Bay 12 Games Forum

Hello everyone.

Background info:
Basically what I want to do is copy the dwarfs on the embark screen to a file. Later load them from this file when in the embark screen.
If I'm not mistaken what would need to be done is go through the entire data structure of the embark-dwarves and copy all their relevant attributes into a file one by one. Or is it possible to write it all at once with something like write(df.world.....embarkDwarves[1]) to dump the whole content of this unit into the file? (Note: I'm totally aware that this syntax especially .embarkDwarves[1] is not correct)

I'm a dabbler in programming. I've basic knowledge about C++, R and python. However no formal education to speak of (I had one semester 2 hours per week bioinformatics, but there you learn only so much).
That said I don't really know DF-hack and I have NO CLUE about Lua so I'm gonna need some (extensive) help with this one.

save dwarf:
local file = io.open("SavedDwarves.txt", "w")
local table
for i = 1, 1, numberEmbarkDwarves do
     table = {["Dwarf No"] = i
                 ["caste"..i] = ...EmbarkDwarves[i].unit.caste   -- will this produce the string caste1, caste2 etc or have I misunderstood this?
                 ["sex"..i]    = ...EmbarkDwarves[i].unit.sex
                 -- etc.etc.
                 }
end

file.write(table) -- somehow write the table to file
file:close()

load dwarf:
local loadfile = io.open("SavedDwarves.txt", "r")
local table
file.read() -- somehow reconstruct table from file

for i = 1, 1, numberEmbarkDwarves do
       ...EmbarkDwarves[i].unit.caste = table["caste"..i]
       ...EmbarkDwarves[i].unit.sex    = table["sex"..i]
        -- etc.etc.
end

I guess the dwarves on embark screen are held in an array of size 7 (or larger when hacked), so it would be a matter of simply looping through it to get every dwarf. What's the syntax to access it?
Also how would i write the table to a file and restore it from there, preferably in a human readable format.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Metal
On the "Metal page" Divine metal is listed as having a density of 1000 g/cm^3.
However the notes contradict that

Absurdly strong yield and fracture values allow even blunt weapons of this light material to be dangerous

1000g/cm^3 is not really a light material.

Considering the page on Divine metal and the raws on platinum it seems to me, that the density for divine metal should be listed as 1 g/cm^3 and not 1000 g/cm^3.
I've never seen divine metal in the game so I it would be great if someone could check this one out.

Inspired by DaVincis post about his binary patch for the combat mechanics.
The question arouse in me: "What's the current state of knowledge about combat mechanics?"

Back in the days when I last played DF it was told, that the heavier a blunt weapon was the better.
But now the arrow/bold research showed that this isn't necessarily true penetration isn't only defined by momentum but also by the YIELD values of armour and bolt.
However bolts are piercing weapons not blunt weapons, so ...

Right now I'm totally confused.
Should we be using those Platinum Artifact warhammers our moody dwarfs put out our should we say fuck it and let the soldiers stick with their Steel warhammers? Is a bronze axe really better than an iron one and what's about armour should we prefer iron over copper?

What is the current state of science?

Hello Everybody, been lurking for some years and decided to register.
So my first post may as well be something useful.

I've had certain problems with a custom reaction not producing XP for the dwarf.
The only reference I found for this was this thread

Introduction:
You invest skill points in a medic so that there is a doc to patch up wounded dwarfs. (Besides that it seems fairly reasonable that a pioneer group would want a doc with them.)
So you invest valuable embark points into this dwarf and you effectively loose productive skill points like e.g glassmaker.
... and when you need the doc his skills are rusted away.
That pissed me off somehow, so i designed a training reaction in which the dwarf uses up dead vermins.
And nothing happened. So I searched why the reaction wasn't increasing his skill. Then it occured to me: My reaction had no product.
Could it be, that custom reactions yield XP in relation to created products?

Methodical set up:
I created training-reactions for Bone doctor, Diagnostician, Surgeon, Suturer and Wound dresser.
This time the reactions used up one bar of coal and produced one bar of coal. Except for Diagnostician that produced 10 bars of coal. Wound dresser would remain the training reaction using up vermin mentioned earlier.
Every reaction was performed once, and the XP were evaluated with Dwarf Therapist.
If XP-gain is related to product yield Diagnostician should get 10x the XP and Wound dresser should get none.

Results:
Surgeon and Suturer gained 6 XP, Wound dresser gained none and Diagnostician gained 60 XP.
So yes. XP gain for custom reactions is 6 XP per unit of product created

There are a few implications of this.
1. You can't have a reaction that has a lousy chance of success but still trains the dwarf. E.g. you would have problems making a - let's say - alchemical reaction that works only in 1% of cases but still trains up the dwarf in alchemist skill. You would need to create a dummy product.
2. Far more concerning you can't make a reaction that produces lots of product but only results in minimal skill gain. Let's say you mod a "human fortress" and as humans build their shelter - taking much longer than digging in - you decide to give them a "produce 100 caly bricks" reaction. Then your potter would gain skill like crazy.

This result is probably no news for the experienced amongst you. But I decided to create this post, so that people new into modding can find this information by searching the forums.
Hope this helps someone.