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Author Topic: Megaprojects now vs later  (Read 1118 times)

Hyndis

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Megaprojects now vs later
« on: June 18, 2010, 02:50:21 pm »

I have a vision for a fortress that is awesome beyond all others. I know how to build it, piece by piece. It will take decades to build, but it can be done, and it will cause dwarves to tantrum with envy, elves to weep in despair, and humans to bring even more offerings of booze to my trade depots.

It will be a massive obsidian tower fortress, carved into the land itself, surrounded by a surface sea of magma. This grand, dark tower would rise over the landscape, built next to a volcano, with the mountain itself carved to form this mighty obsidian spire turning the surrounding lush forest into a burning, ash covered wasteland. The roots of the tower will go deep into the earth, with the magma sea reaching from the surface to the caverns, draining into the caverns to flood the underworld with magma should I so desire. Not only will the tower be built, block by block, by an army of masons, but at the same time it will also be carved deep into the mountain itself, deep into the ground. Digging down to bedrock, and then digging deeper.



The thing is, such a megaproject would take a very, very long time to build. I'm unsure if I should start now, or wait until the bugfixing is finished for this round. Quite a few of the bugs do require restarts. I'm just worried about save compatibility. :(

Not that save compatibility should impede progress by any means of course. If breaking saves gets the next version out 1 day faster, do it! Its just that currently the game is in the bugfixing phase, and so the game is still very fluid and unstable. Probably not the best building conditions for a megaproject.

It would essentially involve clearing away about 20-30 entire Z levels worth of rock, smoothing the entire thing, hauling all of those rocks into quantum stockpiles next to mason workshops, and then while I'm carving the bottom half of the fortress into the rock, the top half is being made with the literal mountain worth of stone used from excavating the world from the surface to the first cavern, with the natural stone pillars of the cavern joined by pillars of rock blocks to support the massive weight of that obsidian spire.

I only have two questions before claiming a workshop to produce this:

1) Should I make it now, even though there may be save compatibility issues with the next release, causing me to be stuck with the current sometimes severe bugs? This is the main sticking point, and why I have not been playing very much DF lately. I want my megaprojects! I want bugfixes. I want stability. :(   I also want a pony and a gold rocket car.
2) Do you think an E8400 OC'ed to 3.6ghz will last long enough to complete such a megaproject before it melts?
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Internet Kraken

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2010, 02:53:53 pm »

Sounds like your dwarves are just building a Goblin Dark Fortress.

Anyways, I'd say start it now since I doubt it will go perfectly the first time you try it. That way you'll have more experience with the project when you go to build it in a more stable version.
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Hyndis

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2010, 02:55:54 pm »

More like Barad-dûr.   :D

Also I'm very, very thorough. Things do go perfectly the first time. But because of me being so thorough and everything working, it is time consuming. Just not sure if it would be worth potentially locking myself into a buggy release, with the choice being abandon all progress done so far or continue to try to work around the current bugs.
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darkrider2

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2010, 12:27:51 pm »

Nice. I say go for it... being that .07 just got out you probably have some time before the next one.
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Hyndis

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2010, 02:27:52 pm »

From the bug reports, 31.08 will probably be out tomorrow. :(

Looks like there's a nasty CTD while looking at bins or barrels.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=2378
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darkrider2

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2010, 07:31:13 pm »

From the bug reports, 31.08 will probably be out tomorrow. :(

Looks like there's a nasty CTD while looking at bins or barrels.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=2378

oh, guess I shouldn't start my next fort till then then.
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Mysteriousbluepuppet

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Re: Megaprojects now vs later
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2010, 10:34:29 pm »

From the bug reports, 31.08 will probably be out tomorrow. :(

Looks like there's a nasty CTD while looking at bins or barrels.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=2378

oh, guess I shouldn't start my next fort till then then.


cleared about 4 hours ago. Knock yourself out :)
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