Some questions were addressed by the intervening releases and dev logs, so I left those off. Thanks to people that answered some of the other questions (MrWiggles, Willfor, Footkerchief, Rafal99, thvaz, NW_Kohaku, Putnam, Knight Otu, Greiger, Arkenstone, greenskye, and thems what was missed).
So Caravan Arc is dumped?
Several caravan arc goals have been shuffled into the other development goals (the 3d minerals/mine maps and villager schedules of the former release 2 have been added to the Trader role, for instance). There's a number I can't find, but I guess they're counting as goals that were already on the list. And since Toady hasn't quite gone by just the goal groups, I'd say that Caravan Arc continues along with the hero stuff, or after that.
Everything from the previous release list should be contained somewhere on there. The hero role has seven or so additions, and I've fleshed out the tavern/inns.
Does the stance of a creature have any effect on how a colliding cart affects them?
Does flesh material have an effect on collisions?
Grounded units have more trouble dodging, but it doesn't change anything else I can remember. The collisions are resolved as combat strikes, so all the standard material/size stuff matters.
What happens to magma-filled minecarts that are not magma-safe? Do they take long enough to melt that we can make cannons that shoot globs of molten lead and magma at our enemies? And do molten minecarts retain their momentum?
I'm not sure. There's ostensibly a container/item temperature interface that should cause something to happen, but I have no idea if it works. If the cart actually became a glob... it probably doesn't work. I imagine it has to remake the projectile if the item changes type, and it probably loses all the momentum information there.
Are you looking at expanding the concept of the minecart "object" to other objects that might function similarly with regard to the physics and collision - like boulder traps Indiana Jones style?
Rolling boulders were one of the things we didn't get to, but the vehicles are set up with those in mind, since we know we'll do them at some point.
Since you are tackling bugfixing again, how is the Mantis bug tracker working for you? I know that you've had it at least since early 2010, and that several volunteers help filter out duplicate entries and "not bugs". Are there other ways here that the community could make the system more effective?
I'd defer to the judgment of the tracker managers on the overall technical aspects of the system -- their efforts have made it work to the extent that it does. I think it is going okay, but I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of software, in terms of knowing what other features would help. It works better than the forum section did. The saves that get put on dffd and linked from the tracker are probably the most valuable resource, since they both confirm the circumstances of the bug and cut the bugfixing time down by many times in some cases (I know there's been a new push to put equipment bug saves up there, and I'm still planning to get to those before I move on).
what about the edges of the local field? sometimes a good embark position is with one half on one local map and with the other half on the next, but since moving the local map has no overlapping, those embark-areas can never be used, will this change with your current work?
Sites can now overlap the edges in general (like the large town sites do), but I think there are still complications with allowing this in dwarf mode, since the older code portions like to have one world map tile coordinate.
Toady have you ever felt like you would rather keep a placeholder in the game as it was, instead of doing the planned updates later? I am actually reminded of the Good and Evil lands and how you actually seem to have a more solid idea of how they work then the planned Sphere lands.
I think it's natural that the existing idea would be more solid, since good/evil lands have been in the game a long time and have various associated features. I still think it's better to have more interesting things going on.
Will these [combat arc dev items]
Also include things like much larger creatures being able to stomp on much smaller ones and similar? Larger creatures could just barge others using their bulk as a weapon. It need not stop at attacks of course, darting trough a giants legs would be cool.
When people are attacking large beasts in the new ways, it would be fair to give the beasts more options as well, but it's hard to say how it'll play out. I think it would fit the feel of the game if a large creature could utterly obliterate a small critter into a paste item as long as they got a shot to dodge out of the way. With the reaction moments, it would also be a chance for you to jump on the leg (or attempt something borderline foolish like holding a pointed weapon up at the bottom of the foot). Charge attacks from large creatures already give a very large chance for the smaller creature to be knocked over.
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3840429 times)