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Topics - qoonpooka

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DF Gameplay Questions / [40d] Naked Mole Dog Dieoff?

« on: February 08, 2011, 10:18:21 am »

Three questions, but first some context:

So I embarked on a chasm which had only a half-dozen tiles that were actually open to the rest of the map. I swiftly hacked down some trees and boarded up the entrance with walls and floors so that the chasm was entirely sealed off. Except for a couple of batmen and some cave swallowmen pathing out, not only did my framerate improve, but it kept my dwarves safe as well.

I noticed a large population of naked mole dogs (six or seven packs, to be exact), and decided I wanted to capture them for a breeding program.

1) I have a faint memory that animals that begin as denizens of caves, chasms, or are otherwise on the map when you embark (as opposed to immediately spawning and entering the map when you unpause) are not able to breed. But I've seen evidence that this is incorrect as I purchased a male Giant Eagle from elves once, and the local female Giant Eagle began popping out little giant eagle babies on a regular basis. Would these mole dogs be tamable and breedable?

2) Should they have been breeding there in the chasm? I noticed they were not, which added to my doubts that they would breed in captivity any better.

I figured that these mole dogs weren't going anywhere, they were camped out on several tributary caves and ledges in the chasm itself so I wasn't in a hurry to go down there and risk dwarven lives to capture them quite yet. (Playing last dwarves.)

I noticed a puff of miasma, though, and when I went down to look, half the mole dogs were dead and there were several that had already rotted clean away!

I decided that something was killing them off, so I looked around for culprits but other than batmen and cave swallowmen I didn't see anything that could reach them (no Giant Cave Swallows). There were no webs at all and no cave spiders that I could find, either.

I spent some time observing them and watched as one by one they simply keeled over dead - nothing was attacking them.

3) I've decided that they were dying of old age - how long do Mole Dogs live, and is there any way to prevent this, or do I simply need to hustle to capture them before they all die and the meat and skins rot off?

DF Modding / [40d] Quick modding question.

« on: February 07, 2011, 11:23:31 am »

Are anvil values hardcoded or are they in the raws somewhere? I can't find anvils in any of the raws but would like to reduce their value from 1,000.

DF Gameplay Questions / [40d] Free Equipment?

« on: February 04, 2011, 12:16:52 pm »

So it's accepted that a dwarf with ambusher as his best skill and no other civillian skills will start with leather armor, a crossbow, and 25 steel bolts.

I think I remember reading a while back that giving dwarves only millitary skills would start them with a weapon for free. Is this true, or do you still need to bring/make weapons for pre-embark military dwarves?

DF Gameplay Questions / [40d?] Caravans, goblins, &c.

« on: January 03, 2011, 10:02:23 am »

I am wondering if anyone has done the !!Political Science!! research to determine the causes and relevant factors for trade and war in DF - especially 40d (since I play that).

It was, until my most recent game, my understanding that wealth was the trigger for first caravans, and in my own !!research!! I concluded that Elves show up after 5,000 wealth is created and the Humans after 8,000.

I also determined that Kobolds arrive with the Elves and Goblins arrive with the Humans. Over the course of 10-20 games of DF these conclusions were never challenged by DF... until last night.

Goblins are a serious problem for last dwarves scenarios (which I play). One or two deaths can really do a number on an LDF (Last Dwarfs Fort), so I was experimenting with controlling wealth creation to prevent ambushes until children started maturing. I set a hard limit on my wealth at 5k, since kobolds are managable, and then used kobold gear to trade with the elves for booze and food to prevent wealth from being created.

At 5,000 wealth the Elves showed up, and kobolds arrived the season after - which I decided was within established parameters but I added the research question: Do exports trigger the kobolds?

Then in year 5 I hit a food shortage because I'm an idiot and forgot to account for the kids wolfing down all my plump helmets. So I started some seed cooking, butchered a few animals, and wound up accidentally making some muskox roasts which were masterpiece. Then a thief stole my axe (which made me wince because I don't have any good research on how much value they have to steal to trigger kobold archer swarms - the bane of LDF). So I had to melt some daggers and make some axes, and decided that I needed war animals which meant I needed some export value. I also forgot that my bonecrafter was getting quite good at making bolts and the resulting muskox and elk bone bolts were becoming quite valuable... my created wealth crossed the 8,000 line in year 7 and I cursed myself for being so careless.

No goblins. No humans either, for that matter. (I'd hit 9k). I was getting 3-4 kobold thieves per season though. This would taper off within a year (12 kills) and I'd stop seeing kobolds entirely!

I continued trading with the elves, managing my food stocks and rotating cooks to keep skills low and meal values down. I fluxed between 9k and 7k when I accidentally melted my picks along with the last batch of kobold daggers.

Well at least I can make some bronze, I said. Then I built the forge... just as a batch of seed roasting finished. When I checked my wealth I was OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!! (Sorry, had to.) 12k and change, to be specific. Still no humans, or goblins. (The forge was worth over 1,000 wealth in architecture even if the anvil was imported.)

Then the elves came, and my exports exceeded 1,000. All of a sudden humans showed up wanting to trade - still no goblins. This opened another !!research!! question - I had always assumed that the elves and humans would have the same trigger, and yet, my conclusions about their trigger were wrong and another plausible explanation had arisen. Do exports trigger humans?

The third human caravan docked with my trade depot in year 11 and just as they finished unloading my FPS dropped from 120+ to 40 for ten seconds. 11 years is my LDF record to date so I wasn't feeling too bad, but I knew an ambush when I saw one. I ordered my marksdwarves to their fortifications and prepared for the worst.

The goblins sent three snatchers, easily dispatched by an army of war leopards, war cougars, and black war bears (oh my).

I checked my wealth... 24,000. So much for the 8k wealth trigger.

Year 12, 40,000 still no ambush.

Possible explanations:

- A lot of my wealth is in 'held or equipped items' (Iron crossbows, leather and iron armors, etc) with a lot of the rest in architecture (traps, buildings, my forge, etc). It seems plausible that these would be excluded from the wealth triggers? Perhaps food is also excluded? This would imply that LDFs can tunnel to their heart's content without worrying about the created wealth in architecture.

- Exports are the key here. I used to carelessly dump totems and bone crafts on caravans to make room for things like shells and other mood-stock items. This game I made every effort to not create wealth and so exported mostly looted items as a side effect.

- Time depreciates either the wealth or exports triggers such that the issue is in crossing an X wealth per year/season/whatever threshold, suggesting that managed growth without irritating the goblins is possible.

- Death depreciates either the wealth or exports triggers such that killing X number of thieves or snatchers will deter the foe from venturing further until additional wealth is created to entice them (A sort of supply and demand management) again suggesting that planned growth can be performed without irritating the goblins.

Anyone else have insights to lend here? In the name of !!Political Science!!?

DF Gameplay Questions / [40d] [Hack] How do I hack a rock nut?

« on: December 20, 2010, 11:48:26 pm »

I admit it, this is a bit of a rage cheat.

Rhino lizards ate my rock nuts (no dwarven civ to buy more from, 40d so no possibility of forage) until I had 1 left. I got it into the ground, but the bag to process the quarry bush hit the stockpile like, four frames after the bush was eaten by more lizards.

I'm trying to hack a rock nut in via a smelter.

Why isn't this working?

[REACTION:HACK_ROCK_NUT]
[NAME:hack a rock nut]
[SMELTER]
[PRODUCT:100:1:SEEDS:1:BUSH_QUARRY:1]

DF Gameplay Questions / Magma-power for !!science!!

« on: December 15, 2010, 01:01:59 pm »

I can't currently run .31.18 so someone else will have to do this.

Someone asked about bringing magma up from the depths and the thought struck me...

Do water wheels work in flowing magma? Would nether-caps let you run a magma reactor to power the pumpstack?

I so wish I could test this myself.

DF Gameplay Questions / [.31] & [40d] Fishing Stocks - Streams, Ponds, Etc.

« on: December 15, 2010, 09:50:08 am »

So I'm asking this about 40d, but I hope to play .31 someday (when it gives better FPS), and I'd like the question answered for both.)

I know that murky pools can be fished out, and once they are fished out they're never going to be productive fishing waters again.

I also believe I read somewhere that streams will replenish their stocks.

In my current 40d game the stream has stopped producing fish at all and staring at it on z-1 I can't see any vermin tiles popping up which would otherwise suggest fish are present.

Is it possible to fish out an unlimited source of water?

Additionally, I've noticed that my dwarves can catch fish through a well if that well connects to the stream (which I usually do). I read that you can get fish into cisterns as well - will they transmit through pumps as well? Could I designate my holding tank for my water traps a fishing zone with success? (It's z+3 from the water source). I read about using an underground river as a water source for traps and that clever plumbing would let you fish from this source as well. Does that require fishing before the pumpstack? (The implication was that you could fish from the safety of your cistern.)

DF Modding / [40d] [Is This Possible?] Modding for new sand-like material?

« on: December 14, 2010, 01:10:10 pm »

"A Bag Of Loose X Rocks" - basically the dwarves ran around and collected some larger rocks of the type that has boulders strewn about the map.

Collectable like sand, I guess, only available from certain types of rock and only from the surface.

The purpose is to allow dwarves with no access to anvils, axes, or picks (0-point embark/last dwarves) to still build basic stone tools (Flint axes and the like) rather than sit there slaughtering wildlife and rummaging around for enough rope reed to build enough bags so as to bring a caravan (and with it the ambushes, etc).

I was originally just going to mod in some stone axes and open them and stone swords to use more stone types than just obsidian, but then I realized: no picks = no stone.

That's when I got the idea for the 'bag of loose rocks'

Is it possible to create new tokens (e.g. [TOOL_STONE])?

Is there another way to do this, realistically?

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / My first monument.

« on: December 11, 2010, 09:42:43 pm »

It's not much, I know. But it's my first monument.

It is located at the headwaters of a stream where the last seven dwarves in the world encamped, lacking the tools to excavate, or even cut wood. They huddled on the banks of the river, prepared to live out their lives in hiding - or they were... until the first child was born and renewed their collective desire to see their race live on at any cost.

They fashioned crude weapons and armor from the local fauna and with these endured several waves of crazed macaques - which became more weapons, armor, and food. By the time the elves arrived, they were so desperate for booze that they didn't even care who brought it. They eagerly traded with the Elves - an act which nearly doomed them.

For the elven traders took word of these few survivors back home with them, and soon kobold scavengers came to try their luck in picking over the bones of the once proud race. Were it not for the intercession of a human supply convoy, surely they would have perished there in that place.

But the humans were willing to part with a pair of picks and an anvil - and from this humble beginning, the Dwarves constructed a humble fortification and moved their supplies into protection.

As they left, one of their number - an artist by trade and training - fashioned a massive engraving of a dwarf - the symbol of the local government, itself comprised of many smaller images detailing the trials and struggles of those brave seven who became the founders of the new Dwarven civilization. A warning and enraged taunt to the enemies of the Dwarves: Though the Mountainhome burns, we live on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Most of the engravings are about the founding, several kobold thieves being killed by dwarves and dogs, a masterpiece Muskox Roast my cook made... the center of the bottom of the image depicts the human caravan arriving. There's an engraving of the goblin that kidnapped one kid and murdered two others.

That is the artist in the top right, having just finished the work.

DF Suggestions / Possible way to boost framerate in .31+

« on: December 08, 2010, 01:29:20 pm »

Based on http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=71634.0 That discussion, I decided that the massive slowdown (which makes .31 unplayable, period) is due to all of the new underground stuff.

tl;dr - I run 40d with a 6x6 embark (sometimes larger) and my FPS will peg at the 125 maximum I set until I hit around 70-75 dwarves. I run .31 and it starts out at a measly 80 fps and by 14 dwarves is down into the 60s.

It seems reasonable that all those new critters, liquids, and fun stuff would chew up processor - though they really have no need to until the cavern is actually breached.

I therefore suggest:

Freezing caverns and fun stuff in suspended animation until the cavern is breached. There are already triggers that trip when that happens, you can simply 'wake up' all the critters and plants and whatnot when that happens and not burn the cycles until they're needed yes?

DF Gameplay Questions / [.31.18 SDL] Mass dehydration again? [SOLVED]

« on: December 07, 2010, 09:08:24 am »

All of my searches for various phrases turned up a bunch of 33c entries from 2007.

I'm running a last-dwarves scenario with 0-points on embark. My dwarves are camped on the bank of a brook and have been merrily drinking water from the brook for their first year. The brook partially froze during the winter (not up to where they camped though) and after it thawed suddenly no one was willing to drink water anymore. I was staring at fourteen (two waves of immigrants despite being extinct) blinking blue down arrows.

I salvaged the situation thanks to one of the immigrants (grr) bringing a pick which freed up the wood from the wagon for barrel making and some emergency booze which they readily drank from but now into late spring they adamantly refuse to drink water even in the absence of booze. (It does trigger a bunch of 'give water' jobs though.)

I've re-drawn the drinking zone, loosened it from 'zone only drinking...' everything I can think of.

Is this a known issue in .31.18 or should I be posting this in the bugs forum?

EDIT: Okay, I just need to not be so paranoid - when they get to the point where they will die if they don't drink, they'll go for water. I'm guessing they're just sick of drinking the same (life sustaining) thing over and over again. Bastards should cry me a river... and then drink that instead.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / No way to play last-dwarves anymore?

« on: December 03, 2010, 07:29:47 pm »

Okay, I give up. I've tried everything I can think of.

It used to be that you could just go into entity_default.txt in the raws and do this:

   [MAX_STARTING_CIV_NUMBER:2]
   [MAX_POP_NUMBER:2]
   [MAX_SITE_POP_NUMBER:2]

But despite these settings, I still wind up with a single dwarven civ with multiple sites and 60-120 dwarves per site. I've tried some other stunts suggested in these forums, changing the max age of dwarves (looked like it reduced the population a bit, at best), setting 'playable civ required' to 'no.'

I've tried making the values lower and a little bit bigger (1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 are all values I've tried).

Dwarves and their civ seem invincible no matter what I do. Starting Group Size was removed in .13 I see... is that why this stunt doesn't work anymore? What are the options (other than 'play an earlier version' thanks) for wiping out dwarven civilization in the world gen?

DF Gameplay Questions / [.31.08] Ammo Questions

« on: June 28, 2010, 04:32:20 pm »

Search yielded a lot of people having a variety of problems like this, no solutions.

Has anyone yet been able to get marksdwarves to pick up their ammo? I have a guy running around with an empty quiver, empty crossbow, (he put on the bone armor just fine) and when I give a kill order he runs after the target for melee.

What does it take to get your guys to pick up ammo and shoot it at someone.

Bolts are assigned, ammo stockpile is full.

DF Gameplay Questions / Fertilizer duration and crop questions.

« on: January 21, 2010, 08:45:42 pm »

Okay, new thread since the only relevant thread I could find was 2006.

Is there any data on how often fields need an application of fertilizer and what the effects of fertilizer are on existing crops? (I.e., does order matter?)

I'm trying to boost my yield since I'm doing the adam & eve thing which means I have a LOT of mouths to feed and not a lot of labor to get it done.

Finally, what's the shelf life of things like plants, seeds, etc. and how does being in bags/barrels/both effect that? Any data?

DF Gameplay Questions / Adam and Eve question.

« on: January 06, 2010, 11:06:54 pm »

So, I'm not going entirely A&E. I am using "the last dwarves on the planet" however. I got a good group for it, four females, three males. I'm cursing their conservative family values, though. The correct move would be to create as many combinations of their genes as possible in order to ensure the survival of the species. Instead they've married as three couples. I'm guessing musical-husband-losing-lady is going to do some cradle robbing as soon as someone's son grows up.

I know dwarves wont marry their own siblings, but how far does that check go? Will they marry cousins? It seems that there will be an effective population cap and dieoff after a hundred years or so if not...