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[Eric Blank]

Is there a reason NPC sites go up to 17x17, and not a (theoretically) playable 16x16?

I think it's because if they were 16x16, you'd end up with the sites all aligned perfectly on a grid pattern where they take up a single embark region in some cases. With 17x17, there's just enough of a difference that they couldn't exist on a perfect grid, and you see some gaps between them in places.

[Mesa]

Is there a reason NPC sites go up to 17x17, and not a (theoretically) playable 16x16?

I think it's because if they were 16x16, you'd end up with the sites all aligned perfectly on a grid pattern where they take up a single embark region in some cases. With 17x17, there's just enough of a difference that they couldn't exist on a perfect grid, and you see some gaps between them in places.

That being said, 16x16 sites are not impossible to see, is my guess.
But think about it - four times the usual fortress size is one hell of a place, isn't it?

[King Mir]

Is there a reason NPC sites go up to 17x17, and not a (theoretically) playable 16x16?

My guess is that because the sites are not playable, 16x16 was not considered. So 17x17 was chosen because that's the largest size that intersects at most 4 region tiles. 18x18 could intersect 9 tiles, leading to complications, but anything from 2x2 to 17x17 intersects at most four.

[GaGrin]

... Committing your weapon to defensive actions also means it is not attacking, although creating opportunities for counter-strikes should mitigate that and allow the direction of combat to flip back and forth.

Does this include the notion of single-time counters?

By "single-time counter" I mean using your attack as the defence, rather than a parry followed by a riposte (which would be two actions and therefore
 a two-time counter).

To use a real world example, in longsword most of the ideal techniques involve a principle called master-strikes whereby the combatants strike in such a way to offset their opponent's strike at the same time as landing their own. These are not two separate actions, they're a single cut or thrust that has both the defensive and offensive qualities.  Obviously in practice this often doesn't work because you're working against the exact same intention; but when well executed the attack IS the defence.

The very first technique in Meyer's longsword is the Zornhau - a diagonal cut, that is used both as a primary attack and also as the counter to that attack with timing and slight change in the direction of the step.

[Mesa]

This was probably brought up before, but what happens to worlds generated before this release? Will they still be functionable or are all previous worlds now only worth of archiving? (or something like being reseeded...)

[CaptainArchmage]

On a Mac or Linux computer, even an old one, it is possible to play a 16x16 embark. I believe it should also be possible to run a 16x16 embark on Windows with the large-address-aware patch. The trouble with 16x16 embarks is they just run slowly. I did run a 16x16 embark with a river flowing through a lake and it went at about 5FPS on a laptop, back in 0.31.12 or so. I'm considering establishing a 16x16 site just for the hell of it. I believe the 17x17 sites just were not meant to be played or reclaimed, though we can clearly use embark anywhere to start on them.

Personally, I think when the new version comes out, it would be important to do some optimisations or even simplifications to the calculations so the game just runs faster. I believe this will become a requirement by the natural enlargement of the game, just as restoring sites and having worldgen stuff carry on into gameplay were forced by the new development choices. A similar thing is happening over at Kerbal Space Program (KSP), where the expansion of the game has reached a point where optimisations have to be made, else the RAM usage will become ridiculously large and cause trouble with making the new additions. One of the changes to be made to KSP is a method to offload things out of the RAM when not in use, and something like that might work for Dwarf Fortress.

This was probably brought up before, but what happens to worlds generated before this release? Will they still be functionable or are all previous worlds now only worth of archiving? (or something like being reseeded...)

What I'd like to see are tools or ways to import over old worlds from 0.31.12 or 0.31.25, which can hack in the missing material. That, and a way to hack in some new modded plants and have them show up in region tiles without regenerating the world.

Are animal populations going to regenerate properly in the new release, so we won't be running out of two-humped camels or giant kangaroos or naked mole dogs or other !!FUN!! creatures just from the environmental impact of a 400 dwarf fort?

What about cave fishing, is that going to work? Also just a little reminder dwarven milk doesn't show up because purring maggots are in cavern layer two rather than one. If a dwarf fortress or deep site extends down to cavern layer two or three does that give the dwarven civilization access to the wood and creature products from that cavern?

[Putnam]

Is there a reason NPC sites go up to 17x17, and not a (theoretically) playable 16x16?

I think it's because if they were 16x16, you'd end up with the sites all aligned perfectly on a grid pattern where they take up a single embark region in some cases. With 17x17, there's just enough of a difference that they couldn't exist on a perfect grid, and you see some gaps between them in places.

That being said, 16x16 sites are not impossible to see, is my guess.
But think about it - four times the usual fortress size is one hell of a place, isn't it?

You can try a 16x16 embark, but it'll crash. DF can't use that much memory. Also, 16x16 is... 16 times a normal embark, not 4 

[Mesa]

Is there a reason NPC sites go up to 17x17, and not a (theoretically) playable 16x16?

I think it's because if they were 16x16, you'd end up with the sites all aligned perfectly on a grid pattern where they take up a single embark region in some cases. With 17x17, there's just enough of a difference that they couldn't exist on a perfect grid, and you see some gaps between them in places.

That being said, 16x16 sites are not impossible to see, is my guess.
But think about it - four times the usual fortress size is one hell of a place, isn't it?

You can try a 16x16 embark, but it'll crash. DF can't use that much memory. Also, 16x16 is... 16 times a normal embark, not 4

Toady should share a picture of the new sites so we can see what we're dealing with here.
Not necessarily those 17x17 sites (not like he could show them in one pic), but an example sites of all the new types.

[Vlad]

It wouldn't be 16x's bigger than normal because I believe the default embark is either 3x3 or 4x4. If 16x16 was 16x's bigger your fort world be only 1 tile.

[Bronze Dog]

Geometry! 16x16 can be made out of 16 4x4 squares.

4*4 = 16 tiles.
16*16 = 256 tiles.

[Scoops Novel]

Given what has been stated about the difficulty's of fighting multiple combatants, when will highly skilled adventurer's be able to go the full batman (with the relevant requisite player skill) again?

[Scoops Novel]

As you intend to tie forts into the world by giving in-game purpose to their creation, will you be taking other steps to make starting a fort more interesting? Personally, i always find it the most difficult part to get into, and I'd like to have my initial options expanded in getting to know the area.

[mastahcheese]

You can try a 16x16 embark, but it'll crash. DF can't use that much memory. Also, 16x16 is... 16 times a normal embark, not 4

I've been able to, I just had to start loading from before dinner began, and come back when I was done.

[CaptainArchmage]

Ill try a 16x16 embark on my computer and see how long it takes to embark. I'll post the results on here.

Based on the Kerbal Space Program development information, it would be possible to make 16x16 embarks easier but it would require offloading from RAM, and probably the other optimizations to be made as well.

[Dutchling]

You can easily run 16x16 if you turn of underground features.

Useful for overworld fortresses. Not so much if you were planning on ever using that pickaxe.