April 23, 2024: Dwarf Fortress 50.13 has been released.
News: February 3, 2024: The February '24 Report is up.
News: February 4, 2021: Dwarf Fortress Talk #28 has been posted.
News: November 21, 2018: A new Threetoe story has been posted.
Forum Guidelines
quote:
Originally posted by Maximus:
From what I've seen, skill doesn't affect how often gems are left behind.
It does. I have seen novices fail to pull gems out from a cluster of 4, while legendaries pull 3/4 gems from the cluster.
quote:
Originally posted by axus:
Steel blocks
Also, risking your first anvil in a quick "hurry, lets get a steel anvil" operation is usually a good idea, since you save on the amount of coke you need to use to create it.
quote:Stockpiles are not required. The only thing you may want to put into stockpiles are precious metals and steel /coke bars. Copper, tin, bronze, iron, and brass bars can sit in the smelter until they're needed, for all i care!
Oh, and you still need the ore and stockpiles for your bars! Plus the time to produce the item.
quote:If a fire man shows up early on when you have no real defenses other then traps, and gets past them, your metalsmith will be torched.
Originally posted by Disruptive Idiot:
Currently, there is no drawback to making a beeline to the magma and taking advantage of the unlimited fuel source.
Aside from that, i think that bi-seasonal maintence should be required for all the lava workshops. Volcanic glass /stone /etc builds up on the steel parts which touch the lava (which heats the object being melted) which need to be removed to keep the forge operating at peak efficency. As well, degredation to these steel parts due to this cleaning should also happen, so that eventually the steel that composes the smelter /forge heater would have to be melted and remade.
This may put the player in a position to either:
1) Heavilly rely on the lava, and open a large area along the rivers' side to remain operational.
2) Switch between lava power, and charcoal /coke when the lava forges and smelters are being cleaned.
Note: The cleaning intervals should be based on the number of times the forges have been used and then unused. So, if the player forges one object every quarter of a season, allowing alot of time between forges and smeltings, the forge may have to be cleaned more often then if he had them running non-stop. Repeat orders? Every dwarf has to sleep, drink, and eat, which means that the forge would be allowed time to be cooled; thus unless the player had 3 smiths per forge, the player would be able to keep the cleanings down, but his production rate would be terrible.
I suggest that status icons be added for:
- Partying
- On Break
- Harass Animals
- Off Duty
That way we can tell at a glance wether or not:
- The dwarves gathered in the dining hall are idle, or are actually throwing a party (so we dont have to press the u or j keys to check if they are)
- Same goes for dwarves on break
- Military dwarves will throw themselves at a herd of elephants if they come close enough together
- You have to go into the military screen to turn your soldiers to "On Duty"
I suggest the following icons /colors:
- Party - ¶ symbol (pilcrow) in random color (no greyscale) forground /black background (random colors scream "PARTY! / OVER! / HERE!")
- Break - * symbol (asterisk) in random greyscale forground /background (it looks like a puff of smoke; assuming dwarves smoke (abstract) pipes on their breaks)
- Harass - ~ symbol (single tilde) in white forground /blue background (reference to the Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip which has a character use the same sybol to infer mischevious intent; FYI the comic name is "weaboo")
- Off Duty - ¡ symbol (inverted exclaimation) in light cyan forground /dark blue background (because off duty dwarves [like to waste time to] fill their waterskins)
[ October 23, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]
would also be good, so players can make goblins immune to bolts, but not arrows, etc.
Or, some kind of [AMMO_DAMBLOCK:] value that works like [DAMBLOCK:] except only for ranged weapons.
quote:
Originally posted by Armok:
<STRONG>Seconded.</STRONG>
Instead of saying "Silk cap x30; silk pants x30; etc" you could just say "Make Silk Cloth Suit x30" and save huge amounts of manager screen space.
I just wonder if cloaks and hoods would be included in the suit process. Maybe also allow the player to define his own suit combinations? This way the player could make their own suit, to fit what resources they have at the time, and still retain the minimalized manager tasking aspect.
Being able to assign a suit that has a 'Bronze plate, iron helmet, copper leggings, copper gauntlets, copper high boots' would be very useful if you didn't have much iron or bronze, but lots of copper.
On a side note, will cups /mugs /goblets ever be used to drink liquids from? It'd definitely be another (better) way to improve dining room quality, instead of adding in more space-consuming chairs /tables.
quote:
Originally posted by bbb:
mouse would also be good for stockpile!
The left mouse button would have to be disable, to prevent huge amounts of 1-tile stockpiles.
quote:
Originally posted by mickel:
why are some of them there?
1. So that they dont have to be put in later.
2. To flesh out a dwarves personality about that material.
3. To provide something for dwarven nobles to bitch about in their mandates.
So uh, yeah.
The Alchemist noble and associated workshop will probably have some use, after the next version.
Also, though chemical lanterns are freakin' awsome, but they'd have absolutely zero use without a lighting system. No point in making torches /oil lanterns /etc without them being able to perform their function and actually cast light, after all.
[ August 06, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]
However, being able to put coins or gems into specific chests to improve the quality of a room, despite losing the ability to use them in encrusting /the economy -- would be very useful.
Indeed, sand fortresses will be awsome. All the more so when you tame a fire-breathing creature. All you need to do is get the creature to breathe flames, and you've got a glass-coated hallway! 
