Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zemat]

I was imagining an scenario where dwarves build a fortress below some desert's sands and quickly tought about several kind of traps involving sand. So it would be nice if cells full of sand have a quasi-liquid behavior. For example. When digging down into the sand and finding an inner cave, sand would pour in making small but noticeable mounds which could slow movement or block building plans if not removed. During cave-ins the effect would be more noticeable filling almost completely caved-in chambers. Sand then would have to be removed with buckets or collected in some way. Also ponds could be filled with sand to create quicksand traps (if there are no natural quicksands already).

This is fairly minor but it would make creating fortresses in different locations more interesting. I think every biome or location should bring something different and interesting to fortress building.

[ August 02, 2007: Message edited by: Zemat ]

[Mechanoid]

The cave-in code Toady is working on will handle these events at one point.

Indeed, sand fortresses will be awsome. All the more so when you tame a fire-breathing creature. All you need to do is get the creature to breathe flames, and you've got a glass-coated hallway!  

[Captain Mayday]

If this were in, that would mean so many more minor jobs, which would in turn unbalance the game, due to never having enough dwarves to handle the current situation.

I suppose one way around that is to make days appear longer, and tweak task times to suit.

[Xgamer4]

Or to just not make your fortress in a desert if you don't want to deal with shifting sands.

[Zemat]

It could create more minijobs but no necessarily so. cleaning up minor sand mounds is a job that could be handled the same way that blood cleaning is done now. No need to assign specifically any dwarfs to it. Big mounds of sand, which effectively act as rock walls, could be dispersed into minor sand mounds by miners just like if they where digging up a cave in.

Besides, a good cave-fortress in the dessert would be dig far down into solid rock where there's little amount of sand. Not just built near the unstable sand surface.

Just imagine this:

The adventurer almost reaches the core of the abandoned fortress of the late Urrīt dynasty. Where the rumors say that lies the treasure rich tomb hall. Just ahead lies an open space with the floor covered in sand. No creatures or beast appear in sight.

The adventurer takes a few steps into the sand when suddendly he feels his like walking over a soft mattress. Only that this "mattress" of sand is starting to engulf him. Late to break free, the adventurer wonders worryingly if his quest will end sunken in the desert.

A few agonizing minutes later the adventurer falls into another chamber filled with sand right below the one he was before. Feeling and outburst of joy, the adventures starts laughing without realizing that this new chamber has no apparent exit, and the sand surrounding him is shaking softly. Revealing four giant scorpions just recently awakened by his laughs. Maybe the idea of a death by suffocation inside the bowels of the dessert wasn't so bad after all.

[ August 03, 2007: Message edited by: Zemat ]

[Pitchblack]

here is another perspective.

You and 6 stout dwarfs travel to the desert to find riches in the rock beneath the sand, you appporach the digsite for your new fortress, and while considering a name you hear a shout, as the booze wagon and your freind is engulfed in the endless sands, you cry out, but nothing can stop their fate.

just another random thing that could drasticly change fortresses in the begining.

[Captain Mayday]

Dwarf Dwarfyson cancels job: Can't dig sand with pick.