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Topics - Mechanoid

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DF Suggestions / Marksdwarves try to fill their quivers

« on: September 04, 2006, 02:59:00 am »

Exactly what the title says:

Marksdwarves attempt to fill their quivers with as much ammo as possible; even if it means breaking apart a pile to do it.

Because... Well, having a marksdwarf pickup 5 turtle bone bolts when i KNOW that the quiver can hold 30 snakeman bone bolts is pretty damn silly.

"Hey ed, want to go hunting?"
"Sure! Let me just grab this massive pile of just 3 fish bone bolts, and i'm ready! Even if i'll take three shots with three misses and have to run back for more the moment i step outside!"

DF Suggestions / No seeds? No problem! Let cellular automata do it. (.GIF

« on: May 27, 2008, 11:26:00 pm »

We all know valley herbs and bloated tubers (among others) have no seeds, and cannot be grown in farms. But, how about we give our herbalists the ability to transplant these difficult to supply plants into farms, and then let the game run a cellular automata on them, within the boundaries of the farm and local landscape?

The interface would barely need changing at all; the plants without seeds would be selected for planting like normal seeded plants would, and appear as green when they can be grown in-season and blue when out of season. Once the plant is selected, herbalist dwarves start to look for plant gather designations that are relevant to the plant in question. Once found, the herbalist grabs the plant, and transplants it into the farm. Then, the cellular automata takes over. The herbalist will continue to transplant until the field is set to fallow.

Then, you wait for the automatic growth to fill the field with a "stable" patern. During off-seasons, the plants will "freeze" in place and stop growing. Sometimes, possibly die off. Then when they come back into season, they re-activate and start doing their cellular automata thing again.

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

DF Suggestions / Temperature on the left hand side

« on: November 25, 2007, 03:38:00 pm »

It'd be nice if we could get a "Outside" temperature reading on the left hand side like the elevation reading on the right hand side. Then, when the player moves into loo'k' mode, the temperature meter can give a semi-exact temperature reading of that square.

As well, current temperature information in item descriptions and in dwarves' thoughts would also be nice.
"Bob has been unhappy lately. He has been stuck outside in the [temperature adjective]."

DF Suggestions / Tighter and more soldier / squad controls

« on: August 30, 2006, 03:31:00 am »

The Military screen's 'view squad' could have a few more options, allowing the player tighter control over how they act.

Things like:
- Damage retreat values or retreat rules, for both squads and invididual units of that squad. For example, every rule (Retreat at Yellow limb health; at Brown; at Red) should be modified by who it effects (Whole Squad; Unit Leader Only; Individual Units) so the end result could be "Individual unit retreads at Brown limb damage" There could also be "Run before paralyzed" rules where the unit attempts to determine wether or not he's likely to be paralyzed, and will run away to heal asap. It wouldn't work all the time, but it'd be giving your dwarves a chance.

- How much water to carry. Like being able to carry a max of 2 food rations, the player should be able to tell the soldier just how full his water-carrying equipment should be; even fractions (1/2; 1/4... it's in the art file! gotta be used somewhere. ) This would allow soldiers to spend even less time at the well filling their canteens (when the time spent filling water is fixed, that is) even if it stops them from going back to the well for half or even a quarter of the time a full drink would've made them, it'd be worth it.

I've had dwarves march along a hallway, and then fallback to a well he passed some time ago because he became thirsty. the option of carrying fractional amounts of water could stop this from happening.

- Allow booze to be carried like water. Even dilute booze. Drinking booze would give the soldier a happy thought, but would temporarilly make him drunk; basically, the same effect as stunned but not quite as severe. Diluted booze would give less of a happy thought (but still somewhat happy) and also less of a drunken state. The drunk effect should be doubled for marksdwarves.

- Allow water /booze sharing. If one soldier has water and another doesn't, then the soldier with water should share his with the one that doesn't. This would potentially stop a dwarf running back to a well at a critical moment. Booze could also be shared, and give a more intense happy thought for the recipient, but a slightly "sad" thought (disperses very quickly) for the dispenser... Dwarves dont like to part with their alcohol, but sure do like to get it!
A dwarf recieving dilute booze however, may get less then happy thoughts. Maybe even angry thoughts ("omfg this has to be a joke! dilute booze? im'ma punch you out, boyee!")

- Share food. Same as above.
- Share ammo. Same as above, except dwarves with huge amounts of ammo will attempt to even-out the ammo level among dwarves [of that squad. Possibly dwarves not even in that squad!] Ammo could also be given based on skill level; highest first, lowest last.
[- Allow sharing between squads. This lets a duo of backpackers be on a patrol route along various squad's stations, resupplying those squads as they move around.]

- Use backpacks to carry additional items. Possibly even command squads to make the high/lowest ranked member (or high /lowest skilled, or squad leader) of that squad to use a backpack to carry a larger store of items; up to 6 food and 4 water/booze. Possibly even more ammo. The only difference is that this dwarf doesn't mind passing out booze from the backpack, and that dwarves recieving diluted booze from the backpack dont mind it, either. Downside? Moves alot slower, and takes a lot of time to stock up. Each container needs to be: 1. grabbed, 2. filled, and 3. put into the backpack.

As a side note, please allow dwarves to be designated "Military Candidates" of whom will wear their designated levels of weapons and armor in preperation for military service, with a slightly unhappy thought that they have to lug all that crap around while doing their standard job. This way you dont have 6 dwarves in a squad all running for the armory to get weapons and armor; all you need to do is go to the military screen and press "A"ctivate, and boom! Fully armored and armed dwarves, without the wait of having them get themselves equiped.

[ August 30, 2006: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

DF Suggestions / Dwarves that own shops should sell to traders

« on: April 03, 2007, 08:11:00 pm »

Interesting thought; what if dwarves that owned shops (like clothing shops and crafts shops) were able to take a few of their items to the trader at the trading post, and then sell them there to the trader? Of course, if the economy has started, all the traders out there should bring coins to use to buy the goods.

This way people may actually want to start the economy, because it allows them to increase the wealth of their dwarves with minimal effort; you dont need to mine the gold, and then spend fuel /time making the coins. All you need are enough workshops churning out enough goods to keep the shops filled, and then when the various traders come, all those goods get taken by the shop keepers to the trading post, and turned into copper /silver /gold /electrum /platinum coins. So you could also technically satisfy coin mandates with this process, as well.

Of course, when a realistic economy is made, this would become decreasingly effective in certain areas for certain crafts (common stone; cloth) as you flood the markets of the people you're trading amongst with large amounts mass-produced items.

DF Suggestions / Pressure plate setting [+ buttons!]

« on: March 11, 2007, 03:33:00 am »

Give pressure plates a menu, and settings.

For example, the player should be able to set two weight values, one minimum and one maximum. When the total weight of objects that's on the plate reaches the amount between the min and max, the plate is triggered, allowing for interesting adventures of abandoned forts; finding a pressure plate and dragging enough stone onto it to keep it depressed.
Another setting to choose who can trigger the plate could also be useful, but i'm sure that's been suggested before.

A way it could look:

code:

Pressure Plate

Animals, Friends, Dwarves

erER: Min Weight - 250
cvCV: Max Weight - 550

d: Dwarves trigger
n: Enemies trigger
f: Friends trigger
a: Animals trigger
l: Liquids trigger
A: All trigger
N: None trigger

x: Remove Building
Space: Done

From top to bottom:
- Name
- Who is allowed to trigger (enemies always trigger, duh)
- Min weight must be = or higher then 1. Any number below this doesn't trigger the plate.
- Max weight can be set to infinity (-1) Any number above this doesn't trigger the plate.
- [X] trigger is a basic toggle to set who's allowed to trigger the plate. If an animal is allowed to trigger the plate, then any animal that fits inside the weight limit of the plate will trigger it.

[Additionally, instead of names of who can/can't trigger it appearing under the name, it could be that each option changes color to show that it's turned on /off.]

[Another idea just hit me; BUTTONS!
Pressure plates attached to walls. They arn't triggered by someone stepping on them, but instead someone or something pressing against them, like pulling a lever. Thrown or fired objects then, could qualify as triggerers.

They'd act like the above suggestion for plates, except instead of weight values, it would be a sensitivity % setting ranging from 0 to 100%
Where 0% is with the greatest ease (a kicked pebble could trigger it) and 100% is with an utmost amount of force (a big grey E rubbing it's ass against the wall to satisfy an itch)]

[ March 12, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

DF Suggestions / Marriage rings, items and names.

« on: November 02, 2006, 03:54:00 am »

Often when the metalsmith arrives, s/he will have a spouse. However, there is no way to know this until you assign one of them a bed.

So, i suggest that a lowercase 'o' be placed after the sex symbol to represent that that dwarf is married. Maybe even followed by the name of the dwarf they're married to. This way, by letting the player know that the dwarf is married, the player can easilly avoid putting them into high-risk situations; mining, military, milling, lava forging, etc.

Also, for the enhancement of the atmosphere, married dwarves should equip themselves with a ring, or buy eachother a ring in their favorite material type. It gives a money sink for the dwarven economy, and a slightly emotional feeling (more so if it was a legendary dwarf) when you see a dwarven corpse with a ring on it.

That also said, whenever a spouse dies, the lowercase 'o' should be replaced with the striked-o, the symbol the spun silk (ie: after the dwarf collects it) uses, to represent the dwarf had a spouse, but that the spouse died. This could be applied to immigrants, to give them more of a history. They would also keep their ring, instead of discarding it -- unless these dwarves arn't highly emotionally tied to eachother. Theoretically, the more dwarves that marry and die to a dwarf, the more striked-o's will appear next to that dwarfs name...
Which should also reduce the chances of that dwarf getting a new spouse.

DF Suggestions / Mass-designation for dumping/melting

« on: December 09, 2007, 10:58:00 pm »

Like forbid/reclaim, a dump and melt designation would be heavilly appreaciated -- with the 'remove designation' effecting it.

I know it's been suggested before, but it really is very(^9^9^9) necessary in order to stop your fingers from becoming arthritic. I have more then 18 pages of stone over 3 tiles (lots of vertical digging and previous dumping) and i believe my fingers would turn to dust if i tried to designate all that stone one-by-one for dumping.

The next version or the next one after that, but please, make it soon. Fingers are the only thing you can use to play DF, and once they get tired you have to stop. [ ]

[ December 09, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

DF Suggestions / Have moody dwarves ask things only dwarves can make

« on: October 26, 2006, 06:05:00 am »

Because there's a craft dwarf in my clothes workshop screaming at me to get him more rope reed cloth... Yes, that's right, a trade item that is impossible to produce aside from trade.

... And the latest human caravan was F!ing owned by a herd of Elephants.

DF Suggestions / Limit social skill gain maximums

« on: February 27, 2008, 06:30:00 am »

I find it highly irregular that dwarves are able to obtain legendary in all social skills if left alone in the statue garden with other dwarves for long enough periods of time. As well, the rate of experience gain seems to increase exponentially with the number of dwarves that idle with other dwarves in meeting areas.

In several .38b games i've played, i've used adjuststart.exe to set my dwarves' numbers from 20 up to 80, and the games with the 20 dwarves always have the dwarves advance slowly in social skills even with the [SPEED:1] raw-alteration in use... Meanwhile my 80 dwarves games have the dwarves reach double, triple, or even quad-legendary OR MORE by the end of summer.
WITH PHYSICAL STATS TO MATCH :eek:

So, my suggestions are these:
1. A maximum cap on skill gain based on how the dwarves are communicating to others. Dwarf-Dwarf communication should reach "Competent" at best, and a little higher IE: "Adept" in the occurances of nobility positions like the Manager, Captain of the Gaurd, and Mayor, who rely on social skills to do their jobs properly. Dwarves that communicate with other societies however should be the least restricted, because they're open to other cultures' social skills; the Trader is able to reach Legendary because he knows the correct level of sarcasm to use to tell the humans that their short jokes are funny, and how to properly show the elven diplomat how to stay the fuck away from dwarven lumber interests.
tl;dr
- Dwarves reach legendary only by communicating with other civs; they reach adept in nobility positions; they reach competent talking to eachother.

2. Possibly, possibly alter skill limits based on the dwarves' personality profile. Dwarves that are shy, or isolative would probably advance slower and end lower in social skill then dwarves that sing merry songs at the dinner table. Some skills could even be impossible to gain under certain personalities; dwarves that dont like to make lies dont gain the liar skill.
tl;dr
- Dwarves' personalities should influence social skill gain somehow.

3. Tone down the stat gain from social skills. Ultra-everything with stats on a peasant who knows how to run his mouth... doesn't make sense. Granted some things like intimidation would increase the dwarves' strength, and could even have a double-back effect where the strength stat boosts the intimidation skill, but a skill like "consoler" really shouldn't improve stats.
tl;dr
- Stat gain from social skill is out of control.

Anyways, just a few thoughts i figured i'd share from a dwarven fortress where half the population is peasants.

DF Suggestions / Workshops generate more waste

« on: May 05, 2008, 04:17:00 pm »

After prolonged use, workshops should start to generate notable waste products.

Like the partial bar system for smelters, each workshop that completes a job should add a small value to it's "waste" level. Over time, the level will naturally drop back to nothing, but through extended use of mass production orders (or repeat commands) the workshop would start to generate these waste products. Best of all, the waste products are alread in the game!

The following list states the waste products, where they're generated in the workshop, and the condition that makes them.
Extended use: (-)
%Chance: (=) (R Rare, L Low, M Moderate, H High; F Forbidden designated)
Always: (+)

Blood : Any tile : Butchers workshop on butcher job start (+) and finish (-)
Vomit : Any tile : Butchers workshop on butcher job start (L=)
Slime : Any tile : Workshops that smelt /melt metal (-) Decaying objects (M=) (carbon /other residue buildup)

Sand : Any walkable tile : Mining (R=) Workshops that deal with Stone (- and L=F) Completed engraved tile jobs (M=)
Ashes : Center tile : Workshops that burn wooden objects (-F) or use charcoal /refined coal to create items (-)
Yellow filth : Any walkable tile : Smelters (-F) Kilns (-) and Glass furnaces (R=F) Butchers Workshop (L=) (you don't want to know) (simulates useless waste; possibly others)
Dark yellow filth : Any walkable tile : Wood Cutting (H=F) Workshops that deal with Wood (- and L=F) Mills (-) Farmers Workshops (M=) Butchers Workshop (L=) (you REALLY don't want to know) (simulates useless waste; possibly others)

(The following are toned down; they only effect a radius of 2 to 4 tiles in any direction, and are generated one Z level above the workshop if there is space)
Miasma : Blocked tile : Butchers Workshop (R=) (smelly organ punctured) Smelters and Forges (- and L=) (Sulfides) (possibly others)
Smoke : Blocked tile : All furnace buildings (+) All Forge buildings (+)
Steam : Blocked tile : Kiln (R=) Butchers Workshop (R=)
Dust : Any tile : Workshops that deal with Stone, Wood, Gems, or Plant Processing/Milling. (R=, R=, L=, M=) Mining through Coals (M=) and other rock (R=)

- Your miner goes through a vein of coal and generates dust.
- Your butcher kills an animal and leaves a pool of blood somewhere in his workshop. He didn't kill it properly, and it vomited in the workshop.
- Your mason finishes 50 blocks and has left forbidden generic sand on the floor of the workshop. (outside the workshop inventory, like it was dumped there)
- Your smelter finishes a 30 smelt steel job order, and has left slime residue on the floor, mixed with ashes from the masses of fuel he used; he was made happy to not have to breathe in smoke or miasma, as the smelter was properly ventilated (it was outside)

DF Suggestions / Temperature overview

« on: February 13, 2007, 07:13:00 pm »

For the most part, it's impossible to tell where and how temperature is working in fortress mode -- at least until your dwarves start to become wounded by frostbite /heat blisters.

So, i suggest that by the time temperature is finished (and i can turn it back on in the init.txt settings) the player should be able to switch to an alternate view mode so he can see which parts of his fort are comfortable in temperature, and which parts are at a dangerous temperature. In this mode, the game would always be paused, so that the player gets a static view of temperatures, and not a continually changing image... That, and it'd be annoying if the game ran while in this view; imagine if the game was able to run while you were designating an area!

Each map tile would be given a color designation of temperature ranges, and the right hand side of the screen (where the menu normally is) would have a key as to what each color means -- Red blocks could mean that cloth auto-ignites on these tiles; blue blocks mean that dwarves would suffer frost bite. White would be anything that's "off the chart" while black would be a total absence of heat (like the center of a lava-flood free chasm)

DF Suggestions / Player choice what stores/shops sell

« on: April 28, 2008, 10:44:00 pm »

Instead of randomly assigning what type of object the shop will sell, the player should be able to designate both the type and the actual item, and nobles can demand and/or mandate certain types of shops to be setup and what those shops sell. (or do it themselves on an empty and unclaimed shop)
This way you don't end up building, tearing down, and rebuilding shops dozens of times just to get the damn crafts shop you wanted instead of the 20 exotic clothing shops you got instead.

The status (z) menu would then have another function added to it, which would be a "Shops" menu; selecting shops (like the units screen; owners' names included) choosing what type they are, and setting which items of that type to sell. There would also be the option of allowing the player to let his dwarves decide, as they do now, with what the shop type will be and what it will sell (ie; the player sets the type, the dwarf chooses the merchandise, which is altered by the nobles, etc)

DF Suggestions / Sensible adamantine Demon triggers

« on: February 08, 2007, 04:38:00 pm »

Thinking about the adamantine, i realised that the end-season message of "Too deep" can be avoided by abandoning the fortress before the season ends. Unless coded otherwise, this means that the fortress is given the "Abandoned" tag instead of the "Too Deep" tag. It also allows for continual use of the fortress in producing adamantium (though in absolutely pathetic supply) since the fort-killing message never has a chance to happen.

So, lets think up some new ways for the demon to be triggered, so that the above situation cannot occur. What i think would make the most sense for the Greater demon being attracted to that particular space of the underworld is:

1. Wether or not the adamantium shell has actually been peirced by mining. Assuming the twigs of adamantium that branch off from the main shell dont give any protection against the demon, they could be mined safely. This means that the "Number of adamantium tiles mined" rule can be changed to only count the most interior adamantium tiles, so that then there is a physical entrance the G. demon can take -- which makes more sense then the demon somehow "escaping" from it's now branchless but still totally enclosed prison.

2. The number of people* in your fortress. All those dwarves, humans, and other creatures generate one hell of a smell, a smell which could make its way down to the adamantium and into the G. demons' pit, angering it. Where these people are and in what quantities can also matter. It's less likely that the demon will attack a pre-river located fortress then a post-magma located fortress. So having 190 of your 200 dwarves before the chasm can really cut down on the chances that a G demon will crawl out from it's peirced adamantium prison.

3. The smell of industry, and specifically, the smell of molten adamantium. Having been in contact with it for so long, the demon would likely know the smell of burning and/or molten adamantium, and would quickly realise that his prison has been breached and that he can make his escape. Obviously, since the lava river is so close to it's prison, the G. demon could easilly smell a lava smelter smelting adamantium. Even if the population was far away, if magma smelters melt adamantium, the G demon will know it, eventually.

4. Sound and noise levels. Like a dwarf being woken up by a workshop that's too close, the demon could also be woken /alerted that his prison has been breached by the sounds of the populace, industry, mechanical objects, and of course, mining. In fact, simply digging TO the adamantium could attract the demon, so that the moment his prison is opened, he exits and toasts your fortress.

If anyone else has any other ideas for Greater Demon triggers, please state them.

* it doesn't matter who you are; human, dwarf, elf, or goblin... You're all the same to the demon!

DF Suggestions / "Bare" statues and equiping them

« on: September 17, 2007, 07:36:00 pm »

Like the title says. A new constructable statue (the other statues are assumed to be one-peice objects with built-in clothing/equipment) which is allowed to be equiped with equipment the player designates, similar to how the trade depot works. Thus, you could have a masterpeice gold statue equiped with a masterpeice silver spear and a masterpeice copper chainmail. As well, it would allow for an absolutely INSANE statue quality when everything is made of precious metals and/or masterworks/artifacts.

As well, another obvious use would be for magical golems that spring to life when triggered to defend the treasure horde... Which of course entails that the statue can have bits and peices missing even if it isn't animated; as time drags on, the statue's limbs can become damaged (or in the case of metal statues, rusted /melted) reducing the value of the statue, until it crumbles to dust.
What better representation of a fallen civilization then a statue without a head?

...
It would certainly be fun to play a single DF world for 500 years, end up with only 1 dwarf fortress left after centuries of fighting with the goblins (humans and elves long since extinct) and then remembering that long ago you made a fortress with a gold statue fitted with masterwork adamantiums ... Then you can guess what happens afterwards.

[ September 17, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]