Bay 12 Games Forum

     I'm playtesting a mod that replaces nearly all creatures and many plants, and am getting a crash when trying to load my saved game. Previously I had been getting embark crashes, but figured out the problem (was related to the necessary inclusion of a plant with [LEAVES]) and embark is successful 100% of the time. Playtesting was going perfectly, and I saved and loaded a couple times as the seasons progressed. However, after the first winter I saved and exited DF entirely to do some rl stuff. When I came back and tried to load, it crashes. Nothing in errorlog.

     Anyone seen anything like this before? Any ideas? Really don't want to test file-by-file if it means playing through to winter each time.

Originally:

                  <- surface
XXXXXXXX    <- clay
XXXXXXXX    <- black sand
XXXXXXXX    <- yellow sand (AQUIFER)

I performed the following works (W = water):

                 <- surface
X  XXXX  X   <- clay
X           X   <- black sand
XXWWWXX   <- yellow sand (AQUIFER)

The block of clay fell into the aquifer-pond as intended. However, the "plug" now appears to be yellow sand, not clay, and acts like an aquifer itself (fills with water when I try to dig through). The plug size is 12x12, and I tried to dig through the exact center.

I've plugged aquifers before without a problem.... what's going on here?


Edit: I tried a new staircase a couple tiles away from my original, and this time it went through without a problem. What the heck?

     When I dug the first staircase there was still 2/7 and 3/7 water swishing around from where the plug has displaced it from the layer below... maybe this somehow caused the plug tiles to bug and "think" that they were aquifer tiles?

     I'm finishing up the next version of the Mesozoic Dwarves mod, and was getting a "crash on embark" bug that I finally narrowed down to the lowly Quarry Bush.

     I made the following observations during testing, the results of which may be interesting/useful to the modding community, unless someone else has already come across this issue. Each test was done on a newly generated world:

- Quarry Bush excluded entirely; embark crashes.
- Quarry Bush included; no crashes.
- I removed all of the growing seasons from Quarry Bush; no crashes.
With all growing seasons removed:
- I reduced the number of [LEAVES] harvested from Quarry Bush to just 1; no crashes.
- I removed [LEAVES] from Quarry Bush entirely; crashes.
- I removed [LEAVES] and added a [DRINK] to Quarry Bush; crashes.
- I reintroduced [LEAVES:1], removed [DRINK], and replaced [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_WATER] with [BIOME:ANY_LAND]; no crashes.
- I added [GOOD]; crashes (even in a "Good" biome).
- I removed [GOOD] and replaced [BIOME:ANY_LAND] with [BIOME:ANY_FOREST]; no crashes (even embarking on non-forest biomes).
- I replaced [BIOME:ANY_FOREST] with [BIOME:GLACIER]; no crashes.
- I removed all biome tags entirely, including [WET] and [DRY]; no crashes.
- With all biome tags (and season tags) removed, I also removed all seed tags; no crashes.
- Just to confirm, I additionally removed [LEAVES]; crashes.
- I added [LEAVES:0]; no crashes.

    After doing these tests, I found a statement by Toady saying that the [LEAVES:6] for Quarry Bush actually refers to the ASCII tile, meaning that the Wiki is wrong. http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=10541.0
    I also found a thread about an old (and apparently fixed) problem with Quarry Bush, which may or may not be related to this issue. http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=1325.0

    In addition, note that Quarry Bush is the only vanilla plant that produces [LEAVES]. I had modded in an aboveground plant that produces [LEAVES], but it was [EVIL].

CONCLUSION: The game requires that there be some [LEAVES] producing plant in the raws, even if it grows nowhere naturally, has no growing seasons, and has no seeds to grow it from even if there were a valid growing season. This imaginary plant that grows nowhere can't be limited to GOOD or EVIL biomes, however.
     Why? I still have no idea.

Additional Potential Testing: Would a [LEAVES] plant with no biomes, seeds, or growing season still prevent crashes on season changes?


   If you're doing further testing, keep in mind that these crashes don't happen at every embark attempt. Sometimes five or more embarks would be successful before I got a crash. I usually attempted 7-8 embarks before concluding that the change didn't cause crashes. The crashes occurred when pressing "e" from the site-finder screen, when moving to the "Play now!' etc screen, not the embark-from-preparation screen (didn't test these).

PS: Mesozoic Dwarves 1.0 will be available in a couple of days.

   I have rudimentary graphics ready for the dinosaurs from my Mesozoic Dwarves mod, which is part of the Mega Mix. The graphics aren't included in my version 0.9 download from DFFD since I was planning to release them with version 1.0 after the next DF release, but I can go ahead and send you the files if you want to use them for this project.

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=26858.0

What is a keg hammer?

No matter how heavy it is, your dwarves should be able to move it . . . slowly.

What is the best animal for breeding purposes.  I hear that a crock grow up fast and make for great breeding but cows seem to take too long and cats/dogs don’t seem to give enough meet.

If by "crock" you mean crocodiles, then yes, they would make excellent farm animals since their products are very valuable and they are large. Cows are a good choice for starting because they are more valuable than horses/donkeys/dogs/cats, and they reproduce just as quickly as most other animals.

When choosing farm animals, try to get creatures that have both a large size and a high modvalue. Modvalues can be found here: http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Modvalue