Concerning internationalization:
Have you heard of GNU Gettext. From what I can tell it's included in the GNU standard C library and provides a mechanism whereby the developer (primarily by using functions that are basically extended versions of printf, sprintf, et.al.) adds support for internationalization, and then the actual work of translation can be done by someone else* (with translation packs also being able to be distributed separately).
*technically, if the developer has added support for internationalization properly, the translators don't have to coordinate with the developer (or even let the developer know what they are doing). This leads to the possibility of community supported translation in which someone in the forums just up and decides to start a translation. From this point translations essentially become another form of modding (and could possibly have their own sub-forum under "DF Modding").
Anyways, that's my understanding from skimming through the Gettext section of the Glibc info file. I could, of course, be wrong about some/all of the above.
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195817#msg8195817A_Curious_Cat (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195867#msg8195867Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195887#msg8195887A_Curious_Cat (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195906#msg8195906Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195913#msg8195913voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8195952#msg8195952Yeah, it's just not set up that way. Pieces of strings get built up in a variety of ways all over the place. So far it seems like the only way we can get localization done is to bring people on board and figure out what sort of coding would need to happen.
Regarding something like the semi-procedural dragon-generating system that's been discussed as a potential thing that could happen in the future, will that be available in the raws for modders?
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8196344#msg8196344Yeah, when we've brought that up as a potential idea, the purpose was two-fold. (1) having the ability for procgen creatures to follow tighter rails so that the result would in this case always be draconic in some sense, (2) not hide anything in code at all. Dragons are out in the raw files, and the plan was to add to that definition (and through the use of various helper raw definitions as usual), rather than lean directly on any of the non-txt forgotten beast etc. code. This of course makes it less flexible and more difficult, and as we see, it hasn't happened. But that's still the plan. The myth/magic release is almost certainly going to have something to say about dragons, and lots to say about procedural creatures, and lots of new moddability, and the thing that's still unclear is whether exactly this thing happens, or something else. All of the centaur/chimera problems are related, and presumably some framework change can scoop up a lot of this in one go.
When will be update 47.05?
Eric Blank:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8196489#msg8196489PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8196672#msg8196672clinodev:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8196704#msg8196704PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8196732#msg8196732etc. (lots more posts about release date/contracts/branches)
Yeah, since the release window for the Premium release is indeed not this year or even early next year (as people have noted, lots of screens, lots to do, Steam Workshop etc.), I still have a hope to do a fixer-upper release for the currently released 47.04, because the main issues are going to need to be patched up before the Premium release anyway, whether that's new bugs or stress issues or longstanding bugs or what have you. The complication has been that I need to be working on the Premium release full-time, as the work with the artists is collaborative and I am often the blocker, needing to code their stuff up, and it's hard to take a whole big chunk of time away from that.
in every demonstration i've seen of the new guis, all the interactions have been made with the mouse. currently, i play with the mouse completely disabled via the init files - will the new graphical interfaces [which are looking very very pretty, by the way!] be usable with just my keyboard?
DG:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8197475#msg8197475Yeah, the situation remains unchanged from my reply to DG. The plan is to support a non-mouse approach. There are some complications to this, but it seems feasible given that DF has managed it (in whatever inglorious fashion) to this point. Seems likely we'll just need to support multiple interface setups now, for the numpadless WASD people, to the mouseless-by-choice. As we mentioned previously, the new look of the menus/etc. in Classic will need to be aligned with whatever's going on in Premium, since I can't maintain two entirely separate interfaces, but that can be made keyboard compatible. I still have all the old cursor code, etc., and that may just have to be something that's turned on in an option, especially for dragging out rectangles and so forth where it doesn't align with the new paradigm very well.
Since the UI is getting a touch up (and by extension the menu) are you planning on moving settings currently found in init.txt and d_init.txt into a "settings" menu so they can be tweaked in-game(if changes to the settings in-game is even possible)?
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8198940#msg8198940Yeah, a lot of them are easy to move over to a new menu without issues, especially d_init stuff. A few init.txt things might require a restart or killing and bringing the window back or whatever, and I'll see what I can do there. We already have the fullscreen button so imagine most of it is doable.
Will the Itch.io/Steam version of Dwarf Fortress include a way for players to see individual dwarves' stress levels? The happiness counter that is a part of DFHack is incredibly useful to see fortress wide how the stress situation is. So I am very happy to see that in the Autumn Dev Update video 
I find it also very helpful to be able to see not just how many dwarves are unhappy, but which ones are at what level of unhappiness so I can spoil them with extra furniture made from their favorite stone, arrange a stockpile in their room of their favorite food and drink, misting them with waterfalls, etc., and cheer them up back from the precipice of insanity.
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8200418#msg8200418Schmaven (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8200486#msg8200486voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8200510#msg8200510Schmaven (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8200531#msg8200531Yeah, we'd been considering how to do this - the information at the level of the smiley faces is already available in the individual v-p-z paragraphs, and aggregating that somewhere seems like a nice way to remove some player busywork. Whether that's some manager-enabled popup or whatever, like the health stuff, remains to be seen. Seems likely it would turn out that way given how everything else currently works, and it doesn't seem like an unfair or weird amount of information given how thorough the doctors are and how much v-p-z already exposes, though it would perhaps be a little odd if the game aggregated, like, favorite stones by count or something, as if a very specific census/survey had been conducted.
1) Relating to a question in the recent DF talk but maybe less severe: Will there be any way to let Goblins or other non-undead non-drinkers enjoy some food and booze just to sate their intemperance while they live at the fort?
2) If you make enough sweet, sweet, steam money will you keep the graphics artists working on to expand the graphics that make it into the steam release? For example making more complicated animal people images, more available parts for generated creatures, or making cool effects for magic?
3) You talked about improving military commands in the near future, as well as enemy armies doing things like building humiliating statues at your fort. Do you have any plans for armies to show up only planning to capture the single well-armed squad you send out to face them? How about having night trolls showing up to fulfill their kidnapping desires?
1) Yeah, visitors don't technically get hungry or thirsty if I remember, though they have some notion of needs. I'm far enough away from the first release there that I don't remember who gets served drinks or if the tavern keeper does anything properly. It was part of the original plan back when we were going to do recipes to make all of them into food critics basically, since the tavern has a reputation attached to it and they do go off and tell people about it. I suppose we may have to wait that long, especially for food stuff, getting back the proc recipe stuff. No idea when that happens.
2) There will need to be art for all of the new stuff for sure, and it seems inevitable that the old stuff will receive improvements as well, and certainly we'd love to keep the artists on for as long as they are available. It remains to be seen what the workflow looks like as we move over to a new features mode.
3) Ha ha, I hadn't thought about specific revenges like that. Certainly the troll thing has come up before - we didn't want to do that before you could launch a rescue mission, but now that we have the 'c' screen and rescue missions, I suppose it's only a matter of time.
I have a small question. Will part of the future military/armies update also include things like rebalancing bows and crossbows? Fixing how slow they are, fixing how dwarves will run up and start smashing enemies with their crossbows unless they have no direct path to them, and other such quirks. Okay, two questions. Would this also include making Throwing less ridiculous?
Combat stuff is on the table for the siege improvements especially, where we'll be seeing the most changes to local (rather than on-map) fighting, but that's a pretty broad category. So we haven't committed to ranged weapon/projectile changes particularly. We'll have to see what we settle on when we actually get a chance to come around and prepare a more detailed list of army/siege features, but I don't expect to get a chance to look at them until the graphical release is much further along and we figure out how the villains-army stuff is going to be ordered (now that the villain release has been broken in half, it may make more sense to interleave it with the army stuff, or it may still make sense to do all the delayed villains stuff first, depending on what gets us faster development.)
So far, there's only one type of attack and it is only per one creature, AFAIK. Caves of Qud has swipes, jabs, hook-and-grabs, dismembering, bloodletting etc. Shooting enemies with crossbows also may have variations - pinning, blinding, kicking back, suppressing return fire, etc. Would something like this be present in DF? Would you make such "abilities" tied to level of weapon mastery or would it be some other skill tree of sorts?
voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8201866#msg8201866madpathmoth:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8201867#msg8201867ror6ax (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8202179#msg8202179delphonso:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8202195#msg8202195etc.
So yeah, as people mentioned in the replies, we did have quite a bit already hidden in the attack menu, which answered the question for the most part. Also, our overall plan was to do the martial arts/combat styles stuff which had kind of a proto version in the original Armok, and that would in some sense be like a skill tree, though properly mushy and complicated in the DF fashion. When we see that is anybody's guess - in one alternate future, we see parts of it with the upcoming army stuff, on a lark, and in another possible future, it happens well after the myth/magic/culture/embark/boats/economy stuff.
Will next release contains more about night creatures?
Nope, aside from whatever fixes we need for tavern necromancers etc. We just added quite a bit to them, so we'll need to focus elsewhere for a time. Not that they don't keep drawing us back, but we must be disciplined, ha ha.
How will the stockpile size selector work when you have multiple sized people in your fortress?
I want true multicultural forts.
"This pile has been set to accept only bronze armor, for example. Not just that, but it'll only accept bronze armor which can be worn by dwarves. If the armor with the X at the top is turned on, it would also accept bronze armor for humans, which might show up in an invasion. This allows you to separate out junk, for example, so you can melt it down more easily. Note also that you can rule objects in and out by type, by quality, and so on."
I like the idea of being able to separate out junk for easier melting / trading away. Worn clothing also tends to accumulate fairly quickly.
What other criteria might be available to sort items by in stockpiles?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8203697#msg8203697PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8206145#msg8206145It's the same as it was up to this point. I've just taken the existing stockpile interface and made it filterable and alphabetized it. So the usable/unusable option is just the same one as before, and it always points to the critter attached to your civilization. Expanding forts/civs out to truly support multiple creature types is a bigger project than I can take on now.
Do you have any plans to take s second pass at trees and tree growth? It occurs to me that DF vanilla elves are supposed to have tree shaping magic, so M&M would be an opportunity to look at plants. I'm not saying the way trees grow is bad- it's a world of improvement over the prior 1 tile trees- but the way they burst out of the ground suddenly fully formed, and die in a puff of logs, could use a little more granularity, and it would be nice if dwarves could plant trees or suppress tree growth. Would the map rewrite help with this, for instance, making it possible to rotate felled trees through a horizontal dimension, or to render arbitrarily large or ambulatory trees (like a World Tree or Treant?)
Sorry if this comes across suggesty, I was just wondering if it might be in the cards.
It's possible - certainly world trees and such are on the radar and already exist in the myth prototype, so could very well be in the first myth/magic/map release. The other stuff, I'm not so sure - at some point in the distant pass, I wanted to have fallen trees be multitile, but that opens up a variety of issues that don't feel super important to tackle now. It seems very hard to do, because multitile grid issues are always a nightmare (turning etc.), but it would be funny to have flumes at some point. But rounding corners seems hard to get right.
It's also not too terrible for the saplings to then become a blocking tile - that has to happen at some point, and it'll always be a little jarring. Even if saplings first became non-blocking multitile objects, say, there would still be an instant where they become thick, and that's just going to be jarring. Although during the art work on trees it's already come up at least once, ha ha, since it is quite a leap right now - if I remember, we even have a few extra sapling pictures prepared which may go in, though that might not get us to multitile saplings.
1. With all of the creation myth features being planned, are apocalypses and the end of the world something you have considered adding? If so, how do you envision them working? Would they just end the game or would they be something you can play during or even after?
2. Will the map rewrite allow biomes to change during world gen, either through natural processes or through some kind of artificial or magical means?
Manveru Taurënér:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8205958#msg8205958PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8205962#msg8205962voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8205984#msg8205984I think the three responses linked here cover everything We already have rains of goblin blood, so maybe you'd just be watching the unusual weather reports at first. But in general, we'd be empowered by whatever old/new regional etc. magic effects we have to just have things go downhill, and we'd also have access to creatures and deities and all manner of things. They could have a schedule of horrors, be preventable, or whatever. I think it would definitely err on the side of non-instantaneous death. Playable apocalypses are more fun, certainly. But there may be room for a kind of "we are living in the last year of the world" vibe where nothing technically changes but everybody knows this is it, and then the world just sort of vanishes, but the period beforehand is the playable apocalypse of sorts, even without any ongoing changes, since the known future vanishment would reframe all that exists in the new terms. Seems like there might need to be player buy-in on this though, either at worldgen or through player triggering/abject failure to prevent.
And biome changes are straightforward in the sense of changing the rainfall/etc. values, but difficult in terms of the effects on plant and animal life and industry, etc., so we're hoping to ease that along in any way we can, but mostly it involves putting in some work on the regional boundaries or in places where, say, a desert suddenly replaces a forest. But regional change is a key feature and will be in on the first pass.
Does are any plans of making trade depots an "area" like worshops in the future?
This got me thinking, once economy is started again, a single trade depot would work? What about having several "depots" at once, each dedicated to specific goods or trade partners, different sizes and whatnot. Or having a single huge market area for everyone, external an internal traders?
Sorry if it derived towards a suggestion, the main question is still adecuate I think.
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8206295#msg8206295LordBaal (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8206323#msg8206323We hadn't settled on specifics, but way back with the caravan arc, our plan was to move over to something more like a traditional fair cycle. Since merchants get trapped in the fort time bubble and stay for a whole season, that approach made more sense. This would involve you setting up a whole fairgrounds type area (though a more dwarven variant of course, and quite likely underground), and various merchants could show up and there'd be a number of new buildings/zones to support this. This area could also double as a market for all of your attached settlements at other times of year. And yeah, some of the other ideas about trade included specific arrangements and so forth, in which case you'd just need to be able to receive and deliver prearranged goods, whether that involves a stockpile or something like the old depot.
So, yeah, overall the weird 5x5 depot building is one of the ones that stuck around the longest as we've aborted various attempts at redoing aspects of the economy, and hopefully we'll see it turn into something better when we hit the next viable change point.
About what percent of creatures do you have sprites for so far?
As I recollect, we need the giant variants (these are underway), and we also need to finish the other major layered ones like dwarves (so humans, elves, goblins, kobolds.) We also have to do all of the procedural ones aside from night trolls (which are done.) But all of the regular/fantasy critters are done, and we have every animal person as well, though those may be tweaked for equipment etc. purposes.
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3135934 times)