Bay 12 Games Forum

I don't know if I need the "further" part as I doubt anyone remembers the first questions. (they were resolved)
I realize that there are other places I can ask about this, but Bay12 is one of the more trusted forums I occasionally frequent.
The setup:
There's a world I'm designing for a game I'm slowly but surely programming. It is a big ol' cylinder. This is so that I can create an entire world, not just a continent and not have to calculate curvature of the planet and other nonsense. It was a means to an end I liked a lot. Also on this planet is an element that explodes when put into contact with open fire among other magical things. There's more to this place to make it interesting but I'm trying to keep this background info brief.

The Questions:
1. How does this place get seasons? The Earth gets seasons because of axial tilt which creates differences in hours of daylight at different times of the year plus some other variables such as intensity of sunlight at different points on the surface of the earth etc. But if a tube tilts then all parts are still exposed to the same amount of light and have the same amount of daylight. The best thing I have at this point is that the sun revolves around the cylinder and throughout the "year" the sun drifts from near the northern edge of the cylinder (actually a tube, but that's another issue) to the southern, thus giving different intensities of light if not different day lengths. As to why this sun can give enough heat while having a small enough mass to rotate around the cylinder, I have an explanation that boils down to a divine black box.
Does this explanation work? Is it ridiculous? Do you have something better, or at least more sensible?

2. How do you have an explosive material and give an explanation for why there are no guns or why they can't make a rudimentary firearm? I don't want to have any point at which I have to tell the player "That's just the way it is" at least unless they come to the point of where the creators of the planet come from. I'm not averse to small explosives like small hand grenades, and I can forbid large explosives with the unstable in large quantities excuse, but guns don't require large amounts of gunpowder for instance. Do I have to scrap the whole thing? Can you come up with something, 'cause this one has me at a loss.

Thanks.

Disclaimer: There is not a definite opinion but rather two points of view presented in this post on  poverty issues.

First, here's the article/blog post that got me started thinking about this. It's a short article that doesn't really give anything in the way of statistics.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/04/18/if_you_pay_people_to_be_poor_youll_never_run_out_of_poor_people

If you don't want to read the whole thing here are the main points:

--If you pay people to be poor, you'll never run out of poor people.
--Poverty is not simply an absence of money. Rather, it is bound up with a whole set of other circumstances: lack of qualifications, demoralisation, family break-up, substance abuse, fatherlessness. It follows that you do not end poverty by giving money to the poor: a theory that British welfarism has amply demonstrated over 60 years. Only when you tackle poverty holistically will you facilitate meaningful improvement.

Firstly, I don't know that I believe the implied premise that anyone can lift themselves out of poverty. There are some people that, whether due to bad luck or personal faults, biologically or environmentally, will never raise and sustain their standard of living. A depressing thought, but one that I find to be true. Also, though capitalism does allow for just about anyone to bring themselves up to a high standard of living it does seem to require a certain percentage be of lower class. The ideal would be to create a situation where even lower class is comfortable, but I digress.

As someone who hopes to enter the field of economics, the idea that there is an incentive to remain poor interests me. Incentives are, I think, the entire basis of economic theories. That and math. So the first question is, which incentive is more powerful on those of lower economic standing do you think?
A: The incentive to provide some good or service in such a way that your standard of living may increase with the disincentive of having to put forth effort and possible failure.
B: The incentive that effort need not be put forth and your basic needs will be sustained by some charitable organization at the expense of the opportunity to raise one's standard of living. (Note: Some basic needs may not be covered by certain countries.)

The second question, and the one that I have no jumping off point for is What's the right start towards alleviating poverty, preferably globally, but if you'd like to just target a more localized region I understand. Also, since this is a very broad question, I understand not wanting to even bother answering it.

I fully expect there to be a few Dwarf-related responses regarding minting of currency, availability of employment, and prohibitive pricing of shelter.

Weird title I think for a forum topic. It does not come tripping off the tongue.

Anyway, I'm contemplating periodicals for my "real" college career. (vs. the janky community version I have been engaging in as of late) I'm majoring in economics with a minor in Mandarin Chinese. So I've got my int'l magazines pegged at the Economist and Foreign Affairs, now I'm just wondering what I should use for good domestic (I'm American) news. I'd prefer something that is without strong bias, like that of the Nation or the Weekly Standard. A balance of left, right, and moderate commentators and articles would be ideal. Any ideas?

First one to say Newsweek or Time gets the Cap'n Obvious hat. The people that run those are smart, but the issues themselves seem to be lacking a critical eye with the exception of some of their columnists.

Background:
My computer was recently put through the wringer with a virus of most annoying proportions. It's now functional but is severely slowed. It's also three years old. I'm planning on buying a new one.

Issue:
As it pertains to DF, which would be recommended, a Single, Dual or (I doubt it) Quad core processor?

Any personal experience would be helpful. Also I think I remember some people saying that a Pentium 4 does not work as well as other processors.

Thanks in advance.

Firstly I've been away for about two months, (Asia is awesome) and I was quite happy to see that there was a new LCS. Woo-hoo! After downloading and setting up a founder, I do what I traditionally do and raid some apartments. Untraditionally my founder gets shot. Fatally. This has happened three times now. I remember the good old days when a man could go into an apartment complex, take a few things and leave before anyone said, "Whuzzat?" Now that man gets killed.

I'm not upset, some new challenge is always welcome. I'm just wondering if there is any disguise that'll work in an apartment or have the apartments become more dangerous than the cop station?
Thank you much.

So this is kind of a polling post. Yeah, I know how much you love them. My question is with all the smelting recipes and production flowcharts and whatnot do you play DF with the wiki open or do you just go from memory? And if the latter how long have you been playing? Are you a crazy person?

Basically this is just me marveling at the depth of this game.

So I just got migrants at the beginning of the midsummer month in the first year. That's definitely the earliest I've ever gotten them. I was wondering if anyone has gotten it earlier and why I may have gotten them so early. There were five or so by the way.
I know it couldn't have been the caravan reporting back because, well, the caravan hasn't arrived yet. I haven't even created anything very awesome. Just some fish bone crafts.

So I forgot to look around at my surroundings didn't notice where the other civilizations were so how does one go about discovering where the traders will come from? Just wait for the dwarven caravan?
However I do think it would be funny if a bunch of dwarves left to start a fortress and two days into it forgot which direction they came from. Kinda makes you realize why they were told to leave.