Bay 12 Games Forum

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Originally posted by Abalieno:
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I was one of the most skeptical about this release but I can honestly say that it's wonderful and very playable (at least compared to previous versions).

The game new only needs to be a bit less obscure and it can all be done by working on the interface. Like displaying some more verbose error messages, or show which skills are used in a workshops, required materials to make something and so on.

A great thing could be having something like the Civilopedia of Civilization browsable in game. Nothing more complicated than the current help system, with hyperlinks, but more integrated in the game so that you could use some special key to go see help about the item and then follow hyperlinks to mats needed, skills and so on.

It should be exportable, like a simple text file. So that players themselves could maintain it and keep it up to date. Like an integrated wiki that you trigger with a keypress.

Actually it could work like a dynamic notepad. You index every object in the world, then let the user access its help page. If that page is empty you let the user just type text into it and save it. For example one could lookup "clay" soil type and then type in its page that it's a type of soil that doesn't need irrigation to be cultivated and that if dug doesn't produce stone and can't be detailed. Eventually with hyperlinks to "irrigation", "cultivation", "engraving".</STRONG>

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We already have a wiki!

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Originally posted by Sowelu:
<STRONG>In all honesty, I feel like the only person here who's NOT making a computer in DF.  Of course that won't last long as I'm sure I'll get around to it before long.</STRONG>

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I'd rather make tentative gates and timers to tinker around with the concept (*cough or wait till it's on the wiki cough*) and then merely make as simple a computer as convenient to set up automatic farm flooding and some truly heinous defenses. Pressure plate -> drawbridge goes up, magma comes down. Magma levels high enough-> pressure plate resets room, forgot to reset the magma, fortress floods and burns. Oh well.

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Originally posted by Delton:
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Especially if it broke your clock, preserving the exact moment of that noble's death, forever.</STRONG>

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CSI!!!

Onok Angorogash cancels Construct Clean Room: Drink.
The dwarves suspended the construction of the Clean Room.

I'm scared now. How will we fabricate our transistors if the magma-powered etching setup is half-complete due to too little Dwarven Rum?

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Originally posted by Jonathan S. Fox:
<STRONG>Well, presumably you can still make glass windows that will allow LoS, but of course there's the issue that windows don't act as supports. If the value calculations stay the same, they should be more valuable than a true wall of glass, however -- owing to their transparency, no doubt! A possible explanation for all this is that if you actually rewall the whole wall with massive glass blocks strong enough to support what's above them (rather than just making a window), the glass is eventually so thick with so much distortion that you can't really tell what's behind it at all. It's like glass windows placed in bathrooms that are heavily frosted and have a lot of distortion so they let light in, but scramble it so much that whole images no longer pass through, thus making them suitable for a bathroom.

Edit: Actually, that would be quite cool when lighting comes in, if glass walls blocked LoS but still let a lot of light through. You could place those between rooms you didn't want to expend lighting apparatuses on and well-lit areas, without feeling guilty about installing a fully transparent two-way viewport between the crowded dining room and the dwarf's private bedroom.    :eek:

[ October 21, 2007: Message edited by: Jonathan S. Fox ]</STRONG>

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Even with cave-in code, you could have cathedral-style walls by making pillar supports out of glass and then window the rest of the wall.

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Originally posted by Crazy_Ivan80:
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I don't see menacing spikes engraved with dwarves! Bah!

 :p</STRONG>

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This is a *set of 3D glasses* made of star ruby and blue diamond. It is encrusted with opal and menaces with spikes of brass and steel.
On the item is a finely-designed image of a dwarf in cave spider silk. The dwarf is putting on the glasses.
On the item is a well-designed image of a dwarf in giant cave spider silk. The dwarf is screaming in pain and bleeding.

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Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>Engravings seemed odd for rewalls -- you should have just placed some kind of engraved panel instead of bricking it up and carving it up.</STRONG>

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So engraving panels like that are on the menu for the future?  

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Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>Grates allow line of sight, and I think they can currently fire any item through them without penalty, amazing champs.</STRONG>

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It makes a whole lot more sense if you're up against them, like arrow slit fortifications. That way, you can simply put the tip of the bolt/arrow right at the space in between bars, and fire--while anybody more than a tile or so away would find it a lot harder to get through. Suppose you have a 1cm-wide arrowhead, and a 2cm-wide gap with 2cm-wide bars. At random, your chances of firing through without getting deflected are about 1 in 4...neglecting DEPTH. With the assumption that you're firing straight-on out of the way, and bearing in mind that arrows are pretty dang long and fortifications are not exactly thin... you're looking at a one-in-a-million shot from any further away than pointblank range. Especially if we make grates and arrow slits closer to the width of any shot that's likely to go through it.

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Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>For easy viewing of Toady's recent videos:

Jumping Video (DFMA)

Dwarf Lake (DFMA)

Adventure Lake (DFMA)

I really like the look of that mini-z window giving up and down information near to where the adventurer is standing. Toady, are you going to give dwarves parachutes or ropes to climb down these cliffs?</STRONG>

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I believe he said climbing was not yet in this version. But take heart! Once climbing *up* a cliff is in, doubtless we will be able to climb *down* as well.