Bay 12 Games Forum

Oops, I didn't notice this subforum earlier... I guess I might as well restart here, then.

Anyways, my primary aim here is refining the game mechanics without altering its tone or focus. This means tweaking, balancing, and even pruning elements far more than adding them. It is my intent to stay true to original feel of the game as much as possible, and only make changes where I feel something is "missing" from vanilla DF.

The mod's raw is posted on GitHub:
https://github.com/Nnelg/DF-Fine-Polish

Features: (limited for now; have to start somewhere)

• Rebalances the value of metal alloys.
• Expands glazing with more accurate lead/tin glaze and several mineral pigments.

Anything else I think of I'll toss in as well. Currently I'm thinking of going into rebalancing stone occurrences and organizing creatures by biome. I'm also considering adding some variety to deep metals, but aren't as sure of that one.

All five kinds of sand are INORGANIC materials, see inorganic_stone_soil.txt. Give them all [REACTION_CLASS:SAND] and there you have it.

That's actually what I was thinking of, so, thanks.

Okay, so this thread is for collating a series of mods I intend to produce with the primary aim of refining the game mechanics without altering its tone or focus. This means tweaking, balancing, and even pruning elements far more than adding them. It is my intent to stay true to original feel of the game as much as possible, and only make changes where I feel something is "missing" from vanilla DF.

The mod's raw is posted on GitHub:
https://github.com/Nnelg/DF-Fine-Polish

Features: (limited for now; have to start somewhere)

• Rebalances the value of metal alloys.
• Expands glazing with more accurate lead/tin glaze and several mineral pigments.

So, everyone here should know that feeling when the immigrants just keep on coming, when either you're not ready or something kills them or over half of them are children! Wouldn't it be nice if you had a way to directly influence your immigrants short of editing the .init file?

Well, that's where the Customs Officer comes in. He works in his office like a Bookkeeper, constantly updating updating the fortress's ad programs, deportation agreements, and internal policy towards newcoming migrants. (How does he communicate with the outside world? Dwarven Email, of course!) Maybe he meets once a year with a liaison to discuss policy.

The purpose of the Customs Officer is to control immigration policy. This policy consists of a number of options accessed through the (n)obles screen. The specific values are as follows:

Value:	Range:
Borders:	Free - Open - Restricted - Closed
Minimum Experience:	Unskilled - Apprentice - Journeyman - Master
Children:	Encouraged - Tolerated - Discouraged - Denied
Skills:*	(Priority 0-5)*

*One priority slider for each applicable skill group/profession ("stoneworker", "engineer", "military", etc.)

Underlined are default values. For each entry:

Borders affects the baseline number of immigrants. When set to "Closed", no immigrants are allowed. "Restricted" will allow only a few dwarves whom match your other qualifications in each wave. "Free" will attract as many immigrants as possible (as is done now), and "Open" represents a default balance point.

Minimum Experience sets what level of skill acceptable migrants should have. "Apprentice" equates to Adequate or better in at least two or three skills, "Journeyman" would be similar to "Proficient" or better in at least one, and "Master" would have overall skill levels greater than a starting dwarf. (Note that this isn't necessarily a "hard" limit if your Borders are Open.)

Children determines how likely incoming migrants are to bring their children along with them. Refusing to accept children may convince some dwarves to leave theirs at home, but it also may convince others not to come at all.

Finally, there are a number of priority sliders for skills to determine which are preferred over others. This works similar to caravan goods priorities.


The Customs Officer has to work constantly to maintain this policy's effectiveness, or else it won't really do much at all.

Have you ever wanted to turn all those large robes the human invaders drop into bags? Or feed your unused wooden furniture to the furnaces? Or maybe recover the decorative gems and metal studding from low-quality objects? Well, that's what this idea is about.

Basically, the concept is to extend the functionality of the Melt designation to non-metal items and decorations on items. Any valid object can be designated with Salvage or Melt Item, making it valid for recycling. Most recycling (other than melting) should take place at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop, unless a new "Salvage Yard" workshop is made. (Perhaps with associated "Salvaging" labor and skill.)


First, the new basic forms of recycling:

Cloth (and Leather):
Any cloth objects would be reduced to a partial stack of the cloth used to make them. This would only retain the basic material and dye of the cloth (if applicable), whereas the quality would be reset to "no modifier". (Any images sown on an item would be salvaged as well.) Worn-out clothing (and images on them) would have decreasing returns the more worn-out they are. This is done via the "Scrap Cloth(/Leather?) Item" labor.

Wood:
Wood items could be consumed in a Wood Furnace with the "Make Charcoal/Ash (use item)" labor. This may result in less than a full bar of the resultant material, especially with crafts and mugs (e.g., items that come more than one to a log).

Glass:
Recycling glass is a bit more complex. First the glass items marked must be salvaged via the "Pulverise Glass Item" labor at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop. This would produce bags of "Crushed [Crystal/Clear/Green] Glass", which could then be reused at the Glass Furnace.

Wax:
Barely worth mentioning; but wax could potentially be recycled at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop, under the "Melt Wax Item" labor (which would not require fuel).

Stone/Ceramic/Bone/Shell/Horn/Gem/Other:
Unless a more realistic refuse system is implemented, the only purpose of salvaging these items is to recover any decorations on them (or perhaps train a relevant skill while disposing of garbage). The basic material the item is made of is lost. (See below for decorations.)



Finally, some decorations can be recovered during salvage operations (including melting items). Cloth and Leather images (as mentioned before) would be reduced to their composite materials like cloth/leather items. Gems and metal studs could be salvaged wholesale. Everything else, however, would probably be lost.

I can convert my cavern gate into an airlock with about a dozen or so cages in it (plus a chained puppy for bait) without *too* much difficulty. If that isn't enough to kill one of the FBs, I can just wall it off in there permanently. (Or at least until I finish the pump stack to make it a magma flood chamber.)

If they manage to kill the first one, I'll repeat it again for the second. The rest shall make good targets for my marksdwarves.

-Release them to fight a FB.  But then you have to re-catch them or otherwise dispatch them.

Oh, I like this idea. I've got a poison gas FB to deal with, and I can always use more cage traps to re-capture the zombies. (In any case, I'll be no worse off than before.)

Can I safely pit the zombies, or will I have to release them from a cage? (For that matter, can I transfer them between cages?)

Yes, you should absolutely use it! It will literally cream any invader who stumbles into it.

Put it in a weapon trap all by itself, and try to force every invader to walk through it before anything else. Memorialise all of its kills for bragging rights.