Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - Samyotix

Pages: [1]

DF General Discussion / Museums -- "saw this and thought of DF masterworks / artifacts"

« on: January 23, 2009, 11:30:21 am »

Vienna has many museums, among them the Art History museum. That one has the "Kunstkammer" storing some beautiful and unusual artifacts, some of which quite remind me of DF ... I've used tinyurl since the original urls were quite long. If you want to make sure I'm not sending you to hacker sites, you can verify the URL using http://preview.tinyurl.com/

Examples of DF-like artifacts below

(I've added rough shortened translations of the explanatory texts. I use x/y wherever I'm not sure which word/expresssion/term to use.)
EDIT: I'm an idiot, the museum does offer its pages in English. Replaced all links to link to English language page where possible. Shortened my translations.

"Hyazinth La Bella" - studded large (416 carat) gem
Early 15th Century; bought in 1687 by Emperor Leopold I. (1640-1705). Artists added golden twigs covered in white emaille, and added a double-headed eagle (symbol of the Austrian civilization) holding a sword with Hungarian insignia and a sceptre with the insignia of Bohemia.
http://tinyurl.com/al632e

"Emerald Mug"
Crafted by Dionysio Miseroni, 1641. A giant emerald from the Muzo mines in Columbia, discovered by the Spanish in 1558. The raw stone consisted of two fused crystals of different sizes and was bought by Emperor Rudolf II, it is mentioned in his will (1619). Emperor Ferdinand III then had D.Miseroni cut it into a mug, which led to large bits of the stone being lost despite the artisan trying to preserve the gem's huge size (therefore the irregular shape). It is decorated with leaves and an acanthus leaf. The golden ring was added to conceal the irregularity of the mug's upper rim. The artisan received 12.000 gulden for his work, and was able to sell fragments of asmethyst worth another 2.500. Muscovite visitors are said to have offered several chests of pearls in exchange for this item, and a Grand Duke of Florence is said to have offered three tons of gold for it.
http://tinyurl.com/cgdmg9

"Agate Bowl"
Fourth Century. This bowl, which including its handle was cut from a single piece of Agate, is the largest known surviving item of antique stone-cutting art. It was however not mainly known for its impressive size or the artisan's perfect work -- but for strange letters which sometimes seem to appear in the stone. These are really just a feature of the stone's grain/texture, which in certain light seems to show the letters XRISTO. This led to the assumption that this was the Holy Grail, the bowl used to capture Jesus' blood during the crucifixion, and that only select people could see the letters (just depends on light direction though). The bowl is some 1600 years old but in immaculate condition. It could have been created under Konstantin I (306-337) and probably reached the West when Constantinople was sacked in 1204, and is mentioned in Emperor Ferdinand I.''s will (1564).
http://tinyurl.com/dh5uf8

King's Coat
Made in 1830. "Trailing Coat" made from red-dyed velvet. Images made from gold thread cover it, showing two-headed eagles (civilization symbol) with the "Reich's Apple" (Globus Cruciger), sword and the Rudolph's Crown; on the front eagles with a shield in Austria's red-white-red colors. The coat has a bordure showing oak leaves, acorns and laurel. The fringe used to be white, decorated with nosegays of laurel and oak. Twisted gold rope/wire was used to fasten the coat. The ermine fur inner lining has been lost.
History: When Ferdinand I was to be crowned "younger king of Hungary" in 1830, the Emperor needed a fitting ornate. Sice the office of Austrian Emperor only existed since 1804 they had to look for a new ornate ... and asked the head of the Imperial Theater's Costume Department to design it!
http://tinyurl.com/d8zecn

"Bone Scepter encrusted with gold and studded with gems"
Andreas Osenbruck, dated 1615. The shaft was made from the "Ainkhürn", which was long thought to be a Unicorn Horn and one of the most precious items in Austria's imperial treasuries (though really it's just a whale tooth). According to legends, hunters could not harm the unicorn, but it laid its head on the lap of a virgin (later the virgin Mary), who then captured it [(never trust a virgin! hah)]. Since the unicorn is also a symbol for Christ, using this bone for the scepter showed the Emperor's ambition to rule the wordly and spiritual realms. The sceptre's thin shaft has been enforced with an iron rod from the inside to prevent the heavy "sceptre flower" on top from deforming the item. The top consists of bent barrettes/clasps/links whose enormous richness in shape at first seems impossible for the eye to decode. Gems were chosen to match the rudolphine crown; the main links being studded with diamonds (with six ornamental layers underneath the bezel setting). The ruby-studded links have a simpler design. Just like with the Crown and Globus Cruciger, it is topped with a large sapphire.
http://tinyurl.com/dz5ubb

Gold Mug made around 1160
http://tinyurl.com/c9tg8e

Large Bezoar
A Bezoar or gastrolith is a stone formed naturally in the intestinal tract of a cow. These were thought to be medicine against melancholy, epilepsy, and against all forms of poison.
So this is a stone that grew in a cow's gut ... and was then set in gold encrusted with emeralds. Now is that dwarfy or not?
http://tinyurl.com/bhfq3g

Seychelle Nut (Coco de mer) jug/mug
A weird nut was found on the beach on the Seychelles and thought to be a kind of ultra-valuable sea plant (though it is the fruit of a tree; these seeds can weigh up to 22 kilos or 40 pounds). Anton Schweinberger, goldsmith to the throne, was tasked with setting it with silver and gold. The result is considered one of the more important pieces of Prague goldsmith artisanry; the nut itself was etched by a famed woodwork specialist.
http://tinyurl.com/ba9nnc

Bone Coffer, 1542
http://tinyurl.com/c6mtf4

Unicorn Horn (Whale tooth) Mug, around 1605
http://tinyurl.com/aqqbwf

Bone Statue "Fury", around 1620 by "Furymaster"
(he's either making a plaintive gesture, or going into a martial trance, not sure.)
http://tinyurl.com/cx8eg6

Jasper Mug
Decorated with an image of a Nereid chaning a Dragon on top, images of greek gods around the bottom, and what I believe to be a Giant Cave Spider web on the side.
http://tinyurl.com/arh2am

Table Ornament (Mug?) cut from Quartz / Rock Crystal
http://tinyurl.com/adqbl7

Bronze, erm, aquamanile. mug? pitcher?)
http://tinyurl.com/d6w5s4

12th century toy: "Whistler"
Ignore the hole in the belly, this is "damage to the item". These little hollow figurines had small holes in their mouth and nose. People filled them with water and sat them in the glowing coals, which caused the whistler toy to spit steam from its mouth and nose. Similar toys were used in the Antique as well. Most of these toys had large visible genitals, which causes historians to speculate about this type of toy as a possible remainder of pre-historic fertility cults.
http://tinyurl.com/aehywe

Cabinet made for the King.
Ebony encrusted with silver, many hidden compartments
http://tinyurl.com/cckfp4

Amber and Gold Mug decorated with images of heroes and weapons
http://tinyurl.com/dhhg7z

LINKS

NOTE: The Vienna Kunstkammer will be closed until 2011.

List of European museums with artifact collections
http://www.kunstkammer.at/museen.htm
http://www.kunstkammer.at/museen1.htm

Artifact Chamber, Art History Museum Vienna:
http://www.khm.at/de/kunsthistorisches-museum/sammlungen/kunstkammer/

Site on minerals and artifacts created from "hand stones" (German) http://www.mineral.at/

DF Gameplay Questions / Wells above each other?

« on: March 03, 2008, 03:07:00 pm »

I've been trying to set up my dwarf housing with a central meeting room on each z-level of the housing area.

To prevent each level below the top living area having a channel in it, I tried using hatch covers (agh), bars and grates, but none of them seem to let buckets through.

So now with each z-1 I make one more channel in the room ... no one dropped in so far.

code:


#.....o.....#
#....._o....#
#.....__o...#
#.....___o..#
######____###
######____############
###~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X
#######################wall
. floor
o well
_ channel
~ water
X floodgate to brook

Erm, buckets can't pass through wells below them, can they? I was trying to get to this setup but I seem to keep failing.
Side view:

code:


#.....o.....#
#.....o.....#
#.....o.....#
######_######
###~~~~~~~###

Did I miss something totally obvious?

DF Gameplay Questions / (solved i guess) Mandate: Complete Miners Guild Jobs (10

« on: March 30, 2008, 05:58:00 am »

We have an administrative problem here in Kolluslem, "Wheelpuzzled" ...

We've been getting messages from the Miners Guild for a while. "Mayor has taken a request from the Miners Guild".

But we never found out what the Miners Guild actually wants us dwarves to do.

So now our Mayor mandates that we complete these mysterious "Miners Guild jobs". Erm.

How / where / with what keypress does one access the Miners Guild Jobs list? Any help would be much appreciated. We'd prefer a solution that keeps our major alive though

EDIT: Mandate seems to be completing itself (now 8/10). Probable reason: Mayor allowed to go mining again

[ March 30, 2008: Message edited by: Samyotix ]

DF Bug Reports / CS Spider web appearing in room below the surface

« on: March 06, 2008, 01:08:00 pm »

Not sure if this is a bug, or whether small cave spiders are allowed to spawn nets though the floor.

Situation:
Only fortress entrance near map center.
Chasm with lots of silk around it in NE corner.

Dug up 4 levels from my fortress to the (sand) level just below the floor which the CS webs appear on, dug out a ~ 6x6 room, then forgot about it.

A little time later there were CS spider webs in that room. (There is no access from that room to the surface).

I'm not sure if a CS managed to penetrate the floor and enter that room (at least all the traps I placed there have remained empty, and I found no such creature), or if a CS walked past above and its webs landed in that inaccessible room, 1 z-level below the creature.

DF Bug Reports / [solved] 'steel bars' in job -> manager -> add lists a

« on: April 18, 2008, 01:47:00 pm »

The problem was: I'd typed a Space before "steel".

I've updated the description, I guess you can delete the topic though.

[Unable to reproduce]

Tiny issue.

Description:
When adding jobs (j - m - q), searching for 'steel bars' gives a list of several alloys.

Expected:
When adding jobs (j - m - q), searching 'steel bars' gives only 'steel bars'.

Steps I did:
j (jobs list)
m (manager)
q (add jobs)
type 'magnetite' + Enter + 2 + Enter (make 2 iron)
type 'char' + Enter + 2 + Enter (make 2 charcoal)
type 'pig' + Enter + 2 + Enter (make 2 pig iron)
type ' steel bars'

Result: http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll147/samyotix/steelbars.png

(In the image I'd scrolled down.)

[ April 18, 2008: Message edited by: Samyotix ]

DF Bug Reports / DF or graphics driver? DF only on primary (left) monitor

« on: February 25, 2008, 01:25:00 pm »

My setup:

Athlon 2800 rating
Ati 9800 XT
primary monitor Acer AL1916w (right hand side)
2ndary monitor Sony E220 (left)
Ati driver 8.391.0.0 dated 26.06.2007

Note: Cannot use more recent driver. More recent Ati drivers do not recognize the card but throw a "3d failure" error. Thanks Ati)

a) Acer monitor running at 1440x900. Secondary monitor collecting dust.
Everything worked.

b) Plugged in the Sony E220 set at 1024x768 so I could play and read the Wiki at the same time.
Moved DF to the left monitor and hit F11. Crash.

c) When the 2ndary monitor is active, DF will only display anything on that monitor, and only display frozen graphics or black window contents on the primary monitor.
c1) Launch game: Black window on primary screen
c2) Move to left screen: Graphics visible
c3) move back to right screen: gfx freeze for 1-2 sec then black screen.

Erm ... it's the driver, right?

DF Suggestions / [already suggested] [too often]: Seven emigrants -> Pres

« on: April 05, 2008, 10:07:00 am »

[Edit: delete please]

Bloat idea:

Once your fortress exceeds a certain population, if you get several dwarves unhappy with their work (or lack of):

Seven semi-random fortress dwarves (below Master in all skills, preferably unhappy) decide to leave together.

Their leader will meet with the Mayor / Count.
(Possibly with a trading / embark interface, or a intermultiple-choice dialogue: "take what you need" vs.
"we will let you take only what you can carry" (one barrel, one weapon each) vs.
"the only way you leave here is dead" (cancel emigration + unhappy thought).

They then take stuff (food, seeds, barrels, animals, up to a points maximum) and leave for the map edge.

They are not gone forever -- when you next embark on a new fortress, just load these seven dwarves and their stuff.

[Probably more effort than it's worth though - and if they take the wrong stuff, emigration could cripple a fortress I suppose.]

[ April 05, 2008: Message edited by: Samyotix ]

DF Suggestions / unit list: sort by ...

« on: March 31, 2008, 02:49:00 pm »

I'd appreciate being able to sort dwarves according to various stats and/or an overview list of skills each dwarf has, and jobs enabled for each dwarf.

One way to add this could be with an additional hotkey in the (u) unit list to toggle:

Happiness
Civilian Skills / Professions, color-coded (level and "job active/inactive")
Military Skills list
# pets (?)
# wardogs (?)
wealth (?)

Reason: Once you go past 100 dwarves, it becomes a tad difficult to keep track of who's what...

DF Suggestions / (bloat) plant pot furniture

« on: February 28, 2008, 05:19:00 pm »

Suggestion: "indoor plants" as furniture

Required: Bucket (small plants) / Bin (dug out trees)
Use: Furniture. Deconstructing tree bin yields log.

Who?
Herbalist digs out the plant
or: Workshop (something like a "create flowerpot" task)

? "Give Water" task once per season (to keep first aid dwarves occupied *g*)
? Some biomes could have meat eating plants that eat flies/vermin and careless pets

DF Suggestions / Suggestion/Bloat: Goblin Blackmail [siege difficulty]

« on: March 23, 2008, 07:27:00 am »

Suggestion:
Goblins blackmail the Fortress instead of starting an outright siege.
The player's reaction should then influence the difficulty of the siege to some extent.

How it could work:
1) Goblin/Kobold Messenger shows up (not sure - another 'meeting'?).

2) Threat: "Hand over the following goods or we'll attack", followed by UI similar to trade window.
(Goblins should demand important items and expensive finished goods, maybe drink and foods - whatever the player doesn't have enough of.)

3) Player choices:
a) Accept blackmail,
b) Counteroffer
c) Refuse,
d) "come get some"

3a) Hand over the goods
Causes unhappy thoughts for haulers, nobles and military dwarves.
30% chance that Goblins attack anyway (at reduced strength) (who'd trust a goblin?).

3b) Select some goods to hand over.
Reduces siege difficulty somewhat. Unhappy thoughts for dwarves.
(You're paying Goblin thieves to steal equipment off the Goblin Invasion. Hand over stuff and you'll get annoyed dwarves, but Goblin invaders may show in reduced numbers, with some of them unarmed or without ammo. Note that Goblins are bastards who'll gladly steal from their comrades as long as they are getting paid _large_ amounts of bright shiny stuff to do so.)

3c) Refuse the blackmail.
Standard siege.

3d) Come Get Some - kill the messenger
(increases siege difficulty)

e3) ? "Come Get Some with extra hot sauce" [requires catapult]
Kill the messenger and fire his body into the Goblin camp (off the map) as a message.
Increases siege difficulty (adds extra goblins?).
Happy thoughts? Maybe for the dwarves, probably also for some of the more bloodthirsty fortress operators on the forum

DF Suggestions / (bloat suggestion) children -> (narrow) clothing

« on: February 24, 2008, 11:17:00 am »

Minor bloat idea:
Children could claim and equip narrow items, and drop them when they grow up.

(This could add to the atmosphere? Could also result in lots of hauling tasks whenever someone grows up, so on 2nd thoughts, probably it's not that great an idea overall?)

DF Suggestions / Suggestion/Question: trap option "friendly fire&quo

« on: February 21, 2008, 02:21:00 pm »

This is following the discussion on "Traps killing merchants".

Traps will again be safe for traders and diplomats.
(I like this. Some others apparently don't.)
Maybe a toggle switch would make both groups happy?

Suggestion: Trap option: Friendly Fire on/off

In the game, press q, find the trap, press [key] to toggle.
ON: Trap can be triggered by any creature that can trigger traps
OFF: Only non-allies who can trigger traps

weak naming ideas:
Friendly Fire on/off
Visible to Allies / Hidden Trap

DF General Discussion / nice seed (?)

« on: March 05, 2008, 03:18:00 pm »

Not sure if it's great enough to post here, really, but:

Starting here gives several potential fortress locations with chasm, lava, sand, hidden fun stuff, but unfortunately no flux.

Selecting "Start new game" lands you in a 2x3 mountain area with volcanoes. I found five or six 6x6 starting locations (all containing lava and stuff) in that little mountain area (cold/temperate, Wilderness/Untamed Wilds).

Several more such starting locations 11 squares south; and some more Lava (in Haunted Mountain + Wilderness Woodland; either sand or flux apparently) just to the south-west of that.

I've tried about two or three dozen other seeds but found no other with that many nice-seeming starting locations offered right at the start of a new fortress game.

(Don't know how to add images to a forum, sorry)

Created in DF v0.27.176.38b.

[WORLD_GEN]
   [TITLE:STANDARD]
   [SEED:89294283]
   [DIM:257:257]