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Author Topic: Mechanical Experimentation  (Read 510 times)

happy2pester

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Mechanical Experimentation
« on: March 08, 2013, 04:51:35 pm »
I'm not very good at dwarf fortress. I am still learning. I have the basics down, but what I would like to know is this: Is there any way to experiment with the various bits of machinery etc without having to dig it out, and gather the resources etc?

Effectively, I want something like minecraft's creative mode.

I know there is the Object Testing Arena, but as far as I can tell, that is only for testing combat.

Can anyone help me out?
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Xinael

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2013, 05:32:01 pm »
The answer (though it might not be the one you're after!) is I suspect that the game is the testing arena for these things. Want to mess about with waterwheels, windmills, and axles? Go on then! Want to breach a volcano using a method you've never tried before? Have at it! And when it all goes horribly wrong, at least you've hopefully learnt some lessons :)
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happy2pester

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2013, 05:46:42 pm »
Ah, that is exactly what I suspected. I thought it was worth asking, though.
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WealthyRadish

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2013, 06:11:06 pm »
Genning a pocket world and embarking with just the stuff (or raw materials) you want to test is pretty quick. In advanced world gen, you can set the number of points that you get as well. If you don't want to worry about invaders and the like, there are options in d_init, and DFhack has tons of scripts for things like speeding things up, removing negative thoughts, etc.
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happy2pester

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2013, 06:37:13 pm »
I suppose I could always split off a second copy of dwarf fortress... modify as many settings as I can to make my dwarves move and mine superquick etc. I might do that.

Thanks
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Nil Eyeglazed

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2013, 04:47:50 am »
Yeah, you can set up some cheat mods pretty easily.

It's not hard to test just about anything in the game without cheating, but if you want to set up something complicated, I could totally imagine wanting a safe world in which to do it.  I've done that myself, and most folks who make megaprojects disable invasions, and not just to test things out, but to finish them off.

Cheating in DF isn't as easy as in some games, but it's doable: check out "cheats" on the wiki.
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Quote from: Toady One on September 01, 2004, 06:47:00 pm
He he he.  Yeah, it almost looks done...  alas...  those who are in your teens, hold on until your twenties...  those in your twenties, your thirties...  others, cling to life as you are able...<P>It should be pretty fun though.

Broken

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2013, 07:14:42 am »
Mod your slaves to no eat, no sleep and no drink. Set invaders at NO. Now you have a nice sandbox world.
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Quote from: Talvieno on April 02, 2014, 11:26:54 am
Quote
In a hole in the ground there lived a dwarf. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a dwarf fortress, and that means magma.
Dwarf fortress: Tales of terror and inevitability

Babylon

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Re: Mechanical Experimentation
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2013, 02:10:50 pm »
you can turn off invaders in the init files.  That doesn't get rid of ALL danger, but it gets rid of a lot of it.
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