Print

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

[Vanzetti]

I'm interested to learn about how DF works, as a program. I found interesting articles on Gamasutra on the subject (interviews with Toady), but is there more?

[Sergarr]

You would better ask that in the DFHack thread.

[King Mir]

Are you looking for basic concepts or implementation details?

DFHack basically reverse engineers DF, so looking at that can tell you a lot about the implementation details.

For basic concepts: There were other interviews where Toady talked about how terrain is generated and stuff, so look at older interviews. Look at DFTalk too. But these kinds of questions tend to be buried among unrelated ones.

[TinFoilTopHat]

Modding section may know as well.

[Vanzetti]

Are you looking for basic concepts or implementation details?

DFHack basically reverse engineers DF, so looking at that can tell you a lot about the implementation details.

For basic concepts: There were other interviews where Toady talked about how terrain is generated and stuff, so look at older interviews. Look at DFTalk too. But these kinds of questions tend to be buried among unrelated ones.

I'm interested in more basic concepts, like the logic of the AI that controls the dwarfs...

[Telgin]

A few people have disassembled various parts of the executable to learn more about how things like that work.  Quite a lot is known about some processes, or at least how they worked up through .34.11 since some AI has changed.  I know Qiuetust at least frequently writes up details on some algorithms, such as how the game decides how many bolts of cloth or logs to bring with caravans, or how the random mechanics behind insanity work, and so on.  Unfortunately, Toady hasn't published any details so the best we can come up with is through observation or such disassembly, and since the behavior of units is quite broad depending on what you're asking specifically you'd probably be best off to ask very specific questions and hope someone knows.