Bay 12 Games Forum

It used to be (way back, can't remember when) that your hunting dwarves could use any weapon for hunting. Can I set this up again, or do I absolutely have to make crossbows and bolts for my hunter dwarves?

I suppose I technically could "hunt" using my military dwarves, but I'd rather they kept to their schedule and the hunters were autonomous and didn't require me to micromanage their targets and retrieval of the bodies.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/t-shirt-body-armor-tank.html

T-shirts available at Wal-Mart could be converted into wearable armor, according to scientists from South Carolina, Switzerland and China.
By combining the carbon in the cotton with boron, the scientists have created a tough, lightweight fabric of boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks. The research could lead to more comfortable body armor for soldiers and police. It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel efficient cars and aircraft.
"The current boron carbide armor is strong, but its not flexible and its very heavy," said Xiaodong Li, a scientist at the University of South Carolina and co-author of a recent article in the journal Advanced Materials. "We tried to solve this problem but with a different approach. In our approach, we used cotton T-shirts."

Boron carbide is the third hardest material on Earth, after diamond and another boron-based material. In bulletproof vests and tanks, thick, heavy ceramic plates of dark gray boron carbide protect soldiers and police.

Cotton, however, couldn't be more different from boron carbide. Soft and breathable, cotton clothes are cheap and widely worn.
The trick for the scientists was combining dissolved boron with the carbon fibers inside the cotton fibers to form boron carbide.
The scientists started with a $5 package of plain, white T-shirts purchased at Wal-Mart, which they then cut into thin strips. They dipped those white cotton strips into a black solution of boron. After an hour, the strips were removed from the solution and baked in at oven at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) for an hour. The heat stripped away anything that wasn't carbon or boron, and combined these two elements into boron carbide.
The resulting fabric is very different than the original materials that at the start of the process. It's lighter, stronger, tougher and stiffer than the original cotton, but it can still be bent, unlike normal boron carbide armor plates. The physical properties of the new fabric are still being tested, said Li, but "from our preliminary results we can say the test have been very, very promising."
"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," said Li.
The former T-shirt can also block other hazards as well, such as cancer-causing ultraviolet light from the sun and even life-threatening neutrons emitted by decaying radioactive materials, said Li.
Body armor is just one potential application of the new research. Covering cars or aircraft with cotton-based boron carbide, instead of the metal used today, would make these vehicles significantly lighter and more fuel efficient.
The number of potential applications is enormous, said Nicholas Kotov, a scientist at the University of Michigan who also works on developing new materials for body armor. "In bulk the layers of this material are quite strong," said Kotov. "It's a great project and is very interesting and dynamic research direction."

I've often wanted to explore the cave river systems a little, or cross a lake, and I've had this little idea: boats!

The way I envision it would be like this:
1. You build a dock next to water (it must have 3 tiles over water, similar in nature to magma buildings) to hold your ships.
2. You build a boat workshop.
3. You make a task to build a boat.
4. Once the boat is made, the Dwarves haul it to the nearest dock.
5. You can give the dock tasks, like a workshop, but the tasks consist of this:

(e)mbark on an expedition.
(f)ish the surrounding rivers.
e(x)plore the surrounding area.
(a)ttempt a landing at another area of land.

The first option brings you to an embark screen, where you can choose which Dwarves will go (preferably those with high strength and swim skills) and what provisions to take - then, you can choose to set off upstream or downstream. The Dwarves will try to keep the boat in the middle of the river (based on their shipdwarfship skill, trained by using boats on still waters) and try to reach an edge tile. When they do, it will create a new fortress in the next tile along, and then you can save the current game and load that one, and you can start up another fortress next to the underground river.

The second option has the boat filled with fisherdwarves and they sort of move about a bit while fishing. It increases the rate of fishing if you have them make a *rope reed net* at the boat workshop.

The explore option just lets you pick patrol points for the boat (like a squad) and has it move around, so you can uncover new veins of gold or new places to explore.

The landing option allows you to choose a spot to land the boat and who goes on the boat - so you can set up ambushes for invading forces by coming out of the water behind them.

I imagine a boat as looking something like this:

<====>o

With the circle at one end being a figurehead (think statues, for their description). I imagine it as being a longboat, as that seems more dwarvenly than other kinds. They are based on Norse mythology after all.

Of course, the boat has its fair share of horrific deaths fun, as poor skill in a fast river could easily mean the boat smacking the rock and breaking, and dwarves plunged into the rushing current of carp. Talking of which, they'd be liable to be attacked by all manner of aquatic life. What fun!

Perhaps obsidian boats could be used to travel the magma rivers? Who knows?

Which combat skills affect:
1. Unarmed Attacks (punching, etc)
2. Hitting things with objects (socks, barrels and so on)
?

I've seen a lot of suggestions for more complex machines, more complex this, that and the other: but new players might be put off by the ever-steepening complexity curve.

So I thought: on starting a new fortress, allow the player to choose a complexity level (not difficulty level; dwarves will still be torn to bits quite easily by spiders), so that the player can play without worrying about the more fiddly bits of the game.

For example, you'd get these:

Simple - No moods, no economy, simple machines, generic material types (like  "rock, wood, plants, seeds, beer, gold, silver, iron ore, diamonds" instead of all the different types), no sieges, simple constructions, simple traps
Less Complicated - No economy, simple machines, no sieges, simple traps
More complicated - No economy, simple machines
Full - Name says it all

Of course, the examples given are very few and probably not the best choices for explaining the idea; but I'm sure you get my drift.

I for one would play on Full all the time, it's just that newer players might want to be introduced to a simpler version of the game before learning about all the really complex stuff.

 Quothest Oceandeaths, deity of fish, oceans, murder and death.

I'd say he's pretty much the God of carp.

I think this would add a lot to Adventure mode; here's my ideas on how it would work, basically.

You steal something or hurt someone, and a big person of authority comes up and challenges you to a duel. Being the one challenged, on the chat screen you are allowed to choose your weapon. Basic responses could be;

"Hah! You should know that I am the greatest swordsman who evel lived! Prepare to be smitten!"

"I see. A fine weapon, although, not of my choice."

"Oh. I am not skilled at that weapon."

(with this one, it can branch; if he's excitable and adventurous, he'll take you on anyway)

"Prepare to die, nonetheless!"

(or, if he's less tough+mean:)

"I am not fit to challenge you."


So in the chat screen, you have a new option;

"Duel"
And then a confirmation box;
"Do you really challenge [NAME] to a duel?"

If he's a tough big guy who's skilled and you are a big tough guy who is skilled, you'll get;
"I accept your offer. Therefore I choose the weapons." So it's wise to duel with somebody who uses the same weapon as your highest skill.

If he's tough and you aren't:
"Stop wasting my time, weakling!"

If you're tough and he isn't:
"I decline."

If you're both weak:
"Fine! I'll fight you!" (lack of weapon choosing; you both use whatever is in your hands, or just hand-to-hand combat)


Legends could then record injuries (foot smashed etc) in the same style as the duels of worldgen. =D