Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xolroc]

A dwarf in my current fortress just made an artifact called Nilunsokan, "Wearphrase," a brown recluse spider silk long skirt.
Here's its description:

This is a brown recluse spider silk long skirt.  All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality.  It is decorated with leather and encircled with bands of scaleplate and bone.  It is made from brown recluse spider silk cloth.  This object menaces with spikes of brown recluse spider silk, leather and iron. 
On the item is an  image of Kor Amazingdarkness the dwarf and dwarves in brown recluse spider silk.  Kor Amazingdarkness is  surrounded by the dwarves.  The artwork relates to the ascension of the dwarf Kor Amazingdarkness to the position of king of The Frosty Profanities in 8. 
On the item is an  image of dwarves in brown recluse spider silk. 
On the item is an  image of Wearphrase the brown recluse spider silk long skirt in granite. 

Read that last line again.

On the item is an  image of Wearphrase the brown recluse spider silk long skirt in granite. 

This was not planepacked or anything, it just somehow managed to get an image of itself on it.  Is this a thing that is known to happen?

[Matoro]

Yeah, that happens sometimes. Similar thing is when an engraver engraves a picture of himself engraving a picture of something. Or he engraves a picture of himself engraving a picture of himself engraving a picture engr- you got the point.

[Telgin]

For those curious, the reason this happens is because the description of artwork isn't generated until you look at it for the first time, supposedly.  So once the artifact is created (or engraving or whatever), it's added to the list of potential things to include in the description of artwork.  Since it's a valid option, sometimes the game picks it when generating the description.

[Aquathug]

For those curious, the reason this happens is because the description of artwork isn't generated until you look at it for the first time, supposedly.

Verified to be true. I've had multiple occasions where I would make a dope artifact and then start browsing older ones I havent checked out yet. The older artifacts had engravings of the newer, expensive one on them.

[Knick]

scrubbed

[Brilliand]

Of course, such a recursive engraving is possible IRL: the craftsman knows what he's making, so he can draw a picture of it (name and all, if he's already picked that) even when it isn't finished yet.  In fact, this kind of thing has happened a few times IRL, most infamously with news reporters writing stories about what they predict will happen the next day, then publishing the story the instant the thing happens (or even earlier, by mistake) to get a jump on the competition. 

[Xolroc]

Of course, but it still seems odd.

[Valtam]

Of course, such a recursive engraving is possible IRL: the craftsman knows what he's making, so he can draw a picture of it (name and all, if he's already picked that) even when it isn't finished yet.  In fact, this kind of thing has happened a few times IRL, most infamously with news reporters writing stories about what they predict will happen the next day, then publishing the story the instant the thing happens (or even earlier, by mistake) to get a jump on the competition. 

I'll just post this, and then leave quietly as if nothing happened.

[Aquathug]

Of course, such a recursive engraving is possible IRL: the craftsman knows what he's making, so he can draw a picture of it (name and all, if he's already picked that) even when it isn't finished yet.  In fact, this kind of thing has happened a few times IRL, most infamously with news reporters writing stories about what they predict will happen the next day, then publishing the story the instant the thing happens (or even earlier, by mistake) to get a jump on the competition. 

I'll just post this, and then leave quietly as if nothing happened.

That girl in the bottom right totally looks like a dwarf.

[PigtailLlama]

...Would it be wrong to say that a dwarf who does so is suffering from "McEscher Syndrome"?

Other symptoms include constantly repeating multiple images that merge into geometrical patterns, scenes that strangely transform into each other, images that are creating themselves, and architectural design that does not care about the laws of physics or logic.