Bay 12 Games Forum

I like the idea.
Although I think it should be simply a wall of updown stairs.
The material should be light and cheap and building it significantly faster than normal stairs.
For example have a log give enough scaffolding material to fill four tiles to reduce hauling.

There should, however, also be some drawback. For example you cant use it to make floors or walls and it should not support structures besides more scaffolding.
Lastly moving through scaffolding should be slow so people don't use it instead of actual stairs in other cases.

Scaffolds are not walls of stairs though. They have real walkable areas with stairs on either side and scaffolds would not make good floors because they would always be open spaces and a construction would always be present so workshops could never be put down.like I said more like paving a street not paving floor tiles.

I imagine being able to make a 10x10x2 house a little bit like this


ROOF
0000000000
0000000010
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000

BOTTOM FLOOR
5333333335
3444444423
3444344443
3444344443
3333544443
3444444443
3444444443
3444444443
3444444443
53333  3335


where numbers represent priority levels of tasks and the higher you designate the number the higher the priority.

in this example 5's are the corners of the bottom floor, 4's are the floors 3's are the walls, 2 is an upstair and 1 is a down stair. The zeros are the roof's flooring cover. This is one example of how this would work. Another way is to make the z-levels separate and that would allow the numbers to reset on each z-level. and only having an upstairs from a z-level below will make the +1 z-level possible as long as the down/upstairs connects right.. Thus making the tracking of 1000 different priorities relatively smaller.

that being said this may require a user input... something like parameters where you type in a tile types priority along with options to change them manually throughout the design using a ++ increment.

             ROOF
                   111111
                 11111111
                 111111112
                 11111111
                 11111111
                  1111111
                 

            Two level building 
                  322223
                32445423
                244444421
                24444442
                32444423
                  322223

A circular design Bottom Floor
                   533335
                 53441435
                 344444432
                   4444443
                 53444435
                  533335


where 2(as well as another stair marked as 1) is a stair on the first floor a one on the second level(updown) and roof has it as 2.  4s are the bottom levels floors as well as the second floors.  5s are the corners on the first level 3's on the second ,3's are the walls and on the second floor they are corners with 2 being the walls. and 1 is the roofs tiles because there isn't much of a fuss up there. Point is they all flow respectively and seperatly between z-levels From highest to lowest priorities, this works well with the system I have described and with a click of a button you will see the finished product as it would be shown ingame a "hide priority levels" option if you will.

Well, Toady have stated that he wants to redo workshops to work by zone designation rather than a fixed building, and this would most certainly fit well into that. Don't really think there'd be any need for negative balancing effects, apart from possibly slower work rate if you decide to fill the zone with too much raw materials :>

That's really good news

I can see this being done in a separate menu maybe using a mouse painting system. After which you can set to place anywhere on the main map.

Dwarfs would then I would assume have to always start with floors then prioritize corner walls and fill each section of wall from the outside in; unless toady decides to make a system that builds it all at once with wait times suggestible by space consumed.  However, that eliminates a lot of what dwarf fortress is.

Another option would be to allow us the option of prioritizing the corners ourselves to avoid dwarven confusion (paint by numbers anyone?). This could also lead to a new noble that uses the architecture skill or at least a more advanced form of it. Depending on how Toady would prefer something like this to work. [edit: I am however fancying the paint by numbers/colors idea even if it uses the um kh system already in place. 1. it takes a huge workload off of toady to make everything dwarf operated with little user input using logic which will always be buggy because its not organic. 2. it would be a heluva lot of fun. 3. it would make a great architecture simulation program that may even be useful to the experienced architect for testing out design and build methods.]

Architecture could definitely be more user involved using say crafting materials to bring up such a menu and at an architects workbench/office.

deleted by user. Double post.

Creatures that can destroy walls. I donno about you but, siege weapons like balista's and catapults would make an excellent addition to the game as well as creatures that destroy walls. It adds a certain epicness to the game that for anyone playing succession adventures or reclaims would find ruins in interesting states. Cant wait.

Reactions take a bit to learn, but they aren't as hard as other things in game such as creating creatures or interactions, in my opinion.

A bone arrow reaction similar to the ones in Genesis would look something like this:

Code: [Select]

[REACTION:CARVE_BONE_ARROWS_ADV]
[NAME:carve bone arrows]
[ADVENTURE_MODE_ENABLED]
[REAGENT:rock:1:ROCK:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[REAGENT:bones:1:NONE:NONE:NONE:NONE][USE_BODY_COMPONENT][ANY_BONE_MATERIAL]
[PRODUCT:100:15:AMMO:ITEM_AMMO_ARROWS:GET_MATERIAL_FROM_REAGENT:bones:NONE]
[SKILL:BONECARVE]This reaction will require a single small rock and a stack of bones and will output 15 bone arrows. This can be changed to output more or less by altering the number 15 in the product line.

For making reactions for yourself, I'd recommend looking around in the wiki page for reactions and the item token page for items to use in reaction reagents and products. I'm not confident that I would be able to write a comprehensible guide on reactions.

Thank you so much. I appreciate this a lot.

I fought a dragon once. I was a decently trained peasant character, slayer of many horseshoe crabs and bystander hero to the defeat of a vampire in a village, which allowed me to recruit a small force of peasants. We went to the dragon's lair, and after blocking the dragonfire, I thought, maybe this will end well. I smacked the dragon with my weapon for no damage, and the dragon BIT MY LEG OFF.

I then crawled to a small niche in the wall, prone (and weeping if it were possible in game.) My !!peasants!! killed the dragon with their tiny, tiny knives but then all of them burned to death.

Eventually I made my way back to town and after a few more adventures went to slay a second dragon with a new crew of peasants. I had been training crutch walking because otherwise I would have been forced to go prone. After losing his leg, that adventurer was much more prudent and allowed the peasants to go first instead of him. The peasants did this against the dragon, and while he was busy biting THEIR legs off for once, my adventurer walked up and bonked him on the head with his crutch, pushing the skull through the brain for poetic justice.

interesting and a very entertaining read. I suppose, the only solution to this "glass dragon" problem is to open up hell and hope for an epic tale and perhaps a new loop. ^_^