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Author Topic: Looking for a Good Embark  (Read 1934 times)

Kalalification

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Looking for a Good Embark
« on: November 12, 2012, 11:27:45 am »

Heya, I'm planning my next Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress and I am looking for a particular type of embark for it. Specifically, I want to build my fortress on a coast, into a coastal (rocky) cliff. I haven't been able to locate any such locations by the random sampling and world generation I've done on my own, so I come here for help. If anyone has a save with such an embark, and could offer it up to me, or explain how to find such a location easily, that would be dandy. You'll get the honor of being one of the founding seven for the LP, and chances are that if you even make some kind of effort to help me out, I'll get you in somewhere.
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vjek

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2012, 11:58:25 am »

From what I've seen, ~20Z waterfalls and oceans next to them is a tricky thing in worldgen.  Specifically, coastal rivers at sea level start from the ocean and drain to the base of the waterfall.  The river that is the source of the waterfall drains into a spot near where it falls.  Rivers don't drain directly into the oceans where waterfalls are involved.

I've tried a wide variety of parameters to get past this quirk of DF worldgen, but haven't had any success.

Hopefully someone else has!

If you're just looking for a cliff and no waterfall/river/moving water, that should be pretty easy.  So, Kalalifcation, river or no river?

Kalalification

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2012, 01:32:32 pm »

From what I've seen, ~20Z waterfalls and oceans next to them is a tricky thing in worldgen.  Specifically, coastal rivers at sea level start from the ocean and drain to the base of the waterfall.  The river that is the source of the waterfall drains into a spot near where it falls.  Rivers don't drain directly into the oceans where waterfalls are involved.

I've tried a wide variety of parameters to get past this quirk of DF worldgen, but haven't had any success.

Hopefully someone else has!

If you're just looking for a cliff and no waterfall/river/moving water, that should be pretty easy.  So, Kalalifcation, river or no river?
Well, really, I'm looking for a deeper ocean. The ocean seems to only go down a few z-levels, and the things I intend to do with the ocean require more space than that. I'm looking for a high cliff next to the ocean so that I can have a bit more breathing room, and maybe work something out across those z-levels, but what I'd really prefer is an ocean that goes down six or seven z-levels.
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Findulidas

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2012, 02:21:27 pm »

I think theres a parameter for how much erosion there is, you should probably change that one and the one with X, Y on elevation.

Its much harder to get a volcano next to an ocean though, Ive never gotten that. Atleast not within an acceptable embark size.
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AutomataKittay

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2012, 02:24:19 pm »

I think theres a parameter for how much erosion there is, you should probably change that one and the one with X, Y on elevation.

Its much harder to get a volcano next to an ocean though, Ive never gotten that. Atleast not within an acceptable embark size.

I've found occasional volcano islands, but it's pretty rare on normal gen. I'm not quite sure how to 'tweak' advanced gens to find it, though! maybe up the volcano variance or the like...

As for the op, there are gradient map in one of the embark finder tabbing, not sure how helpful it'd be for you but I've found cliffs from time to time with * slope on it. I think erosion will make things into hilly slope rather than cliffs.
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Deathworks

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2012, 02:37:51 pm »

Hello!

While I have no perfect solution for your problem at hand, here are the basic points I would mention:

Maximize variance for Volcanism (3200 each, I think). Volcanism does not cause world gen rejects, so that is something easy to meddle with.

Then, maximize the number of volcanoes (200, I think). With the high variance of volcanism, that shouldn't be a problem either. This way, your deck should be stacked in favor of your plan.

As for ocean depth/elevation, I have to admit that I never investigated ocean depth.

You will probably want to turn off periodically erode extreme cliffs as that should be an issue.

Erosion cycles may be either side of the bargain - high erosion cycles may cut into the volcano. However, if you have a river near the volcano, the river itself may cut the deep cliff you want.... Hard to say, I guess you need to experiment with that one.

Height variance may be helpful, however, that can easily cause infinite map rejects, so you have to be careful when increasing that.

And remember to nullify the Minimum number of XXX squares at the end of the advanced settings - otherwise you may waste good maps.

I know, this is not really enough, but it is the best I can offer. Good luck, and please do tell us when you have found what you are looking for.

Yours,
Deathworks
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vjek

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2012, 02:53:36 pm »

... Well, really, I'm looking for a deeper ocean. The ocean seems to only go down a few z-levels, and the things I intend to do with the ocean require more space than that. I'm looking for a high cliff next to the ocean so that I can have a bit more breathing room, and maybe work something out across those z-levels, but what I'd really prefer is an ocean that goes down six or seven z-levels.
Does the ocean need to be that deep across the entire (one) edge of the embark area?

Kalalification

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2012, 11:47:29 pm »

Does the ocean need to be that deep across the entire (one) edge of the embark area?
Ideally.
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Findulidas

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2012, 01:41:33 am »

I would look into the world rejection article on dwarf fortress wiki if you got problems with world rejection. I almost never have.
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vjek

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2012, 12:41:02 pm »

Does the ocean need to be that deep across the entire (one) edge of the embark area?
Ideally.

Ok, check out this embark, and see if that's close to what you want.  Other things can be tweaked, but if that's a good starting point, we'll iterate from there.

Kalalification

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2012, 10:32:49 pm »

DELETED
« Last Edit: November 18, 2012, 12:12:27 am by Kalalification »
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Kalalification

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2012, 12:12:09 am »

SORTED
« Last Edit: November 18, 2012, 01:08:01 am by Kalalification »
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Ozfer

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Re: Looking for a Good Embark
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2012, 02:07:02 pm »

Love your LP's!  I actually just watched it a week ago!
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