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Messages - FourierSeries

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 6
1
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Demon resident. Cloth size?
« on: February 02, 2024, 03:05:16 pm »
As usual I feel I have the gist of it rather than the exact details, so a shaker of sodium chloride kept on hand is advised.

Proper demons come in two varieties, unique and non-unique. Unique are the ones what lead goblin civilizations. Non-unique are the regular mob of trash you'd find when you gate crash the "circus". Regarding armor, they're huge. Regarding skills, an equally skilled dwarf usually will lose to an equally skilled demon due to various special abilities the demons have. Incidentally, while a demon's fighting skills are always good, dwarven soldiers who have been training for many years should greatly outmatch them skill-wise.

Meanwhile, necromancers. These guys can create various creatures: unintelligent or intelligent undead, and experiments.

In spite of the name I don't think what you have on hand is a proper demon. It's a necromancer experiment. They are highly variable in form, size, and composition. You said it is "small", which suggests dwarf/elf sized armor. I could be wrong though and small in this case means smaller than a dwarf. Anyway, as far as fighting goes, tied in with their own special abilities an experiment would be a durable opponent, but they are not on par with real demons.

Also, you should be able to look at it and see what it's wearing. Fair warning, it might just be bare assed naked with no armor at all. Squint a little to blur things up a bit before you look.

2
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: I'm trying to tame creatures from a siege
« on: January 31, 2024, 10:30:43 am »
There are four approaches to the problem of getting past untrainable invaders I am aware of.

1) The strict disciplinarian classic/traditional flotational fall-back approach: magma training.

2) The wacky make it somebody else's problem indirect method: trade 'em to the elves. Elves'll bring back tame examples next year. Or, eventually. Maybe. Nota bene, ignore any peanut gallery commentary about aggressive, untrainable creatures and largely hypothetical trade depot transportation issues. That said, remember option 1 is always a valid fall-back. Just sayin'.

3) The way of the cheatan' bastard: DFHack. Aside from factional manipulations did you know you can also use DFHack to spawn magma? Just sayin'.

4) The modern politically correct system: breed the originals; train the offspring. Once you have a self sustainable population of offspring I'd suggest the standard fall-back for the originals.

3
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Do greater trader profits really lead to better goods in the future?
« on: January 18, 2024, 02:08:22 pm »
Careful. Sounds like you're hovering on the edge of enlightenment.

Trading seems to me to be an exercise in Sturgeon's law.

After players get some experience under their belt, after the first game year, they run into immense difficulties trying to avoid building up ludicrous surpluses from dwarven industry. Clothing especially, if only in the form of worn out stuff. The common-most solutions are atom smashers and magma dumps. I prefer to unload absolutely everything unneeded on each and every caravan what rolls in. All I trade for is an occasionally vital item here, an occasional oddball item there, or to keep up the variety in food an drink, and grabbing every steel item for melting down for manufacturing and armor-smith training. After dealing with me these traders are well on the way to becoming billionaires in a world where having merely $1,000 would be considered outrageously wealthy.

Sudden unreasonable export bans being what they are lets you live life on the edge with the justice system as an added plus. But, usually, after a few years, you can manage all your trade safely on worn out clothing alone.

Before the first year you might run into a jam the traders can fix if your trading dwarf is skilled enough to entice them with your limited resources. Like, if you started without an anvil or something. After two years or so you can conduct trade with the most incompetent dwarf on hand and obtain everything you need (maybe not everything you want, though).

Save when recovering from a disaster, I've never had an issues with a lack of immigrants. Most newer players want to quickly get their head around the soft and hard population caps, not how to speed new arrivals.

Would be nice if the elves sent more wood, but that depends on how much wood you have stockpiled at the point of their arrival. Previous profits have only an indirect connection to wood-bringing. There are a myriad of other trading stock relationships un-/barely connected to trader profitability.

Does skill, or reputation matter? For most players giving them extra stuff, making them billionaires, is as pointless as being masterfully miserly.

4
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Dropping enemies into pit
« on: January 14, 2024, 01:45:21 pm »
The technology you are looking for is called a pressure plate. It functions more or less as a lever and is triggered by something with enough weight (as well as a few other configurable conditions or targets) walking over it. The plate is linked to one or more retractable bridges. Your biggest problem with this setup is one of timing as it's not instantaneous. After the plate is triggered there's a considerable time lag before the bridge retracts. Your design must include a guesstimate of how long the bridge needs to be to keep the victim(s) from sprinting across it.
Fair warning, expect some surprises. Like, what if the FB decides to climb the wall and hang there right under the bridge waiting for it to open?
Typically, once I get the gist of some technique in DF I prefer a DIY approach, including the reliably predictable screw ups that will follow. So, I'll defer to anyone else who wants to lay down an infallible blueprint for such a system.

5
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: What does squareness do in combat?
« on: January 13, 2024, 09:43:52 am »
As mikekchar said it's more related to potential damage. You might think of squareness as your character's perception of how much damage your weapon will deal if you strike the target. Also, squareness is trying to take into account things like positioning of combatants, positioning of body parts, etc. All that is not usually very clear from just looking at the local map. So, you are getting a relative estimate of the end results, if. It's not a guarantee as that perception does not take into account the entire attack process.

The defender might dodge or parry making perceived squareness meaningless.

In your case reaching the point of the armor effectiveness check can render it meaningless. A "Very Square" attack on a lucky defender means you smack the armor squarely, the armor deflected the attack squarely, and no damage got through. A "Can't quite connect" attack on an unlucky defender means you get through the armor and deliver some hurt. I suspect the relatively low skill levels of the combatants you spawned are what's allowing the randomness factor in the armor check to dominate the results. Relatively low, as compared to such skills as most adventures quickly reach, or what militarized citizens obtain with even only a modest training program in fortress mode.

If nothing else your setup demonstrates how important armor is. Even the lower material quality iron armor is proving itself useful against a higher material quality steel weapon.

Now, feel free to chow down on a grain of salt. While my explanation might sound authoritative, I'm not (and am far from being) the resident expert on combat mechanics.

I thought I once read a post thoroughly detailing a step-by-step walk through of the melee attack process, highlighting the various interactions with lots of gloriously gory details as the player-base and community understand them. Even if I'm misremembering what never was someone ought to compile and post such. Such a guide might not reflect the exact algorithm Dwarf Fortress combat follows, but it would certainly help.

6
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: How to deal with steel megabeasts?
« on: January 06, 2024, 10:46:47 pm »
My personal favorite means? An elevated 1 tile wide long, long winding causeway between the fort entrance and the outside world, and with an increasing density of weapons traps as one proceeds along the causeway.
Start with a 1 weapon trap in the first tile, next gets 2, etc. Also, you can cover the causeway with a ballista battery if you want to make things stupidly complicated. Otherwise, almost any weapon for the traps will do as they are unlikely to score any damage in this case. The point being the megabeast should eventually dodge over the side of the causeway. Thus it has to be sufficiently elevated to extract severe damage from the fall. How many falls will it take? Place your bets.
Off topic and only tangentially related: megabeast aside, and if you're feeling sadistic, for low level minor threats don't elevate the causeway more than 1 z level high to avoid fall damage. And, use plenty of cutting types of weapon traps. Try watching a conga line of agitated Gray langurs first run, then hobble, crawl, and finally wiggle their repeating way across this setup. They'll be leaving ever larger piles of body parts while painting the landscape in bloody gore. It's amazing how many times the little guys try even in the face of crippling injuries with the promise of more before bleeding out. I find it both absolutely horrifying ... and strangely satisfying.

7
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: This is a water laced with water, water and water
« on: September 17, 2023, 10:28:25 pm »
"Water laced with water [3]"
Ben dere, don dat.
With the quote below being a link to the thread in question.
Quote from: FourierSeries on November 06, 2012, 03:28:34 pm
Um ... some sort of homeopathic alchemy going on there?

To be fair, that was from an adventure mode version of long ago. And, it didn't involve any creature deaths. The only outstanding effect in your case would be the lost potential of clown remains roasts, I suppose.

8
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Magma and its long way
« on: June 04, 2020, 12:37:11 am »
In times past I've done the pump-stack routine to bring the magma up. Aside from powering forges, this would be used to fill up a reservoir for further processing into a weapon of mass destruction.

My recommendation? Now-a-days, I prefer to create a mini-colony near where the magma is. Give them a set of bedrooms, a dining room, forging ingredient stockpiles, and some food and drink storage nearby. Burrow all them who need to be down there and get to forging whatever needs done. Let some dedicated ingredient haulers do all the work of charging up and down the stairs to keep the local stockpiles filled. With this method, in previous versions, there was still some inefficiency as they occasionally found excuses to head up top, but it still was much less of a hassle. In the current version we now have things like temples and libraries and whatnot to help distract them up top, but it's still so much easier to manage.

You could also lock them down there, but that's just an open invitation to stress and headaches.

As the others point out, and I agree with, there is usually plenty of wood to be found so as to run a set of regular forges for most of your immediate needs. With enough preparation, magma forges can be relatively swift and efficient. First off, you might want to ask yourself why you suddenly want such features. Do you really need the ability to create 9000 steel anvils as maximally quickly as possible? Or, do you just need to do a quickie one off candy bake?

Weapons of mass destruction projects always trump any other considerations, of course.

9
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Sin drink and Brawl
« on: February 25, 2020, 02:05:08 pm »
A seemingly heady question if I may.

What are this drink's ingredients, exactly?

10
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Silver vs Steel Warhammer Test
« on: January 28, 2020, 10:30:16 pm »
Quote from: Mort Stroodle on January 28, 2020, 07:44:03 pm
I'm interested in trying more weapons testing in the future, with much bigger sample sizes. What tests would you like to see?

May as well revisit a summing up of the traditional mainstays. Requesting whatever suitable tests you can cook up involving a:

1. Silver whip.
2. Cave spider silk sock.

11
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: I need ideas: punishments, rewards
« on: January 23, 2020, 12:54:20 am »
Be your gods of the sacrificial variety, or otherwise, there is but one standard. For any ritual involving the nobility, magma is the key ingredient.


12
DF General Discussion / Re: *We need your help with game ending stress*
« on: October 31, 2019, 02:43:04 pm »
I'll throw my thoughts out here for what it's worth. I guess this could be summed up as thoughts from a casual player.

Dwarf Fortress is largely a study in the applied mathematics of catastrophe theory.

You are building a system with certain expected behaviors. Part of the fun is trying understand why your planned behavior does not match reality, and making adjustments to compensate. That's if you are agile enough to find meaningful changes to make before the system passes a point of no return.

Sometimes, the best solution from a player's perspective is the classic "just good enough" plan so you can move on to better things.

I remember my first 31.25 fortress fondly. I was so proud of my boxed in wooden palisade uber defenses. I was just beginning to plumb the depths of the military system when a flying invader smashed in the front doors, followed up by a goblin invasion. The end? Next up, learn how to reclaim a site. OK, all the supplies I need are still in the fort so let's make a fully armed military reclaim force, right? Ready? GO! OK, a few goblins are still there, but they are ignoring me. Wow. OK, you guys need to reconfigure the entrance into an airlock immediately! OK, all the shit I need is scattered all over the map ... why? Damn. What a mess and ... why are my dwarfs dying? They should be able to handle the residual goblins ... WHAT THE HELL ARE ALL THESE TILDE TOPPED ICONS DOING TO MY DWARFS? The end?

I wasn't up to learning more bullshit about how to handle a single ghost, much less dozens of them with replacements queued up for their turn to rise. So, I founded a new fortress to apply what I learned from the start and move on. A month of real time passes. Having reached the point of rebuilding the new fortress entirely out of out of ice, because why not, and while in process of constructing an above ground semi-automatic magma based invasion disposal system, I ... remembered that old fort. I still had the folder saved. Gritting my teeth, I attempted one more reclaim. The short of it is in three seasons I barely skated by with one remaining severely injured dwarf. The ghost horde was sufficiently contained, migrants came, the fortress would now thrive. Unfortunately, both fortresses faced another insurmountable problem in the form of a new update being released. The end(s).

The point my story is trying to illustrate is the need to be learning by doing. The problem too many people seem to be running into is they want to play a game of Dwarf Fortress. Playing means running and interacting with the game, not spending time studying a topic on the wiki/forums/youtube to gain a PhD in the perfectification of tedium.

In the current version, I've set up a basic fortress for survival, and then moved into the new features. I've enjoyed playing with temples, taverns, libraries, etc. Even more enjoyable is integrating the new features with the old. My siege engineer training ground firing range was built atop a tavern, naturally. What I am presently having difficulty with is setting up a blank scroll production line to keep up with scholarly demand. The problem is so far resisting my efforts, but I'll keep plugging away. It's an amusing issue.

For stress, I have all the basics in place. Baths, tavern, libraries, a club fed prison palace, masterworks stuff to admire in luxury bedrooms, a legendary dining hall made of heaven. Luxurious food. Luxurious booze. Etc. Etc. Etc.

I still have dwarfs going insane from stress. Guys, I'm kinda busy with scroll production issues right now. Stopping game play to study the topic of stress to death that I might discover why my armamentarium of anti-stress systems is failing? Pure tedium.

At this stage of my game play the required solution is obvious. The periodic ruthless application of DFHack. Note that DFHack takes a considerable investment in time to learn how to use, depending on which features you want to twiddle with.

Perhaps what is needed is a pre-game checklist screen to enable/disable certain features so players may concentrate on what they want to and temporarily ignore the rest. Perhaps only the stress system needs to be overhauled. DFHack is more than sufficient for my needs, although I understand the very idea of DFHack drives some people berserk for some reason. Maybe they're too stressed?

13
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: What do you guys listen while playing adventure mode?
« on: September 02, 2019, 01:30:49 pm »
A peculiar mixing of genera. Works for me though. Sometimes the soundtrack even syncs with what I'm doing at the moment ...

https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=AkQowzXG5W4

14
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Successful Slave Rescue! Now What?
« on: February 24, 2018, 08:04:06 pm »
Quote from: JacquesTreatment on February 24, 2018, 12:34:56 am
I brought them to their father, to whom they asked I bring them, and no, it didn't.  I left them there, and they just said the noncommittal, "It is for the best."

Peasant: Peace and quiet at last. Ah!

You: Rejoice! For I hath returned your wayward kin.

Kids: Daddy! Yay!

Peasant: But

You: Thank me not. All in a days work. Fare you well!

Peasant: I paid a premium for that boarding school. GET BACK HERE!

15
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: I'm. No. Lady. You male chauvinist PIG!
« on: February 24, 2018, 07:38:45 pm »
Episode ongoing, part 3.
The dwarves fame for steelmongery is vividly on display. Almost all the equipment is too small to be of use. On the way out, I trade up my supply of cheap-shot with a set of +steel bolts [25]+.

Jonic: Trade is the life-blood of a thriving society.

You:  :P

No. Finders keepers. Get your own bling fling, vampie.

You have discovered a lair.

Oh. From my many travels I know unexpected lairs are nothing to be suspicious of. Not this time. I'm feeling some leftover spook from the abandoned fortress. Also, I know a dragon calls this region home. I don't know exactly where, and there are not many lairs around here that I know of. I've never met a dragon, so ...

My vague plan: add another monstrous companion to the mix, from a very special place. My lovable Jonic's a prickly ball of cotton. He's been holding his own, he can keep up with me, but I need something else to work as a distraction when I go all out murdilize. After we've found a likely candidate, we'll return my vicey vice to the tower. With this journey we can work out the team's kinks, or work some kink in, and prepare. Prepare for what? A dragon hunt!

So, I don't want to fight the dragon right now. We should, at least, take a look around and see if he's here. Or see what's here. I have a feeling. A big feeling! I run through my to do checklist.

You read the +andesite-bound codex+.

Away from the tower, plain books are dreadfully scarce. I've been holding onto this one since forever.

You drink the river spirits [3].

I'm prepping for the hard part. I never know how he's gonna react.

Jonic: I can appreciate the right turn of phrase.

You: Pause to consider.  There is a time for artful speech, and a time for blunt speech as well.

Jonic: I have improved my persuasion.  That was not satisfying.

Jonic: I don't want to argue.

You: There must be something else to discuss.

Jonic: I got into an argument with Itvid Taperedmeads the Trustworthy Siege of Packing.  I am very satisfied.

Harumph. I'm not, but this is all about getting focused. Final item: chat up The Big Guy.

You: Greetings.  My name is Itvid Taperedmeads the Trustworthy Siege of Packing.  Praise be to The Poisoned Glimmer.

You: There's nothing like a good brawl.

The Poisoned Glimmer, Deity: Ack! Four oh four to the floor. Thrrip!

We ready.
There's a method to optimize your character's focus requirements at creation. I blew past all that and paid the price. Luckily, I can gain focused status without cheating. It's a pain in the ass though. The trickiest part is picking a fight with my companions, always dicey. Also, books are way too scarce on this continent for my comfort.

Eating a fine meal would really simplify this process. As the wiki she say, no wai, never, can't be done. Maybe. I keep my eyes open for an opportunity.
Finding the lair entrance in a tree and cliff packed wilderness is a little tricky. You have to keep your eye out for the first thing that pops up at you. There! I try to carefully move underground from the spot, once. Twice.

Jonic: Why do you hop around these gold coins?

You: Oh. I ... never mind.

Jonic: Would silver coins be more suitable? Perhaps, be it time for a more visionary prayer of repair?

You: Very funny.

What kind of lair is this? There's a trail of treasure to the southwest. I follow the trail. A silver coin pile. Then gold coins. More gold coins. A book? And then I discover that which left its three toed imprint of a foot for alligators to play in.

Jonic: That's no dragon. It's a roc!

A bird of prey so large and ferocious it dwarfs many dragons. All beneth its mighty wings should fear the sky. Her feathers are white. Her skin is black. Her eyes are black.

The wind whips up a brassy brazen tune to an ominous preamble, as if. I consider airing the state of my feeling. Good? Bad? Or?

You: DINNER!

The roc holds the same opinion as I. She's happy enough to let me sprint right up to her. And so.

The roc misses you!

You punch the roc in the upper body with your right hand, bruising the muscle and bruising the gizzard!

Focused as I am, I still couldn't find a place to lash. The head is just beyond my reach. I'm fighting a two legged pillow of down! The roc razors away with her talons and pecks. She's way too slow to connect. I snap-foof at her feathery armor in return. Plan B is still closing the distance with his spear. Should I drop the whip and try stabbing away with an arrow? The roc appears frustrated as well, making a mistake by overextending a peck and exposing her neck.

You lash the roc in the neck with your silver whip, bruising the muscle and tearing the upper spine's nervous tissue!

The roc falls over.

That's it? I step back and switch to my little silver hammer. Jonic goes headhunting. The ferocious roc meets this new threat by changing fighting style, from kinda-dangerous-kwon-do to ... chicken with its head cut off derp-oh. The bird flops around without striking back. Jonic fillets it. The bird passes out. I just stand there with my arms crossed, leaning on my hammer.

Jonic stabs the roc in the head with the bronze spear and the injured part is cloven asunder!
An artery has been opened by the attack!
A tendon in the skull has been torn!

The roc has been struck down.

You: You look like a mighty warrior indeed.

Jonic: I am lady.  I was a fishery worker for two of the years of my life.

You: My hero!

My idea for an extra crispy fine meal falls flat. Laid out on the ground, this thing looks more like a seagull than a free range chicken. Bleah. I dig a +kaolinite-bound codex+ out of the dirt as some light reading material in recompense. We move on, heading north. Another lair? This whole area is becoming grand central lair!

Fat cyclops: Is this an attack?  What's going on?!

We chat for a while. He's amiable. He's happy. He's just another idiotic unarmed nudist. Whatever else he is, Thranlenge Uzoener is no threat to anyone. I'm going to hold onto my energy for the trek through the frozen north.

You: Have a nice life, one eye. Bai!

Jonic: But ... cyclops?

You: You killed a roc, Jonic. Aim higher.

He's been going on about cyclopes from the beginning. Too bad. Now he takes to grumbling and map reading.

Jonic: Hrumph. You are as correct as you are transparent in your aims.

You: Thank you. Huh?

Jonic: You seek a special place to recruit from. Why must we journey so far for your goal? Would not this be special enough?

As we push along into the unknown, I expect nothing more than an occasional town or lair. Jonic points to a freshly uncovered symbol of naught on the map north of us. Just the kind of naughty special I need.

You: A tomb? Whoot! GO GO GO GO!

Jonic expects me to bash my way in, but I pick the lock instead by ingenious methodology. I turn the handle and push the door open. We clamber past the inconveniently placed front desk and step into a corridor.

Jonic: You have done this before, you said?

You: Back home, sure! I mean, I only visited the front lobby. I dropped off a zombie kitty cat of mine there and took off. I needed to visit the town next door without causing a fuss. After that I visited the elves, way up north. They don't like zombie kitties either. After that--

Jonic: And you know what it is for which you seek?

You: Sure! A zarcought ... uh ... a coffin.

Jonic: A sarcophagus. Which we passed.

You: Huh?

The muscular human ranger mummy stands up.

The muscular human ranger mummy straps the silver slicing knife to his Upper body.

You: OH COME ON! HOW IS THAT EVEN FAIR?

Fair or foul, it turns out to be not much of anything. The mummy stands on the front desk waiting on us. I implore him to speak the whole time, but he never says a single word. He escorts us throughout the tomb tour. Jonic entertains himself with party gags, tripping every one of them. Finally, the mummy sees us off and out the front door. Without a word, or a tip.

Jonic: A veritable fun-house of traps. Most enjoyable, in spite of the service staff. Satisfied?

You: Dammit.
Yes, I thought a pile of gold coins was the lair entrance. That roc surprised the hell out of me. If you've not figured it out by now, a lot of the weirdness of my story is self inflicted. The thread title may as well be renamed Adventures in Dyslexic Myopia Quest.

Yeah. There goes the whole plan. I wanted to recruit a mummy. I failed.

I'm open to suggestions? Also, any suggestions for an imagehosting service?

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