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Messages - Pirate Bob

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256
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Unliveable Fortress: Evil Fortress Reclaim Challenge
« on: March 02, 2013, 05:48:03 pm »
It appears there are actually 3 reclaimable forts.  I checked and the fort in question is definitely "Umomudar", the fort in the northeast corner of the world in the middle of an evil biome.  I did test embarks at the other two forts (which are far to the south on the edge of glaciers) and both are deserted and appear to have been abandoned within the first season.  Maybe those shouldn't be considered "reclaimable"?  In any case, for anybody else interested, you want the third fort listed (Umomudar).

257
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Come, give me your combat reports so I may narrate them!
« on: March 02, 2013, 04:56:30 pm »
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but this is my most awesome combat report thus far.  My pair of legendary axelords decided that they were too badass to use axes against a mere Minotaur...

258
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Unliveable Fortress: Evil Fortress Reclaim Challenge
« on: March 02, 2013, 04:51:28 pm »
I might try sending an adventurer to this fort.  Any thoughts about that?  Is it possible to kill all the undead in adventure mode by smashing them into small enough pieces, or maybe alternatively putting them all inside of containers (when down)?

Does this region have syndrome rain etc. that is likely to kill an adventurer?  Inevitable death to rain would be kind of not fun...

259
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: March 02, 2013, 10:17:27 am »
I did have great fun hunting down the goblins.  Thanks for setting up this game!

I'm sorry about all the rotten food.  I should have collected it and put it in containers, as nothing rots in adventure mode and then it hopefully would have remained fresh for you.  Since it wasn't rotten, I didn't actually think about it...

If you would like future adventurers to collect a largish number of things for you during the next round, you could consider producing a few backpacks.  As you likely know, backpacks are treated as "bags of holding" in adventure mode.  I assume that you would be able to retrieve the contents in fortress mode?  If you're not sure, I can test that.

Quote from: HugoLuman on March 02, 2013, 12:28:41 am
So what's the  current setup again? No longer a fort infested with HFS denizens from which we must retrieve an artifact shield?
In case it wasn't totally clear, the original fort with the artifact shield (which might have challenged even your abilities) was abandoned.  No one successfully managed to kill all the demons, and it is unclear if this is even possible in adventure mode or if they just respawn.  Also, it was mentioned that if you sleep or wait in the site a bug causes the FPS to go way down.  Also I'm not sure if artifacts actually show up in adventure mode.

The current fort had only 7 goblin spearmen and 1 thief (at least that I found).  I'm sure you could have killed them playing as a baby koala... ;).

260
DF General Discussion / Re: Future of the Fortress
« on: March 02, 2013, 07:58:31 am »
Quote from: Cruxador on March 02, 2013, 05:59:54 am
Quote from: arkhometha on March 02, 2013, 12:12:07 am
Quote from: Pirate Bob on March 01, 2013, 09:49:34 pm
I'm not sure if the "combat tweaking" you mention in the March report will involve ranged combat, but if it does you might find the testing a group of us did helpful.  The results are summarized on the Material Science page of the wiki and in this bug report.  Urist da Vinci also found that some unusual rounding was occurring when determining projectile velocities, which is reported here.  If this does interest you and you would like any explanation and/or further testing, please let me know.

Edit:  I forgot to mention that I also wrote a summary in a Google doc as well.  I will try to have a look at this document this weekend to make sure it is up-to-date.

I echo this Toady, will you consider taking a look at that research and maybe change bows and crossbows so they are not railguns anymore?
1. This is a suggestion not a question.
2. He already made these weapons much slower in this release. As he mentioned in the recent FotF answers, they now have a delay after firing, though he plans to replace that with a proper reloading mechanic at some point.
2.  I am nearly certain this is not true.  Crossbows and bows have always had a huge delay after they are fired (edit - at least since DF2010 - I can't say before that), and I don't believe anything has changed about this yet.  The change is that with the new combat mechanics Toady could break down the firing of ranged weapons into loading, aiming etc, and he indicated in the last FotF that he might do so:
Quote
The only example I remember from upthread about an ability taking "dozens" of turns was the post-fire period of a ranged weapon, which probably shouldn't exist as such.  That needs to be replaced by loading. 
If he does this, then it stands to reason he might balance ranged attacks at the same time.  I figured it couldn't hurt to mention that we have a mountain of testing results that he could look at if he wants to balance ranged weapons.  Or not.  I don't know if he will find our results useful or if he even wants to balance ranged weapons.  That's up to him. 

If you want to debate whether ranged weapons should be balanced, I don't believe this is the place, as Toady doesn't have time to read long debates (a.k.a. flaming  :P).  Consider another thread, such as our original testing thread (or start your own).

261
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: March 01, 2013, 11:18:06 pm »
I have successfully liberated Kilrudzulban from the goblins, and placed the log of Tekkud Sirabkol as a Google doc.  I'm not sure if this is the style or length you are looking for, so feel free to edit it if you wish.  I also placed the save file on DFFD.

I killed seven goblin spearmen and one theif.  I openly walked around the site at least twice afterward, and it seems to be empty.  I then moved Tekkud back to a nearby human fortress and retired him.  Hopefully this is what you were looking for.  If you need me to do anything else, or if you think there are more goblins etc., please let me know.  If not, good luck with your fortress! 

262
DF General Discussion / Re: Future of the Fortress
« on: March 01, 2013, 09:49:34 pm »
I'm not sure if the "combat tweaking" you mention in the March report will involve ranged combat, but if it does you might find the testing a group of us did helpful.  The results are summarized on the Material Science page of the wiki and in this bug report.  Urist da Vinci also found that some unusual rounding was occurring when determining projectile velocities, which is reported here.  If this does interest you and you would like any explanation and/or further testing, please let me know.

Edit:  I forgot to mention that I also wrote a summary in a Google doc as well.  I will try to have a look at this document this weekend to make sure it is up-to-date.

263
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: February 27, 2013, 12:36:25 pm »
Quote from: EBannion on February 27, 2013, 10:20:00 am
Basically this. What I'd like would be: summaries of anything cool or very unfortunate that befalls any adventurers who are included in the save because they died before you won, and details on the experiences of the hero who succeeds.
hmm...well my first adventurer won't be included in the save, as I started fresh from the original save after he died.  He had carried a largish number of bolts and good armor from the fort closest to the fortress site out into the wilderness where he was killed, and I felt like it would be nicer to future adventurers (including myself  :P) if these goodies weren't lost.  Also, nothing at all interesting happened with him.  He stole some loot from the fort, recruited a couple of companions, and then died the next night sleeping in the woods.  You know, like 90% of all adventurers  ;).

I won't be sleeping in the open with my current adventurer unless there is no other option, so he will hopefully live at least long enough to make it to the fort.  Like I mentioned earlier, he is trained up and has plenty of equipment, so I just need to move him to the fort.

Update:  I have arrived at Bronzebanners, and have found it almost deserted.  Do you have an idea how many goblins I am looking for?  So far I have killed 5 spearmen and 1 thief.  I will try to carefully sweep the entire site, but it's slow going as the massive number of items makes the FPS rather low in adventure mode.  I do agree that these goblin spearmen seem to be more skilled than average (they killed all my companions), but you can't kill what you can't see, and I don't intend to let them see me...

264
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: February 27, 2013, 08:23:35 am »
So, how does this work?  Do you want progress reports?  Or do you just want a journal after a successful attempt?  I guess I'll give a general overview of what I've been up to.  I have detailed notes that I can post if I succeed.

My first adventurer was a human axeman, who started quite close to the target.  Unfortunately, he was ambushed by bandits and killed in his sleep (I was testing a theory proposed a while back on a thread I can't remember that if you sneak before sleeping bandits won't attack you - seems that one's false...)

I am now using a marksdwarf, and being more careful.  I think he's now trained enough to deal with goblins (he took out a medium sized goblin bandit camp without problems).  I am moving him towards the fort now, but it's a ways off from where he is right now.  It will be somewhat slow going, as he needs to carry a huge pile of bolts, which are ridiculously heavy in this version...

265
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: February 25, 2013, 10:44:16 pm »
Meh, what the heck.  Work is overrated...

I'm giving this a go.  How hard can goblins be... :P

266
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventurer Needed, apply within!
« on: February 24, 2013, 04:26:19 pm »
I REALLY want to try this, but I don't think I have time right now  :(.  I am definitely interested in trying a future run though (a long way of saying posting to watch).

Edit - one thing: won't the goblins in the site be friendly to both adventurers and future reclaiming dwarves?  Or am I confused about that.  I am pretty sure I have tried something similar to this once and the goblins ended up being friendly.  I guess that really doesn't stop us from killing them, and killing them should quickly make them less friendly...

267
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: "Each statement takes about as much time as a regular step" latest patch notes
« on: February 24, 2013, 04:06:47 pm »
Quote from: Laserhead on February 21, 2013, 12:28:44 pm
Did anyone else read the patch notes and immediately think of some random NPC saying "A moose once bit my sister"? Maybe it'd come out more like "In 3, in the Plains of Goring, my Sister Alath was bitten by the stray Moose in the third finger, right hand, bruising the muscle and bruising the fat through the muskox leather glove", but the possibility seems there.
I think someone needs to mod in "Swedish" as a language... :P

Quote from: Randy Gnoman on February 21, 2013, 09:36:33 pm
You know what would be amazing?  Running into NPCs who actually had really intense stories. 
I'd settle for the shopkeepers just having, you know, arrows and such...

268
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Adventure mod ocean crossing?
« on: February 24, 2013, 03:51:49 pm »
Are that the land in the upper left you are trying to reach is really an island, and not connected to the main land mass?  If it is not an island, it will be much faster and easier to swim (or walk over ice) back to the mainland and then walk the long way around the shoreline over to the land across the water.

269
DF Modding / Re: Broken Arrow - Fixed Archery Balance
« on: February 23, 2013, 11:27:42 pm »
Quote from: Thundercraft on February 21, 2013, 03:38:27 am
Quote from: Pirate Bob on September 26, 2012, 07:40:41 am
Quote from: mastahcheese on September 25, 2012, 08:34:31 pm
WOO! I finally got my bone reactions finished, the reageant line is ridiculously long and awkward, BUT IT WORKS!

So here it is, my bolt mods.    ...Oh, by the way, turns out the ADJECTIVE token won't work on ammo, dang it, so I had to just add the descriptor to the name proper.

Ammo raws, includes both the tips used solely for the reactions, and the actually ammo itself.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Solid bolts are on top, so use it to replace normal bolts, following them are the actually ammos, then the tips for reactions.

Here are the huge amount of reactions to create all of them, for flare and bodkin, for all ammo-grade metals, as well as the finished bolts themselves.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At the bottom you should see, BONUS! Obsidian flared tips, no fuel required, but only makes 1 stack of 25, but you'll probably be obsidian-farming, anyway.

And here is that Fletcher's shop to make all that.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also includes a MAGMA Fletcher's shop!

And to make adding all this to the dwarf entity file a little easier,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Just add to the dwarves, and there you have it.

Forging the arrowheads needs metalcrafting, as does making the fletcher's shops themselves, actually connecting the arrowheads to the wood or bone is weaponsmithing, and making stone flare tips is, of course, stonecrafting.

Please give me your feedback on this, I worked quite a bit on this, and haven't been able to do much in the way of actual combat testing, If I could get one of those amazing charts like the one Pirate Bob made, that would be great so I could tweak them to perfection.

I should eventually be able to test this (remind me if it doesn't happen).  I'm kind of behind with my testing, as other stuff keeps distracting me.  If you want to do your own testing, I'd be happy to guide you through that as well. 

What crossbow parameters did you envision using with these?  Or do you want testing to figure out what would be good there?  If you use the standard DF Force=Velocity=1000, then a slightly differently shaped railgun pellet is still going to go right through a dwarf...

Has anyone remembered to test this stuff? ??? It looks like mastahcheese put a lot of work into these reactions, workshops, and ammo and it'd be a shame to see it forgotten. If they are reasonably balanced, I'd be tempted to use them...

Sorry, I forgot to do this.  It takes a long time to run the testing, and I won't be able to do it in the near future as I am too busy with work.  If someone else wants to run the tests, I would be happy to provide scripts and/or advice.

However, I can estimate what will happen using the formulas I derived from my testing (see the Material Science page of the wiki).  I find that adamantine breastplates and helms (layer thickness=20) will block flared bolts quite well, steel plates/helms and other (thinner) addy armor might block some bolts a little (with the lighter bolts more likely to be blocked).  Bodkin bolts will not be blocked at all (except addy vs. addy, which happens in vanilla), and no armors lower than steel will provide any protection whatsoever.  This might not actually be too bad for dwarf mode, as I think it might allow some protection with steel armor, which you can get relatively easily.  I don't think this would make any significant difference for adventure mode unless you go to a retired fort to get armor.

I also created a mod of bolts which I tried to balance a based on my testing results.  I created custom materials for bolts which all have mass=600 (average for wood).  I then tweaked SHOOT_MAXVEL to get steel plate armor to block projectiles ~90% of the time and iron ~30% of the time.  I feel that this is very nice for adventure mode (and as a bonus makes bolts less crazily heavy).  It may make steel armor too good for dwarf mode, and if you think so you could dial up SHOOT_MAXVEL a bit to compensate (I think there are some instructions about how to do this included with the mod).  There is also the issue that the custom materials behave oddly in Dwarf mode.  I created reactions to use bars of normal metal and create bolts made of the corresponding light metal, but then when you melt these down you get the light metal.  It is also not possible to put custom reactions in the forge, so bolts have to be made elsewhere (I think I chose the smelter?), but reactions still show up as possible using the custom metals in the forge.  Anyway, if anyone wants to try it I'd be happy to help if you have questions/issues.

270
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Dwarven Research: A Comparison Study on the Effectiveness of Bolts vs Armors
« on: February 18, 2013, 10:11:21 pm »
Quote from: ORCACommander on February 17, 2013, 02:47:30 pm
Zivilin I hate to bump your topic but i have found a way for you test bolt quality and crossbow quality. You will need to install df hack (https://github.com/peterix/dfhack/) as your first step. next you will need to create your dwarves with their mundane items. next view the dwarves so that their inventory screen is up uses the up and down arrows to cycle through their gear. in the df hack command prompt put in changeitem q 5 where 5 = masterwork.

While this will completely change a stack of bolts to the same quality unfortunately it must be done manually for every item since it relies on the item being selected in the gui
Thanks for the suggestion - we actually have already done this (Urist da Vinci of course also thought of the same thing you suggested), and I managed to even figure out how to automate it.  I found no impact at all of bolt quality on damage done.  I believe that I posted these results somewhere in the thread, but the thread has gotten quite long...
I probably should investigate this in more depth at some point, but it's a lot of work and I've been busy.  If you are interested in doing any investigations yourself I'd be happy to provide you with scripts and/or advice.

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