Bay 12 Games Forum

Can a mod use the "murky pool" tile as a workshop component? And will it blend? Er, work?

I'd like to see something like this implemented if it's not already.

Interesting idea. Mod in something like the farm plot that can be resized but all the tiles are Murky Pool. Maybe call it "packed earth."

The second point is a fairly strange one to make because although yes tracking more stuff would take processing power the use of the word lots implies that it would be in any way noticeable, I'm fairly confident nothing I've see so far would be.

We can already setup crops by season so if for example you planted a crop that used a lot of the nitrogen in the soil you'd just make sure one season in four you planted something else, or mark the plot for seasonal fertilisation with nitrogen. To be honest we could probably just have the farmer skill handle most of the correction and make requests for more of the various fertilisers that needed to be there.

Lets take the recent suggestion to changed the eating mechanics. That would entail that every dwarf have to decide its eating style based on factors like how hungry it is and how much food it can afford at a time etc. Each of these checks will involve multiple conditions to be evaluated, and will be(to some extent) constantly evaluated. When you have in upwards of 200 dwarf minions, you can easily end up with a large amount of overhead.

My solution is to SIMPLY change things to achieve the appropriate results( less plentiful harvests, less easy to feed everyone). Many of these suggestions require overhauls of other systems. Im trying to avoid fiddling with other mechanics.

Also, My suggestion is not to make crops assignable by season. I know thats how they already are. Im talking about changing their growing times to be seasonal. I.E. only one harvest per season. Quantities would have to be changed in order for that one harvest to put the proper amount of food out to sustain the 13 dwarfs per 10x10 quota.


A new suggestion(to me anyways again i havnt read all 47 pages):

What if the "light dusting of mud" wasnt sufficient? What if you needed a "pile of mud" and after every harvest the mud quantity depletes by one degree( pile of mud turns into small pile of mud etc.)

that alone would make things more reasonable imho

good job on those numbers man

The furrowing essentially double penalizes you for not storing seed close by, as the dwarf has to go to the plot before grabbing the seed. So if your store is far away he walks it twice before he even drops a seed and then he still has to fetch water.

Essentially this encourages good planning of your farming industry

Id like to offer my two cents on the matter.

First off I have not read all 40-some-odd pages on the subject, but Ive read most of the main ideas.

What I keep seeing suggested fall into two basic categories:
1. Add lots of Micromanagement
2. Add lots of clock time keeping track of lots of extra conditions

I strongly agree that the entire farming system needs an overhaul. When I can manage to feed and booze 200 dwarfs and still manage to export 5k or more in food and booze every time a caravan rolls around, something is seriously wrong. However making the game tedious to the player is not the answer. Yes a challenge is necessary, but no one plays to work. The game is already fishy as can be as far as RAM requirements. Adding more things that have to be kept track of does not make me warm and fuzzy.

My suggested approach is a numbers and ratios game as has been suggested in several different spots so far. One thing in particular I want to point out is that the estimates of required acreage to feed a person is WAY too high. My grandparents and great grandparents fed their families of 4 and 5 respectively off of vegetable gardens of 250 sq/ft or so. They ate WELL and managed to store away so many extras they sold it to other townsfolk. Keep in mind theyre human. Dwarfies are 4 feet tall.

I suggest three things.

1. A 10x10 plot would feed and booze 20 dwarfs a season. Essentially, its 5 squares per dwarf per season for food and drink. So for your pop of 200 youd need 10 full-sized plots running continuously to feed them the staples. More fields will be needed once they start getting picky.
2. Change the growing durations for the plants to be seasonal, not the monthly-ish it is now, and adjust stack sizes to accommodate. The basic shrooms would have a fairly high yield in order for the 5 squares to meet the proper requirements.
3. Working a square of field entails digging a furrow first, then getting the seed, and then requires it to be watered once by hand(bucket) which the farmer would do automatically as part of the planting process.

These changes, without any other complicated modifications will have a number of benefits to the system.
* The growing period changes cause there to be massive planting and harvesting periods which can strain processing facilities and haulers. It also fits better with the reality of farming. You dont plant one day and then 4 weeks later harvest the goods.
* The furrowing/watering slows down their planting speeds, causing less downtime which in turn increases the number of farmers necessary to manage the fields.
* The 20/10x10 makes for a meager sustenance for the dwarfies, meaning theyre kinda like college students with ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches. To get better meals requires more work and more fields. This one is the hardest to implement, since the yields have to be balanced to the nutritional needs of the dwarves. Even so, Im not asking for the moon.

So there ya have my two cents. Comment, praise, or rip it apart as you must.

Strike the Earth!

maybe compress peat into bricks at a peat press then use the bricks as a fuel source for other industry?

something similar might be implemented for plants in general. after all, collect enough kindling and you can build a decent fire right?

Its my understanding that modding only changes what the magma will cool into. Its ether all obsidian, or all whatever you modded it to turn into.

I like the idea of the WAY you cool it affecting what it turns into, but i still think there should be some chance of metal ores etc to appear. After all, magma is molten rock, metal, carbon, everything. So even gems could theoretically be manufactured to some extent.

Obsidian is a type of glass if im not mistaken as well isnt it?