Bay 12 Games Forum

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Originally posted by bartavelle:
<STRONG>It would however be totally cool to find the offsets automagically, for example by using topological methods "à la" Halvar Flake. I did preliminary research on that field with no luck ...</STRONG>

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I did that with my enable magma buildings utility. http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Utilities#Enable_Magma_Buildings

Source is included in the zipfile, and I've also got sample search code on my wiki page. http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/User:0x517A5D

I'd be happy to help you figure out how to use the code, or to find reliable search patterns.

I also recommend IDA Pro.  (I am a licensed user through my day job.)  It is sweet sweet.  Invaluable for this kind of thing.

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Originally posted by Draco18s:
<STRONG>Incorrect.  Infinite z-distance (as the rock falls) is shorter than the tile directly infront of a dwarf.  I.E. the distance formula only takes in X and Y and ignores Z altogether.</STRONG>

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Are you sure about this?  My (limited) testing indicated that (as Thallone said) 3-dimensional manhattan distance was used -- Z-coordinate delta is considered the same as X or Y coordinate delta.  Not that Z is completely ignored, as you claim.

I suppose I could dig through the disassembly, but that seems a difficult and unrewarding quest.

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Originally posted by Shadowlord:
<STRONG>If the catapults fire rocks into walls, the rocks are destroyed. That's better than firing them into water and forbidding them, methinks.</STRONG>

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mwoody450 knows they can be destroyed.  He or she is deliberately saving them.

As to which is better, well, my personal opinion is that you can always get more stones.

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Originally posted by exoleet:
<STRONG>How do I install and use this program?</STRONG>

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Version 2 will come with a readme file detailing "installation" and giving a map key.  Also the URL I'm using for support.  Soon.

Alternately, have them make a couple of basic bucklers as soon as you get your forge running.  Or some basic crafts if you want a legendary crafter.

0x517A5D

Well.  Good to know.

"has to do with how operating systems handle RNG" is, essentially, nonsense.

Windows does not have a random-number API call.  (Attention, nitpickers: yes, I know about the crypto API.  That's beyond the bounds of this discussion.)

The C++ compiler Toady uses has, in its library, a LCG PRNG.  It's named rand(), and is of good but not excellent quality.  +Finely-crafted+, in DF terms.  The corresponding routine which initializes or "seeds" it is named srand().

srand() is called once, using the current time as the source of randomness.  That is rand()'s only dependency.

The vast majority of the random numbers that DF uses are generated by Toady's own code, using a better (*superior quality*, in DF terms) PRNG called Mersenne Twister.  There are no operating-system dependencies in Mersenne Twister.

There is a routine which seeds MT using, again, the current time as the source of randomness.  That, and a call to rand() are MT's only dependencies.

However, Toady's implementation of MT can also be seeded with a specific number.  When doing this, neither the current time nor the call to rand() are used.  Only a single user-supplied number is used.  When this is done, there are no dependencies left in MT.

So if the same seed generates different worlds on different operating systems, report it as a bug.

Check if you made a typo, that's all I can think of.