost real-world money. He comes out with new and pricey weapons, implants, etc all the time.
DF is claimed to be F2P which is to a certain extent. But to get ANYWHERE passed lvl 5 or 10, you gotta cough up cash. Some players have literally put thousands of dollars into this game and you cannot hold a candle to them. The marketplace is a disaster and the platform for playing is terrible here in 2020.
Yates is always trying another project like his failed Doom Warrior and DF2 because he knows DF is dead now. It's too bad he won't work to make DF better--perhaps he doesnt know how. He's incredibly talented but lazy and will not work with other developers on projects. He's a lone gun and it shows in a platform game that basically hasn't been updated in over a decade.