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Author Topic: Nobody Poops  (Read 40421 times)

Graknorke

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #165 on: March 01, 2015, 06:56:46 am »

No, the entire map just has a lot of minerals. There's not really anywhere you can settle down and won't get a huge quantity of at least 1 metal, more likely >2.
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GoblinCookie

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #166 on: March 01, 2015, 08:17:36 am »

No, the entire map just has a lot of minerals. There's not really anywhere you can settle down and won't get a huge quantity of at least 1 metal, more likely >2.

What if you settle on a biome with no metals in the embark window, either deep or shallow?
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Graknorke

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #167 on: March 01, 2015, 08:39:44 pm »

How many biomes are there like that though? Especially in places where dwarves settle that doesn't really happen. I've only ever seen it in flood-plain type areas. Aquifer and lots of soil on flat land near a river.
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Urist Tilaturist

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #168 on: March 02, 2015, 04:52:42 pm »

Then the average amounts of metals should be reduced until big mineral rushes are actually significant, prompting big immigration, wealth, and so on.
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BoredVirulence

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #169 on: March 02, 2015, 05:27:42 pm »

Then the average amounts of metals should be reduced until big mineral rushes are actually significant, prompting big immigration, wealth, and so on.
I wouldn't hope too much for that. Realism in mineral scarcity could easily make DF a tedious exercise in finding a decent embark.
Of course, we can always reduce mineral scarcity, making things decent once more, but I wouldn't care to see if changed until prospecting sites was better developed.

I personally think its better to just assume that by choosing a site for a fortress inherently means its above average in mineral's. Like destiny or something.
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GoblinCookie

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #170 on: March 03, 2015, 06:30:21 am »

Then the average amounts of metals should be reduced until big mineral rushes are actually significant, prompting big immigration, wealth, and so on.

The scarcity of minerals is already definable in world-gen.

I actually reckon that the amount of minerals available is actually fairly realistic, the problem is more the value of the minerals is too high relative to their scarcity and the ease of mining is too great.

In real life the problem is not that there is not a lot of minerals, it is actually more the expense of extraction relative to the value of the minerals extracted.

What attracts people to mine places is not that there is minerals but that there are a lot of them relative to other places and they are easy to extract.  Better mining and the development of the trade system to adjust value of items according to suppy and demand or better yet abolish numerical value entirely which is more realistic for a barter economy.
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Urist Tilaturist

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #171 on: March 03, 2015, 10:50:47 am »

Considering responses, better mining and trading would be a better fix than making minerals scarce. Better cave ins, ventilation, toxic gas, and so on. And make it so mining a tile leaves a tile's worth of rubble to move; no more antimatter picks destroying terrain.
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Timeless Bob

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #172 on: March 03, 2015, 04:04:39 pm »

Create a 1x1 workshop to require an empty bucket and triggers a job every time a dwarf wakes up.  The workshop reaction produces 1 bucket filled with a special substance named "dwarven filth" (perhaps the same way that a Farmer's Workshop creates a bucket of milk after a milking job) and a happy thought in the dwarf (recently, Urist admired a finely crafted pine bucket).  These buckets of "dwarven filth" can then either be used as reagents in other workshops to create fertilizer, tanning acids or explosives, possibly more fanciful uses still, (a simple reaction that requires a bucket of dwarven filth and produces an empty bucket plus whatever else is supposed to be made from the dwarven filth), or simply taken to a pit labeled as such and dumped.  This last bit could treat the "filth" as water, such that when dumping it, it would result in "mud", which would explain quite a lot about underground farming in the first place.  Regardless, the system I've just described is cyclically complete, would require many more buckets than the usual fortress creates, but also be a good way to give the inhabitants regular injections of happy thoughts.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2015, 04:07:00 pm by Timeless Bob »
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GoblinCookie

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #173 on: March 03, 2015, 04:47:31 pm »

Create a 1x1 workshop to require an empty bucket and triggers a job every time a dwarf wakes up.  The workshop reaction produces 1 bucket filled with a special substance named "dwarven filth" (perhaps the same way that a Farmer's Workshop creates a bucket of milk after a milking job) and a happy thought in the dwarf (recently, Urist admired a finely crafted pine bucket).  These buckets of "dwarven filth" can then either be used as reagents in other workshops to create fertilizer, tanning acids or explosives, possibly more fanciful uses still, (a simple reaction that requires a bucket of dwarven filth and produces an empty bucket plus whatever else is supposed to be made from the dwarven filth), or simply taken to a pit labeled as such and dumped.  This last bit could treat the "filth" as water, such that when dumping it, it would result in "mud", which would explain quite a lot about underground farming in the first place.  Regardless, the system I've just described is cyclically complete, would require many more buckets than the usual fortress creates, but also be a good way to give the inhabitants regular injections of happy thoughts.

Problem is that buckets have to be made of wood and wood is not in abundance in all biomes.  It would be better to simply have the workshop 'store' the waste on the Z-Level beneath it and have a hauler use a bucket to dump the filth into a designated sewer zone or outside if there is none.  Buckets used in this manner are quite naturally tainted and will not be used for other purposes, so the act of using a bucket to move sewage about causes it to become a sewage bucket (which is preferred over normal buckets). 

If dwarves in need of a bucket can only find a sewage bucket they will take it to a water source and rinse it out, making it into a normal bucket again.  Filth can be turned into sewage by mixing it with water, that way we can create actual toilets and sewers in the game by placing our toilets over a body of running water.  Sewage counts as a type of liquid while filth is treated as a solid object and can be used to make fertilizer.
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Urist Tilaturist

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #174 on: March 03, 2015, 05:50:42 pm »

I would suggest just allowing stone or ceramic pots to be used as chamber pots to fix the availability issue.
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BeggerStager

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #175 on: March 04, 2015, 10:04:33 pm »

I feel that this should be moved to the question section, but the replies to this make this a suggestion.

Anyway, I like this idea. It adds more to a realistic side to Dwarf Fortress and it adds more things to the game. However, since not everyone agrees with this (I think) I believe this should be an option. Toady should create an options tab when generating a new world (pooping enabled?) or becoming an adventurer (You feel your stomach growling. *x - poop - where do you want to poop?* - You feel better)

Maybe someone could make this a mod for adventurer mode.
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Urist Tilaturist

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #176 on: March 05, 2015, 12:21:51 pm »

I imagine this as part of an agriculture update. It does not really suit being optional at that point, since it will be very important to farming, waste disposal, and disease. I do not just want a "poop update" by itself, but also the consequences that actually make it significant to the gameplay.
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Reelya

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #177 on: March 05, 2015, 04:00:09 pm »

I was reading that most villagers in history didn't use toilets or outhouses, they just literally went out to the fields and took a dump each morning. This actually makes more sense, since if you're using poop as fertilizer, you definitely want to minimize wastage, labour, and manual handling.

Doing a bit of research, things really went to "shit" literally after the Roman Empire fell. The ancients from Persia to Rome built some great sewer works, almost all of these basically fell apart after the empire went, and they went back to literally having rivers of shit flowing alongside roads leading out of major cities. You could get sick by slipping over in the gutter since there was free-flowing sewage in there. It wasn't until the 19th century they started taking public sanitation seriously.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2015, 04:08:46 pm by Reelya »
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GoblinCookie

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #178 on: March 05, 2015, 05:33:41 pm »

I was reading that most villagers in history didn't use toilets or outhouses, they just literally went out to the fields and took a dump each morning. This actually makes more sense, since if you're using poop as fertilizer, you definitely want to minimize wastage, labour, and manual handling.

Doing a bit of research, things really went to "shit" literally after the Roman Empire fell. The ancients from Persia to Rome built some great sewer works, almost all of these basically fell apart after the empire went, and they went back to literally having rivers of shit flowing alongside roads leading out of major cities. You could get sick by slipping over in the gutter since there was free-flowing sewage in there. It wasn't until the 19th century they started taking public sanitation seriously.

I think that most of what are saying is exaggerated and the result of breakdown of systems that were supposed to work rather than just 'how things were'.  People dumped sewage into cesspools for collection by teams of specialised cleaner people who would then sell it on.

Generally all settlements had an organised system for collecting 'nightsoil' and turning it into fertilizer. While less hygenic to humans it was certianly more ecologically sound than the previous 'more advanced' system of having proper sewers and dumping all the resulting untreated sewage into bodies of water. 

It also naturally worked to mantain soil fertility which was a major problem in Ancient Times but never a comparable problem in Medieval Times, because as described teams of people were constantly collecting all the sewage for use as fertilizer as opposed to simply dumping it ultimately into the ocean. 
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Andeerz

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Re: Nobody Poops
« Reply #179 on: March 06, 2015, 03:14:51 am »

I would like to emphasize that dumping untreated human sewage into bodies of water has ALWAYS been a common disposal method.  Of course, when population densities get high enough, different methods need to be considered, especially if those bodies of water are also for human consumption and also if there is no access.

And following up on the cesspits and specialised cleaner people as part of a suggestion to the game:

Given the implementation of poop and assuming it has a 1) decay rate and 2) rate of production of noxious (sometimes harmful and even flammable) gases, and 3) spreads infection by contact (at least the poop... urine not so much), I suggest that wherever such waste (and anything else that can rot and can cause health problems) is dumped, and depending on environmental conditions, the aforementioned rates are affected as well as a rate of seepage into the surrounding blocks. 

This goes into modeling cesspit construction and use in the game.  I could envision cesspits sort of being constructed and designated much like a well is, except it doesn't need to be placed above water; it just needs to be placed over a hole into an empty area below.  As the cesspit accumulates waste from those who use it, it allow stinky (possibly hazardous) gases to vent upward, and it will fill up eventually if waste is deposited faster than it decays (in the case of poop, which is a slow process) and seeps out/evaporates (in the case of pee) if not cleaned out somehow (by pooper scoopers!!!).  Cesspits were often made to allow drainage of liquid waste into the soil and/or sewers. 

If a cesspit that accumulates waste is too near to the watertable or other body of water, and if the walls and floor composing the cesspit are permeable enough (i.e. soil, stone bricks, etc.), then the waste should be able to contaminate the water in contact with the material outside the cesspit at a range that should be looked into (see below for how I would see it represented in the game).  That contaminated water should have a greater chance of leading to disease of anything that consumes it.  Also, the stuff inside the cesspit should generate gases, which could even be abstracted as miasma, though I think it should be important to note that SUPPOSEDLY there is evidence (of which I cannot find the primary sources of) of the fiery, and at times explosive results of methane build-up... though I would imagine this is exceedingly rare.  That, and asphyxiation of people (like pooper scoopers) who find themselves inside the cesspit.  Some sewer systems IRL did have ventilation of cesspits and other parts of the system to diffuse out the stink.  This could be a design consideration at least in city sewers in the game maybe.  ALSO, though it has been discussed elsewhere, piping ought to be a possible component of waste disposal (and other) systems.  It should of course allow gases, waste and other materials (and even vermin!!!) through.

The way I would see these decomposition-related and water contamination features represented in the game:

Of course poop and urine would just disappear after a while.  I would see urine as being treated as a liquid as mentioned before.  This urine could evaporate and/or be absorbed out of existence (with absorption being dependent on what surface it is on, as I will detail below).  Poop would be a solid item, which would decompose and dry out, perhaps abstracted out as the poop going from "wet" to "dry".  "Dry" poop (or sludge or filth...) would be what could be used as fertilizer.  More on that in a second.   

Liquid (urine) and/or "wet" solid waste in enough quantity in one tile could cause whatever permeable material it is on to assume some sort of "contaminated" status, similar to how materials can assume a "damp" status when near enough water.  The permeability of the material can be defined in the raws, and permeability should have an effect on other things besides contamination with waste (but that is for another post).  Any water (or other suitable fluid) in contact with "contaminated" material should then itself be "contaminated".  It might be a nightmare to track mixture of contaminated water with "contaminated" water or urine, but perhaps contamination could be represented by an object in the water that can float around... I don't know.  This handling of liquids would be the tough part.

As for the decomposition rate of poop and what poop turns into; poop can dry out as ("contaminated") water seeps away from it and/or evaporates away if it is resting on a permeable surface, especially soil and/or is exposed to air long enough.  In its dried/drier state, the poop would be less stinky (less gases produced), less infectious, and less able to contaminate whatever it is placed on (in terms of the contamination mechanic described above).  Also, in this state, it can readily be used as fertilizer.  So, if the cesspit's solid waste contents are allowed to mellow for long enough and have liquid seep away, it will become useful.  If the "wet" poop waste is too fresh, it will have to be processed somehow first (composting, or drying out, or something... someone else more knowledgeable than I should chime in!) before being useful for fertilizer or what-have-you.  Otherwise, "wet" poop can be used for crap-a-pults or whatever fiendish things people want if they so choose.  In a cesspit, if the liquid and solid waste accumulates faster than the moisture drains out, the poop remains in a wet state, which is more stinky, more infectious, and more able to contaminate whatever it contacts.  The urine and "wet" poop waste can also separate out, too, as it does in real life, into a liquid layer on top with poop settling out at the bottom.  So, "wet" poop is basically what is called IRL "fecal sludge".  This fecal sludge (which is the "wet" poop) is what would have to be processed or dried or whatever to make fertilizer.  I think the liquid portion could be made into useful stuff, too, but I am not sure. 

How construction of a cesspit would factor into this is the permeability of the walls and floor.  With a permeable floor and/or walls, the above partial drying of the waste can happen (though there is risk of water contamination).  If the cesspit is completely sealed, then the liquid portion (mainly pee) would not be able to seep out, so the cesspit would fill up much faster, though eventually the same thing could happen.  The advantage of this design, though, is much less risk if any of water source contamination from seepage.

That's my idea, anyway!  And I said poop too much.

     

« Last Edit: March 06, 2015, 03:33:20 am by Andeerz »
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