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Topics - sweitx

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DF Suggestions / Designate Minecart route as riding route.

« on: May 27, 2013, 04:38:26 pm »

I'm surprised that this wasn't suggested before.
My idea here is that you can designate a minecart route as passenger route.
When dwarf tries to reach its destination through pathfinding (assuming A* pathfinding algorithm). Once it encounter a stop that part of a desginate Minecart route, it will take that route into consideration based on an assumed speed on the route (say, assume the cart always travels at 0.25 tiles/tick).
For multiple dwarfs using the same stop, each successful path using the stop will increase that stop's pathing cost by a certain amount (so you don't get all your fortress dwarf waiting at the stop because the route using that stop is the "shortest" for them all).

So, you can setup a kind of minecart network that allow you to shuttle dwarfs over long distance automatically (they'll take a cart to get there if it's a shorter route, or the only route).

DF General Discussion / Procedural City Generation?

« on: August 06, 2010, 02:45:57 pm »

Since Toady is figuring out how to make, cities and towns. Not sure if he knows about this.

http://citygen.net/

Granted it's about modern city, but maybe this could help?

DF Suggestions / A DFMA style side view.

« on: June 29, 2010, 03:33:19 pm »

Depending on difficulty of implementation, I suggest a way to view/designate your fortress from the side view as an alternative to top-down.

Similar to how in DFMA there's a way to see your fortress as a vertical cross-section.

This should help designate long up-down stair-cases.

DF Suggestions / Animal sorting + filter.

« on: December 09, 2009, 05:10:59 pm »

I notice a problem when trying to organize butchering of animals...
While it looks like it's nicely sorted by date of birth (kill the old one, keep the young ones to make new ones), it get unwieldy when you have a couple dozen different tame animals.

So a suggestion for the ability to filter the butchery screen to narrow down on the type of animal you want.

DF Suggestions / More comprehensive weather effects.

« on: November 19, 2009, 03:14:21 pm »

I only see a few scattering suggestion of DF implementing a lot more weather effects. So here's a few.

1. Rain - while rain exist in DF, it doesn't actually do much (beside filling pond). A suggestion that different level of rains, with equivalent effect as followed.
A. Drizzle - A fixed chance for each raindrop to leave 1/7 water on the ground (maybe 1/3 of the time)
B. Rain - A higher chance of leaving 1/7 water on the ground (maybe 2/3 of the time)
C. Downpour - Ever raindrop will leave a 1/7 water on the ground. This can quickly flood the map and require a good drainage system to handle.

2. Hail - each stone landing may cause a bludgeoning damage on creatures if hits. This should probably wait for a release that can guarantee that all dwarf stay underground when ordered.

3. Dust storm - given DF world seem to simulate rain shadow (and wind direction by the look of it), sandstorm should only occur in desert or areas downwind of a desert. In a desert, each surface sand tile can potentially spawn a cloud of sand (should behave similar to dragon breath in mechanics). Dwarf caught in it receives unhappy thoughts and may be blinded for a while (if blinding if implemented). In non-desert map, a cloud (similar to miasma, except they move in a set direction) will spawn from the direction of the incoming wind and sweep across the screen.

4. Snow - Similar to rain, but should not leave water (to prevent random ice wall from suddenly appearing). May give possible mood instead of negative (do dwarf like snow?).

5. Flood - Was in old 2D dwarf. In 3D, flood maybe handled by having an "artificial" wall surrounding the map boundary (in short, water can't drain out until they "overflow" that artificial wall). Then the river can generate 7/7 blocks of water on top of itself (or on the bank), this will slowly fill out the level right above the water line, potentially flooding the fortress if un-mitigated.

Anymore idea is good.

DF Suggestions / Trading Depot + Trade Liason

« on: May 22, 2009, 02:20:43 pm »

I just thought of a slightly different system.
Instead of having a trade liason (who travels with no guard and dies easily, and give no advance warning for you to send a contingency of guard), give Trade Depot an option to open a "Request Screen". The screen will be identical to the one used with trade liason, and can be opened and modified at any point while the caravan AND the trader is at the Trade Depot.

DF General Discussion / Get well soon.

« on: May 13, 2009, 10:04:27 am »

Don't push yourself too hard Toady.

Get well soon.

DF Suggestions / Modify military loadout screen, two weapons per unit

« on: May 11, 2009, 03:28:19 pm »

This is an extension/simplification of an idea found in this.

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=4805.0

Namely, change the military's weapon selection to the one similar to shield selection, where you just toggle through available weapon.
I would suggest that military dwarf be able to hold two weapons of different type and different purpose, or use something as followed.

[Main Hand]
[Off Hand]
[Ranged]
[Armor]

For main hand and off hand, you can select weapons or shield for it. So you can have a dual shield-wielding dwarf who just bash their opponent to death with their shield. A dual weapon wielding dwarf who slices through enemy like a blender. Or a basic loadout with weapon on main and shield on off hand.
And most dwarf should be able to hold a reserve weapon. So you can have a spartan like loadout (sword in main, shield in off-hand, spear in ranged).
In combat, a dwarf will use the ranged weapon when applicable, and will not rearm the reserved weapon. So a dwarf with a spear in ranged slot will toss it first before switching to its main weapon. Unless they encounter in melee range, then the dwarf will skip the tossing of ranged weapon part.

DF Suggestions / Travelling band wagon.

« on: May 04, 2009, 03:54:50 pm »

A new type of depot, Wagon Depot.
The bandwagon is similar to a trade caravan, but instead of carrying trade good, they carry dwarf/diplomats/liason.

1. Diplomat - A diplomat will come with a guarded wagon and drive it into the Wagon depot before exiting to meet with your "leaders". When they're done meeting, the diplomat will return to the wagon and leave with it. If the wagon is destroyed, the guard will follow the diplomat (or maybe a diplomat follow a guard) back out the map on foot.

2. Trade Liason - Same as diplomat, except the wagon spawn alongside the trade caravan.

3. Immigrants - A single wagon will contain multiple dwarf and will arrive at your fortress Oregon trail style.

DF Suggestions / Refinement to metal industry.

« on: May 04, 2009, 03:34:10 pm »

Here's are a few things that doesn't seem to make much sense for metal industry.
1. Melting
The return from melting down items are far lower then it should be. For example, making plate mail require 3 bars of metal, yet melting down to only 9/10 of a bar. The ratio should be higher (recovery of around 90% should be possible).

2. Furnace Operating Skill
Related to melting, the amount of bar returned should be related to the skill of the Furnace operating skill. A low skilled furnace operator would successfully "smelt" or "melt" a fraction of the ore/item. At the same time it should generate a new refuse "<metal type> slag". The slag can be smelted by future, more skilled furnace operator to refine out the metals missed by previous melting/smelting attempt. The slag can have a similar behavior as a cage, where it holds a certain number of metal pieces (1/10 of a bar) that can only be extracted by a skilled furnace operator.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Magma melting ice

« on: May 01, 2009, 07:27:44 pm »

I am seriously considering embarking in a tundra area with a magma vent and no aquifer. This is what I want to know.

I know that magma can melt ice. But if you remove the magma later, do the ice refreeze (when exposed to air)?
Because this is what I want to do to get infinite water.

1. Carve a 2x10 room below the ice sheet for future magma chamber (20 square).
2. Carve a 2x10 room next to the ice sheet that will be melted (20 squares).
3. Setup magma chamber so it can be filled and emptied.

Code: [Select]

 
##..
##..
##..
##..
##.H
##.H
##..
##.. 
##..
##..

# - ice sheet with a magma chamber below
. - empty floor space (not exposed to surface)
H - hatch to the underground reservoir.
So the water generation sequence is...
1. Make sure hatch is closed.
2. Fill magma chamber.
3. Melted ice will spread out, creating a 3/7 depth water everywhere (assuming it melts to a depth 6)
4. Channel away roof above.
5. Empty magma chamber, wait for water to freeze into blocks.
6. Open hatch, drain water.
7. Repeat from step 1 for more water.

So, will this work?

DF Suggestions / Stockpile Overhaul

« on: April 23, 2009, 11:29:02 pm »

Got a few ideas for improving the current stockpile system. Quite a few of these are also suggested before, but placed here to consolidate.

1. Re-designate Stockpile
Give stockpile a similar ability to a room to "resize" it. So when used, the player can move a custom stockpile around, expand, or shrink it without having to go into the custom settings to set them up again. The old stockpile will be deleted when it's redesignated.

2. Multiple Stockpile "take" destination
Suggested before, and not sure why the limitation is there, but a stock pile that can only have one other stockpile taking from it, this makes food/alcohol distribution in a fortress more difficult since one essentially have to daisy chain the stockpiles, creating un-necessary hauling. Of course, having this ability lead to...

3. Maintain stock
Important for food, alcohol, and ammos. This may require an interface change to allow maintaining a certain number of stock in a stockpile by taking from its source pile (the stockpile to take from). It can be something like the number of allowed barrel setting, except in this case the stockpile tries to fill up a certain number squares in it.

4. Workshop Input/Output Stock
Ability for a workshop to designate one or more stockpile as its input. And either as a global order or workshop specific orders, require the workshop to use available raw material from the stockpile first (except when the dwarf is in mood). This will allow a better control of item creation and more efficiency. Having output stockpile that is an input stockpile for another workshop will further improve it. It will be a plus, but probably not by much.

5. "Carting" Stockpile
This could be a partial solution to post battle hauling. Allow a stockpile to generate a sort of temporary extension out onto the battlefield. If deemed closer, the dwarf will haul the items onto said stockpile, and once full (or ordered), a dwarf will bulk carry the item on the stockpile back to the original stockpile.

6. "Pitting" Stockpile
This could either be a pit designation with stockpile interface or a stockpile with a "pit all on stockpile" option. Allow you to auto-pit specific items (goblin narrow clothes? down the magma it goes). Of course, a system to prevent quantum pitting should be in place to prevent abuse.

7. "One-way" Stockpile
Good for the legendary artifact and what not, a stockpile that auto-designate anything place in it as forbidden, until you un-forbid it (the designation is only given when it is placed on the stockpile).

8. "Immigration" Stockpile
Maybe works better as a zone, but an area to "store" immigrating dwarf and give you time before you "integrate" them into your society. This is from a desire to create a genuine form of an "airlock" system to ensure the inner fortress never have a path to the outside world (all build job outside is completed by drafting a crap-load expendable dwarf, get them to haul building materials/food/alcohol to the airlock, cycle it, and commence building).
And that's what I have so far.

DF General Discussion / The Saying of Urist McMurphy (aka DF Murphy's Law)

« on: April 21, 2009, 02:22:13 pm »

I don't remember seeing one here, so i want to see what Murphy's law type anecdote can be applied to Dwarf Fortress. Here some to start.

1. The Law of Siege - "If a siege occurs, it will happen at the worst possible time, and at a worst possible place."
2. The Law of Uselessness - "The life expectancy of a dwarf is proportional to its uselessness."
3. The Law of Military Readiness - "Your military will be unavailable at the only time it's needed."

Anyone have more?

DF General Discussion / Maybe dumb question about Dwarven owned items.

« on: April 17, 2009, 12:08:21 am »

I don't see it in Toady's todo list. So I'm not sure if its not being fixed or its just not listed. But...

Is there a plan to figure out how to get dwarf to discard/change out old cloth that have been severely worn?

Also confiscating items from dwarfs?

DF Suggestions / Irrigation Ideas

« on: April 03, 2009, 05:53:02 pm »

This might have been suggested a few times before. But I'm thinking about a few way to improve farming so its' not TOO easy while not being severely nerfed.

Irrigation:
I have a few idea about irrigations that would make more sense then the current flooding system.
1. Farm plot should require frequent irrigation. Each square of farm plot should keep track a certain numbers of "irrigation points". While a crop is being grown on it, the crop will take irrigation points in order to grow (if it cannot do so after a couple of consecutive times, the crop dies). Irrigation points can also be lost through simple evaporation (a certain points lost every day). When the farm plot runs nearly dry, there can be several ways of refilling the farm plot.
a. Farm plot issues an order for dwarf to grab a bucket, fill it with water, and dump it on the plot. (Good)
b. Farm plot "grabs" a unit of water from a channel within range. (OK).
c. Farm plot requires small flooding to refill (OK as long as the flooding won't kill the plants).
(a) is a good idea since it gives dwarf something to do and make it a more labor intensive process to grow food (can adjust the number of irrigation points being refilled per bucket, higher = less intensive).
(b) still requires you to setup irrigation system, but with a bonus of not needing much in term dwarf labors.
(c) might not be preferable, since it involve flooding the entire farm and potentially killing plants (unless its setup such that high pressure waterflow won't kill crops and only prolonged submerssion underwater can kill it). Of course, to use this mode would require the farm plot to retain a high level of irrigation point so you won't have to re-irrigate the plot frequently.

Fertilization:
Similar idea as above, each farm plot square will have a certain number of fertility points, depleted over time as each crop is being grown (some crop uses it more then other). The final crop amount should depend on how much fertility points it can obtain during its growth. The amount of fertility point each crop can receive should also depend on how much there are (so a highly fertile land gets better crop). The farm plot can be set to attempt to maintain a certain level of fertility by requesting dwarves to put fertilizer on it.