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[Nil Eyeglazed]

The independence of vampires opens up a lot of options for borg computing.  Creature logic clocks have so far been impossible without cheating, because of variability in attributes and attribute rust, but vampires open up the possibility for a very practical, low-resolution clock that can be implemented much more simply than traditional mechanical clocks.

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^ is pressure plate (civilians-trigger) in individual burrow


You'll need a vampire in the clock.  Assign him to his own squad, and each month, assign him to defend a different burrow of the clock.  When he reaches the burrow, he will trigger the pressure plate.  This gives you an easy way to automate monthly functions such as opening the gates for caravans-- a monthly schedule is also adequate for regulating the dropping of food and drink into physically isolated burrows, or blocking off paths to work areas or special caches for a grand yearly party.

It's trivial to turn this into a yearly calendar, if you want to make some kind of doomsday countdown.

[Loud Whispers]

What you need:

• Vampire
• Doomsday device

We have an abundance of both.

This shall become gratuitous.

Nice find Nil ;D

[Teneb]

This is actually a very good idea for a doomsday clock. You, sir, are truly worthy of being called dwarfy.

[Psieye]

Hmm, currently the alcohol dependence tag being kept by vampires means they slow down at work, with no way to get them back to speed as they don't actually drink booze. Does that also apply to their movement speed?

[Sutremaine]

Doesn't really matter if the vampire is moving two tiles a month.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Hmm, currently the alcohol dependence tag being kept by vampires means they slow down at work, with no way to get them back to speed as they don't actually drink booze. Does that also apply to their movement speed?

I'm not sure, and plan on testing more if I ever find a good way to see attributes in 34.0x, but watching the movement of a couple of vampires that have gone 2-3 years without a drink, I'm seeing movement rates that are about normal (10-15 ticks/square).  If there is an effect, I don't expect it to be large, so there's no way we're talking about delays larger than a couple hundred ticks in the design above-- chickenfeed when we're talking about months.  Because it uses the game calendar to move the vampire, there's no additive delay.

But certainly, I will continue to observe.

[Girlinhat]

While the speed will decrease, the effect is negligible.  Moving 2 tiles a month, at a rate of ~1500 accounting for low agility and/or sobriety, it'd take 15 turns to move over while a month is 36,000 turns.  The inaccuracy here is abysmal, especially considering that it will actually reset itself monthly.  That 15 turn delay doesn't accumulate over time.  Every month it's nulled out.

This is a viable means to controlling long-term clocks and abstract automation.

+20 to you for your observations, fellow Dwarf.

[Psieye]

Hmm, best to make the design somewhat circular then as otherwise there'd be a (still negligible) longer delay when the year turns over compared to the other month changes.

[Girlinhat]

Well yes.  I mean really, clocks are circles!  Who makes straight clocks?

Dwarves, that's who. 

[ManaUser]

My understanding was that vampires are preternaturally fast, so they deliberately walk slow to blend in. Perhaps at some point their booze deprivation would impair their actual speed below their assumed speed, and then they would slow down. Or not, I don't honestly know.