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Author Topic: Regarding metal usage by civilization -- Important discovery for entity modders.  (Read 5600 times)

Untelligent

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Firstly, I apologize if these observations and research have been covered elsewhere. I did a quick search and didn't see this in the modding board, and that sort of embarassing mistake happens here from time to time. If not, I may have stumbled upon one of the most significant undocumented changes to the way the raws work yet. Anyway...


Shortly after 31_01 was released, I was disheartened by the fact that METAL_PREF no longer appears to help determine metal usage. At first glance, between this and the lack of MINOR_METAL, it appeared a portion of my upcoming megamod would be unimplementable.

However, when I was looking through some other threads (might have been on the bug tracker), someone mentioned that humans can only make use of bronze and a few minor alloys. One observant commenter noticed that humans lacked a permitted reaction tag for steel and whatnot. Another commenter, however, that dwarves can use iron while humans cannot, and unlike steel, iron smelting was defined from the iron ore raws rather than the reaction files, and PERMITTED_REACTION tags do not exist for native ores. Also, my own tests revealed that humans also cannot make things from tin or copper, the two components of bronze. This oddity, along with the rest of the previous two paragraphs, led me to a series of additional tests that led me to a rather startling conclusion or two.


  • Firstly, a race's access to alloys -- metals such as steel and rose gold, which are not found in ores -- are determined by a race's [PERMITTED_REACTION:x] tags in the entity file. I think this was implied already, by the information in the last paragraph.
  • Secondly, a race's access to ore metals -- metals such as iron and copper, which can be found by smelting ores such as hematite and native copper -- are determined by whether or not the race has the [STONE_PREF] tag.
  • The above two are independant of each other; if a race does not have access to the ore metals required for a reaction they can use (as is the case with humans and copper, tin, and bronze), they can still use the alloy. This may not be the case in all situations, but they can embark with bronze, their shops have bronze, and I think their soldiers have bronze too.

As I previously said, earlier this month I was worried that metal availability by race would be much more difficult. However, given the above conclusions. This is not the case; rather, the exact opposite is evident:


In the DF2010 generation, Dwarf Fortress modders have far more control which metals an individual race can use than we ever had before.


Use the information in this thread as you will. Mind you, if anyone can refute my findings, please do so.

One mystery I've yet to solve: when I play a dwarven adventurer, I generally start with bronze. More research may be needed.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2010, 08:43:38 pm by Untelligent »
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Arkenstone

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I noticed this for the alloys, but not for the ores.
I had planned on using this by adding [ITEMS_BARRED] to ore metals, and giving kobalds etc. an 'impure copper' metal raw reaction.
I also planned on using this to block the worldgen creation of high-end materials without using the [DEEP] tag: the reaction used to create such materials would require something that was only made by a different civ as a catalyst; you could attain it in fortress mode, but your civ can't.
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Quote from: Retro
Dwarven economics are still in the experimental stages. The humans have told them that they need to throw a lot of money around to get things going, but every time the dwarves try all they just end up with a bunch of coins lying all over the place.

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Feel free to ask me any questions you have about logic/computing; I'm majoring in the topic.

D_E

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Awesome discovery!
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Max White

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So would this mean that by adding dummy reactions that make metals without use of any products, we could control EXACTLY what metals a race can use?

Acanthus117

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This is interesting news... I'm gonna give it a shot.

Thanks, Unintelligent!
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Arkenstone

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So would this mean that by adding dummy reactions that make metals without use of any products, we could control EXACTLY what metals a race can use?
Well, it's probably best if you put some sort of ingredients; it helps keep "the feel of the game" intact.  I'd be all for a reagent-less reaction that produces wood for the elves at a custom "stone circle" workshop though.
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Quote from: Retro
Dwarven economics are still in the experimental stages. The humans have told them that they need to throw a lot of money around to get things going, but every time the dwarves try all they just end up with a bunch of coins lying all over the place.

The EPIC Dwarven Drinking Song of Many Names

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about logic/computing; I'm majoring in the topic.

Mephansteras

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Oh, that is handy to know!

Do we know if this restriction also applies to what merchants bring? Or only to what shows up equipped on soldiers? I'd assume they'd be the same, but with the current trade system one can never be sure.
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Arkenstone

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Oh, that is handy to know!

Do we know if this restriction also applies to what merchants bring? Or only to what shows up equipped on soldiers? I'd assume they'd be the same, but with the current trade system one can never be sure.
I think it just tells the game what's available to a given civ, not what they do with it.
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Quote from: Retro
Dwarven economics are still in the experimental stages. The humans have told them that they need to throw a lot of money around to get things going, but every time the dwarves try all they just end up with a bunch of coins lying all over the place.

The EPIC Dwarven Drinking Song of Many Names

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about logic/computing; I'm majoring in the topic.