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[PanTheSatyr]

I plan on recreating the dwarven compendium in html + css.

Some people asked me for source files and said that they would like to expand and edit the compendium. All psd (photoshop) files together are currently 8 GB. I can't reasonable upload 8 GB with my upload speed.



Recreating it in html/css should drastically reduce the file speed by using textures that can be cached by your browser. I allready extracted most images and created all textures i would need.... The complete file size is about 50 MB which even includes some psd files and unnecessary huge images. All textures and images are saved as PNG so there is no loss through compression.

It has many advantages for me, too. If i currently want to change the page numbers of multiple files i have to open them all in photoshop and save them in different formats, which is time consuming if the files are some hundred megabytes big. Also i could, for example, easily change the background color of hotkeys in less then a minute...

I'm also quite common with php so I will use that knowledge for automatic pagination and other nice things.

[Chaos17]

Nice, it will help me!
Thanks.

[Henny]

So... how's it going? :3

[PanTheSatyr]

Still working on it, its not abandoned!



I created mysql database tables and already filled most them. I want pages like the crop table and armor-stats pages to be generated automatically based on mysql tables. Enhancing or updating them will be way easier this way.

Currently I'm working on a little framework. I want the index and pagination to be automated.

Also, every handbook for a game should be available in multiple languages so I'm working on a simple approach to translate the dwarven compendium. Each page can be translated individually and if no translation is given it will fallback to english.

Usually I would have used gettext which is a standard php module for translation but instead I decided to use html pages for each page that contains separated texts. I hope that it's easier this way that different pages are translated by different people at the same time and that its more intuitive to translate the text. (gettext is usually better suited to translate small parts of text on dynamically generated webpages).

It will look like this:



I will translate the compendium into german myself, so once I'm finished it will be already available in two languages.

Oh, and I decided to "split" the compendium into three books. Or rather add two books.

First, the dwarven compendium dedicated to fortress mode.
Secondly "the dwarven survival guide" for adventure mode.
And lastly "the dwarven bestiary" which will contain information about animals, creatures and civilizations.

Further I want the handbooks to be displayed in different DPI's so I made a little script that automatically recalculates width, height, x and y statements and resizes Images.

I can't say for sure when this will be finished. However, once it is finished enhancing and updating the compendium should be way easier than using photoshop.

[fortydayweekend]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

[Sutremaine]

Very true, except I find it happening for 'modding / playing the mod-inspiring fortress' rather than 'automation / original task'.

[Pooky]

I love the dwarven compendium. Is it still ongoing?

[Melting Sky]

Nice work. I see you have plans to add foreign weapons to the compendium which is good since they are an oft overlooked part of DF, particularly for those of us who don't adventure.

One thing you might want to remove on the current weapon descriptions is your assertion that picks are never the best possible weapon for a job since they are perhaps the overall most effective weapon in the dwarven arsenal and there are definitely instances where they will outperform any of the other native dwarven weapons. Picks have a couple of virtues that put them out ahead of the other dwarven weapons in most situations.

Picks only have a single, highly effective attack type which is a high velocity edged attack that has a small enough contact area that it will pass through armor and penetrate deeply but yet it is still wide enough to sever body parts with ease. This makes them very consistently effective compared to the other edged weapons which have a grab bag of attack styles which generally include several quite ineffective blunt attacks such as pommel strikes. Even in naked combat where battle axes are often thought to reign supreme, a pick will outperform them simple because the pick user will not waste his time using pommel strikes. When it comes to heavily armored foes the pick will leave axes and swords in the dust and will generally outperform spears as well. In general, the only enemy picks don't do well against are the undead due to the fact that they sever limbs which we all know can lead to a real mess.

[bicueites]

Good source of information.

[expwnent]

Posting to watch.

[indyofcomo]

This is beautiful, and greatly appreciated!!
following

[Streeter]

Question: Will this be expanded upon for the 2014 release?

[Nopenope]

Looks like it won't. Not in the near future at least.