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Topics - Fensfield

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1
DF Gameplay Questions / Tunnels and Merchants?
« on: April 29, 2010, 04:23:58 pm »
Well, I tried searching, but looking for worldgen tunnel topics on this forum is like looking for a needle in a haystack so.. I give up.

'Anyone know if merchants will spawn at underground map edges if there's a tunnel construction on the map from worldgen (0.31.03), and a Depot they can path to from there?  And if so, under what circumstances?

Also, where'd the wagons go? o.o

2
DF General Discussion / 2D or 3D Fort Design
« on: April 22, 2010, 05:46:25 pm »
Mostly just polling opinions for my own curiosity, but, how many people prefer to make heavy use of z-levels over large, primarily horizontal forts?

Lately I've taken to building my forts rather vertically, around a central column some 30 tiles wide that serves as a temporary fortress until the larger fortress around it has been dug out, and then as trade stores, defences, and military supply.  .. Also developed a nasty habit of digging out a chasm or sorts around that.  Both central column and later fort divide up into industrial levels, residential, military, service, etc..

The only point of problem with using vertical designs is it chews on the new burrows.

3
DF Gameplay Questions / Water Pressure.. Quirk?
« on: April 16, 2010, 08:44:28 pm »
Me again, this time with a question about water pressure:

http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-22813-theoddity

Why is my cistern not filling to the same water level as the lake outside?  It filled to one level lower after I opened the flood gates on the bottom level, despite the massive weight of the water surrounding.  Closing the gates for a few moments then re-opening them achieved nothing, too.

Is there a way to make it fill further without digging through the upper walls?  Will it stay this way if I leave the floodgates open permanently?  If yes on the latter, I may take advantage of this for a bit of secure well access but.. still it's a quirk I'd like explained all the same.

4
DF Gameplay Questions / How to avoid starting on ice? (Now With DFMA Link!)
« on: April 15, 2010, 04:36:08 am »
So I've just found this perfect map to build my fort on in the new release, I'm going to make it exactly what it is: a small, caldera-isolated Dwarven civilisation's gateway to the rest of the world.

There's a nice lake with a perfect point for a bridge to the wooded lands across from the mountains, and the world beyond.. but the lake starts frozen.  And my dwarves always decide they want to start right on top of the ice.  And then the lake melts before I can evacuate the starting goods (which was a pretty reasonable amount of stuff, frankly).

So help! x.x   How do I make my dwarves start somewhere that WON'T inevitably liquidate and either drown them all or just deny them their starting kit?

Also, is there a way to tell exactly which civilisation a settlement belongs to before embarking?  While I Think I have the isolated one selected, there are three Dwarven civilisations in the same area.

5
DF Gameplay Questions / Save File Not Recognised?
« on: April 13, 2010, 05:23:59 am »
Simple enough problem...

I started my new fort with the release of v0.31.01, and copying the save to DF 0.31.02 worked fine.  However, now that I've downloaded v0.31.03 and copied my save from the previous 2010 versions into it.. the game can't see my fort any more; simply doesn't give me the option to continue it.

Any suggestions on fixing it?  The newly created world I gen'd to make sure everything was working straight is working so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the game itself..

6
DF Gameplay Questions / A Tileset / 2010 Question Search Couldn't Answer..
« on: April 04, 2010, 02:15:32 pm »
Well, sorry for another tileset topic, but I couldn't find a topic with an answer or this seemed relevant to post in.

I've been trying to make Savok's tileset, SmoothWalls ( http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Tileset_repository#Dorten ) work with the new DF release, but thus far, all I've gotten was a black screen with a single, blue-ish tile in the top left (though the game itself did seem to be working, sans graphics).

I've used Photoshop to convert the .png image into an 8-bit .bmp file, and to my knowledge I've given it the correct numbers for resolution and grid size (Windowed: Grid 142x106 / 1278x954 resolution given the tileset is 9x9/720x225), as well as trying it with Black Space on and off.. it makes no difference.

'Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?  I know people have put up a working download setup to run Mayday's graphics set but, well, I don't like it personally, good though it may be.  I'll use it if pressed but.. I'd really rather work out what's stopping me using the above linked ASCII job that I've worked with for so long.

7
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Designating causes lag? o.O
« on: July 28, 2009, 06:30:31 am »
So, I have two big projects on in my fortress.  The first, is the hollowing out of a large, square chasm, from layer below the surface, to the lowest level of the map, around a kind of internal 'central tower'.  Normally I'd cave the whole thing in, however, unfortunately there are some important gubbinz on level -11 that cross the chasm, so I'll have to carve around them until -12.  Besides, my entry tunnel overhangs before bridging into the tower, and I want to carve out some nice support strut-y things under it.

Anyhow, the other project is a four layer deep cistern inside the middle of the tower ( the aforementioned gubbinz is its aqueduct ).  At the moment, its busy filling ( just beginning to fill level 2 ).

As you can imagine, my game is presently lagging rather heavily.  Population of nine dwarves, and four animals roaming free, and at present my FPS averages at 35.  .. And I've just noticed something weird.

On completion of the last layer of digging, my FPS sky-rocketed to 98~100 despite the water still flowing into the cistern, only to plummet once more once I'd designated and set my four legendary miners to work on the next 35x35 or so wide layer of the chasm ( -9 ).

So.. designating/mining out a large-ish area causes significantly more lag than filling a chamber with water via a 3 layer drop, from an underground river across the map? o.o;

8
DF Gameplay Questions / Reclaiming, and event flags
« on: February 18, 2009, 03:50:34 pm »
Simple question, really.  If I reclaim a fortress, on a map where I discovered a bottomless pit and a cave river, would the cave spider/silk and tower cap/underground flora flags still be activated, or would the map no longer generate these things after I reclaim?

S'just, I seem to have triggered a glitch that's jammed the merchants on my map, and might lead to the starvation of all my dwarves >.>;  And the whole point of this fortress involves cave flora ( Orbglades - you figure it out ).

9
DF Suggestions / Naming Point
« on: February 17, 2009, 08:33:53 pm »
Well, just a thought I had, after moving to a new map and discovering the landscape allowed for some really somewhat awesome defensive strategies.. which I would probably have named it after had I known beforehand.

Why not shift naming the fortress forward to a moment after you embark?  Oh keep group naming where it is, that's for when you set out, but really, just how many settlements are named prior to the arrival of their founders?

Moving the point at which you name your fortress forward, to after you've had your first glimpse of the area you'll be playing in at gameplay level, would allow for circumstance to have an affect of players' choice on name and all, right?

10
DF Gameplay Questions / Water-Based Cleaning System
« on: February 12, 2009, 04:51:03 pm »
Just wondering if my understanding of water in DF is right, and this will work.

When a siege entrance works.. it leaves behind rather a lot of garbage and items to be hauled off, and often isn't cleaned before the next wave of attackers turns up.  So I wonder...

If I could poor a large amount of water through the siege entrance, and down into a pit with grates in the bottom (likely having retracted a bridge over the pit), would the water wash all the stuff down there for safe collection?

11
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / On 'Mechanisms'
« on: February 10, 2009, 09:11:20 am »
Okay, someone'll probably be mad at me for asking this, but...

What are mechanisms?

Initially, I figured they just represented a collection of various gears and the like, the connection point between two pieces of machinery.

But then I realised they work over distances.. well, one could Sort of rationalise that as long distance axles and gears and stuff.

.. But then, of course, I realised a mechanism could operate totally disconnected from its control point.  A lever can manipulate a floodgate across the map on the other side of an un-bridged, miles deep chasm, for instance.  Or if you turn of cave-ins - through mid-air!

So, what, dwarves are too backward to use electricity but they can make practical use of quantum entanglement or something? o.o;

12
DF Gameplay Questions / Wheels and Lakes..?
« on: January 30, 2009, 04:41:16 pm »
Well, simple question, barring the use of perpetual motion machines ( don't want to devalue my project, I can use windmills in the end, it'd just be way, WAY easier to use wheels ), is there a way to use waterwheels continuously with only a lake in the local area?  Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there's no easy means of drainage available.  No chasm, bottomless pit, or aquifer.. I need to gather about 700 power for a magma pumping tower

13
DF Gameplay Questions / Large Bodies of Water, and Large Numbers of Z Levels
« on: January 26, 2009, 11:30:43 am »
Me again!

Anyway, a fortress megaproject I want to try, involves finding a large body of water, with a large number of Z-Levels above.  The only time I've seen these, is at lakes bordering mountain ranges - but oftentimes these have no neighbours but dwarves, no arable land, have less than useful weather ( though that's somewhat optional, I guess.. ) and no magma.

Basically, I was wondering if anyone can suggest good values to input into the world designer to give me a high chance of finding a site bordering a large body of water, say a lake or ocean, over which there are a significant number of Z-Levels ( rather than the base 15 ), preferably with arable land.  In addition, I'd also either need temporary freezing of the water, or a magma pipe or volcano - both's better, but either will do, though perma-frozen water would render the idea a tad bit pointless so I'd prefer to avoid that, if possible.  Aquifers, again, would be best avoided but no biggie if unavoidable.

The adjustments I've made so far, are basically just minimum Volcanism to 21, max temperature to 55.  Everything else I've tried seems to cause infinite rejects.

Sorry, strange post, I know ^^;

14
DF Gameplay Questions / Question about Freezing, mostly on periods...
« on: January 25, 2009, 05:04:12 pm »
I'm on a long, thin map, attempting to create a tower fortress in/over a large, freshwater lake.  It comprises three biomes - two lake, one forest, all three marked temperate.

Now, on arrival, I discovered carp.. lots of them.  Not a good thing, but I pressed on, only for the entire map to be unexpectedly inundated with snow, freezing everything from later autumn to early spring, killing the carp in the process.

Thus, I revised my plans - rather than trying to use obsidian, I would come from below, digging a tunnel through the ice with each successive winter and working on the above ground preparations during the thaw periods.  All went well.. and then the freeze didn't come during the second year late autumn, leaving me more than a little perplexed.  So I quietly worked at the above ground, hoping it'd freeze eventually.. and it did, mid-winter, so I quickly set to work - only to have the lake un-freeze with only ten tiles of tunnel complete before it was even late winter.

Why the sudden change in freeze patterns? o.o  I've never seen this before; not only did the freeze come half a season later than predicted, but it lasted a Very short time compared to the previous year, and only the lake biomes froze this time while the forest ( which froze last year ), remained the same.  In previous games, freeze patterns were pretty constant.. or seemed to be.

So is there something I missed?  Is there some factor that governs whether or not a biome freezes, and for how long?  And, indeed, though I seriously doubt it - some way of influencing it?  The version I'm playing is v40d(9).

15
DF Suggestions / Secret Tunnels / Entrances and Dynamic BGMs
« on: January 23, 2009, 11:37:41 am »
Well, just two things that popped to mind... so I'm setting them down here for people to poke.

First off, wouldn't it be nice if there were some day a good, characterful use for secret tunnels, or entrances?  The sort one accesses through false walls and come out of bushes and stuff, for sneaking out important characters during a takeover ( since right now, abandonment seems to basically do for your dwarves, and the only other end condition is death ).  Maybe now that world map-mobile armies are coming in, it might actually be possible to have a caravan flee a falling fortress, set up shop somewhere else after escaping, and reclaim their home some day in the future?  Again, just generally thinking it'd be a cool element.. especially if there were something to gain from escaping as opposed to abandoning and reclaiming bar persistent dwarves ( though that in itself seems kinda nice ).

Second, seeing as DF seems to be aiming to someday be able to make really dynamic worlds that can shift and change in response to inside actions and such.. perhaps some kind of dynamic BGM system would be warranted ( understandably late in development of course ), ala something like.. well, Dead Space.  That had a music system designed to adjust volume, music presence and music being played based on enemy visibility, location, situation and events.. though I realise, its actually simpler for a game like Dead Space than it is for DF.

Just random ideas, that'd bother me 'til I fielded them >.>

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