Bay 12 Games Forum

Bump! I think it might be best to wait till the update in July to start this. We need more people and there will be more people with free time over the summer. Will the world gen come out the same on the next version though?

Run the thing however you like, but my opinion: More people (including myself) would probably be interested in this without the seemingly very time consuming and extraordinarily detailed blueprint component to it. Looking at the existing blueprints, I felt that learning how to even interpret the legend alone on the file would have taken longer than an entire normal community fort turn, and got very discouraged.  Also, following somebody else's down-to-the-tile blueprint feels like busy work, whereas translating a rougher concept into DF terms would involve good creativity, even if the basic vision were pre-decided.

It seems like a handmade quick sketch with some rough indicators of how many z levels are intended to align with the sketch would be sufficient and in many ways actually superior for this purpose?

Just my 2 cents though.


(Note that if done this way instead, you might need more leeway on the length of a turn. Something like "1-2 years, try to keep it to 1 but some room for going over if needed to finish a section")

Thanks for the input! I pretty much agree with you and I should have been more clear on some of my points. The .psd is what I was working on before I thought to use the world as a succession fort. It shouldn't be nearly that detailed and a lot of it is just doodles really. The front facing image would have been sufficient. I was intending to update it by now. The only things we need to keep consistent are the dimensions of the wall, the z level of fortifications and how far it is recessed into the mountain. This is because it will probably take several years to dig the whole front of the mountain and you can't put the natural rock back once we dig it. It would be good to have blueprints for the entrance and throne room because they are connected to the front wall but it will be those of who ever starts building and not my own. Actually maybe not the throne room because someone might end up putting it somewhere else. It's just that we can't have someone try and put a room right where we will need to put the wall and enterance and it will be hard to tell becase the wall will be like 20 blocks in at the bottom. I will try and reword the rules so they are more clear. Your idea of going more than a year might work but we would have to see what the other players think.

I know using photoshop/gimp for blueprints is a pain. Like I said they can be in what ever format you want and sketches would probably be preferable for most cases and be more fun to look at. It is not necessarily for this fort but I have been playing around with a web app for dwarf fortress blueprints and the basic gui is completed. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/134665186/draftdorf/draftdorf.html I have the code for actually drawing to the canvas but I am still optimizing it. It is similar to what I was doing in photoshop except visually much closer to dwarf fortress(or what ever tileset choose). This app is more intended for quickly making smaller blueprints that need correct placement like water pumps. It will also export for use in quickfort faster and more fun than with excel.

*edit* I have simplified the wording of the rules. Check it out and see what you think. I have also removed my .psd file because it is too confusing and the front view should get the idea across.

Anybody know if Lord of the Rings Online has an Erebor map?  They might have more complete floorplans if so.

I don't think you could go to Erebor in LORTO. Actually I haven't been able to find any maps of the interior of Erebor. There are some amazing ones of Moria that are just to huge to fit in dwarf fortress. I think we might have to think up a lot of it ourselves which is fine. It doesn't have to be an exact model anyways. It just has to feel like it could be Erebor. We will still have to worry about sustaining our dwarves and being practical. Other than making the parts that have appeared in the book and movie I think we could have some design principals that will give it that feel. For example Erebor is basically a big mine with the used up parts being re-purposed as living quarters. The treasure room and other big rooms would be in the places richest with ore because those places are already hollowed out. The movie shows vertical chasms where the dwarves have dug away which makes the pillars look almost like skyscrapers. Maybe early players can start a quarry but another player will use the space to make a grand dinning room. Or they could keep digging down and add some catapults and minecarts to move heavy materials to and from the magma forges: http://youtu.be/4e90C2juVlw?t=1m15s Another principal could be to start from higher up and dig down. There are several reasons for this other than the fact that there is less distance to walk. In real life the higher parts don't need to support as much weight so they are safer to dig out. In Dwarf Fortress we need to channel out rooms from the top so we don't get floating floors that take a long time to remove and can cause cave ins. Erebor is refereed to as a city and not just a claustrophobic mine. A dragon should be able to walk around inside it without much trouble. We should make it feel that way even though the largest of Dwarf Fortress dragons still take up one tile. The trick will be making it seem very open while keeping walking distances down. Does any one else have any ideas along these lines?

This looks awesome, sign me up. Coincidentally, I was just reading The Hobbit not half an hour ago.

Great signed you up. We need atleast two more people before we can start.

Yay! Thanks for signing up. I will try and figure out what is wrong with the link. This project has made me start working on a web app for drawing dwarf fortress blueprints. It is going well so far and I might have a usable version soon.

Blueprints

These are some of the things we will need to make to reach our goal. Choose one that looks fun and give it a try or add to what others have done. Keep in mind how it will fit in with the rest of the fort.

DESIGN	|DESIGNED BY	|BLUEPRINTS	|BUILT BY
fortifications	|MadMonkey	|page 1	|
enterance hall	|	|	|
throne room	|	|	|
treasure room	|	|	|
front statues	|	|	|
secret enterance	|	|	|
trade depot	|	|	|
catacombs	|	|	|
forges	|	|	|
hall of the kings	|	|	|

Sign Ups

Sign ups are 7 sessions in advance. Players can sign up for more than one session but not for 7 sessions.

#	|PLAYER	|DATE STARTED	|SAVE FILE	|PAGES
1	|MadMonkey	|	|	|
2	|bJAG9	|	|	|
3	|ShadowHammer	|	|	|
4	|	|	|	|
5	|	|	|	|
6	|	|	|	|
7	|	|	|	|