Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Multiple games  (Read 1009 times)

Cosmonot

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Multiple games
« on: August 08, 2006, 12:47:00 pm »
Is it possible to have more than one game of dwarves going without messing around with the game files? I'd like to experience both Fortress and Adventurer modes, but there's no option to start a new game in the main menu after I saved my fortress game.

[ August 08, 2006: Message edited by: Cosmonot ]

Logged
Kobolds carry copper crossbows.

Toady One

  • The Great
    • View Profile
    • http://www.bay12games.com
Re: Multiple games
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2006, 01:06:00 pm »
Because the various files in the region folder are constantly being modified and are all linked together, it's not possible to run multiple simultaneous games in the same world.    It's something that would be nice to do, but I'm not sure I can even begin to figure out how it would work.

If you have the patience to sit through world creation again, you can create another world and use it for adventuring until you get some dwarf fortresses ready in your main world.  The histories won't be related though.

In general, starting a dwarf fortress is much more of a commitment than playing an adventurer.  Adventurers can just be rested in town any time, but for various reasons a fortress has to be played to completion.  It's also could to back up the data/save folder frequently, since a fortress is much more likely to corrupt your files, especially at this point.

Logged
The Toad, a Natural Resource:  Preserve yours today!

Cosmonot

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Multiple games
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2006, 01:26:00 pm »
Thanks for the information. It's hard to remember that this is an early release, since it hasn't done anything unusual yet.
Logged
Kobolds carry copper crossbows.

flap

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Multiple games
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2006, 01:58:00 pm »
An other interresting thing :
As you let us understand, DF keeps reading the files in the data/save direcory. At a given time in the game we can only play 1 adventurer, or 1 fortress. If you haden't done it in such a way, it would be inconsistent for the or might corrupt the files. Right.

But I have just tested, it is possible to run 2 instance of DF at the same time. Both would share the same files, and write things one after the other. For sure it would provide weird results... there is probably a very simple way to avoid that. One option to select at compilation, or a single word to add somewhere in the code...

Logged

Toady One

  • The Great
    • View Profile
    • http://www.bay12games.com
Re: Multiple games
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2006, 02:03:00 pm »
Indeed.  I wish I knew anything about programming.  Alas...  I have no clue.  Probably look-upable, or something.
Logged
The Toad, a Natural Resource:  Preserve yours today!

flap

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Multiple games
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2006, 02:21:00 am »
This is probably specific for the OS you are programming for. I'll try to check that. (Or simply as ADOM is doing : create a file when your programm has been started. If this file exists no other can be launched. But it might cause some problem if the original crashes and remove this file when finishing)
Logged