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Topics - Merlon

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1
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / How-to: Get past the aquifer with pumps
« on: November 01, 2007, 09:30:00 am »
About aquifers
Aquifers are layers soaked with groundwater. You can spot an aquifer on the embark mapscreen by looking for "≈≈≈≈" on the list of materials. Each layer marked with ≈≈≈≈ will typically mean around 3 Z-levels of waterlogged material for you to get through before you can even start serious mining for minerals. The walls in an aquifer will constantly leak water into your tunnels.

There are several ways one can get through an aquifer, but since an aquifer never runs dry they can be divided into two main methods: Walling off an area to keep it dry, or constant pumping. They can of coarse be combined, but for this how-to we're going to focus on the pumpingaspect of things and leave the other methods to your imagination and/or the wiki. http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Aquifer


About the symbols used in this how-to

code:

█ wall
▒ open space/channel with hovering gear assembly
w water
. floor
P pump front
p pump rear
> stairs down
< stairs up
X stairs up and down


How screwpumps work

code:

▒    < channel with water. Water on the Z-level below.
P    < pump front, light green X on placement. Walkable square.
p    < pump rear, dark green X on placement.
w    < pumped water exits here

Pumps can be operated manually (through pump operating labour) or mechanically (through power, gears and axles). The following designs are compatible with manual labour, but expect additional grief trying to place pumps in the aquifer until your operators are more experienced. Once you get through to the bedrock and find enough rocks to build mechanisms you might want to consider automating the system as soon as possible.


Design 1 - Alternating
Pros:
Fairly easy to lay out
Only 1 pump needed per Z-level
Double stairs allow decent traffic

Cons:
If a dwarf falls into the stairs the stairs won't stop him, the ground 15 Z-levels down however will.


For each Z-level down alternate the following two blueprints:

code:

Top view
████████
█ww█████   < Water loops around to the "P" and gets pumped out from above.
█wpP▒███   < Gear assemblies in the same channel the pumps pump from.
███XX███
████████
████████
█████ww█
███▒Ppw█
███XX███
████████


Seen from the side your string of pumps should now look like this:

code:

███▒Ppw█
█wpP▒███
███▒Ppw█
█wpP▒███
███▒Ppw█
█wpP▒███


Design 2 - The spiral
Pros:
Only 1 pump needed per Z-level
Anyone falling into the stairs will at most get stunned.
Aestetics?

Cons:
Easier to congest with traffic
A bit more work to set up
Takes up more space

code:

███████
███████
█ww████    < loopback for water
█wpP▒██    < place a gear assembly for the pump below in this open space
███><██    < stairs down and up
███████

For each level down, keep rotating the blueprint 90 degrees (making it a spiral).

code:

███████
████ww█
████pw█
███>P██
███<▒██
███████


Buildtips
On the aquifer levels don't excavate more rock than you need to. The following should be more than enough until the new pump is operational:

code:

████████
████████
██pP.███    < Note the lack of channel
████X███
████████

To successfully place a screwpump the buildarea has to have at most 1 level of water. For this to be true in the aquifer, a pump has to be within one square of the above pump's pumparea, the above two designs observe this rule. In addition, since the channel hasn't been built yet, the staircase will occasionally flood to 4 water giving you a "no access to material" error when placing. Simply pause and resume the game a few times until all squares are within limits, then place the pump.

Construction will suspend multiple times due to water. You need to resume it until the pump has been designed, then all over again for the actual construction. Expect to resume construction atleast 10 times.

Also, as security precaution donīt build the actual channel in each pumproom until the pump is working and the stairs are in, otherwise your miner is very likely to be washed into the hole and drown. If the above happens start pumping manualy or even with buckets to save your miner.

Once you get past the aquifer run your tunnel past the pumpspot of the pump above to secure it from flooding. In addition it's a good idea to include a watersensitive pressure plate rigged to bulkheads in case your pumps get destroyed or momentarily loose power. You really donīt want to have to start pumping water all the way up from Z-level -15 do you?

[ November 03, 2007: Message edited by: Merlon ]


2
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Watch out for elven scammers (trade stories)
« on: October 30, 2007, 07:32:00 pm »
Just got this fresh off an elven trader:

As the elves arrived I spotted a nice highwood cage containing a giant tiger, in some circuits known as a kobold removal tool. An anti-kobold guard was just what we needed as they were growing bolder by the minute. It was only yesterday that they ran (!) off with a giant corkscrew. So when our broker negotiated a good deal including the tiger, we were quick to accept. Little did we know that the animal loving elves were selling damaged merchandise, though in retrospect they were awfully keen on running off after the trade was concluded, a feature which we at the time attributed to their fear of wooden fortresses.

Anyone else with any dwarf fortress related trade mishaps?


3
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Another mountainhome under construction
« on: May 24, 2007, 06:32:00 pm »
Hello everyone. I've been tinkering with this game for quite from time now, but haven't taken a proper look at theese forums before now. Upon doing so however I've once again decided to make another fort as there are just so many great ideas floating about. Hope you don't mind the questions and apologize in advance for the wall of text.

I'm aiming for a fort with room for about 120-150 dwarves while keeping the trafficproblems to a minimum. I'm not sure if I've succeeded or not, but I could use some input and ideas for improvement on the current design:
   

The gate complex:
I tried designing this part so there's always a fallback position or at the very least a holdback position at each 'stage'. The area should also always have some troops practicing, ready to step in should animals, thiefs etc. suddenly decide to take a peek inside.

In the event of a siege the chokepoint bridges will be raised to the right thereby creating narrow passages slowing the assault of enemies to a trickle and potentially increasing my marksdwarves' window of opportunity without putting them in front of the entire enemy archer force. The solid walls on the left of the main towers aim to prevent incoming enemy fire. The reason my main hallway isn't narrower at this point is the fear of not-so-friendly ballista fire taking out the wrong guys. The pillars double up as shields and will hopefully stop the brunt of it if a ballistabolt goes for max deviation.

In addition to the manned defences there's also the option of flooding. Either just the front channel allowing me to block most enemies' escape and/or reinforcements or the compulsory floodtrap of filling the entire entrance hall. I'm not too happy about using that trick, but every fortress must have its share of potential disasters, right? With that in mind I'll probably tie the same lever to the bridges covering the panic-channels so that the mandatory weak moment followed by permaflood disaster might be avoided.

Speaking of, it seems like I forgot to draw in bridges of the retractable kind on the channels by the leftmost ballistaposition.

Come to think of it, the northern fallback positions are a bit better than the southern ones. I think I'll make the bridge covering the southern doors raise north, rather than retract, thereby blocking the path until an ambush to the enemy's back sounds good.

All the mechanics are connected with the main hall switchroom. This room in turn is close to the everfull statuegarden which should allow for fast response to commands.

Related questions:
There's still room in the leftmost fortifications for a siegeweapon, would this serve any purpose given that it's so far offcentre of any invasion?

I've built the tradedepot quite a distance inside the mountain to save time on the multitude of haulingjobs such a visit creates. Might as well have the outsiders do the hauling... The ballistas are 'blocking' the route to the trade depot, taking into account that the floor has been smoothened, will the trader's wagons disregard this (like everyone else) and still arrive?

Any other suggestions for improvement?

The main hall:
The main hall is designed around some rather heavily trafficated areas of the fortress. This should also serve to keep the reactiontime down if the military needs to go into action. For the craftrooms I've gone with an idea of Core Xii's, with each set of craftrooms sharing a central stockpile. A similar design to this and the above overall main hall layout worked rather well in my last game.

As for the livingquarters I'm currently thinking of going with something new and picking one of Hactar1's fractal designs. Will probably go for as much of the 3-branch tree I can fit, as I really like its layout.

I realize the whole metalindustry is missing on the image. It's basicly restricted to the hallways until a proper location can be found. That in turn depends on how much room the chasm will grant me this time around and if I'll stay out of the lava or not.

Another maybe-factor is the second ballista strongpoint, there may or may not be actual room to fire depending on riverconfiguration.

Related questions:
I've never had a channel with bridges running across all the way to a floodgate before (floodgate at the farm). I take it the floodgate should still function properly. But will the (spiteful) floodgate also flood the bridge when opened?

Spot any (other) obvious blunders?

[ May 24, 2007: Message edited by: Merlon ]


4
DF Bug Reports / Pathing AI detours
« on: November 03, 2007, 08:24:00 pm »
(Dwarf Fortress 0.27.169.33a)

Sometimes the pathing AI acts up a bit and sends dwarves on large detours.

Here's an example:

The mason on this picture is targeting the middle unbuilt floortile. He arrived on the roof from the up/down stairs to the south, then walked all around the perimeter of the roof and only then built the actual floor.

Another perhaps more common example would be the miner standing diagonally adjacent to his miningdesignation of choice, but rather than dig straight away he'll always choose to walk to any exposed non-diagonal side of the tile instead (if one exists). This can often lead to the miner walking 20 extra squares when he could've started mining instead.

With two paralell tunnels designated 1 tile apart, a miner will often mine one tile in each in an alternating pattern, thereby running twice the total length of the tunnel for each tile mined. (DF 32a, haven't yet dug in paralell in 33a)


5
DF Suggestions / indoor/outdoor garbage designations
« on: September 17, 2007, 11:48:00 am »
I noticed how in the mule video there's a garbage dump designation. For this post I'm assuming this is the new "designate chasm" designation. I was wondering if this designation was customizable to indoor and outdoor garbage as this in turn would allow for creative solutions to certain unavoidable problems.

I'm thinking specificaly on the big cleanup after sieges. The sheer amount of hauling can really push a fortress into stagnation. The new Z-level may or may not help in this concern, as the ramps and stairs can help haulers to quickly change area if you build up-/downwards instead of outwards. However, ramps and stairs are also excellent accesspoints for the siegers themselves.

Back to garbage designations then.That's when I thought of the one-way siege cleanup pit. Basicly a pit designated as an outdoor garbage dump while beeing deep enough that no sieger will survive the fall. Something like this when seen from the side:

code:
... < above ground
#=# < pit entrance and garbage dump designation
#.#
#g# <
#g# < goblin refuse in pit
#g# <
#g#
#X# < floodgate
#.##
#..#####
#..D.... < interior access tunnel to refuse stockpile
########

This would allow the haulers to concentrate on the outdoor refuse after a siege and dump it all in the pit. Then when the haulers once again are available the floodgate would be cycled and the refuse dumped into the fortress proper. Since the refuse is now under the floodgate and the floodgate is closed again the refuse should now be indoors and the previous chasm designation removed with any indoor specific orders taking over.

If the indoor/outdoor code was implemented this could also be extended to other stockpiles. For instance where your woodcutters drop the logs off outside your walls while the haulers pick them back up and carry them deep inside your fortress. As an additional bonus this would prevent a jobitem that was tasked to be carried inside, but cancelled a few steps inside the door to be carried further inside rather than first be carried back to the outside stockpile.

[ September 17, 2007: Message edited by: Merlon ]


6
DF Suggestions / Steps to reduce buildinterface clicks.
« on: August 29, 2007, 10:47:00 am »
Some new buildinterface options became more easily implemented with the introduction of the new contracted material list. Here are a few that occured to me. Apologies in advance if any of this is allready planned or has been discussed to death earlier.

New general buildingmaterial categories
Since buildingmaterials have no quality it doesn't matter to us which stone (etc) we use for construction, we don't know which one in particular we're selecting anyway. With that in mind it would be benificial if we had additional categories to the new system, like "rock", "light stone", "wood", etc selectable on the top of the list of buildingmaterials. This will significantly reduce the amount of scrolling and clicking. Perhaps especially handy when you consider the amount of new basic buildingmaterial types that will become available in future versions.

Simplifying the construction process
With the above simplified we could further reduce clicking if the placement and material steps were combined in a single menu. None of the keys conflict, so why not? It could look like this for instance:

The highlighted material or materialcategory will be used upon pressing enter. In the case of materialcategory it should use the nearest valid items.

Let the buildmenu stay up
This in turn should allow the buildmenu to remain up at the same page and material after placement, reducing repeated clicks allowing easy and rapid repeated placements. Furniture, rewalling and 1-tile bridgemosaics would benefit greatly.

Since furniture has qualitymodifiers it should simply highlight the next piece on the list after each placement.

What about larger structures? (bridges etc)
Since structures of 2 or more pieces of material have the potential to require more material than is available in one selection on the list, it would be nice if we had ie. the secondary selectors increase/decrease the amount as we select materials.

Here's how it could work: For some reason I want to build a 3x5 bridge out of mainly wood, but I have only 3 logs. So I highlight and increase the wood category's value to 3 (the number now changes to red to indicate max). I should now be able to see on the bridge itself (yellow X*) and on the materialsmenu that I'm still missing some material (yellow number) to be able to construct the building. Luckily we have some rocks about, so I highlight the rock and either increase that number or simply push enter to construct using the previously tagged material with any shortage filled in by the highlighted material.

*Could be simplified as displaying the whole bridge in yellow, but that won't show how close you are to reaching the materialrequirement.

Here's another picture, please don't mind the inconsistencies like beeing outside with a retractable bridge...

What do you think? Feel free to discuss other means as well.


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