Bay 12 Games Forum
Dwarf Fortress => DF General Discussion => Topic started by: cyrohound on April 20, 2017, 02:35:21 pm
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This thread is for dumb questions, observations, and thoughts that have no effect on gameplay, but you wonder about them anyway. The paradoxes of the Dwarf Fortress universe, if you will. I'll start.
- If lakes, Oceans, and rivers freeze in winter, and anything in them becomes encased in ice and dies, why aren't fish endangered?
- When a dwarf in a mood makes a jade bed, does he magically grow the gem and then cut it into a full bed, or is the bed really tiny and the dwarf that sleeps in it just pretends it's full size?
- Vampires can't drink alcohol, yet they still get alcohol withdrawal.
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2. When a dwarf in a mood makes a jade bed, does he magically grow the gem and then cut it into a full bed, or is the bed really tiny and the dwarf that sleeps in it just pretends it's full size?
I would assume that seeing as the bed is magical (made in a mood), it just shrinks the user as needed, then enlarges them again afterwards.
...That, and perhaps the gems are just really big. I mean, it doesn't take many of them to make a window.
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3. Vampires can't drink alcohol, yet they still get alcohol withdrawal.
Well, It wouldn't be much of a curse otherwise, now would it? ;D
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2. When a dwarf in a mood makes a jade bed, does he magically grow the gem and then cut it into a full bed, or is the bed really tiny and the dwarf that sleeps in it just pretends it's full size?
I would assume that seeing as the bed is magical (made in a mood), it just shrinks the user as needed, then enlarges them again afterwards.
...That, and perhaps the gems are just really big. I mean, it doesn't take many of them to make a window.
What if the bed is made of super thin gem chips glued into the shape of the bed?
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2. When a dwarf in a mood makes a jade bed, does he magically grow the gem and then cut it into a full bed, or is the bed really tiny and the dwarf that sleeps in it just pretends it's full size?
I would assume that seeing as the bed is magical (made in a mood), it just shrinks the user as needed, then enlarges them again afterwards.
...That, and perhaps the gems are just really big. I mean, it doesn't take many of them to make a window.
What if the bed is made of super thin gem chips glued into the shape of the bed?
Ah yes, a gemstone veneer. The moody dwarf just cut the gems very very thin indeed. I like that.
As when we call a cup of tea "tea" despite the fact that it's mostly water, with plenty of sugar, and milk, with just a little tea in it. Yet it's still tea.
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Here is a question: Is there a thread in this forum that Thisfox has not posted in?
...sry for the sidetrack, but seriously man, you gotta be some DF expert by now...
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....Um. huh. I often don't post for weeks at a time, honestly. Hmm. I read and post at a different time to you, because Australian. So it's possible my posts are more visible than someone who posts on an American or European timethread, I guess? They do say girls are more chatty than boys. Perhaps that's my problem.
Gosh. I really should do more lurking and less talking. [facedesk] Sorry mate.
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Haha, not a problem, at least you always seem to contribute with something usefull :P
edit: The tavern thread proves my point though, you were, once more, the first person to reply to my comment :)
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Here is a question: Is there a thread in this forum that Thisfox has not posted in?
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inb4 Thisfox is secretly a clone of me.
*cough not anything on the lower boards though, 'cause I'd've seen them do it cough*
I mean the PTW is a thing.
Which I may as well do.
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Haha, not a problem, at least you always seem to contribute with something usefull :P
I do my best to stay constructive. :)
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Random thoughts/questions
Why have dwarves not developed thier own versions of great weapons that humans use?
How come everyone and their brother knows how to cavalry, but not your own people that you control? Are your people the ones too scared to ride anything into battle? (I noticed this phenomenon in Masterwork - Dwarves will ride cavern animals into battle - if you play as a non-dwarf race and agitate them in some manner, and likewise any race you play as will refuse to cavalry as normal.)
Why can we not truly domesticate things, even if we have literally domesticated entire generations of things like dralthas and cave dragons?
How come vampires are too stupid to just drink some booze when they feel the withdrawal headaches set in? I mean shit man, I'll take a placebo even once the caffeine withdrawal headaches start.
Why can't I tell my militia to use mugs and chairs to beat intruders to death? Or a bag of full of freshly minted money? I WANT A MILITIA MADE UP OF LITERAL MURDER-MERCHANTS DAMN IT.
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Here is a question: Is there a thread in this forum that Thisfox has not posted in?
...sry for the sidetrack, but seriously man, you gotta be some DF expert by now...
Since she absolutely detests Facebook, I'd imagine the void must be filled with SOMETHING besides gin and tonics.
"Like many others of her kind, she enjoys posting in the Bay12 Forums."
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Here is a question: Is there a thread in this forum that Thisfox has not posted in?
...sry for the sidetrack, but seriously man, you gotta be some DF expert by now...
Since she absolutely detests Facebook, I'd imagine the void must be filled with SOMETHING besides gin and tonics.
"Like many others of her kind, she enjoys posting in the Bay12 Forums."
"...She has felt entertained after seeing a great post on Bay12 Forums. She has felt inebriated after playing Drunk Fortress. She has felt euphoric after successfully cracking an aquifer. She has felt startled after reading about herself on Bay12 Forums. She has felt satisfied after interacting with her friends online...."
Heh. There are other things in my life, I promise, and even other forums, but it is nice to sit down of a warm Aussie evening, run a Fort in the background, and read the Bay12 forum posts, and make my own posts, and so on. I think part of me being so noticeable is that I'm posting when other people are asleep, a lot of the time. But I do post a lot. I'll look into that. :)
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She has felt startled after reading about herself on Bay12 Forums.
This part made me laugh.
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Anyone else jealous of the huge variety of food and booze available to dwarves?
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Anyone else jealous of the huge variety of food and booze available to dwarves?
A little bit cause on the one hand, if you aren't like some who rely on just purple shroom wine and the shrooms to survive, they have access to an astonishing variety of meats and fruits and such.
On the other, they also eat things like giant toxin-belching mantis brains and meat from a desiccated shrew that had stretched out leathery wings, as well as things like knuckle worms and with one line change, other dwarves potentially.
Kind of a... Mixed bag, I guess.
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Yeah, all the random animal organs and tallow would be a little off-putting. "Minced cat tallow with finely-minced kea brains." Mmmm...
However, i've always been curious about what the less realistic foods and drinks are like, especially Sun berries and Sunshine.
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Yeah, all the random animal organs and tallow would be a little off-putting. "Minced cat tallow with finely-minced kea brains." Mmmm...
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Isn't that literally just a sausage without the casing? Couldn't be too bad, maybe a bit artery-clogging but there's certainly worse ways to die in this game.
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Yeah, all the random animal organs and tallow would be a little off-putting. "Minced cat tallow with finely-minced kea brains." Mmmm...
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Isn't that literally just a sausage without the casing? Couldn't be too bad, maybe a bit artery-clogging but there's certainly worse ways to die in this game.
At least sausage has the decency to have its contents ground into a more appetizing mulch first.
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Yeah, all the random animal organs and tallow would be a little off-putting. "Minced cat tallow with finely-minced kea brains." Mmmm...
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Isn't that literally just a sausage without the casing? Couldn't be too bad, maybe a bit artery-clogging but there's certainly worse ways to die in this game.
At least sausage has the decency to have its contents ground into a more appetizing mulch first.
That's what "minced" means in Australian, does mince not mean coarsely ground in other places? And I'd call roast minced tallow and assorted meats a "rissolle", and I think Americans call it a "hamburger pattie".
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Meatloaf, actually. (Not the singer.)
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That's what "minced" means in Australian, does mince not mean coarsely ground in other places? And I'd call roast minced tallow and assorted meats a "rissolle", and I think Americans call it a "hamburger pattie".
Mince in all the few times I've heard it was usually a synonym for sliced or otherwise chopped up stuff that was still in large chunks, while something that was ground was... well, ground up.
Meatloaf, actually. (Not the singer.)
Quite right. Although I don't imagine the stuff we get out of the dwarves is quite a meatloaf, but possibly a slurry of meat and produce suspended in tallow that was allowed to harden... Less appetizing in my head honestly, what with all the solid chunks and the mound of fat its all hanging in.
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That's what "minced" means in Australian, does mince not mean coarsely ground in other places? And I'd call roast minced tallow and assorted meats a "rissolle", and I think Americans call it a "hamburger pattie".
Very roughly, in American English (mid-Atlantic), you have "chopped", "diced", and "minced" as decreasing sizes of something chopped with a knife; and "ground" or rarely "force(d)" for something that has been through a grinder. We commonly refer to "ground beef" (what you make the majority of a hamburger patty out of, possibly with additives depending); starting with a better or at least more specific grade of meat might get a more specific name like "ground chuck" or "ground round".
Once you get into industrial cooking, you may also have "chopped and formed" or "slurry" which tends to be the bits of an animal you wouldn't choose by choice but that are still technically meat, rendered fine enough you can't tell what they used to be. (The classic sarcastic description of it as "lips and assholes" has a considerable degree of truth to it even to this day.)
There is also "pulled", most commonly applied to slow-cooked pork but sometimes other meats, which has the meat fibers separated *after* cooking by a sort of pseudo-carding process, traditionally by a couple of forks pulled apart repeatedly. This has most of the increased surface area / easily mixed advantage of something that is diced, minced, or even ground... but retains more fibrous structure and has far less of an implication that it's been mixed in with inferior cuts and all smushed together.
British English (and possibly others, apparently Australian) usage of just "mince" as a noun is rare to unheard of by itself, and increasingly uncommon even in such archaic constructs as "mincemeat", which when found at all these days exclusively describes a sweet pie filling. (Which, traditionally, did have meat in it in addition to the fruit, but these days may not.)
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Some additional notes: Modern Americans typically don't eat a lot of offal / organ meats whole or "by name", and in many cases may be vaguely disgusted by them. Savory jellies and things like scrapple are historical and/or regional remnants. Probably the most common is bird giblets, which are primarily used to add flavor to gravies and the like, but in the South you can still find folks who serve and/or enjoy fried chicken hearts, for instance. Calf liver is one of the few mammalian "variety meats" that you would expect to find on a menu; but even that is considered to have low-class origins.
Note that it's not that we don't eat all the other bits, we just grind it up fine and make various sorts of burgers, sausages, and related filings out of it; and importantly it's someone else who does that out of sight, and possibly several steps removed. Most people *genuinely do not want to know* that their McWhatever's "100% beef" burger is made up of the bits of a cow they would shy away from if cooked and presented to them directly. And, frankly, even many people who do know try not to think about it too much. Various versions of "Not wanting to know how the sausage is made" are common sayings about how knowing the behind the scene details of something makes it less appealing.
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I pity the Dwarves because, while they have honey and mead, they can't produce sugar so no real sweets. Sugar AKA sweet salts, was used as a medicine in the early years anyway. We're talking 18th Century before we see it being produced in amounts to make it cheap and see it used in cooking. Now that I think about it can they even make a sweet roll? They have milk and eggs and stuff but without sugar..yuck... :'(
I want my boats and my magic and my sweets. How can I make a DF version of Hogwarts? I mean true, boats and magical wands are just another reasons to cut down the trees. But it is still reasons to piss off the Elves. Then burn them with fire spells. :P
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What? ???
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I pity the Dwarves because, while they have honey and mead, they can't produce sugar so no real sweets. Sugar AKA sweet salts, was used as a medicine in the early years anyway. We're talking 18th Century before we see it being produced in amounts to make it cheap and see it used in cooking. Now that I think about it can they even make a sweet roll? They have milk and eggs and stuff but without sugar..yuck... :'(
I want my boats and my magic and my sweets. How can I make a DF version of Hogwarts? I mean true, boats and magical wands are just another reasons to cut down the trees. But it is still reasons to piss off the Elves. Then burn them with fire spells. :P
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What? ???
Dwarven sugar (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Dwarven_sugar) and Dwarven syrup (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Dwarven_syrup) are things that exist, you know. It doesn't all have to be Plump Helmets.
I, personally, am rather curious about such things as carrot wine, tomato wine, and turnip wine. The first two sound interesting, while the last is more of a 'horrified fascination' situation.
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Carrot wine isn't bad, but I recommend using medieval carrots (either red, or white) and not modern carrots (orange) due to flavour issues. It's not unlike radish wine, actually. Turnip wine is strongish, but I've only had it with heavy amounts of spice. So I'm not sure what it's like without lots of spices getting in the way. Probably like carrot wine and radish wine, to be fair. They have a clean rooty flavour, quite enjoyable.
Tomato wine was a disaster. Something to do with the amount of pectin we had in the brew. I recommend using really, really ripe tomatoes for the juice, and straining it well. We did neither of these things, and probably that's why it was so bad. I still like bloody marys, though, which are tomato juice and alcohol, basically.Be careful not to use beer yeast for wines. At least we didn't make that mistake.
And if you really want to try something awful, go look up coq au vin. Putting a chicken in your beer just seems so damn dorfy.... a pity it's not in the game.
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I, personally, am rather curious about such things as carrot wine, tomato wine, and turnip wine. The first two sound interesting, while the last is more of a 'horrified fascination' situation.
I feel like making vodka from turnips would be the better option, and more dorftastic.
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Huh. Dwarves are the only ones capable of mass production of cheap amounts of sugar... I wonder why sugarcane wasn't added with all the nine hundred varieties of wheat?
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DF has beets, afaik. Those are used for sugar traditionally before sugarcane was widely cultivated.
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DF has beets, afaik. Those are used for sugar traditionally before sugarcane was widely cultivated.
And still are. Sugar beets are still a huge primary source.