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Author Topic: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?  (Read 6106 times)

Fatace

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How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« on: April 26, 2018, 02:15:43 am »

EDIT: [RESOLVED] Look at my last post!

I sent 10 guys up to look for a weapon in a random non-site area (assuming theres a camp here maybe?) back in winter, the world map said seven days, but its now nearly autumn lol. Legends says they
are still alive, and not captured or anything. 1 of the 10 guys actually for some odd reason didn't leave until spring though... (no clue what happened on that).

How long does it normally take?
« Last Edit: April 26, 2018, 10:14:10 pm by Fatace »
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Lemunde

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2018, 02:27:50 am »

Seven days there and seven days back, that's about half a month. If it's been over a month then something is wrong. Maybe they found their way into the caverns and got lost. Or maybe someone is carrying that weapon and they're having to hunt him down.
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2018, 02:32:53 am »

If they got lost, is there anyway to retrieve them?



And if there chasing after the person who has it (which I hope this is the case out of curiosity to see what kind of fun pops up) how long do you think it will take?
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2018, 03:04:33 am »

If you sent them off to look for an artifact (which seems to be the case), your dorfs may be off on a bar hopping world tour to "look for clues". Currently there is no way to specify how long they should continue the chase, but Toady has indicated additional parameters are going to be added.
As far as I know there's no way to call them back (send a messenger to search for them: a search that would require bar hopping? ;) ).

It's been mentioned that artifacts lost in the wilderness are extremely hard to recover, as it basically requires stumbling on the exact location of the item (magic might change things in the location department, but magic is a couple of years away).

In fact, I've proposed that searching for an artifact lost in the wilderness a very long time ago (and not recovered by someone, of course) should be the perfect way to get undesirables out of the fortress for the maximum time (but I don't have any actual indications of whether it works or not, unless I count your account).

Currently you cannot take artifacts that are held by somebody/thing: such attempts result in the squad returning immediately after leaving (although I think the returning doesn't happen until after the last straggler has left).
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2018, 03:21:39 am »

According to Legends, someone had the weapon, used it to slay 1 semimegabeast, then tried to slay another and died to it (the weapon was said to be last seen in this forest), which is where I sent them..
and legends says that the weapon still should be around there in that guys corpse. I am sorta tempted to save and back up the file to check the area on a adventure mode character.
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2018, 03:51:24 am »

So made and adventurer and found them.. they are literally running around in circles in the area lol.
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2018, 05:05:31 am »

Well I found the semimegabeast that killed the guy who had the weapon (his lair is in the forest that it was lost at).
I killed it and looked through his lair and did not find it other than the corpse of the one who had it....

Any ideas on what to do? Im lost here and also tired so I probly wont respond till 12 hours from now Zzz
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Insert_Gnome_Here

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2018, 05:43:52 am »

Remember the location, then found a fortress on top of it?
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2018, 07:06:09 am »

Be a bit smarter than running in circles, i.e. running in a spiral covering the whole area (or back and forth), advancing one tile at a time (or however much you can reliably cover per sweep: you don't want to miss it just because it was behind an old highwood tree; I don't play adventure mode, so I don't know what spacing to use)?

I don't know, but it might be possible that the item is loaded into the items structure together with the area, in which case you might be able to use gui/gm-editor (or a script) to find its coordinates. Then teleport it such that one of the circle running dorfs stumbles upon it (or let your adventurer bring it to the fortress). I guess you could also pick it up and give it to one of the dorfs. Obviously none of this would help your "real" fortress.
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2018, 01:22:31 pm »

Be a bit smarter than running in circles, i.e. running in a spiral covering the whole area (or back and forth), advancing one tile at a time (or however much you can reliably cover per sweep: you don't want to miss it just because it was behind an old highwood tree; I don't play adventure mode, so I don't know what spacing to use)?

I don't know, but it might be possible that the item is loaded into the items structure together with the area, in which case you might be able to use gui/gm-editor (or a script) to find its coordinates. Then teleport it such that one of the circle running dorfs stumbles upon it (or let your adventurer bring it to the fortress). I guess you could also pick it up and give it to one of the dorfs. Obviously none of this would help your "real" fortress.


That's what I was doing, but is there a possibility for the artifact to spawn in the water, or in a tree, or even underground?
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2018, 05:10:48 pm »

:
That's what I was doing, but is there a possibility for the artifact to spawn in the water, or in a tree, or even underground?
While I don't know, I doubt it. If would be a bug if that was the case (excluding a lair for the underground case, of course). The number one location for the item would be by the corpse if the wielder attacked the beast in its lair, or where he fell if the corpse was hauled to the lair (assuming, of course, that the beast didn't take the item itself, but then it would be carried, in which case the artifact seekers would have returned immediately).
In the latter case, I guess there might be a possibility for e.g. a kobold to have found it, and since they're not talking, there shouldn't be any rumors, but I'd assume Legends info would still record it.

Since the body was in the lair it shouldn't have perished in deep water.

Have you tried DFHacking to locate it?
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2018, 05:53:07 pm »

Attempting to learn on how to use Gui/Gm-editor but its a bit confusing so far to use, and I cant really find much of a guide to help locate items, nor using the gui screen tells much on what the item.weapon type is other than its quality...

I have checked up and down the area of the lair and around the area, trees, caverns, and even hell, nothing on the bodies either, and only things inside the lair are a few coins, socks.. and a steel shield.

I thought maybe I could use the tracking skill to help find the path they may have taken when they fought in the other area, but was 2 years prior to make sending the group out.. and I don't know if it can still track creatures from long ago.. maybe?
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2018, 06:07:48 pm »

Another Thing I wanna Note, my dwarfs keep encircling the area, but they tend to check outside portions of it, even into the ocean lol.

As of now, the area is:
http://puu.sh/Ab4sK/fd4bd4b022.png

the weapon was last in the upper left of the 4 squares, and the lair of the semimegabeast that killed him is to the upper right, but they keep running around all 4 squares (since its all the Forest of the Cacti), and sometimes go into the ocean (when I went to go see, 1of them died from drowning was they were swimming lol)

Edit:
I found the weapon in the list of items in gm-editor.. now I just to know how to properly locate it or duplicate it
« Last Edit: April 26, 2018, 06:30:32 pm by Fatace »
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Fatace

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2018, 10:15:27 pm »

Well after almost a year they came back... although I had to wait 10 minutes on the mission report screenie as it showed them going to the spot and circling in the 4 squares for minutes till they came back after a year lol aaaand they found it too!
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How long does it take to come back from Exploring?
« Reply #14 on: April 27, 2018, 01:53:05 am »

Congratulations!

A comment on posting style: It's usually better to update the last post ("modify") than to multi-post. I typically mark new stuff as "Edit:...", "Edit 2:...", etc.

If you were able to find the weapon item, it should have a field called "pos" (or something rather similar) containing the x, y, z coordinates of the object (at least that how it works in fortress mode). "gui/gm-editor df.global.cursor" should show the x, y, z coordinates of the cursor (again, that's how it works in fortress mode). That ought to allow you to check your position against the target position to move in the correct direction (x, y coordinates originate in the top left corner, starting with 0).

If I understand it correctly, there is a command to fast forward the after action display if you start to get dizzy (or bored) after the 15:th circle.
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