Bay 12 Games Forum

Never leave home without a crowbar.


Are unmodified trucks zombie magnets, or am I being paranoid? There's barely an inch of it that isn't covered in blood right now. I think it may need a muffler.

The ocean itself doesn't raise or lower in height, unless you drain it of course.

The main thing to be careful of is the waves. They can push creatures and items around causing disruption, and will deposit water into lower levels they can reach. If you build your fort on a higher level or wall off the sea, you'll be fine.

Ballistae are usually more hassle than they're worth. To answer your questions:

They are loaded and fired by civilian dwarves with the "siege engineering" job enabled. This means that, yes, they require access but also that they tend to run away when they see the enemy. This means they're best placed at a distance to counter this, or used by blind dwarves. As with any fort, it's up to you whether you want to expose it to the sky. Flying troops rarely present much of a threat.

Crucially, ballistae cannot fire across z-levels, rarely hit anything, and when they do don't do much damage.

Dry moats are simpler, and usually better. They prevent aquatic mounts (giant toads, cave crocodiles etc.) from getting across. If you prefer to have water, pumping it along a channel is the best way to move it from a source on the same level.

You can set lots of x30 jobs at once and they should all get assigned. I usually just set strand extraction on repeat.

No, a layer drop system wouldn't work. In a cave-in each tile is dropped individually, not the layer as a whole, so you would just end up with a mound rather than a statue:

 ###
       becomes      #     not      ###
  #                ###              #
 ###               ###             ###

And I did not start making a tileset for Cataclysm just because it allows to show items more clearly. I just like making tilesets and I want more people to be able to understand and play this wonderful game (while I can easily play both in ASCII and in graphical mode, some people don't want to or cannot).

Yep, the more people willing to try Cataclysm, the better.

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So, I've managed to scrounge together enough car parts (2 cars + 1 quad + oddsandends) for some sort of battlewagon. Is there anything crucial I need to know about layout? Do the wheels have to go in the corners, or the engine in a particular place or whatever?

Also, is there any way to recharge a welder without batteries? I'm fine for now, but a renewable method would be great.

From the devlog:

Right now the new stuff just applies to what I've been working on, so that critters will generally feel terror when people are trying to kill them, unless they are oddly constituted, and in order to continue fighting they need to master their fear. Failure to master emotional states leads to forced actions like running away or attacking in rage, although running away can also occur as a rational action if the critter gets to that stage.

Will the player's character be affected by fear etc. and subject to forced actions, or will it be left to roleplaying?