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Author Topic: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.  (Read 3144 times)

Lancensis

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #15 on: March 01, 2010, 11:11:55 am »

And good luck spotting a wall with heatvision. Although I suppose the beard might give you a split second warning if it were bushy enough.
Perhaps the lumps of stone or furniture that are "accidentally" left around the fortress by distracted dwarves act as temporary waypoints, or landmarks?
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teloft

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #16 on: March 01, 2010, 12:39:38 pm »

Perhaps the lumps of stone or furniture that are "accidentally" left around the fortress by distracted dwarves act as temporary waypoints, or landmarks?

This is perhaps part of a cool solution to the path finding problem. 
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Lancensis

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #17 on: March 01, 2010, 01:09:06 pm »

Too bad that's getting fixed next version. However, the contaminants system will allow them to track vomit around the fortress, which could serve as some sort of pheromone type system.
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Soulbourne

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #18 on: March 01, 2010, 02:01:18 pm »

Actually, if the third set of cells were of a non-earth development chain that was able to detect outside the spectrum of "visible light" to...not sure how much farther up, but even walls would become visible.  It wouldn't be perfect sight, but seeing the radiating energy from heat(if it's above absolute zero, it has heat), would allow for dark vision, though admittedly stone would not be the clearest object.  However, this does open interesting possibilities, since in more crowded fortresses temp would go up to make it easier to see, and cave adaptation could be the adaptation to where their irises are fully expanded and the "heat sensitive" cells are becoming dominant and strong.  Walking into a world filled with warm sunlight would send the other cells reeling, and the heat seekers too.
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Lancensis

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #19 on: March 01, 2010, 03:01:43 pm »

Stone Walls would be completely impossible to percieve with heat vision, you'd just see an undifferentiated mass everywhere you looked, with the occasional brighter patch indicating a fire, or a living creature, since they'd all be the same temperature.
I doubt any other electromagnetic radiation would penetrate to the depths of a mine. There are theories of the possibility of neutrinos and dark matter being detectable down there, since they can pass through The Earth's crust with ease, but The Amber Spyglass aside, good luck trying to evolve to detect objects by reflected dark matter.
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Soulbourne

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #20 on: March 01, 2010, 03:28:49 pm »

Like I said, anything above absolute zero technically has energy.  Yes, it would be a blob, but better a discernible blob than a nothingness.  Also, dark matter and neutrinos wouldn't reflect to well.

This also raises the question of rather or not the DF world is a natural evolution world or supernatural.  If it's evolution...it's "possible" to develop the heat vision of this strength, but highly unlikely.  If it's supernatural...then intelligent design could make dwarves with the right cells easily.
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Lancensis

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #21 on: March 01, 2010, 06:04:35 pm »

Like I said, anything above absolute zero technically has energy.  Yes, it would be a blob, but better a discernible blob than a nothingness.

But it's not discernible at all. The walls, the air, the floor, a door are all going to be the same temperature. There's no shading to define edges. If you looked with a thermal imaging camera, it'd just be a continuous smear of the same colour. Your own breath would be a lot hotter than the ambient temperature so you'd probably be surrounded by a bright haze anyway. Imagine being in a room where every object emits the exact same level and colour of light.
It's not a question of being able to percieve the energy there, it's just that it would be largely useless information. You'd only be aware that you were inside a rock at a constant ambient temperature. You'd be able to see faint footprints, and the occasional heat signature in a busy area, but it wouldn't stop you blundering into walls again, and again. Animals that hunt using heat sensors are looking for prey that lives in easily shoved aside leaf litter and puts out a lot of heat, plus they have their eyes to back them up. They're not crawling through a maze where every surface and space looks identical, trying to find a equally identical looking sock.
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teloft

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Re: Wall-mounted torches, sconces, levers, et al.
« Reply #22 on: March 02, 2010, 07:43:14 pm »

I like the "bat" theory. Where the dwarfs make a Clicking sound as they walk in the darkness, there keen sense of hearing allows them to hear the sound bounce off the wall.

With the heat radiation, a curved surface will give off different intensity of energy. And the different materials would give off different heat signature.  We can see the different radiation signatures as colors in reality. So how should the heat vision be any different.  Also, the heat from some object would reflect from other objects based on there signature (color)...

Perhaps they have an inbuilt radar to "feel" the walls
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