Bay 12 Games Forum

I understand that, with prisoners, chaining them and giving them a "bedroom" environment will keep them cheery while they serve their durance vile.

Does the same apply to long-term hospital bedcases? 

Does "stress" effect long-term visitors to the fortress? (at least, such that I should care?)

With each of these, do they want the standard "cabinet + chest" pair to go w/ their bed? Easier to dig/furnish the minimum 1-tile niche for guests if I can get away with it, but perfectly fine w/ expanding if that's the safer route.

I try to make standard bedrooms 4 (or 5) tiles big, to include the default "bed, cabinet & chest" trio, with the extra room for an item (or two) for preferences. Is that a plan for visitors and long-term patients as well? 

Any other "design" suggestions for hospital rooms/visitor rooms?

Long time player, back after a break of a few versions, with one of several questions before striking the earth yet again...

Last version I played, you put your dwarves in leather armor and then added a metal breastplate over that. Similarly a metal cap w/ helmet on top of that, etc.  Now* it seems that leather is not longer the go-to, but you can add a mail shirt (or 3?) under the plate?

I don't want to micromanage for absoloute optimization (as one might in Adventurer mode), so what is the "standard" of good fortress armor now?

I have graphics envy.

I see screenshots that are crisp and vibrant, and... yeah, time to upgrade from the vanilla ascii.  As it says in the Wiki, "...make it easier for players to tell what is happening onscreen".  Yes, please.

But to what? Can someone recommend a tileset/graphicset combo, or at least line me out on some I should look at first? (I could load every one and do my own compare/contrast, but... erm...)


In order, my priorities are...

1) FPS - can't put a big load on my old dino computer or its antique graphics card. (I spent all my money on a new laptop, but my big monitor is still off my box.)

2) Clarity - These poor eyes are almost as bad as that computer.

3) Square - If(?) that means what I think it means. I'd like a 10x10 room to look square, not rectangular.

4) Style - I know, "in the eye of the beholder", but maybe not ~too~ cartoony. I like walls that flow, I like the colors to be lively.

 Beyond that - 5x5? 16x16? Tilesize? Graphicset vs. Tileset size??? No habla, no comprende. Monitor resolution is currently 1152 x 864, but I can certainly live with tweaking that some if necessary.

Screenshots are apprectiated, or just a link to another thread w/ screenshot, tyvm!

Well, one of my dwarfs has an infected toe.

He was in a fight with an anaconda early on, before the hospital was operating at full power, and it was the only real injury the fort's had so far - mashed toe, and it's been a full season now.

It was early in the fort - had a running water source, and had soap but it might not have been hauled to the hospital, so hard to say if that was part of it - but now it is what it is.

Now that it's here, any way to fight it other then wait and hope for the best? 

Hospital now has a shower for all who enter/exit, and is fully stocked with the best rattlesnake soap*, so I was thinking re-injuring him (pro'ly a cave in?) and sending him back thru for a second round with all the bells and whistles, maybe first stripping him naked (or at least dumping the sock/shoe on that foot) and sending him thru the wash, etc., see if that gets it done.

(* accept no substitutes!)


Anyone had any luck with something like that, or know it's no help, or any other tactic one way or another?

In the latest version of the game, the wiki says wooden "training weapons" are "useless in combat" - is that also true if they are used in weapon traps?  I've got a lot planned, and at 10 weapons/trap even one extra "thwap" is better than nothing.

Even if they can't hurt anything if put into a weapon trap, would they still cause a target to try to dodge (and possibly fall into a conveniently adjacent pit)?  Just trying to think of a use for the cheap wooden weapons that caravans bring (before I have my glass/metal industry magma-powered).


(I know that training spears can be used for danger rooms, and wooden axes can chop down trees - but beyond that, and for any wooden swords...)

"Urist likes... short swords...".

With a preference for short swords, it's known that Urist then will, on average, craft better shortswords (metal ones via Weaponsmith, wooden "training" ones via Carpenter, and obsidian ones via Stonecrafter).

But does that make Urist a better swordsdwarf? And (altho' I'm guessing "no") ~if~ so, then would a preference for crossbows make a dwarf a better marksdwarf, and/or a better "hammerdwarf" when using a crossbow to beat on someone, and what would a preference for bolts do for a marksdwarf?


Note - Nothing in the wiki implies so; the ~only~ reason I'm asking is that I have an immigant hammerdwarf who "likes short swords", and Dwarf Therapist, under its "Roles" grid, thinks that weapon preferences do have a distinct influence, and I then wondered where that came from, and if there is any evidence that it in fact helps or whether that's just pure 3rd-party confusion.

(Edit - I guess a dwarf holding a high quality weapon would get better thoughts if they preferred that weapon... not sure if that's worth retraining...)

K, I know computers a bit, but am new to the whole /plug-in and /script thing for DF. Is there a simple "How to" to walk me thru it the first time, how to add the diff scripts etc.?  All I know about a .lua is that it's a Hawaiian feast.

(I can load the vanilla version via init.example - just not sure where to go beyond that, nor how.)


Also - as I understand it, there's a plug-in(?) that allows more control thru workshops, to specify the material you want to use - specifying a material for color for levers, or a dwarf's preferred material for furniture, rather than just "whatever's closest - or so" and hoping stockpile manipulation does what you want it to.

tia!~

Embarked, and saw several "brown recluse spider man webs" in the area. Does that mean that they'll spawn, or have a (stronger?) chance to?


Another reason I ask, is that in the (surprisingly uninformative) wiki article they're labeled as "savage", and this embark is "sinister" (Evil/Benign), which makes me wonder if that tag means what I think it means. :/

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Brown_recluse_spider_man


Lastly, if/when I do meet something like this, how tough are they, typically?  I'm guessing it's best to deal with them via marksdwarves (or cage traps), just avoid the no-stun/no-pain/webs/syndrome threat w/ anything melee-based?