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Messages - Shurhaian

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556
DF General Discussion / Re: Dwarf Companion - 0.15 out, 23/12/2008 [not much since 0.14]
« on: September 13, 2009, 12:32:29 pm »
The computer I have to work with is not very powerful. I'm already pushing the limits of enjoyably-playable framerate as it is(a fortress of any maturity does not go above 20 FPS, and frequently drops below 10 or even 5). Adding a layer of emulation to that... is not an appealing prospect.

It also doesn't address the issue of getting .NET to work properly with Wine.

557
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Quick water pressure question
« on: September 13, 2009, 11:32:41 am »
The last time I tried to rely on natural water flow to get the job done(it was from an underground river, but still), my dwarves were dying of thirst before the water got there. And it wasn't THAT long a tunnel.

Natural fluid flow is iffy in tight spaces, it seems.

558
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Make pig iron item.
« on: September 13, 2009, 10:06:57 am »
UberNube had it right. For brittle metals, i.e. pig iron and bismuth, you need to make the bars.

Making alloys that use those bars does NOT count. Steel bars are not "pig iron items", even though they're made using pig iron.

559
DF General Discussion / Re: Dwarf Companion - 0.15 out, 23/12/2008 [not much since 0.14]
« on: September 13, 2009, 09:47:13 am »
That the Windows version may be easier/more stable is cold comfort for those of us who don't HAVE Windows available.

560
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Stop cleaning traps! Oh, and one more thing.
« on: September 13, 2009, 09:18:16 am »
SquirrelWizard touched on the reason dwarves are heading to the exit even with "Dwarves Stay Inside" set.

The problem is that they don't seem to actually look and see if the ITEM is outside. They head toward it, and at some point realize, "Oh, wait, I'm outside. I'm not supposed to be." and cancel the job.

You can see this in reverse as dwarves that ARE outside when the order is given cancel jobs like Eat and Drink and, I think, Sleep.

561
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Quick water pressure question
« on: September 13, 2009, 09:12:42 am »
The reason I'm going with the overhead cisterns (relative to the farm plots) is one of wasted water. If they're on the same level as the reservoir, I need to take the size of the reservoir into consideration when calculating how much water I need. A 2x2 room with an extra tile dug out, however, stores 35 units of water; even counting the bits that won't leave the reservoir's tiles, this should spread neatly around the farm with only a bit left over.

The farms themselves I plan to have sealed with lever-activated doors. Not quite as neat as linking it all to some other aspect of the system, but... it'll work. And I intend to use the Notes system liberally.

562
DF Modding / Re: Little project: Drakes
« on: September 12, 2009, 11:14:07 pm »
I mentioned the exploding dragons because the thread I initially linked to had a (joking I think) mention of Terry Pratchett's unstable swamp dragons. Just a tongue in cheek note - nothing more.

Just because it's a fantastic setting doesn't mean consistency is suddenly a plague... Dragons breathing fire is an established notion, and makes them more of a threat. Having them spontaneously explode(sometimes while still alive, though they won't be afterward) is... rather the opposite, putting them well into the realm of comic relief. Which is all right for some, but, just to state clearly, isn't what I'm going for here.

Dragons that can explode when killed in a way that can do harm to those around them is a more suitable notion, and an intriguing concept in its own right; I suppose it'd make slaughtering them not unlike slaughtering a fire imp, only a bit less, um, contagious(since cold doesn't spread like fire does). But I don't think I want to go quite that far. The fire-breathers - picture them as secreting a chemical cocktail that, when mixed together and with air, spontaneously ignites. If they spit it up but don't spit it right out, and violently, it'd kill or at least injure them - I'm not giving them any particular resistance to fire. Making the white ones have such a cold internal temperature that it did harm to those near them would require giving THEM a much more abnormal biology than I have in mind.

563
DF Suggestions / Re: No more all-directional ramps
« on: September 12, 2009, 11:02:51 pm »
What's odd about this topic is that there does seem to be SOME directionality to ramps.

The entrance to my fortress goes along a straight shaft, down a ramp, along a hallway and around a bend, and down another ramp. That middle level does not have ANYTHING beyond the ramps, only the floor between them - the ramps are up against walls on either end.

When I dug behind the end of the corridor on the uppermost level to put a ballista post, and then tried to put fortifications, I found something odd.

If I finished a row of fortifications near the ballista, I could not put in another row of fortifications nearer the ramp because it had no path.

So, for some reason or other, than particular ramp DOES only work in one direction. I'm assuming that there has to be a sensible path from the bottom to the top. If the south side of the ramp's lower level is against a wall, you can't come from the north side of the lower level and go out the north side of the upper level.

Isolated ramps can be seen as incomplete. Until you put a wall on one side, they don't really go anywhere. Finishing the ramp is in reality a part of building that adjacent wall(or the floor on the level above).

In other words, the dwarves are doing some of that work behind the scenes.

As for what happens when the ramp goes both ways, north and south to use my above example... I got nothing. :)

564
DF Suggestions / Re: Workshop Placement and Rotating
« on: September 12, 2009, 10:51:49 pm »
Unless you're using a corner door, the only problems arise when you have more than one adjacent tile impassable. Any door that isn't diagonal to the workshop has at least two possible routes in.

As such, a single flipped configuration would probably cut it. It'd even help the diagonal ones - though the dyer's shop would need to be flipped vertically, not horizontally, for instance.

Some of the shops are distinctive for their features as much as their orientation. This is a good thing, and should be encouraged. (The WORST offenders are furnaces, which all look alike as far as I can tell.)

565
DF Suggestions / Re: Fortress Culture
« on: September 12, 2009, 10:45:24 pm »
It doesn't need to be so crass as a mere poll. "What food do you want there to be more of available?" can sound, to Urist on the underground street, like a chance for him to make a request, not just speak his opinion. So maybe the manager could do such a thing.

566
DF Suggestions / Re: Statue-specific workshop
« on: September 12, 2009, 10:38:41 pm »
Oh, in case I wasn't clear, I did indeed mean that dwarves could still be left to their own devices. Also, if it doesn't already, making a masterpiece in a manner in line with the dwarf's prefs should contribute a happy thought(perhaps a separate one from the "satisfied at work" that's in the current version, perhaps just a higher magnitude of it).

So you can specify that such-and-such room be decorated just so. Or you can let the dwarves go nuts, in that meeting room where the main point is that it be well-engraved. The former might be good if the dwarves like that subject, but could lower their moods somewhat if they're getting frustrated by sculpting that dwarf striking a menacing pose and that goblin making a plaintive gesture, again and again.

567
DF Suggestions / Re: Dwarves Request Clothing
« on: September 12, 2009, 06:44:50 pm »
As it stands, the poor handling of old clothing makes it arguably preferable to suffer the unhappy thoughts from worn-out clothes.

If dwarves relinquished ownership of clothing they had all-out replaced(no hoarding pairs of XXpig tail socksXX ), or even better, could be ordered to dump them - or if orders could allow clothing beneath a certain quality of wear to be considered refuse, and it would decay in the refuse stockpile - but, on the other hand, dwarves had far stronger thoughts about the condition of their clothing, the industry could be much more viable.

568
DF Suggestions / Re: Statue-specific workshop
« on: September 12, 2009, 06:36:35 pm »
Perhaps engravers could get unhappy thoughts if their artistic vision is overly restrained, by too many works that don't meet their preferences?

569
DF Suggestions / Re: Statue-specific workshop
« on: September 12, 2009, 06:23:08 pm »
Indeed, if there was a greater tendency to variety amidst that commemorative artwork, there wouldn't be that much need for specific orders. A dwarven hero posing, well, heroically, or striking down one of his foes, or each individual leader's ascension to expedition leader/mayor, or the promotion of the nobles... If all of that was likely to happen, instead of a master engraver who just likes waxing narcissistic and engraving himself doing a prior masterwork engraving... it'd make the engravings that much more interesting.

Addendum: Come to think of it, a sculptor's workshop might be a good place for the engraving skill. The specifics of material differ, but not that much more than for soft/hard rock. Metal could be explained by the lost-wax process - making a wax positive, moulding a clay negative around it, and casting, I believe. But anyway, this might also be a place to create figurines as trade goods(the little cousins of statues, essentially), maybe with the same sort of variety.

Statues would need careful work to place the right ones, but if the dwarves making statues specifically avoided duplicates until all notable themes were covered, it might be handy. (Sculptors want their work to be unique, right?)

570
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Quick water pressure question
« on: September 12, 2009, 04:26:03 pm »
The design I'd initially thought of turns out to work fine; pressure doesn't get "stored" in water(if I'm now reading the Wiki right, "pressure" only follows adjacent water orthogonally, though water can flow unpressurized through the diagonal of course). So I have one pump at the brook(which is channeled away appropriately) to supply water, which goes into the channel, down the stairwell, along the other channel, past a floodgate, and into the reservoir. When that floodgate is closed, all's well; I just open the other floodgate, and it spills through that floodgate and into the single tile beyond, which is where the well is over.

Probably supply my fortress for years even if I got sieged and had no other drinks.

Next step: Also rig the reservoir to an underground farm system! Small rooms with floor hatches over the farm plots to be will likely work...

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