Print

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

[Areyar]

Strictly speaking, since the first AD year was 1, the next decade begins in 2011.

Then again, that's arbitrarily defining a decade as beginning in that year.

Not to mention the fact that the arbitrary definition was made not in that year, but nearly 1600 years later.

Nobody gets this piss

True!
Recently I had a discussion on the length of a feet (I defined as anglo-feet, while she defined as old dutch voet). An internet search did not really settle our dispute as almost every town, guild and kittenfarmer had their own definition of a feet or thumb or whatever (Thank Napoleon for forcing the metric system on us!).
Sometimes even the identical unit of measurement had different meanings in diff dimensions (eg 1 dorf = Ydm2 and/or Ydm3)!
insane.

[TheDJ17]

That just proves how awesome our Dorfs are being 2 and 3 Ydms at the same time.

[Sizik]

Sometimes even the identical unit of measurement had different meanings in diff dimensions (eg 1 dorf = Ydm2 and/or Ydm3)!
insane.

That just proves how awesome our Dorfs are being 2 and 3 Ydms at the same time.

What?

[Osmosis Jones]

YoctoDwarfMetres 

[Enzo]

OK, I realize this is pretty slow, but I just picked up on this :

The next few days I have Dwarf Fortress Talk #2 to record, crayon art to draw, and some other things, so this might be the last entry until September.

Emphasis added. Anybody know what that's about? Am I missing something?

[Aqizzar]

Yes - Donations sent by mail get crayon-art in return as a reward in lieu of ASCII stories.  All right here.

[corvvs]

OK, I realize this is pretty slow, but I just picked up on this :

The next few days I have Dwarf Fortress Talk #2 to record, crayon art to draw, and some other things, so this might be the last entry until September.

Emphasis added. Anybody know what that's about? Am I missing something?

Now we know you haven't donated.

You get a reward when you donate - either ASCII art (actually a depiction of a scene and a story by Threetoe!) or crayon art (presumably also with a story, but I've only opted for ASCII).

[Enzo]

OK, I realize this is pretty slow, but I just picked up on this :

The next few days I have Dwarf Fortress Talk #2 to record, crayon art to draw, and some other things, so this might be the last entry until September.

Emphasis added. Anybody know what that's about? Am I missing something?

Now we know you haven't donated.

You get a reward when you donate - either ASCII art (actually a depiction of a scene and a story by Threetoe!) or crayon art (presumably also with a story, but I've only opted for ASCII).

BUSTED. I knew about the ASCII rewards, but someone failed to pick up on the crayon thing

And in my defense, as soon as I stop worrying about paying rent I'll start worrying about donating (seriously).

[Thursday Postal]

You get a reward when you donate - either ASCII art (actually a depiction of a scene and a story by Threetoe!) or crayon art (presumably also with a story, but I've only opted for ASCII).

No story, but the art is pretty snazzy:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[jamoecw]

Sometimes even the identical unit of measurement had different meanings in diff dimensions (eg 1 dorf = Ydm2 and/or Ydm3)!
insane.

That just proves how awesome our Dorfs are being 2 and 3 Ydms at the same time.

What?

once upon a time, in a land far far away the 18 year old women were actually 17 by our reckoning, thus in this world it has happened.  10 goober dollars to the first one that knows what country I am referencing (though this may have happened in more than one country, I'll only pay out for the one I am thinking of).

[Chronas]

Sometimes even the identical unit of measurement had different meanings in diff dimensions (eg 1 dorf = Ydm2 and/or Ydm3)!
insane.

That just proves how awesome our Dorfs are being 2 and 3 Ydms at the same time.

What?

once upon a time, in a land far far away the 18 year old women were actually 17 by our reckoning, thus in this world it has happened.  10 goober dollars to the first one that knows what country I am referencing (though this may have happened in more than one country, I'll only pay out for the one I am thinking of).

damn! i remember reading that one country in Asia counts babies as 1 year old, can't remember which 

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Sometimes even the identical unit of measurement had different meanings in diff dimensions (eg 1 dorf = Ydm2 and/or Ydm3)!
insane.

That just proves how awesome our Dorfs are being 2 and 3 Ydms at the same time.

What?

once upon a time, in a land far far away the 18 year old women were actually 17 by our reckoning, thus in this world it has happened.  10 goober dollars to the first one that knows what country I am referencing (though this may have happened in more than one country, I'll only pay out for the one I am thinking of).

Japan.

They counted newly born babies as 1 year old. (Hooray for reading Negima!)

But, eh, derailed.

[Toady One]

Will/Could arena mode be used for off-fortress army attacks?

I have to do it a little differently since arena mode doesn't even load the world (just the raws if you are using a world's raws), but some of the same principles will be in play, and having done arena mode will make it just a little easier to do off-site stuff later on.

With weapons and armor in the arena, can they be made out of any material?

You have a good variety of options, but I don't think it lets you do things like silk swords or whatever.  It might even be missing a few of the real-yet-weird ones, like the obsidian-style swords.

So how will the new sever system work? will sheared layers/pieces of flesh be treated as an item similar to severs in the current release?

You can cut off body parts like before.  There's nothing currently like a half-sever or whatever it is you're describing.  If layers melt off, they turn into a puddle (or whatever) of their material.

Would [melted fat spatter] cool and harden into a usable substance, or would it be treated like a blood splatter and exist merely visually?

I haven't gotten to contaminant temperatures yet, but it would likely just cool into an unusable spatter on the creature.  If you have a heated pool of fat on the ground, and it's enough to generate an item, it would cool into a glob, but it might not be usable if it got contaminated from being on the ground in the first place.  If you have stockpiled fat which is melted and re-cooled, then it is probably fine, even if it might not be in real life.

Will it be possible to put some creatures into arena and then make it run lets say 100 times with the same setting?
And then come back after a few minutes and see the results who won how many times?
Or even the full combat reports?
Would be useful for testing balance of specific creatures / materials / weapons / armor types etc.

You can see the full combat reports, but I don't have any overarching sim-type stuff at this time.  It wouldn't be hard to add, but I'm not sure I want to get into it until I'm sure the arena setup itself is more solid.

can the new setup handle army ants?

Vermin swarms with bites don't respect numbers at this point, so it wouldn't be that impressive.

For the medical records, I'm just wondering how that will be displayed.

I dunno yet.  If you have a medical appointment and a diagnosis, you will very likely get to view it, but I don't know exactly what the format will be.

toady do you think you might be able to add a number tag to LARGE_PREDATOR much like buildingdestroyer so that with a 3 on large predator they will become extremly visous like the fabled elephants in boatmurdered. (not sure which version they used)

I'm not sure I can do that in a good way without spending a little time on it, especially since the invader AI that would be co-opted is due to be destroyed after this release.

Considering the new combat and layers overhaul, Toady, did you run a test with a fully adamantine-clad champion to check if they'll end up invincible? Also, do PCs die from suffocation or burning when they are strangled/burned to death now, or they still just bleed to death?

I checked the adamantine, and they aren't invincible because we don't have solid armor to cover every part.  If areas that are only covered by chain are hit, they won't be cut, but they can be bruised or even broken because of the structurally elasticity of the item, which ignores the material.  I'll need some more item types eventually to cover certain areas, probably.  You could also use UPSTEP type stuff and make a mod item for it, but I don't want to go that route in vanilla.

This may be part of the combat section, but I would really like to  be able to grab people and then move around, dragging them behind me.

Will we ever get a set of combat maneuvers to move our enemies around?  Like, if we're fighting a goblin whose back is to a deep pit, could we have a "push" attack to try and knock him in rather than cause damage?

Will we be able to choose the direction in which we throw an enemy? Will there be a throwing skill for this type of throwing? Will it be trainable (like grappling perhaps)?

Dragging people is Bloat 271, and in that vein, the others should be possible as well.  I know you can do quite a bit with the wrestling/judo/etc. style throws, and those types of attacks would be reasonable extensions of the current lackluster throw-people wrestling.  It's all combat arc stuff, which is who-knows-when.

Will severe wounds to the lower spine result in paraplegic dwarves?

Eventually, will shallow strikes be able to become stuck or entangled in the target's armor, even though they did not reach any tissue layers? This might be especially likely with swords and elves' wooden armor.

Yeah, spinal injuries are still bad news.  It would be good to have weapon/armor interaction beyond simple damage when I get to that, and the infrastructure is mostly in place due to the item support in the wrestling system, but I have no idea when that would actually happen.

As for a greatsword chopping off a groundhog's toe and nothing else, didn't Toady mention before that suitably large attacks in comparison to their target will now hit multiple parts each hit?   I recall hearing that, but I don't recall if it was a future thing or something in this release.

Is it possible for a strike to 'cleave' through separate parts of an enemy to strike others, i.e.
You chop the dwarf in the left arm!
The left arm flies off in a bloody arc!
The torso is cloven asunder!
?

It's not possible to hit multiple external parts -- you can do internal parts as before, with the difference that you can range throughout the body (say upper + lower) once you get inside, assuming the paths are defined for it.  External hits of multiple parts would really just take the same sort of thing, but there are a few complications so I haven't tackled it yet.  It shouldn't be difficult -- it's just a little more time.

could you add an order that forbids dwarfs from reloading/unjamming and collecting trap components. especially if the traps are subteranian because dwarfs will rush to them and likely die

So a standing order if doing the individual buildings isn't enough?  I guess that would be possible, although I don't know if I'll get to it.  I can't really promise anything now.

Will piercing through clothing layers damage the clothing with regards to impact force and type?

Doesn't look like it -- "Item/attacking part damage" from the Wounds/Combat section of the List, which was previously marked as "Consider," has been downgraded to "Put off (definitely out for this release)".

Yeah, it's out for this time, but on the other hand, it does all of the proper calculations (since it uses the same system as tissues) -- it just doesn't record anything because item damage is only defined as a single wear number right now.

Now that the rock types will have varying hardness (I think), will this have an affect on erosion? Like granite is very resistant to erosion.

Nothing for now.  I know there are lots of karst fans out there, and it would be good to be a bit more realistic about it, but I haven't been able to get to anything like that.  It'll also need to be balanced against the expansive-and-common fantasy cavern notion.

[Neonivek]

I am always astounded to see Toady actually answering questions. It just never ceases to amaze (Not sucking up... Outside here, asking too many questions often gets you ranted at by the author)

I guess Ill try my third and final attempt to get that martial art question through. I guess i'll change it around since if the answer was a straight out yes Toady likely would have caught on.

Toady, for someone creating a martial art style is there a flaw to expanding the movesets within the style to rediculous proportions? Is there a point where the game will tell you "Hey, the style is large enough. Any further and people will have trouble learning it"?

I guess now Ill ask my other questions, which Ill limit myself. (Though I wonder if I should stop)

Will there be a sense of some moves being stepping stones for others? Or rather will there be a system where learning some moves are more difficult, even with great skill, without learning the moves and stances those later skills are built on?

How far are you willing to allow martial arts, outside of magical martial arts, to defy real life peaks of athletics? Arrow Catching? Metal Shattering Punches? Armor ignoring punches? Ripping people's arms off? Though I realise that a lot of what I just mentioned could be after someone reached Legendary skill.

[Granite26]

Toady, for someone creating a martial art style is there a flaw to expanding the movesets within the style to rediculous proportions? Is there a point where the game will tell you "Hey, the style is large enough. Any further and people will have trouble learning it"?

I got the impression that there won't be a 'martial arts' skill for styles, you'll learn the moves individually...  That means that rating in a martial art won't have any real meaning, or danger in the sense you mean.  Too many moves could dillute the sense of what a martial artist of that style means  (two masters with completely different move sets).