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Author Topic: Impossible ideas  (Read 801 times)

Benevolence

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Impossible ideas
« on: July 02, 2010, 11:18:56 am »

So, impossible ideas. What do you do when you realize an idea you want to use is impossible?

I imagine it would vary significantly. There are the things that are merely improbable enough they might be treated as impossible, such  as making a collection of nine masterpiece idols, each depicting something specific, as well as masterfully decorated in a given way. Then there are the things that are truly impossible for now, such as a lift instead of stairs or a ramp, or rooms that are bigger on the inside. Or maybe even just something you know is possible, but don't quite have the knowledge and experience to make.

Then there's always the scale of the idea. What if it's just a passing idea? What if it's a megaproject? What if it's a concept around which you would build an entire fortress?

What do you do when you realize that, for whatever reason, you cannot use an idea? Do you simply abandon it? Save it for when it is possible? Alter it so that it's possible now? How do you decide what to do with it?
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Untelligent

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Re: Impossible ideas
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2010, 11:51:14 am »

Back in my 40d megafort, I was building a device to take advantage of a bug that caused any depth of water entering a screw pump to be spat back out as 7/7, only to realize that such a bug was either fixed long ago or never existed in the first place and was a figment of my imagination.

Not to be deterred, I used the infrastructure I had already built to make a pond-rainwater storage device instead.
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The World Without Knifebear — A much safer world indeed.
regardless, the slime shooter will be completed, come hell or high water, which are both entirely plausible setbacks at this point.

ed boy

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Re: Impossible ideas
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2010, 01:24:17 pm »

I've been wanting to build a certain megaproject for some time now. The only problem is the number of z-levels. The maximum you can select above ground currently is 100, but I need many times this. Digging out the ground to get some extra z-levels there would mean I would die an FPS death before I ever got started.
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Untelligent

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Re: Impossible ideas
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2010, 01:34:17 pm »

I've been wanting to build a certain megaproject for some time now. The only problem is the number of z-levels. The maximum you can select above ground currently is 100, but I need many times this. Digging out the ground to get some extra z-levels there would mean I would die an FPS death before I ever got started.

By maximizing the elevation variances in 40d and turning off erosion, I was able to get a spot with a 100-level cliff. Someone else was able to get a cliff that was over 200. Doing something similar in the current version, with its ability to have 100 levels above the tallest bit of ground, could give you a spot with several hundred z-levels of space.
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The World Without Knifebear — A much safer world indeed.
regardless, the slime shooter will be completed, come hell or high water, which are both entirely plausible setbacks at this point.

ed boy

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Re: Impossible ideas
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2010, 01:37:06 pm »

The problem with that is that I'd have a great stonking cliff in the way, and I'd have to get rid of that.
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Itnetlolor

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Re: Impossible ideas
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2010, 02:08:53 pm »

I gotta remember that for a different idea I wanted to implement once .31 was in a more stable condition to play, and I got used to a few of the newer/improved/inconvenienced features. Farming especially.

With all that in tow, I wanted to make a cliffside fortress with towns budding off the cliff-face and a city-like entryway. Of course, the catch to getting inside involves crossing a major drop-bridge with several dick moves interspersed throughout. Of course, the lowly serfs at the bottom of the cliff have to gather up the remains and goblinite, provided it's still intact. And building it with 100z high cliffs sounds rather nice.

As for a seemingly impossible idea I managed to achieve? Airship, is all I have to say. Of course, overcoming it was simple. Shut off cave-ins.

What do I do with something that simply can't be done? At least in DF, I just say "fuck it" and try to see if it's possible. If not, I'll find another way. Persistence is the dwarven way. How else did you expect such a glorious ship to sail the skies (and be built in less than/roughly a decade)?

Plus, a repeater/boiler concept I made failed epically, however, it still works as a semi-probable/functional aesthetic element. Using the pressure plate inside, that makes the boiler sorta power whatever it's linked to. I intend to make a more proper repeater "connect" to it while being "powered" by the same boiler. In order to power the entire repeater, the boiler must be activated, so to put it.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2010, 02:16:10 pm by Itnetlolor »
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