Bay 12 Games Forum

To clarify: the width of tiles in the sidebar can be different from the tiles in the main view, but the height has to remain the same. So a 12x12 tileset and an 8x12 font would work, but a 16x16 or 8x8 tileset and an 8x12 font wouldn't.

Startdwarf shouldn't crash - this is what I get when attempting to set the number of dwarves below 7:
[DFHack]# startdwarf 1
E: RuntimeError: ./hack/scripts/startdwarf.rb:5: too low
 ./hack/scripts/startdwarf.rb:5
 (eval):7:in `load'
 (eval):7
 (eval):7:in `catch'
 (eval):7


Dwarf Therapist...does that come with DFHack?

No, but DFHack has a (simplified) Therapist-like interface, accessible with (u)-(l). (You might need to enable it with "enable manipulator" if you're using r4+).
Edit: If you're using a starter pack, you probably already have Therapist (although it runs separately from DF, so it doesn't open automatically).

It's not finished yet, but it should work regardless of the platform or DFHack version.

Apparently the wiki's having some trouble and isn't accepting new account atm, without which I can't create pages, so this will be on hold for a little while...

You can create pages here (double-check the title first to be safe - it'll need a "Masterwork:" prefix for MDF pages).

I made it display the available embark points (and change color based on how many points you have remaining), and re-organized the screen to make it look more like DF's confirmations:


I also got "Esc" to exit the confirmation, which wasn't working before. Unfortunately, DFHack doesn't have access to the skill points (as far as I can tell), so I can't display how many skills each unit is using or has available.

The problem with copying and deleting save folders is that C++ only has a few standard filesystem-related functions, including rename(), which renames a file or folder, and remove(), which deletes a file. Copying and deleting folders is a challenge, especially on multiple platforms (although I found a Lua library that does these things, which I may be able to port back to C++). I may also rewrite the majority of this plugin in Lua, since the C++ plugin is getting a little large to maintain. This will hopefully make file management less work, as well as making things like sorting, searching, and accurate determination of backups easier.
(Actually, I may be able to implement the entire plugin in Lua - the only obvious difference would be that Lua scripts can't use the plugin enabling/disabling mechanism in r4+, so it would need to be enabled by "load-screen enable" instead of "enable load-screen". However, the filesystem API would require at least r5, since it's not included in current versions of DFHack.)

4.  Make the controls for embark area selection consistent with the analogous construction placement system in fort mode. 

When selecting the embark site you currently move within a region with "uhmk", change regions with arrow keys, and resize with "UHMK".  I propose basing the controls on construction placement in fort mode:  move within a region with arrow keys, change regions with shift-arrow keys (as larger movements), and resize with "uhmk".  As an extra improvement, scrolling against the edge of a region could move to the next one over.  While in fort mode a variety of controls is an unavoidable consequence of keeping menu depth reasonable, there is no reason not to make embark controls similar to those the player is about to use after embarking.  This simple change would slightly reduce the learning cliff faced by new players, and also the number of controls for all players to memorise. 

I disagree with using Shift+arrow keys to move between regions, because they're already used to jump 10 region tiles at a time (similar to Shift+arrow keys in fortress mode). Making them move a single region tile would either make moving around large maps more time-consuming than it already is, or introduce another inconsistency by using different keys to jump 10 tiles. I would, however, like umkh to resize the local area (it took me weeks to figure out that Shift was necessary to resize) - maybe wadx could be used to move around the local map (this is what is used to set drawbridge raising directions, and I'm pretty sure there are other thing that use these keys too).

6. Recognise that the 'alt' key is not being held after alt-tabbing away and returning.

There is a known issue on Windows where if the player uses alt-tab to change focus and later returns to DF, the game assumes that he alt key is still being held and parses keybindings accordingly.  This can be fixed by tapping the alt key, at which point the key release is noticed.  I am unaware of whether there are corresponding issues on other operating systems.  While tapping 'alt' is a simple fix, this issue is particularly problematic for new players who haven't heard of it and should be relatively easy to fix (most trivially, by releasing the key after eg. a 60-second hold regardless of pressed status)

I was wrong about this being an issue with the SDL library - there is, in fact, a fairly easy way to fix this (see http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=6455). The fix would probably take more effort than that example in DF, but it could be possible to implement in DF's open-source section (libgraphics).

8. Add an 'settings' item to the main menu, for an interface to change the init options.

An interface similar to that used for basic worldgen would be a good fit for the init and d_init settings, where there is a list of settings with a few settings each.  Having an in-program way to adjust these settings makes them much more accessible to many players - it's historically been a selling point of the Lazy Newb Pack that there's a simple way to change settings.  It may be appropriate to keep them as seperate sets of settings, in which case 'init settings' and 'd_init settings' would be self-explanatory based on existing knowledge and documentation.  At present, the only settings menu is an off-list prompt to press 'esc' for options, which does not include persistent settings beyond the keybindings.  Bringing these options into the main program would make the experience more coherent and facilitate rapid switching (such as between forts). 

This would actually be fairly straightforward to implement as a DFHack plugin/script, although it would be nice to have something like this in the vanilla game eventually. (It's probably not a high priority on Toady's list, given the time it would take, although we'll have to wait and see what happens during the next release cycle.)

9.  Add an init option to confirm embark.

Inspiration thread.  Because sometimes hitting 'e' by accident can be very frustrating.  Currently we have an init option to always confirm embark site selection, and even if disabled you sometimes get the warning (eg for salt water).  Actually embarking is arguably a bigger deal than choosing a site, and having the option to set a confirmation would be great (like for abandoning a fort).  It would also be possible to set conditions in which the warning would pop up regardless, most obviously if no equiptment was selected or if less than 20% of embark points have been spent. 

Changing it to alt-e can help. This would actually be very easy to implement as a DFHack plugin, or even a tweak - I'll see if I can pull something together in the next day or so.

Edit: Made a simple DFHack tweak to add an embark confirmation.