Bay 12 Games Forum

You've got a nice idea, but if I were you I'd try to think more in terms of the medium you're using to build with.  For instance, try having a single "unit" (really 7) of water be moved around in a line of pressure plates, one way or the other depending on which pump etc. is triggered.  The result would be inefficient in terms of output compression, but you can probably work around that in other ways; it'll be a lot simpler from the number of pumps needed alone!

Simple enough; the player should be able to make squads of creatures of the same type in arena mode, and give them commands like in dwarf mode (although more simplified, i.e. no schedualing/equipment/etc.)  Do this, and then DF will finally support some ad hoc competative play as well, with players hotseating to control their own squads in an epic battle (or slaughter, as the case may be).

Sorry guys, no more work on this unless Toady brings in a few new features that'd make it a lot easier; even then, I'll start a new thread for it. 

At least now you have a reason to keep the kid alive instead of feeding him to the baron's pet alligator.  I sugest you use the time until he grows up to set up an obsidian farm or something.

If you need 360 LoS, you can always go to the fortrified rooftop; a more restricted main viewport helps for setting up good firing lanes though. All told, you seem to have a fair concept of fields of fire, but for those who don't know:

What you need to do is find a relatively small area(s) through which the enemy must travel to get to your fort, this will be your first chokepoint (or series of chokepoints, if you have multiple entrances). Put a couple of pillboxes with lines of sight restricted so that they can only see inside this chokepoint or closer towards your fort. Then find another, such that the goblins must pass the first chokepoint to reach the next. Set up as long a series of chokepoints as you can, all the way up to your gate.  The gate itself you should turn into a killing ground, like a chokepoint but with no exit; let the goblins get in the first gate then get shot at from all sides when they're trapped (this is why castles had courtyards).

When the gobbos come, make two or more fire groups of marksdwarves, then set them up in stages at the chokepoints.  When a group runs out of ammo, have them fall back to a central stockpile.  When they've regrouped and rearmed, send them to the next empty chokepoint the gobbos haven't gotten to yet.  When they get to the killing field, regroup all squads there but open up only once the outer gate is closed...  If any gobbos remain outside then you can just let them in once the first group is dead; but if the AI is ever upgraded it might be better to then and only then fire apon them from convex ramparts and wide-view firing positions.


Another thought is to have hidden (well, blocked by raised bridge more likely) sally ports out in the open from which squads of axedwarves could jump out and dispatch pesky archers; as with all melee combat this is risky, but it might become necessary if when Toady gives the gobbos some Fun new ways to go-a-gatecrashing (literally, in this case).

No, it wouldn't; not if I understand what he's saying.  How I understand it is that there's only seven units of water in the entire system, which means that only one gate could possibly be open at once.

Example:
~->.
^##|
|##v
.<-.
There's only one water availible to use, and it moves around from one spot to the next.  You'll need to hook up a failsafe or two though; I suggest you put a manual override to flush the system by using pumps to remove all water, then measure and dispense fresh water. This can all be done step-by-step with lever pulls, hopefully you won't need it. (But if you need it, you really will...)  Also, I'd recommend that you set the plates to 4-7 or even 3-7 or 2-7, so if the water does get spread out then you'll still be able to operate the gates.  Whichever way you do it though, there isn't any chance that all four gates will be open at once (although 2-3 might be open at the same time).


Your biggest challange will be pathfinding though; the computer doesn't know that if it walks onto that plate it can keep moving forewards!

If by power problems you mean CPU power, that's why I wanted to use water pressure.  The way water pressure works is that water gets "teleported" from one spot to another, so that means very little water is actually moving.

Lol, don't you mean "EX-PROJECT"?