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Author Topic: Smaller embark map  (Read 290 times)

Sirbug

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Smaller embark map
« on: July 10, 2013, 02:01:13 pm »

My attempt to live long and prosper generally get stopped by FPS death. So I decided to confine self into tiny map, as opposed to 4x4.

But before I try, I'd like to ask, is it actually an effective solution and how much more problematic would life in tiny place be?
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Cool, but wouldn't this likely lead to tongues having a '[SPEACH]' tag, and thus via necromancy we would have nearly unkillable reanimated tongues following necromancers spamming 'it is sad but not unexpected'?

JoeJoe

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Re: Smaller embark map
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2013, 02:06:22 pm »

I usually embark in a 2x2, and while I'm not sure how strongly it helps FPS, there is definitely still enough room and resources to get along easily. Maybe a bit problematic could be that invasions will generally appear closer to your fort entrance giving you less time to react.
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i2amroy

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Re: Smaller embark map
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2013, 08:39:52 pm »

Map size is easily the number 2 reason for slowdown, preceded only by the number of dwarves on your map. Both are actually side effects of the pathfinding system that DF uses, more creatures causes more pathfinding and therefore more slowdown, and a larger map means that:
1)You have more wildlife - more pathfinding
2)More area to check each time you pathfind
3)More features (rivers, etc.) to track and simulate.

As such other then reducing the number of dwarves you have, reducing map size can massively increase your FPS. It does take some getting used to though, (personally I never go smaller then 3x3 because I like large designs) but if you can handle it then it can provide some very large speed increases.
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Quote from: PTTG
It would be brutally difficult and probably won't work. In other words, it's absolutely dwarven!
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - A fun zombie survival rougelike that I'm dev-ing for.