Dwarf Fortress > DF Suggestions

Ropes for Building Downward

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Exponent:
There has been a lot of posts recently about not being able to build down except by digging down and building up.  Here is a proposal that might solve this adequately, and hopefully still remain both somewhat realistic and easy to implement.Essentially, ropes/chains can function similar to ramps, except that they lead to the lower Z level, not the higher Z level.  To place a rope/chain for this purpose, it must be over open space, and must be adjacent to an existing floor or wall.Legend
+ = floor (above view)
_ = floor (side view)
W = wall
• = open space
§ = rope (over open space)Above View, Z
code:++••
++§•
++••Above View, Z-1
code:WW++
WW++
WW++Side View
code:__§
WW__
WWWWYou could then travel from the square adjacent to the rope to the square below the rope.  Travel onto the square with the rope wouldn't work.  Additionally, since you can travel to the square below the rope (even if there were no floor), you could get down their to install another rope.  This would allow you to reach down as many Z levels as you have segments of rope.  Once on the bottom, you could build up as you saw fit.  Admittedly, though, the process of then deconstructing the rope seems difficult.A slightly different approach might make a bit more sense, but it requires that you be able to build something on a level below you (I don't know if this would produce programming complications or not, so I mentioned it second).  This method would look a lot more like ramps, though.  Essentially, you build the rope on the edge of the floor, hanging down into (and thus being placed in) the square below.Above View, Z
code:++••
++••
++••Above View, Z-1
code:WW++
WW§+
WW++Side View
code:__
WW§_
WWWWIn this case, you could walk on the square with the rope (and not the squares above or below it, assuming those squares contain no ropes themselves).  Building a hanging rope like this requires that you can access any one of the 9 squares above (or would it just be the 5 square plus shape?), and that there is no floor or other obstruction above where you are placing the rope.  The rope would now allow movement to any of those 9 squares from the rope square, and vice versa, although the middle square would only be accessible if it also contained a rope.  Access to the square below the rope could exist as well, but only if there is no floor/obstruction between the two squares and the lower square also had a rope constructed, so it would be just like the square above the rope.Deconstructing a rope would be similar, in that you have to be above it in one of the 9 squares to remove it.  The rest of the rope should fall to the bottom if you first deconstructed a top or middle segment.  (Since cave-ins are already supported, and this is way less complex than a cave-in, but still somewhat similar, I figure this shouldn't be a problem.)  So normally, you could either deconstruct it from the bottom up, or deconstruct the top piece, and then just pick up the rest on the floor (assuming you've built alternate access through stairs or ramps).  These pieces on the floor should be individual items, disconnected from each other, for simplicity.

ToxicFrog:
Personally, I'd suggest this go with the well approach that ropes and chains are effectively vertically infinite (or at least "as long as they need to be"): placing a rope extends to all the open levels below it. So, you place the rope like this:
code:(top view)
++••
++§•
++••(side view)
 §
##|
##|
##|
#####

With the | marking the squares that can now be accessed. Presumably a rope would be fast descent, very slow ascent, very slow passing, and possibly a minor unhappy thought (at having to use a rope rather than a proper staircase).You could then use the rope to descend and build more convenient, permanent structures (anchoring them to the wall, say - clearly you can't anchor floor to the rope itself!) and eventually replace the rope.

Exponent:
I suppose that works.  I forgot about the well.  I was thinking about how chained animals can only go one square away from the chain, and that therefore the apparent intention was that the ropes/chains aren't all that long.  But it seems that in the case of the well, the intention is rather the opposite.  And in this case, I'm not too demanding of consistency, so either view works.Out of curiosity, though, would you suggest that there be any visible indication of the rope on all the levels below the top one?  I don't know if it would be necessary, but I do think it would be somewhat useful.  But having a visible indication of a rope when there isn't anything actually built there might be a problem.  Clearly, if someone wanted to build something (floor, wall, whatever) in one of these squares, they should be able to (thus blocking the rope from going further down), but would the code as it exists currently be able to handle that easily?  Or would it need to "create" some object in each of the squares under the top rope connection in order to visibly represent it, complicating the build process?

Greiger:
I think wells do something similar to this already.  Every so often (donno how to tell when. doesn't seem to be every time someone drinks but does seem to be triggered by it)  On deep wells every so often you will see a vertical line the color of the rope in the gap and when you go to the bottom you see the bucket decending.  Then after the bucket hits water it is pulled back up.  Perhaps it could simply use that vertical line as a location indicator for where the rope extends.I like this idea.  Along with mechanisms and [WAGON_PULLER] animals I think rope needs more uses.

Align:
Hmm... if ropes, why not ladders, too?
Anyway, delicious idea.

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