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Messages - itg

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196
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Dwarven "Special" Forces
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:07:34 pm »
Quote from: Urist Da Vinci on January 04, 2014, 04:30:29 pm
A crutch has a volume of 200, so it would have a "size" of 2000 as a weapon (larger than trap components). It has a contact area of 34, which is 200^(2/3). A platinum (density 21400) crutch weighs 42.8, shown in-game as 42.

This item is heavy enough to severely slow down most dwarves, even if they are wearing nothing but the crutch. Lighter crutches are recommended. Iron or Steel crutches are probably optimal.

I've done a little semi-scientific testing, and it appears that dwarves with steel crutches are about 15% faster than dwarves with platinum crutches. For instance, the captain, a grandmaster crutchwalker, moved 1 tile every 14.5 ticks or so with a platinum crutch, and he moved 1 tile every 12.5 ticks with a steel one. A great crutchwalker took 16 ticks to move 1 square with platinum and 14 ticks with steel.

Next question is whether the steel crutches perform acceptably well in combat. As long as they kill goblins reliably, steel crutches will be the better option. If only I could get a siege when I want one...

By the way, I tested the platinum crutches on the elven caravan. As expected, they break elf bones just fine, but I was disappointed with their performance against the horses, which was no better than vs. the trolls.

197
DF General Discussion / Re: How long you has play DF?
« on: January 06, 2014, 07:36:50 pm »
On and off since DF2010, so 3-4 years.

198
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: No nether-cap?
« on: January 06, 2014, 04:52:57 pm »
Quote from: VerdantSF on January 06, 2014, 03:16:18 pm
I want to make dragon turrets, but nether-cap buildings are the only ones that can withstand dragonfire :(.

Do you have any artifact doors or floodgates lying around? You could use those in lieu of bridges, which is what I assume you wanted the nether-cap for. You'll also need artifact mechanisms, but you'd need those with nether-cap bridges, anyway.

199
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Proposal: Clowns vs Zombies
« on: January 06, 2014, 12:12:56 am »
Reanimated corpses don't keep their armor, unfortunately. Goblins are still a good source of corpses, though.

The unkillable zombie parts were immune to attacks because all attacks would just pass through them. If anything could ever land a hit, they would collapse, just like any zombie.


200
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Proposal: Clowns vs Zombies
« on: January 05, 2014, 10:51:30 pm »
I've done this before, and it does work, although it's not terribly effective. I kept the necromancers safe by putting a layer of windows behind the fortifications. Unfortunately, the necromancers can't raise clowns from the dead, so you'll either need a lot of corpses to start or a lot of patience. I didn't use enough corpses, so it ended up being "death by 1000 cuts" for the clowns. By the time the clowns were dead, I had a few zombie body parts that were immune to all attacks, presumably because all the tissues were totally destroyed. I had to build cage traps to get them out of my way.

201
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Dwarfy Disillusionment
« on: January 05, 2014, 01:08:50 am »
Carve an above-ground fort out of the living rock. Channel down from the surface to make towers, houses, etc.

202
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Do you bother making stuff the liason asks for export?
« on: January 05, 2014, 12:54:22 am »
Eh, pretty much any time anyone figures out an effective tactic, someone else calls it an exploit because it makes the game easier. You can really only call something an exploit if it gains you a large advantage by using game mechanics in clearly unintended ways. Deconstructing the trade depot to steal all the goods is an exploit, for instance. Meals work exactly as intended, for better or worse. DF just isn't finely balanced yet.

203
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Simple Clown related questionS
« on: January 04, 2014, 11:59:33 pm »
You can butcher some clowns, but not all. As far as I know, you can't tell until you try.

Not to give too much away, but here's a little advice:

1) it's very effective to bait the clowns with a piece of artifact furniture. They'll all congregate around it, so you can plan your traps/fortifications accordingly.
2) Make sure the clowns can't get into your fort if your plan fails.
3) It's very hard to beat the HFS without some kind of trap setup.

I've dealt with the HFS several times, and I've never seen any clown made of any of the "hard" inorganic materials, like metal or rock. There are plenty of clowns made of ash, fire, steam, salt, etc, but they're extremely flimsy.

Quote from: MrCompassionate on January 04, 2014, 11:49:21 pm
Quote from: smjjames on January 04, 2014, 10:09:29 pm
Don't metal blobs have a zero chance of appearing?

What you can do is use a dwarven checkerboard to take care of the initial Zerg rush.
Don't dwarvern checkerboards destroy corpses? More importantly I have trouble understanding the design, I have been playing for a couple of years now but im still kinda nooby because I rarely take advice from others or use this forum. Also I tend to just run a fort the boring normal way or occasionally try an evil or glacier embark so I know little about how to make complicated constructs or giant magmasafe pump stacks which sound fairly necessary for this venture.

PS: By boring normal way I mean frequent use of "live training" pits for archers, nullifying vampires by having their arms torn off by megabeasts, training armies of highly venomous snakes and piling them at the entrance as a first line of defence and carving chunks out of a volcano to drop on HFS only to find out the top of a block wall connects diaganally up a Z level to the bottom of a corner of the landmass thus preventing it from falling. Basic Dwarfy stuff.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think demon corpses could survive obsidian casting because they're magma-proof.

The checkerboard design is actually pretty simple. If you've done any obsidian casting at all, you're 90% of the way there. If I remember correctly, the checkerboard part of the design is just there to support a bunch of grates which keep the clowns from flying out.

204
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Do you bother making stuff the liason asks for export?
« on: January 04, 2014, 12:40:49 am »
Quote from: Splint on January 04, 2014, 12:28:41 am
Quote from: DreamCarver on January 04, 2014, 12:25:26 am
When they ask for crutches, I cackle in delight and make as many out of gold as I can be bothered to at the time of their asking.

... Why anyone would desire a solid gold crutch for ease of movement, I will never know.

Nobels would surely appreciate fancy walking sticks such as those, as would warriors who refused to take the "one of your legs don't work no more" hint to leave the army (until we have wepons deform from use, a gold crutch is sure to be a bone snapper!)

A little heavier than gold, but still...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

205
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Not sure where to post this...
« on: January 03, 2014, 11:05:26 pm »
This is how bridges, floodgates, and pretty much everything but gear assemblies work:

If you flip a lever to the ON state, it sends an ON signal to all linked buildings. If the building (e.g. a bridge) is in the OFF state, it turns ON. If it is in the ON position, nothing happens. It doesn't what state any other levers happen to be in. Basically, lever signals are "pulsed," not constant.

Gear assemblies are different in that they toggle their states every time they receive ANY kind of signal. For example, say you have two levers linked to an active gear assembly. Pull one lever, and it will disengage the assembly. Next, pull either lever, and it will become active again.

206
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Dwarven Academy of Science: The New Knowledge Center
« on: January 03, 2014, 09:00:41 pm »
Quote from: wierd on January 02, 2014, 11:09:10 pm
How about a section on questionable, or controversial medical experiments?

Like, "I'm going to hell: how and why my dwarves now kill their own babies"

And of course, the "Platinum Crutch wresters" thread that came out today?

Done. I also added the "Shift Register" thread. Over the weekend, I'll probably flesh out the "Science 101" section a bit.

207
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Airtight Cages?
« on: January 03, 2014, 07:03:00 pm »
I have some experience with this, and if I remember correctly, beasts with poison gas, vapors, or dust attacks can't use those attacks while caged. However, if a beast has noxious secretions, and those secretions happen to boil at room temperature, as they often do, they will "boil through" the cage.

208
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Magma Landmines Revisited: Remote Mines, Player-Operated Switches
« on: January 03, 2014, 04:17:08 pm »
Just tested the drip method, and it works perfectly. I'm interested to see if the atom smashing method can make the switch design a little more consistent and source-independent, though.

209
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Magma Landmines Revisited: Remote Mines, Player-Operated Switches
« on: January 03, 2014, 03:47:23 pm »
Man, I totally forgot about that issue. I never tested the design after saving and reloading, so I just didn't notice the problem. One possible fix is to put a door somewhere in the same 16x16 map "chunk" (not necessarily connected to the switch), then hook it up to a pressure plate in a high-traffic area. You only need to activate the door once after reloading, but that's an easy way to force that section of the map to update without you having to think about it.

Perhaps a better option would be to create a constant drip of water nearby--again, not necessarily connected to the switch. That way you stay dwarf-independent.

Edit: hmm, it appears you need to create the update AFTER disabling the bridge. It still needs to be done only once, though. Given that information, the water drip method is probably best. I still need to test it, though.

210
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Magma Landmines Revisited: Remote Mines, Player-Operated Switches
« on: January 03, 2014, 02:29:24 pm »
Hehe... I think that might be because I forgot to mention that the water source is actually right above the up/down stairs (brown X) in the last picture, and it flows through a fortification I hadn't carved yet before reaching the green box. Sorry about that. I guess that's what I get for posting late at night. I'll update the picture when I get the chance.

I also should have made it more clear that calibrating this switch to the water flow was a very finicky process. Basically, you need the flow to be light enough that you can quickly drop it below 3/7 (or whatever you set that plate to), but strong enough that it will fill back up despite the drainage. I got it to work consistently with my aquifer, and I think anyone should be able to make it work with an aquifer if they build it just like I did (I know, it would help if I give accurate pictures), but it might be slightly different if you use a river or cavern lake.

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