Bay 12 Games Forum

The petitions notification is a giant flashing marquee that's basically nonstop in any decent sized fortress.  Please move it to the left, grouped with Reports as a bright green P that doesn't flash.

I've set up some minecart routes which worked at first, but eventually the dwarves started ignoring them.  Minecarts empty, feeding stockpiles full, and 30 idlers.  The "store item in vehicle" job doesn't even appear in Jobs.  I managed to kick one of them into being loaded again by adding a 'move every 7 days no matter what' operation, but now its stalled again, for another 7 days.  What gives?

A method for bridging mechanisms to workshops and stockpiles.  An empty stockpile would send a 'connected' message, a full stockpile would send a 'disconnected' one, etc.

A rail switch would also be interesting, something to install at a T intersection to make a cart go left or straight depending on a signal.

In green, the route I expected.  In red, the route I got -- straight up to the route end and straight down, bypassing the stop both times.  what gives?

Even unpowered, they have really revolutionized my forts, making it possible to haul across distances that were just impractical.  Dumping especially has made it easy to centralize my workshops.

Yes, I know -- some consider quantum stockpiling an exploit.  I consider it necessary once a fort has more than two rooms in it.  Urist McHauler will happily cross dozens of rocks to grab one you dug more recently.

My design thus far is long, 3-wide ramps which intersects a series of X stairways beside.  When I find ore, I carve a track to the stairways and dump straight to the magma shops down them.  I used to have a channel to dump blocks and furniture, a channel for ore, etc, but now I just dump all rocks to sort later, and manufacture in the core.

My thoughts on this:

1) A 3-wide ramp isn't enough.  I should have left room for 5, or 8.
2) A straight up-ramp for 99 z-layers makes it awkward to cross tracks.  Occasional flat spots would have been nice.
4) This arrangement worked well for mining up into a mountain.  Mining down would mean a lot more pushing.
3) A track loop with multiple stops could be interesting.  It'd spend less time stuck at one stop, since the stockpiles at each stop would fill up.

Another thing I haven't got yet is any method to remove goods from the core.  This causes lemming rushes for construction of things.

A track to the caverns would be really nice.  I don't know any method I can do that and still close it off at need, except a depot where stockpiles cross and dwarves reload.

Any thoughts?  Tell me about your efficient minecart arrangements

How about naming meals depending on what random ingredients the chef happened to grab?  Once it's created the game would check a list of recipes and see which matches.

    [X] + [X]                        = Dried [X]
[BOOZE] + [X]                        = [X] Broth (requires bowl)
[FLOUR] + [X]                        = [X] Crackers
[FAT]   + [X]                        = Fried [X]
[FLOUR] + [X]                        = [X] Biscuits
[SUGAR] + [FRUIT]                    = [FRUIT] Candy
[BOOZE] + [X]     + [Y]              = [X] Stew (requires bowl)
[FAT]   + [FLOUR] + [X]              = [X] Pie
[FAT]   + [PLANT] + [X]              = [X] Stirfry
[SUGAR] + [FAT]   + [FLOUR] + [X]    = [X] Cookies
[FLOUR] + [SUGAR] + [EGG]   + [MILK] = Pound Cake
Anything which fits no recipe at all could be "gruel", or "slurry".

Why does this matter?  It'd give some feedback on what ingredients are being used, give another category of things for dwarves to like or detest, and solves the "booze biscuits" problem without actually preventing you from cooking anything that used to be cookable.  It'd also be nice to know just what the heck the caravan finds so valuable...

You'd have at least some feedback into the process by controlling what ingredients are near the kitchen and available for cooking.  Nonetheless this would make some unintentionally hilarious results possible.  Still, I'd much rather have this than the random statues -- worst come to worst, culinary mistakes are not eternal.

Something to plan squares in.  Not like Notepad, but more of a character matrix like DF is.

The closest I've found is a utility from the DOS era called TheDraw would could be perfect -- it has copy/paste, layers, etc, etc -- but it's old, its interface is weird, it uses weird formats, and it nags about registration.

Excel is more modern and easier to understand but ugly and uncooperative in various ways.

Anything else out there?

I've got problems with my militia sometimes dropping all their armor and weapons in random spots and going around without them.  Obviously they have the ability to use them but just sometimes drop them.  What can I do?