Bay 12 Games Forum

I was reading the pathfinding is A* every tick of a dwarf moving must evaluate 26 positions.

A way to optimize the pathfinding is to precalculate long-distance paths, and as the map is modified by the player to update these paths. So instead if for instance there a long hallway and the dorf is at one end and the room he wants to get to is at the other end and off to the side. He would instead build a a path using the long-range pathfinding grid, so his whole travels through the hallway would just be moving towards the current end node of the path. The savings are that any path is a known passable area of traversal. So the dorf is not doing any pathfinding calculations as he passes through the hallway.

When he reaches the end of the hall. If there is another node in his path he will move towards that. The paths need not even be straight as it can be evaluated what tiles are contained by a direct line to line segment from two nodes. Each node would only generate paths to nodes within a certain distance horizontally and only a tile above and below vertically. So when you modify the map the generation of the nodegraph updating would be confined to a limited area.

The bulk of the nodegraph would be precalculated when you start a new embark using nodes at some corners and with some uniform spacing for open ground.

The final part is that the A* is still used once you are in the local region of where you intended to go. So if you reached the closest node in the nodegraph to the workshop you wanted it would then use the A* again to pathfind from the node to the workshop.

Now that we have dorfs not being immediately linked to their crimes it would make sense a new aspect to add to the justice system beyond the jail is a courthouse where a noble appointed by the mayor would be able to mediate the discussion of a crime and the witnesses, victims, and suspects.

It would speed up the accusation process as without the sheriff must find each individual in the fortress and talk to them separate but with a courthouse these things can happen more efficiently.

After a crime the sheriff could gather any evidence(just what he saw in general or any clues as well as witness/victim/etc names) then he can report to the judge and have a meeting with him to provide him this information. Then the judge will issue a summons for all the witnesses, the sheriff, and victims.

Next the player would hear what each person has to say regarding the crime. This will create a list of potential suspects. The player then can choose which of the suspects he wants to call to the courthouse to hear their side of the story such as whether they think their accuser has a grudge against them/have an alibi. Calling dorfs to testify as a suspect would produce a negative thought so calling all the suspects would not be wise as it could contribute to the random fun stuff I detail further.

Then after hearing all the suspects stories that you summoned the player would choose which dorf they believe did it and the sheriff would take them to jail.

During the trial to spice things up some random fun could happen such as accused dorfs getting enraged and going berserk or throwing tantrums in the courthouse. Also can be based on the true person who committed the crime wanting to avoid jail so going in a "berserk" state.

In the event of a loyalty spiral, instead of it going crazy out of control, if the sheriff is able to beat the treacherous bastard enough they can arrest them and bring them to the courthouse for trial as well instead of things spiraling out of control always which would give additional incentive for a competent sheriff.

I keep finding clothes all over the floor, Its like shirts scattered here and there, I am not sure what it is from but nobody wants to put it in the clothing stockpile...

It is really annoying cause it clutters the parkways, and also many of the bedrooms are covered in clothing as well.

Unless I am missing some crucial thing I find it is deathly annoying to get workshops to make stuff with specific kind of material like for instance rocks. If I want all grey chairs and brown tables it is not easy to have that happen... If there is some way maybe I just can't see that.

If not I am really confused how this feature doesn't exist...

You can't explain that.

After many dorfs or gobrins die in your fortress or whatever have you can be a royal pain to find units you are interested in.

I propose many new changes to the units screen.

First we can add usage of tab key, it will take the units of each type like Living dorfs, Deceased, Wild Animals, Tame Animals, etc. and only display a specific list at a time as well as default list of all. This way you can eliminate useless things from your view.

Also would be nice to have some indicator somewhere for the unit if it has been wounded and this indicator could allow additional list for just wounded dorfs that way easier to view them and see their diagnosis and determine if you need to stock more of certain hospital items.

A filter would also be nice, I think it needs to be more advanced than a simple string search. In it for instance you could do show me dorfs, who have mining enabled or show me dorfs who have mason, butcher, and brewer labor enabled making it much easier to browse huge 100+ dorf list for dorfs you have an interest to interact with.

The Wilted Poet - Toy Boat

"This is a candlenut toy boat. All craftdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is studded with steel and encircled with bands of ash. This object menaces with spikes of candlenut, green tourmaline, and chert. On the item is an image of Hoofromance the clear garnet cage in red zircon. On the item is an image of a forgotten beast in chert. On the item is an image of bats in two-humped camel leather. On the item is an image of Nikuz the deity of fame and rumors depicted as a male dwarf and two dwarves in green tourmaline. The two dwarves are prostrating themselves before Nikuz."

They are prostrating themself?

Dirty Dwarves. It seems that I have a gay one too what with the prostrating and all.

It would be interesting if some dwarves had allergies...

For instance some might be allergic to shellfish, or they are lactose intolerant, or allergic to bee sting.

If an allergic dwarf has interaction with its allergen object then he will need immediate medical attention or face some problems up to possibly even death. It would give hospital workers something to do when you don't have much fighting going on, plus would add additional layer of challenge in deciding what dwarves go outside as you would want to keep those allergic to bees indoors, and it would enforce the necessity to have varieties of food for those allergic to certain food types.

Secondly, it would be interesting if some dwarves are only gonna eat only plant food products... They can be vegan dwarves and they will get negative thoughts seeing meat products when they go to get food and also get negative thoughts if they witness wild animals being killed or hunted and seeing a domesticated animal get butchered.

Finally, another idea I think would add some more challenge and variety to the healthcare industry are diseases and a medicine industry. If you lack a plethora of soap then your dwarves would be more susceptible to infections and disease. For instance, in the winter a dorf might catch the flu and it can spread in your fort if they aren't quarantined to the hospital early enough.

This could extend into other things such as lycanthropy. Already now exist werewolf mobs in the game. If a dorf is bit by a werewolf he will have a chance to catch the lycanthropy disease. Diseases like lycanthropy can be treated with proper medicine if done early enough, but after a certain amount of time the disease would become permanent on that dwarf, On whatever months is full moon the dorf would randomly turn to a werewolf for that time. If you like the dorf you can just lock him in a room, otherwise he will behave like a berserk dorf but much stronger.

A similar disease is zombie infection. When your dorfs fight the zombie type of creatures if they get bit then they will only live for a month or so and then succumb to death. They will become a corpse for a certain random time and then will awaken as a zombie.