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Messages - SquashMonster

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DF Suggestions / Re: Machanisms Arc???

« on: July 06, 2008, 07:10:20 pm »

I made a thread quite some time ago about steam mechanics that had a very positive response. I just thought I'd link to it as a suggestion for what kind of thing could be done in a mechanics arc.

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=5908.0

DF General Discussion / Re: What will be your first costum world once the next relea

« on: June 23, 2008, 03:18:18 pm »

I feel like a pansy after all of these suggestions for evil wastelands that even the gods loathe to look at.

But my first world is going to be as temperate, wet, and volcanic as possible. If the entire world is made of rivers and volcanoes, that's perfect. And set to terrifying of course. That's the perfect Dwarf Fortress setup to me; access to all the game's resources, but the wildlife wants to eat you.

I'd be shocked if the generator could handle my other top choice though. I want to have a setup like my current D&D campaign; in that, the entire world is made of islands floating in the sky. Maybe it could be emulated with a whole lot of chasms, I dunno.

DF Modding / Re: Project Nonsense

« on: November 23, 2007, 01:07:00 am »

Somebody jokingly mentioned it in another thread, but I think it has a home here... purring maggotmen.

Also, grey wrinkly ninjas. Give them exactly the same stats as elephants .

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: The RAPTURE project

« on: December 03, 2007, 11:45:00 pm »

After trying on and off for a few days to find a suitable starting location, I've started my own attempt at this project.

Currently, I'm digging a very large pit near the river. Once the pit is complete, I will begin construction of a glass dome inside it. Since the river is only on one Z level, I should be able to completely remove the barrier between the river and the lake.

I want to put the glass dome at least one layer under the surface. But how many layers tall should it be?

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Fortress Design Center

« on: November 30, 2007, 07:20:00 pm »

I'm sure it's not terribly unique, but my usual design for workshops is this:

code:


##########
#   vv   # v = ramp to lower level
#        #
#        #
####  ####
#        #
#        #
#        #
####  ############
#======#
#======#
#======#
#======#
#======#
#======#
###^^### ^ = ramp to upper level
########

If you put two of these next to eachother, there's just enough room for a small service-tunnel between the stockpiles. I find it to be a convenient layout, as generally a given stockpile will service multiple industries. Multiple stockpile industries like metalsmithing, however, are still inconvenient with this design.

[ November 30, 2007: Message edited by: SquashMonster ]

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Spending less on start and making vastly more axes by br

« on: November 27, 2007, 12:52:00 am »

In my last fortress, I just brought some metal bars instead of axes. Unload your stuff, take apart your wagon, burn your wagon into charcoal, and forge yourself an axe. Then you can get plenty of wood. All you lose is a tiny bit of fortress defense, but for the 275 points you save you can bring a lot of dogs.

Unless your map has no wood, in which case skip the axe all together.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Reccommend me a kerazy project.

« on: December 04, 2007, 01:03:00 am »

Reroute a river and see if it still flows properly.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Epic Defenses

« on: November 27, 2007, 01:30:00 am »

Bear-fall traps. They're like stone-fall traps, only with less stones and more bears. You can also do dog-fall traps, to be less epic. Carp-fall traps are even more epic, but I have no idea how you reload them.

Or.

Your entrance is covered in spike traps, which are currently retracted into the floor. Nearby, you have a water wheel powered by the screw pumps that said water wheel powers. At the top of the water's path in this wheel, there's a channel. This channel has four things in it. Flood Gate A (up), Flood Gate B (down), Pressure Plate A and Pressure Plate B. Pressure Plate A toggles Flood Gate B. Pressure Plate B toggles your spikes. And the lever in the front of your hall toggles Flood Gate A.

What? Well, when you pull the lever, it lowers one of the flood gates that's stopping your perpetual water machine. Water comes out, and it toggles the other flood gate, stopping the flow of water. But, water is already flowing, so it toggles your pressure plate, which makes your spikes go up. The water flows off your pressure plates, opening the flow of water back up and putting your spikes back down, which repeats the process.

What? You have a lever. When you pull it, spikes keep popping in and out of the floor.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Most challenging area

« on: November 10, 2007, 08:02:00 pm »

In Omon Atho, one of the pregenerated worlds, there's a single volcanic island. If I remember correctly, it's in the nearest ocean to the southeast. This island contains a very shallow two-layer aquifer. Normally, this would be impossible to get very far with. Howver, there is a cave with a number of creatures in it, featuring a minotaur. The cave reaches past the aquifer. If you want to get to actual stone, you'll have to fight through the cave.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Iron is magma-safe!

« on: December 07, 2007, 12:19:00 pm »

Graphite sublimes? :eek: That is really weird.

So...
bauxite
iron
steel
platinum
(sorta) graphite

Anything else?

Oh, and is it safe to put grates over magma?

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Magma eat stockpiles glitch???

« on: December 06, 2007, 04:07:00 am »

Next to your magma, dig a shaft down until you're under the water level. Carve a magma channel somewhere down there. Connect it to your magma so it starts to fill. Start making a channel near your water, and put a floodgate in. Make sure the water channel empties over the start of the magma channel. Connect the water channel to the water, and lower the floodgate. Wait a bit, raise the floodgate.

The water should flow on top of your magma channel. Mixing water and magma makes obsidian. This obsidian should block off the rest of the magma channel, which'll make it cool, making more obsidian. Mine it all out intelligently, and you can use that floodgate again and again.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Is DF Deterministic?

« on: December 05, 2007, 01:11:00 am »

Yeah, I'm aware of the theory behind what makes it deterministic or not. I know DF could be coded to be deterministic very easily*, but I didn't know if it was or not.

Sounds like it isn't though. That's a shame. I realized a little bit ago that, if DF's gameplay was deterministic, a moderately skilled hacker could make a program that lets you play DF cooperatively over the internet**.

Not as good as properly coded cooperative play would be, of course. But asking Toady for coop play is too greedy for me.

* Spit out a random number at the end of world generation, save that. Make that the seed for in-game random be that. When you save, save the state of the random number generator as well.

** You need to sift memory to find the step counter and the pause state. The program lets player A play until the step counter increases, then pauses for player A, saves A's state, and sends all the keys A pressed to player B. Player B's game starts by saving the state and pausing. When B receives A's keys, B's game reverts to the saved state, inputs A's keys, re-inputs the keys B pressed, and waits for B's game to advance a step. Then it saves B's state and sends B's keys to A. When A receives new keys, he does the same thing as B, and it goes back and forth until whenever.

It'd be a little quirky, and fairly laggy, but it'd still be playable, and kinda fun.

[ December 05, 2007: Message edited by: SquashMonster ]

DF Gameplay Questions / Is DF Deterministic?

« on: December 04, 2007, 09:38:00 pm »

A rather odd question, but does anybody know if DF is deterministic? What I mean is, given the same seed, starting location, and same dwarves, will two people who run the game and perform exactly the same steps at exactly the same number of steps into the game get exactly the same result?

How about if they differed a little? How much would it take before something like having different sieges or immigrants happened?

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: elephants - what can i do with them

« on: November 29, 2007, 08:55:00 pm »

Do tamed elephants attack intruders? Because, if they do, I think you should be dropping them on anybody that attacks the fortress.

DF Suggestions / Re: Cave-in algorithm ideas thread

« on: August 30, 2007, 02:49:00 am »

Grek: Unfortunately, it would mean making the algorithms work differently to keep checking upwards like that. Currently weight only moves one tile at a time, and moving the weight back up would probably cause very weird interactions with the downward weight distribution. I can't look into it now, but if I get a chance I'll get back to you.

Merlon: Thank you. The weighting for collapse strategy you proposed will work most of the time. However, sometimes the cube that gets removed will cause a cascade failure. You can simulate this yourself in the program by getting a cave-in state and removing all the highlighted tiles (or shifting down the column, as appropriate). It'll sometimes leave new highlighted tiles. Though, personally, I like the idea of using cave-ins to engineer caverns carrying a risk of complete failure.

Draco: The weight distribution of above layers does effect what is possible. This is intentional, as without it doing that you can do some very ridiculous things. For example, if above layers had no effect, you could support a gigantic room on a massive pillar, and then have another large room directly under the pillar. ...Without the force of the pillar above it destroying the entire room.

Fieari: I agree. I tried to get as close as possible to the 7x7 rule with the material I used for that example. A more complete approach would have different properties for different materials. Hopefully the devs will like my algorithm enough that thinking of properties for all the different materials will be worth it .