Thanks to Valtam, Caldfir, monk12, King Mir, Putnam, MrWiggles, mastahcheese, Knight Otu, Matoro, Witty, LordBaal, Aseaheru, Mr S, hermes, Cruxador and anybody I missed for helping to answer questions. I think it's the nature of the long-running release to have more and more of the questions be answerable as time goes on -- if your question isn't below, it was most likely addressed by somebody above. There were more questions answered by other people than I answer myself, so don't forget to look!
If an underground multi-tile tree is cut down, with one of its leaf tiles (or even branches)
touching a side or the cavern roof, will this stop a timber/cave-in situation?
I still haven't done it yet, but I think it'll force the whole tree down in too many rather than too few situations. Trees are adjacent to other trees in a bunch of ways, and they need to go down in those cases since we don't have a nice way to do 45 degree angle trees and so on. So I expect that even if you build a weird support system of constructed walls around a tree, designating it for chopping will still cause it to become not present (although it might not end up in a line on the ground). We'll see.
Are we going to have designs for all the other underground trees, such as the tunnel tubes and blood thorns? Those don't seem to grow like normal mushrooms.
They use the standard tree parameters -- those are capable of producing (somewhat half-assed) saguaros, so we have some latitude.
Will fallen leaves be flammable? If so will they burn as if they were items or more like how grass currently burns?
They have some temperature trigger information, but I think it just wipes them away like some of the other residue with similar triggers. I don't have things like piles of leaves burning, though we'll probably get there in time.
So I heard you have new raws.
Would you be able to provide us with the raw details once you've finalised elf retreats before the release? It would help modders get their stuff sorted out.
For trunk, branches, etc. just numbers to control things, no units, still subject to tweaking. I'm still formalizing the exact root and cap params from my hard-coded test values, and that'll continue as I add more new critters.
[TRUNK_RATE:10]
[HEAVY_BRANCH_DENSITY:2]
[BRANCH_DENSITY:10]
[MAX_TRUNK_HEIGHT:5]
[HEAVY_BRANCH_RADIUS:1]
[BRANCH_RADIUS:2]
[TRUNK_BRANCHING:2]
[MAX_TRUNK_DIAMETER:3]
[TRUNK_WIDTH_RATE:200]
I don't remember if the twig density stuff is still hard-coded, but if it is, it'll be out by release time.
[STANDARD_TILE_NAMES] <-- there are tags like TRUNK_NAME, ROOT_NAME etc. if you don't want "mango trunk", "mango roots" etc.
Mango leaves/flowers/fruit (no seeds yet):
[GROWTH:LEAVES]
[GROWTH_NAME:mango leaf:mango leaves]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1000]
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS]
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:SAPLING]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:6:2:0:0:ALL:1]
[GROWTH:FLOWERS]
[GROWTH_NAME:mango flower:STP]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1000]
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS]
[GROWTH_TIMING:60000:119999]
[GROWTH_PRINT:5:5:4:0:1:60000:119999:2]
[GROWTH:FRUIT]
[GROWTH_NAME:mango:STP]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:FRUIT]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1000] <-- this and the flower entry will probably be decreased when it matters more
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS]
[GROWTH_TIMING:120000:200000]
[GROWTH_DROPS_OFF_NO_CLOUD]
[GROWTH_PRINT:'%':7:4:0:1:120000:200000:3]
Format here is character on branch, item character, 3 for color, season timing, print priority (higher better).
To do autumn leaves, you use several growth prints. This info carries over to picked/fallen items. Here's a maple leaf:
[GROWTH:LEAVES]
[GROWTH_NAME:maple leaf:maple leaves]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1000]
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS]
[GROWTH_HOST_TILE:SAPLING]
[GROWTH_TIMING:0:300000]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:6:2:0:0:0:209999:1]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:6:6:0:1:210000:239999:1]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:6:4:0:1:240000:269999:1]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:6:4:0:0:270000:300000:1]
[GROWTH_DROPS_OFF]
Notably, I'm still missing size information for the items.
Meadowsweet buds/flowers used in grass file:
[GROWTH:BUD]
[GROWTH_NAME:meadowsweet bud:STP]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1]
[GROWTH_TIMING:140000:149999]
[GROWTH_PRINT:0:7:2:0:0:NONE]
[GROWTH:FLOWER]
[GROWTH_NAME:meadowsweet flower:STP]
[GROWTH_ITEM:PLANT_GROWTH:NONE:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL]
[GROWTH_DENSITY:1]
[GROWTH_TIMING:150000:250000]
[GROWTH_PRINT:5:5:7:0:1:150000:250000]
For item breath, where you'd normally put the breath weapon type after the material, you put.
UNDIRECTED_ITEM_CLOUD:<item type>:<subtype>
TRAILING_ITEM_FLOW:<item type>:<subtype>
The new type/subtype pair for plant growths is PLANT_GROWTH:<growth token>, with whatever material you want (generally the right one from the plant).
Now that combat has had a few changes and pulping is in, are weapons that deal mostly or entirely blunt damage, such as hammers, maces, ranged weapons, and ammunition in flight going to be more effective?
Pulping might help with that a bit, but skulls are more powerful now, not less. I don't remember offhand what happened with blunt weapons though, if anything. I know you can kick people to death, but it's not fast like a sword.
How do you decide the order of the arcs to work on?
Do you have everything planned out, or do you just start on whatever suits your fancy at that moment?
It's fruitless to plan it out at this point. There are too many interconnections, and it never ends up working out these days, so we try not to predict. Also, it's faster to work on something I'm motivated about, and that motivation can change, so it's not a bad thing when the plans change, mostly. I do try to do the things that go before other things when I can.
But how tall are they? By all logic trees that wide should be like a thousand Z-levels tall, but that sounds likely to cause technical issues. On the other hand, a tree that's not substantially taller than it is wide would be far too silly.
For the 30 tile wide trees, I was talking about the crown, not the trunk, if that's the issue. They are still limited in size by the sky, and to save time I haven't changed that. Other trees are more okay the way they are -- maple trees, for example, can be roughly equal in height and width, and mine are currently too tall compared to their width, if anything. I would prefer to get the heights up in general, though, if practical, and some of the elf ones are definitely on the short side.
Toady can we have some screenshots of the eleven retreats?
Tree cross section screenshots always look lousy. I can never find one I'm happy with.
Now that elves produce nuts and fruit from trees, can dwarves also harvest these items?
Will we now be able to trade clear or crystal glass with the elves, if the wood components used are the grown ones?
Do elves use wagons now? You say "the caravan rolled in" in the devlog.
I haven't set up a new type of gathering for it. Something might happen, but I'll probably require little constructions or something so they can reach. Adventurers can reach up to pick things from under trees, but that doesn't seem right for fort mode.
They still assume the same things of you since they can't verify the wooden component used.
The elves don't use wagons.
Ok now we have grown stuff which is kinda cool. Will that include weapons?
Furthermore will these weapons be better then weapons carved out of wood?
Why don't the "grown oak items" make the elves angry? Are they an elf-specific item type, like a "humane" way to make wood products (and if so, will judicious modding let players make "grown wood items?") Or do the elves distinguish between wood-for-crafts and wood-that's-people? Something else entirely?
The real question is, do civilizations remember their crafts now, or do elves just make special wooden stuff with a special token?
Also, is it possible through modding to make our own grown wooden items?
To make sure: can we now sell any wooden item made by elves safely to elves? I hope it is framework stub, not some hack only for elves and only for "grown" items.
Will be some info in-game about what race made this particular item?
Will elves bring "grown" logs? If you process these logs (crafts, or decorations on other materials etc) will elves still recognise them as "grown"? I suspect that's not coverered and if so what's your guess on it eventually?
Weapons and logs, yeah, I'm pretty sure. The grown items don't make elves angry because it is what elves do, shaping the items on the branch, and the only source of the items are the elves. You can sell them back. I haven't done anything with interactions or reactions, and I'm not sure when that'll happen. Perhaps when it's a material property or when I need the interaction. If you take a grown log and make something out of it, the elves will be angry -- perhaps they'll be able to tell later, but it isn't a material property yet so it can't carry over (and so they can't tell and don't trust you, in whatever temporary lore-space we are working in. You are judged by the carvy marks).
If we become friendly enough with the elves, will we ever be able to make trade agreements with them?
Yeah, I think that's a reasonably aspiration. Once we have real trade agreements that are of actual interest to your fort it'll probably go in, with some specific goods/services of interest to either party.
Are there any future plans, decisions, or thought given in regarding of embassies, both of other nations in your fortress as well as your fortress in other nations?
We're just at the point of considering people hanging out in taverns and inns, so I think there's more of a chance of a diplomatic incidents before we get to any kind of formalized permanent diplomacy. I haven't really thought about the latter.
Is this the kind of thing which could reasonably be e.g. outsourced to the modding forum for players to do?
What kind of work will you outsource to the community, and what stuff will you absoutely do yourself?
The tree density/color stuff is the existing example. I'll probably be changing the plant growth format a bit to handle certain plants that come up, so I don't think it'd work at this early stage. Somebody was talking about animal combat raws, and that's similar. I'm not sure how I actually want to solve the existing problems.
With dwarf nobles being updated as in the devlog, does that mean we will be able to appoint a general from the king now, or a general will migrate with the king to your fortress?
Nah, that stuff isn't relevant at all yet, so I haven't looked at it.
Do you guys plan on making dwarven nobility a little more closed over time, where they'll work more like a caste, or will they always be a little more open. Meaning, will they ever keep certain positions more likely to be given to relatives of noble families? Will a noble's relative that is not going to inherit any titles like, say, a Duke's third son or daughter, start their own family branches and retain their and their descendent's rank as nobles over time retaining some of the perks of being part of nobility?
I'm not sure how it'll end up. If people ever start thinking about their family members, and they should, it'll probably end up that way without some outside moderating pressure on the numbers. I guess that outside pressure on the numbers would be qualification or fame or whatever. Hard to say what the equations'll be.
Now that forest fires became a real deal, are unlimited adventurer's campfires still avaliable? If they're not, are we getting firemaking as some sort of reaction, or maybe using Advance Interaction with some free-lying resources to do that?
I haven't done it yet. The fire stuff is still there and still strange.
Will we be able to make gardens in fort mode?
Think its called farmplots...
There's the issue of planting, and the issue of gathering plant growths vs. whole plants. One of those optional items I'd like to get done.
Are we going to have underground roads connecting deep sites? What about underground tombs?
The underground tunnels mostly just run through the first layer with quite a bit of carving/bridging, and those can run right through plump helmet fields near the connections down to deep dwarf living areas etc. I haven't handled the dead.
Do objects, like artifacts or books, get "inherited" from entity to entity as sites are conquered or things are pillaged, or do they always sort of belong to whoever made them?
There's no looting at this point, so stuff just stays in place.
How "alive" will a retired fortress be? If you set up orders, burrows, patrols, etc, will the dwarves continue to obey them if you visit in adventurer mode? If you retire then un-retire(?) a fortress, how much will be saved?
Reason I am asking is, how cool would it be to make a fortress, then visit there as a citizen from an enemy civ?
Or, even better, what about using the embark anywhere tool to start a fortress on top of an already existing fortress? How would the game handle that? Would it crash?
What if the civ you are part of is at war with the already-existing fortress's civ? Could you have a "seige" if you did that?
They don't understand much about fortress stuff in adventure mode. They should remember where they live, but they won't follow orders. It wouldn't make sense anyway, mostly, with the time difference. I'm trying to save as much as possible with un-retire, but I'm not sure what I'll get away with. It's not a resolved issue.
If you visit from an enemy civ, you'll get the enemy soldier treatment -- which is still a little up in the air, due to all the AI changes, but they'll know you aren't good news.
I have no idea how the game will react to the bad embark.
Do they go to war? I'm not sure that ever happens. There's no code for that siege in any case, if I remember.
Now that burning trees have been implemented, will wooden constructions share a similar fate?
Nope. It didn't end up being directly related, though it might end up that way later on.
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3836554 times)