Bay 12 Games Forum

Someone had an epic idea for catapult ammo not too long ago. You know the big cloud of dust and rubble that happens whenever something collapses? Knocks dwarves out and injures them? Well what if that happened whenever a catapult stone lands? That would increase its effectiveness by at least 2000%.

Exploding balista bolts would not be far off. But to make it realistic this should only happen if the bolt or rock hits something hard, like stone floor. I wouldn't expect shrapnel if it hits a lake for example.

Unless PAX stands for People Against overdemandingnobles/carpX, I don't see what this has to do with DF.

Uh..... EVERYTHING? DF is a computer game. PAX is a gaming convention. Probably the biggest around now that they all but pulled the plug on E3.

Surely I can't be the only person on this forum attending... And since he lives just across the water I was also curious to see if Toady was going.

End of August in Seattle. Me and a friend are going for all 3 days.

Its gonna be loads of fun. Who else is going?

EDIT: Is the Penny Arcade eXpo really that obscure? 

Its essentially a graphical map editor. If you want to explain an idea using scribbles in paint, that works okay. But what will you draw on? If you wanted to make a picture using actual DF tiles you would either have to set things up perfectly in DF itself to create multiple screenshots. Or you could take a snapshot of an actual fort complete with creatures and the like, then modify it to suit your needs.

Have you ever seen someone use code tags to explain something using ascii? Its a lot like that except it would let you use actual DF tiles. As an added bonus it would also let you create mockup interfaces without hack n paste.

Basically, if there was something like the "make a magic card" editor for Df screenshots. It would make it so much easier for us to make custom screenshots of df.

Its easy to explain in words how improvements to the interface can be made. But making a picture of what and how the final results change is a pain in the ass. With an editor like this you can recreate situations in DF that would be almost impossible to set up by hand. This has two uses. Creation of custom screenshots for editing. And recreating pictures of bugs that were witnessed but not recorded.

How it works sounds simple on paper at least. If you have ever used the map editor for a game like starcraft or warcraft it works much the same way, only with simpler graphical tiles. You start with a blank map (or can import one of course). By pointing and clicking you can change tiles to represent different options, painting terrain and objects much like how you would designate areas for mining. For units like creatures you would more or less "drag and drop" them onto the screen. Multipart buildings like trade depots and workshops could be placed down in a single piece this way. Objects with adjustable sizes like bridges could be configured before you place them down. The screen itself could be overlayed by other things. You could put up a blank menu box that covers 1/3 of the screen. Then take that empty screen and use it to make a custom menu.

Its sort of like the map archive, only with paintbrushes.

Its a tall order for sure. But it shouldn't be impossible. Ive often made massive walloftext suggestions that put people to sleep because they can understand the idea but not visualize it. Conveying ideas through pictures would be so much easier.

*claps hands* well that settles things. Time for pie! 

My point was that we have a very balanced system here that WORKS. Toady gets to make his dream game and he enjoys doing it. He can work without someone lording over him and with no deadlines but those he sets for himself. His income relies completely on our player satisfaction. But since our donations are voluntary, he is not shackled in any way to our demands. This is a situation that some game developers would kill for!

I can play this game without feeling that I need to "get my moneys worth" out of my investment. If something bothers me I can learn to work around it while suggesting a fix to Toady with as much detail as I can. Eventually things do get fixed.

So just give it time. Obviously you have a lot of ideas on how to make the interface better, or you wouldn't be wanting to make one of your own. Put them out there and let it stew.

Whatever I can find on youtube. half the time this means videos, but youtube is small enough to fir ont he same screen as DF so this works out.

I must have watched the entirety of band of brothers about 10 times now.