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Topics - Forumsdwarf

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General Discussion / Toady Interview, and What's So Special About Herman?

« on: April 16, 2010, 09:07:56 pm »

I read the Toady interview on Negative Gamer and there was this link to another indie game developer who made a game called "Herman".

The magazine (and especially the developer) hyped it as "new" and "different" and "not like anything you've seen before" but in the videos it looked like a typical side-scrolling platform shooter, the sort of game that hasn't been "new", "different', or "unique" since about 2 months after the release of the Commodore 64.

Am I missing something?

The interview with Toady was totally different. He was all like, "Consider every option and listen to what people tell you, but in the end do your own thing," very laid back and cool. And Dwarf Fortress really is "unique" and "different" and "unlike anything you've seen before", everything the developer of "Herman" claimed about his game, but I guess you don't need a bunch of self-congratulatory hype when Dwarf Fortress so clearly speaks for itself.

But ... maybe I'm missing something, and I hate to pass judgment on something I've never played, so ... am I wrong? (I'm not going to download and play it just to confirm that it's terrible. That would take time away from Dwarf Fortress ...)

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Magma Up or Dwarves Down?

« on: April 12, 2010, 06:16:06 pm »

It's a pretty huge engineering project to bring magma 120 levels up through (or around) labyrinthine caverns patrolled by dangerous beasts and the dreaded giant cave spiders.

It's also inefficient, assuming you find a safe path to the magma and build deep underground, to have your dwarfs constantly running up 120 flights of stairs for surface goodies like sun berries, whip vines, or the always-convenient rope reeds when tails are out of season.

There are several ways to solve it. What's your favorite?

Life Advice / Do Chatty GF's Eventually Mellow Out?

« on: January 26, 2010, 05:28:12 am »

So my gf is always "yak yak yak yak talk talk talk talk yak yak yak yak" and it's starting to drive me nuts.

I love her and the conversations I have with her, but for the love of Pete ... it never stops ... her capacity for sustained communication would humble a talk radio host.

Since I've never dated a woman this talkative I'm looking for anyone else who either has a chatty gf or is one herself to answer my question: is it going to be like this all the time, or do chatty girlfriends eventually mellow out a little?

DF Suggestions / Seed Management

« on: January 21, 2009, 10:50:36 pm »

Instead of the player having to switch seed cooking on and off to manage seed levels, could we set a "reserve seed level"?

It would alternatively be just as useful to allow / disallow seed cooking by stockpile. That would allow us to actually keep "overflow seeds" near the kitchens: once the seed stockpiles bordering the farms filled up the surplus would automatically get carted over to the kitchen stocks, which would be marked for cooking.

Also, does anyone know how to increase the seed storage cutoff maximum? I think the default is 200.

Other Games / Starflight Forum with Original Developer

« on: January 12, 2009, 01:12:07 am »

There's a team of developers remaking Starflight in their spare time as well as producing a sequel Starflight III.

One of the original Starflight developers popped by the forum, the one responsible for creating the "Red Herring" object that I hear suckered a few gamers into spending hours trying to find a way to pick it up.

Anyway I know Toady was a big fan of Starflight, which was sadly before my time. I didn't become a *happy* *camper* of the "Space Adventure" genre until Star Control II. But I thought he and you other Starflight old-timers might get a kick out of meeting one of the developers and seeing that the old girl's still kicking.

Good games never die, right?

LOL, you might want that address, mightn't you?

icc.starflight3.org

Red Herring hangs out on the "Starflight I Remake" forum.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / When Dwarf Ambassadors Visit Elf Embassies

« on: October 30, 2008, 03:21:27 am »

Yes, pretty much everything reminds me of Dwarf Fortress.

Urgent message from the Russian ambassador ...

"Five hours on orange juice IS a major crisis!"

DF Bug Reports / [40d] Items Sticking to the Floor

« on: October 18, 2008, 01:51:40 am »

I have a really weird bug: items are sticking to the floor.

They can't be moved. They can't be melted in smelters (I just get "no items marked for melting" even though the stuck item is marked.) They fail a build ("item obstructing building site".) They can't be dumped. You can't use them as building materials -- they don't appear on the list of available materials to build with, even if you build right on top of a stuck item.

The only way I've found so far to move an item stuck to the floor is to channel the floor.

I'm thinking the game might be getting confused and treating the items as if they were owned when they're not. One item was a pick owned by a miner who died. The other two items were plain old obsidian stones, never owned by anyone. Still, the way the game is acting is consistent with the items being owned, except they don't show as owned by anyone and I've never seen anyone own a rock.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Roadhenge

« on: October 07, 2008, 04:19:03 pm »

So does any above-ground construction count as "road value" or what?

Do underground roads count as "road value"?

Has anyone built "Roadhenge", a huge outdoor road project that is basically a roundabout in the middle of nowhere, just to increase road value?

I bet this is all in the wiki and I just started a pointless thread ... but "Roadhenge" is pointless, too, so at least I'm still on-topic.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Citizen Militia Thread

« on: September 22, 2008, 09:37:11 pm »

As a big fan of the "Citizen Militia" I've found a few things to watch out for.

This thread is for discussion of the best way to manage citizen militias.

No waterskins. Your citizens won't drink booze and production will drop. Never make a waterskin, and if you ever see one, forbid it, trade it, chasm it, get rid of it.

Never put workers with time-sensitive jobs in the militia. fish cleaners, tanners, and farmers shouldn't be out hunting because they might be out for a long time, leaving important resources to rot. Once the map is cleared of threats you can arm these job classes.

Disable hunting if you really need to get some work done. In the beginning when animals and threats are running all over the map it may well be more efficient to draft a crossbowman for security while your civilians focus on their work.

Never put more citizens into the militia than you have equipment for them. That's especially a problem with ammo.

Have enough underground storage for a lot of bones. Being refuse, bones on the surface decay. Bones are where bolts come from, and bolts are obviously necessary for your militia.

Arming the population keeps them orderly. Berserk dwarves, fortress death spirals, and the like are not much of a problem. Once a dwarf goes berserk he gets mowed down in a hail of bolts. "An armed society is a polite society."

Transition to metal bolts once you start building a proper military. The last thing you want is for your militia to run out of bolts because your off-duty marksdwarves shot them all up in training.

DF Bug Reports / Injured Hunters Sleeping with Their Kills

« on: August 16, 2008, 10:46:03 pm »

My woodcutter was injured hunting a cougar and brought his kill with him to bed when he went to sleep off his injury.

While I'm sure the cougar has deep symbolic significance to the brave woodcutter it's going to really start to stink if he keeps it in bed with him much longer.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Fender Bass ... Moog 6 ... Gibson 12 ... Vox Amp ...

« on: July 27, 2008, 12:19:58 am »

I told 'em to make rock instruments ...

Version "e" has been fun for 48 hours, but life resumes and DF is back onto the shelf for awhile.

See y'all when I get a chance to play again.

Until then, protect the horde from skulking filth, keep the booze flowing, and hold back a rough gem or two for those strange moods ...

DF Bug Reports / [39e] Citizen Militia Lockup

« on: July 26, 2008, 05:29:34 am »

I'm fond of setting the "Hunting" task on large numbers of my citizens so they'll bear arms and act as a militia.

The downside to this choice is the tendency of the "hunter militia" to run off and hunt things instead of doing their more important "real" jobs. Many times a large group will go after the same prey.

That's where the bug comes in: Apparently when a bunch of hunters go after the same prey and that prey goes down, all or at least some of the hunters except the one who made the kill go brain-dead. They show the "Hunt" task so are not counted as idle but they don't do anything, they just stand there.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Dwarf Construction Songs

« on: February 28, 2008, 04:54:00 pm »

This song is how I imagine my Dwarves handle hazardous construction projects.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Torturing Nobles

« on: February 23, 2008, 06:53:00 pm »

Waterboarding doesn't work -- it just teaches Dwarves how to swim. I'm thinking some ideas from "Silence of the Lambs" might work better.

Some background: the Countess ordered an export restriction just as a caravan was leaving. She ordered 7 hammerstrikes against my Architect, to be delivered by Hammerdwarf.
Sadly I didn't see it coming or I would've keep the Hammerer locked in the internment camp.

I'm ready to move from simple internment to actual torture.

I'm thinking that what constitutes "torture" to a dwarf are those things that generate negative thoughts. Sleeping on a muddy floor is a good first start, a nice muddy pit like in "Silence of the Lambs".

What next though? I'm thinking if I throw chunks of rotten meat into the pit it will generate a continuous cloud of miasma.

Starvation and thirst are also excellent sources of discomfort, but thirst kills too quickly. I won't give her booze, so I'll have to channel a single tile for stagnant water, or maybe put her cell over an underground pool. She won't get a well; she'll have to drink directly from the muddy water.

Giving lavish accommodations to the Dungeon Master to make the Consort jealous is a little too abstract for the level of pain and despair I'm going for here.

Sunlight would be good -- unlike humans, who would hate a dank pit, dwarves would hate a sunny one -- except it would dissipate the miasma. I'd rather her be in a dark, stinking hole than a well-lighted, clean-smelling one.

Rotting clothes ... don't know how to accomplish that except with time.

Vermin ... I could find out what vermin she detests and put those into the pit with her. I don't know if they'll stay in the pit, though.

Killing her baby. Nope, not gonna go there. Once she goes insane and dies I'll teach the kid Masonry. He can build her a nice coffin.

Speaking of coffins, I'll take away the Consort's tomb. She won't like that. Her "burial" will be atop the goblin reclamation pile so her bones can be recycled into useful products for the fort, marking the first time she's ever made herself useful.

Awakened from sleep. This one's kind of tough. If I put a wild animal in her pit she'll be too terrified to have negative thoughts. I'm thinking this finally gives me a use for waterboarding, but now I need a complicated drainage system. Any ideas?

Anyway even if it's just a muddy pit filled with stinking miasma I'll have lots of positive thoughts on behalf of my innocent architect. I've staved off his death by locking the door to the prison -- apparently the Hammerer insists on chaining down her victims before she kills them -- but this incident has made clear to me that she and the Consort must die. The Duke ... collateral damage.

Pierced vital organ. Maybe dying of a spike trap malfunction is the worst way to go, since there's a good chance no one will bring her water to help her recover.

Any ideas?

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / DRAGON!

« on: February 21, 2008, 10:11:00 pm »

Hee hee, just got my first megabeast, a dragon!

Dragons are easily disabled but take a heck of a lot of punishment to actually kill.

They seriously mess up your buildings.

They can't seem to fly.

They seriously mess up your buildings. Did I say that twice?