Bay 12 Games Forum

I am now more acquainted with Lua syntax. I looked at the the Locator in broader context

there is a global table of historical figures which is indexed and assumed to be ordered by unitID in ascending order, e.g.:

index  | Historical Figure (as object)
0      | unit42
1      | unit56
2      | unit215
3      | unit418
...    | ...
354624 | unit678954

Each unit object in this table has an attribute .id, that's one of the game-internal attributes of the unit class, I presume.

Locator is a class (or table, in Lua terms) which serves two purposes:

1. Given an index in the table of historical figures, it can find access the corresponding historical figure and lookup its id. The method (or function) doing this is called id_of. This method is undefined by default, so every time the Locator class is instantiated, this method has to be defined like this:

2. Given a game-internal unit id, it can find the unit with this unit id in the table of historical figures and return the index under which it can be found there. The method doing this is called index_of. Nah, that would make the code more readable, let's call it locate instead.

The locate method uses some sort of searching algorithm which I assume is pretty quick in searching in a list where the the historical figures are sorted by their ids in an ascending order. When I was trying to perform this method myself to see how its searching algorithm actually works, I think I have found a bug. It seems that it cannot handle the case where it is supposed to find and return the index of the very first historical figure in the list (index 0).

Let's shorten our list of global historical figures to only two members (count = 2):
index  | Historical Figure (as object)
0      | unit205
1      | unit408

I'll now run through the locate function:


When we call hf_locator:locate(205, 2), the initial values are:
id = 205
count = 2
bottom = 0
top = 1

the the loop starts:
step = 1 // (top - bottom)
step % 2 == 1 is true, that's why:
step = 2 (step + 1)
step = 1 (math.floor (step / 2))
index = 1 (bottom + step)
self.id_of(index) < id is false, skipping this if, executing elseif
elseif self.id_of(index) > id is true, executing the if body:
    if top == index is true (1 == 1), executing the if body:
        return -1, returning -1 index not found. (which is wrong, it should have found it and return 0)


Once the loop progresses to the point where top search limit is reduced to 1, the function only checks the unitID, and if it is not the unit we are looking for, it returns -1 forgetting to look at the one last remaining place in the list, index 0.

I am really interested in keeping detailed track of each dwarves' thoughts and preferences. (skills, body and soul attributes,  personality traits, ...) I'd like to see which of them change over time, how often they change etc.

There is two things I want to achieve with this:

Goal 1. Sort of a personal file of each dwarf which would track the dwarves' development (take a daily record of his skills, attributes, traits). This would allow me to see how quickly do miners or pump operators grow muscles, how quickly each dwarf gains military skills, etc., use this data for a diachronic analysis. See how often things like worshipped deities, hair color, life ideals and behaviour, change - or if they are constant forever.

Goal 2. A Dwarf-Therapist-like spreadsheet overview of what kinds of pets, items, materials, food, drinks my dwarves like.
Example for pet preference: Obok and Tulon like dogs, Kib likes cows, Udib likes rabbits. Script would output a table like this:
PET NAME | NAME1           | NAME2            | NAME3
dog      | Obok Kűbukmamot | Tulon Orrunlikot |
cow      | Kib Tathtatled  |                  |
rabbit   | Udib Gutirurist |                  |


Here is a sketch of what I have in mind in a Python-like pseudo code (Python is currently the only language I can code in). Such script would probably have to run in the background parallel to the game:


Goal 1: A Dwarf's personal file recording his skill values
if calendarDateChanged():
    // dump the data about each dwarf into a file named like the dwarf
    for dwarf in fortressMembers:
        file = openFileInAppendMode(dwarf.name+".txt")
        print("Date:", calendar.currentDate(), file)
        print("Strength:", dwarf.strength.getValue(), file)
        print("Willpower:", dwarf.willpower.getValue(), file)
        // ... etc., dump all the info I want to keep track of piece by piece
        // it should probably be an XML dump instead, as I believe there are XML parsers ready to use.
        file.flush() // makes sure the print buffer is actually written into the file on the harddrive


And here is the sketch of the part which would serve to make a spreadsheet of the dwarves favourite pets, items, materials, food, etc.:

Goal 2: Spreadsheet of pets, items, materials, food, drinks which would list the names of dwarves who prefer it
// create a dictionary of pets, items, materials. In python a dictionary is an unordered list of (key,value) pairs, which can be evaluated: value = dictionary[key].
// example: pets[dog] would return a set of names of dwarves who like dogs
// initialize the dictionaries
pets = dict()
items = dict()
materials = dict()
for dwarf in fortressMembers:
    // if this dwarf's pet is already listed in the pet dictionary, just add the dwarf to the set of dwarves who like this pet
    try:
        pets[dwarf.favouritePet()].add(dwarf.name)
    // if this dwarf's pet is not yet in the pet dictionary, ...
    except keyError:
    // ... create a new dictionary entry for this pet
        // and assign this dictionary entry a set containing this dwarfs name (later more likeminded dwarves can be added to this set)
        pets[dwarf.favouritePet()] = set([dwarf.name])
    // same procedure for items
    try:
        items[dwarf.favouriteItem()].add(dwarf.name)
    except keyError:
        items[dwarf.favouriteItem()] = set([dwarf.name])
    // ... and materials
    try:
        materials[dwarf.favouriteMaterial()].add(dwarf.name)
    except keyError:
        materials[dwarf.favouriteMaterial()] = set([dwarf.name])

    // =====
    // obviously I would avoid copy-pasting the same procedure for pets, items and materials. I just wrote it down for easier readability.
    // I'd actually use something like this:
    // make tuples of dictionaries and dwarfs interests
    // dictionariesAndInterests = zip(list(pets, items, materials), list(dwarf.favouritePet(), dwarf.favouriteItem(), dwarf.favouriteMaterial())
    // for dictionayOfInterest, dwarfsFavourite in dictionariesAndInterests:
    //     try:
    //         dictionayOfInterest[dwarfsFavourite].add(dwarf.name)
    //     except keyError:
    //         dictionayOfInterest[dwarfsFavourite] = set([dwarf.name])
    // =====
// now dump the whole overview:
// heavily simplified
for dictionary in list(pets, items, materials):
    for key, value in dictionary:
        print(key, value)

If this can be done, can you introduce me to the structure of DF memory and the names of variables which bear the information I'd like to gather?

Thanks, my dwarves managed to smooth the aquifer bearing sandstone tile by tile, while chipping away at the frozen aquifer water. Aquifers don't leak diagonally. Moat stays dry.

Do you think you could adapt this script for displaying also all the mechanisms linked to a construction? Then you could highlight one of the linked mechanisms and by pressing a key zoom the view on the linked trigger.

No longer would it be necessary to turn on the (N)otes, see what have you called this bridge, go to your levers, turn on Notes again, see what lever corresponds to it, and then move the cursor over it to operate the the lever.

You could goto the bridge you want to operate, see list of linked triggers and jump to the highlighted trigger, then pull it right away.

I had once a caravan which got spooked by a pile of dead enemy corpses after a siege. There may have been the one or another megabeast as well among them.

A tantrum spiral run would last forever given tantrum spirals haven't been a thing for years now.

I haven't got a tantrum spiral yet, but I have had a dwarf throwing a tantrum. If I had the task to make any dwarf throw a tantrum asap, I don't really know how I would achieve it. I am correcting the line to just "First Tantrum".

I don't know the answer, but the wiki article says there is a slight difference:

Casts are [...] used to keep broken bones in their proper place until healed.

Splints immobilize limbs that have sustained bone fractures. They allow the broken limb to be utilized until it is fully healed. Dwarves will be able to leave the hospital and resume their normal duties once securely splinted up since by this stage their wounds have already been cleaned, sutured and dressed.