Bay 12 Games Forum

This is, broadly speaking, planned, but has some serious problems.  As Toady has mentioned, if you make it possible for any random thing to create chemical reactions with any other random thing (including the floor), then you force the game to start checking every single object in the game for an interation with the materials of the map or the other objects in the tile every single tick, which would result in an instantly tanked FPS.  (As Toady put it, every single time a dwarf made a step, you'd have to check for whether their boots were made of something that would react with whatever the floor was made of.)

This is why the chemical reactions that exist within the game are limited to contaminants, which are relatively limited in how common they are (but in evil biomes where contaminants are everywhere, it's a major FPS bomb), and things that touch contaminants.  The functions for syndromes are basically the same as for any chemical interaction, so in a way, this in the game, already.

If you want to provide a suggestion that would actually advance the idea, you'd probably be better off coming up with ways to make this sanely checkable without significantly overloading the system.

Should such reactions be limited to alchemy laboratories?

I think a cool feature for the judicial system would be having your members in a highly liberal judicial system be kindly spoken to with happy words and realize that they're fighting against a system they support, whereas in a C+ one they'd be subject to a sort of salem witch trial or legally sanctioned lynching where the intent is to force out a confession for a quick execution, not to uphold the law. Having no programming skills, I can only dream. Maybe that last one would be better suited for the Stalinists.

I could try, in the future, to code this, when I will have enough time.

I've had lots of fun with it over the years, development has sadly been dead for several years and will not likely resume but it's altogether a finished game. There are definitely some taboo things in it since you're basically a terrorist but it's not too explicit. Altogether I can highly recommend it, it's not too hard to learn and has lots of replayability.

Moreover, while the organisation of the code might call for more object-oriented programing and less use of hardcoding for objets and data, it is still easy to mod.

All right, gonna poll people:

The entire point of lobbies is that they are player-editable, and I have writer's block. So, please tell me what lobbies you want to see that I can release as a player-modifiable sample with version 1.2.

 

Here's a sample:

• National Rifle Association: Gun rights association (C)
• Greenpeace: Nuclear power (L), Biodiversity (L), Animal rights (L)
• National ORganisation of Women: Women's rights (L), Sexual freedom (L)
• ACLU: Election reform (L), Torture (L), Prison regulation (L), Police regulation (L), Privacy rights (L), Death penalty (L), Free speech (L), Flag burning (L)
• Catholic church: Immigration (L), Death penalty (L), Sexual freedom (C)
• AFL-CIO: Tax law (L), Nuclear power (C), Pollution (C), Labor law (L), Corporate law (L)
• Fraternal Order of Police: Torture (C), Police regulation (C)

In my opinion the naming system should be either matrineal or patrineal. Combining the names as mentioned before seems somewhat redundant and defeats the purpose of clans, as there will be no same-named lines.

Which one it is, matrineal or patrineal, doesn't bother me at all, but I imagine there'll always be people complaining. Personally, I'd suggest randomly generating which one it'll be for each civilization to avoid any drama. This way multiple dwarven civilizations can have different naming systems in one world, so everyone will have something they like.

To avoid the homogenization of surnames (there was a name for this, this is something actually occurring in real life too), I think clans should split sometimes. causes could be an inter-clan feud (e.g. clan Lanceholder to clan Black Lanceholder and White Lanceholder), people moving (e.g. a branch being renamed to Of Redfortress after moving to Redfortress), people doing something significant (e.g. a branch being renamed to Elfmaimed (significant kills), Hunter of Wolves (other kills), Swordforger (artifact-maker), or the Beekeeper (change of profession)), important marriages (e.g. after a marriage of the important clans Lanceholder and Elfmaimed, the children will be named Lanceholder-Elfmaimed), and for many other reasons (including totally random). Of course, this shouldn't happen too often, as it would defeat the purpose of clans. It would just serve as a way to keep clans from going too large, and in my opinion this should not happen to the oldest son/daughter, unless there is a specific cause. Just to the "lesser siblings", as it will serve as a way to keep clans from growing to incredible sizes.

I totally agree with your post.

However, I think the splittling of the clans should be related to the genealogical and geographical separation.

For exemple, someone who is very removed from the head of the clan could split and create his own clan; likewise, someone living far from the center of this clan could split, especially if few relations exist with the head.

Yet another language suggestion, this time on writing.

Writing systems should be implemented to transcribe the languages.

They should be from the following kinds (other types could be added, knowing how Toady loves research and details):

• Alphabet
• Ideograms
• Syllabic

The type of writing system should depend from the language, and could influe on the density of information and the difficulty of learning.

Then they could be used to transcribe languages, although a language would have a prefered means of writing (IRL, Russian is written using Cyrillic while French uses Latin but there is cases of Arabic script used by the Huis to transcribe Chinese, and Serbo-Croatian has been written in the Cyrillic, Latin and Arabic scripts).

In order to be able to read a document, the reader should know both the writing system and the language used in the material.

Some languages would not have any writing system; the kobolds would be an exemple of this. However, someone could use his native writing system to transcribe them.

Ordinarily, I'd just mod something like this in, but true liquids (water/magma, not contaminants) aren't defined in the RAWs as far as I know. Also, yes, this has been suggested before, but it got glossed over every time.

--Oil--
Similar in fluid behaviour to magma, but can burn. Ideally, there are checks to make sure it doesn't spawn connected to a magma source, as to avoid massive underground fires. If implemented, it should occur between the cave layers, or at least deep enough it doesn't touch an aquifer. Speaking of, oil springs probably should NOT be a thing, due to bad interactions with other fluids.

Potential uses include flaming arrows, torches, drown/burn traps, and fire jars. Have a particularly annoying noble? Replace his floor with grates and fill the area below with oil. Enjoy your new oven as he tries to open the door marked "forbidden."


--Gas--
Natural gas isn't as easy to add, but adds another hazard. It's a choking hazard, and slightly on the 'splodey side. Digging into one has the potential of igniting as it sneaks upward through your fortress, and could pose health issues if the design of your fortress doesn't let it escape. I can't see many crafting uses, unless gas lanterns are added. That being said, there's still the ever-present trap potential.


They both fit within the game, are easy to implement, and add more options for removing nobles defending our fortress from elves. Any ideas how to improve this?

Without evoking probable mods about refining oil and making fuel, plastic, wool and threads out of it, or turning gas into liquid or solid form, the use of oil and gas as fuel or base for drugs has been established pre-1400s.