What do you mean divine metal in fortress mode? How will we be able to get our hands on it? Will we be able to get different variations?
delphonso:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8403485#msg8403485There's a new way! You can't work the material yourself but you can get items.
In regards to the new mod loading system, how will total conversions be handled?
voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8403532#msg8403532Yeah, it hasn't changed since voliol mentioned it. The player has to pop the vanilla stuff out of the load order - you can set your mod's conflicts to explicitly excluding vanilla stuff so the player won't be able to run it with vanilla stuff in there, which should help. But there isn't any kind of meta system where it can also set load orders automatically at this time.
Is Technological progress planned? As in Tech being researched and developed over time, be it by player's request or organically during worldgen.
Currently the world has a stagnant tech level which i don't find fun... or !!FUN!! after all who wouldn't love to show our elven friends some new super fast flying sticks or funny explosion sticks!
Inarius:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8404091#msg8404091Yeah, you can do research in the library currently, but almost none of it matters (it does affect writing types available, maybe something else but maybe not.) We have to be careful just taking things away from people, because in the end, that's the core aspect of a game-style research system - gating stuff/complexity/etc. But we're all for being able to play in different technological eras and for having a longer fort be able to branch across eras. It will just take some care and time.
Would it be possible to make the transition a little smoother, by making the elements slide from one tile to the next?
BlueManedHawk:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8404361#msg8404361The engine can't handle it currently, and it's something we'd like to explore once we can upgrade to something more practical. But I think another problem is that people can move very fast, and it might look worse if they slide in that case. But we'll try at some point.
Regarding game dir nomenclature: does "raw" originally stand for "Rules As Written"? Or is the folder called raw in the sense that it contains "raw data"?
Also, what are "tokens", "flags" and "tags" in your own words? Are the three terms synonymous w/ each other? They are often used interchangeably by mostly everyone here. I ask b/c when you use the terms in your posts, you appear to use tag and flag interchangeably, but usually use token in a different sense.
From what I understand you would not call AMPHIBIOUS or LARGE_PREDATOR tokens, but call them tags (specifically creature tags). In most definitions, a token is an instance of a type of object, right? So DOG is a token, and CREATURE is the type; DOG would be an instance of CREATURE. Or BLUEBERRY is a token of the object type PLANT, SKIN_TEMPLATE is a token of the object type MATERIAL_TEMPLATE (or the object type TISSUE_TEMPLATE, depending on context). FLUX is a token of REACTION_CLASS, ANGER is a token of PERSONALITY, GLACIER is a token of BIOME, etc. But PHYS_ATT_RANGE wouldn't be called a token b/c it isn't an object itself... I hope I didn't contradict myself.
Mr Crabman:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8404473#msg8404473Silverwing235:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8404509#msg8404509Putnam:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8404965#msg8404965Doorkeeper (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8405083#msg8405083Yeah, I was just thinking of "raw data".
Don't have anything to add to the responses regarding tokens/tags - I just wasn't careful with the words, and don't know the correct terms. I try, and sometimes fail, to reserve flag for specific bits in objects that indicate some property, like the flag that says whether a creature is a ghost or not.
Do you have any idea what the new release number will be? Currently, it's 0.47.05. Are we looking at another 0.4x.00 release, or are we going to be hitting or even exceeding the 0.5x.00 milestone?
I still have to calculate it out according to the old system. Tentatively 50. Without the zero in front since Steam may have issues flagging us, and we're certainly not unfinished in the sense of an early access title.
1. The fantasy landscape has changed a whole lot ever since DF was released. Do you still see the game as a "generic fantasy simulator" or something that has its own sort of twist on the fantasy genre now?
2. Speaking of fantasy, have you been reading/watching/playing anything fantasy related? If so, does your lectures/watchings/playthroughs give you inspiration for future DF content?
3. Sometimes I look at DF's beastiary and wonder why was this or that animal/fantasy creature was added. What exactly qualifies as a good candidate for a new addition to the game's roster of creatures to you?
1. It's still reasonably generic, but it couldn't avoid developing some of it's own character. Hopefully the magic release will shake that up somewhat. I'd be happier to cover more ground.
2. Been watching the new Lotr show, feels like an obligation to watch dwarfy material ha ha. Read the Southern Reach trilogy and Borne not long ago. Although another Le Carre and all the O'Brian sailing books relate a little more to planned development.
3. Having a funny picture in our little notebook. We've been remiss in doing many special attacks or special behaviors.
Are there any plans to revise the list of critters that can be Tamed and War-Trained before Steam? For example; Grizzly Bear has both, Black Bear has neither. Dragons can be war-trained, but are born Adult and so never fully Tamed in the first place.
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406155#msg8406155Yeah, it's hard to make a lot more sweeping changes, but certainly having a bit more war training availale would be game-worthy at least. Getting a dragon on nest box is another matter.
Will the Myth and Magic Release have gods of all categories (e.g. Gods of War, Sea, Lust etc.) and with all the respective magics that come with those titles?
Like will the physical manifestation of say a God Of Nature cause various magical creatures to come existence, magical forests to be made, and increase the number of Megabeasts?
Thanks for the quick reply but I got to ask, what powers would a God of Love/Lust even have? I am having a hard time figuring out what impacts they would have on the world that is significant but stays PG-13.
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406155#msg8406155Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406419#msg8406419BlackAion (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406449#msg8406449PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406491#msg8406491BlackAion (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406559#msg8406559IndigoFenix:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8409078#msg8409078BlackAion (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8410965#msg841096I don't know what kind of coverage we'll get at first, since there are a lot of spheres. But the discussion here is the general idea. We have various ideas jotted down - love/lust etc. gods are common in the myths of the world and the stories associated to them are pretty straightforward sometimes! They could kindle things between characters, etc. Sometimes this causes trouble all by itself. It doesn't always need to be broad world or empire level frequency effects - meddling can be very specific.
1.Will we ever get to see the procedural tavern games?
2.During the Premium gameplay livestream I saw an option called "Economy: Normal/Hard". What does that mean?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8406662#msg84066621. Don't have anything to add to PatrikLundell's reply there. We didn't get to them when we added taverns, and looping back around has traditionally taken time.
2. It sets the triggers for baron etc. to be much higher. It's a little early to really dig in on that, but we're getting started on stuff like that, anyway.
Currently, dwarves can embark at any place in the world (barring mountains, water) regardless of how difficult or dangerous the travel there would be. Will this ever change, or will the dwarves always be able to set up a fort in the middle of an evil biome, for the sake of player freedom?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8407282#msg8407282In addition to what PatrikLundell said about start scenarios and the difficulty of getting to where you are, another element might be the (optional) journey to the location. This is something we've tossed about for years and years, and adventure mode is only slowly catching up, but it would be cool to have the option to bring your group and their starting goods all the way to where you are going. But I think this would be really rough on new players and also people that just don't want to deal with it, and they should just get to splort wherever. At some midway point, it could sim a few troubles that happen on the way and incorporate them into the start scenario.
What kind of changes are planned for adventure mode? By which i mean: what shortcomings do you think it has, and what are your ideas for solving said problems
(the UI is the obvious one) but im hoping for some minor new mechanics to address things, i really like the idea of the irritation mechanic for instance. Super interested in what he has to say
I mean, it's pretty terrible on almost every RPG metric. Some of this is good/different, but a lot of it is not. The villains release adventure mode portion which we delayed was part of the plan to fix it, the army and magic stuff are more. A lot of the upcoming development (the list before Premium came around) is directed at finding the balance between sim and reclaiming some of the more traditional bits in a sim-friendly form.
But if you mean just for the initial reintroduction of adventure mode after launch, we're still working it out. As you say, every menu is going to be redone anyway so we're going to be rethinking them all. In practice, on the dwarf side, a lot of the well-received changes happened kind of suddenly, as we were muddling along, and I expect this will be similar. There's a tension between making small improvements and just doing the villain stuff, since adventure mode could really use some serious improvement and isn't exactly ready to be thrown out to a large audience as an "rpg" in any way. But I think it's also harmful to delay it too long, since it's sitting right there and there are cool parts about it already.
Quick question, how many different tiles are there for the same thing? For instance are there three different tiles for an unsmoothed stone floor or is there only one tile (in other words, piece of art work).
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8408946#msg8408946Yeah, it's kind of all over the place. For instance, you have five variants for a central blood spatter tile (surrounded by blood on all sides), and four for isolated smaller spatter, but only one for the edges currently. Several of the floors have 4 variants, but many don't. A lot of it is just down to time. Variants are cheap memory-and-code-wise, but while the artists are still finishing up required art we can't have them do a bunch of variants as well. I expect this is something where we'll be increasing the capacity as we go, and also increasing the general sorts of variants (larger 1x2 2x2 tiles etc.) to break up some of the larger repetition patterns.
Why are dwarves unable to wield melee and ranged weapons simultaneously (as they are meant to function at least) they can carry both, and will train and fight with their melee weapons just fine, but the second a fight starts or you set them to train their ranged skills, they drop all of their picked up ammunition and get stuck in a loop trying to pick it up again (or ignore it to fight their target and come back) are they just not meant to be able to, or is it a bug.
Do you foresee any problems with the future of the fortress and similar community centric practices given the presumably enlarged community?
It's just not supported, and should be disallowed until it is.
Hard to say! Forum could crash on launch day if a zillion people sign up, but since forums aren't as common these days, there might only be a manageable influx, and more people will end up on reddit and the kitfox discord etc., or stay on the steam forums. I have absolutely no sense of where forum traffic will be on that spectrum, and I can't really think of any steps I should be taking now to mitigate it, though I'm sure there are some. The forum can certainly handle more people than are currently here, though not lots and lots and lots more. Once we got a server upgrade some while back the gateway-type crashes haven't been happening anymore, and I'm not sure it needs another upgrade. We do have some room for more upgrades to handle the influx.
According to the latest blogpost we will be able to "append a few lines to existing entries". If I understand this right it should also be possible to remove or alter most tokens by having these new tokens be creature variation tokens (CV_REMOVE_TAG and CV_CONVERT_TAG). Is this right?
And if it is, is there some way to do this for objects other than creatures, since the current creature variations only work on those? And is there a way of changing what creature variations have been assigned at an earlier stage, e.g. changing SLUG_MAN to use ANIMAL_PERSON instead of ANIMAL_PERSON_LEGLESS?
Yeah, that's correct - I didn't mention creature variations since variations don't yet exist for the other objects. I'd like to generalize the variation concept (or however it goes) but there's just not going to be time on the first pass. The ability to cut should go a long way at least for targeted mods that want to alter and replace non-creature entries. I'm not sure SELECT_X will have much use beyond creatures since appending isn't too too useful on its own, but it'll be there for when the variations arrive.
Variations are applied as they are loaded, so you can't alter existing ones. You'd have to apply an additional variation or delete the slug man and replace it. I'm not sure if we should do several load passes or not - I think that starts to get really messy, but maybe there's some clear solution. Right now there's just the load/meta pass (variations + cut + select + log at equal priority, done in the order encountered), and the actual processing. Ideally people probably want to script the passes as well. Presumably going over to an actual scripting language provides solutions for these problems, at least somewhat.
Do you know if what you have done for Fortress will help to convert Adventure mode to new UI and graphical mode ? And which part will remain ?
Oh definitely. We have a lot of reusable UI art, and stuff like code for scrollbars etc. is all relevant as well. But there is still a lot of interface that just needs to be tackled
(wrestling, conversations, movement, etc. etc.) and the fort stuff doesn't really inform that at all, aside from building some general experience.
Not sure what you mean by the part and the remaining.
Practicality of playing on a 16-16 map. With all the code updates for the big release as well as future updates, will the game ever be able to be played on a full 16-16 map? It would be a unique challenge making minecarts much more necessary. It is something I would really like to do.
Su:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8412811#msg8412811voliol:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8412814#msg8412814PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8412984#msg8412984Yeah, that's just really really big, especially if you're also asking for 150 elevation levels with all of the active underground life etc etc.
We were hoping to be able to do flat ones after the map rewrite, so you could combine it with the army stuff to have a more full-scale battle over a large field, possibly on a separate camera while your fort is loaded. Even this might be wishful thinking if there's a lot of pathing, but memory wise, on a perfectly flat map that's only the equivalent of 16 more Z levels in a 4x4 fort or something like that. But qualifying loads based on map flatness is also pretty weird. It's going to be interesting to see what goes in and what doesn't.
The Dwarf Fortress year consists of 12 equal Months... But there are actually precisely 13 Lunar Cycles in each year. Is there any particular reason why these numbers don't match?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8412984#msg8412984Yeah, it's definitely a little weird. I just wanted the seasons to divide evenly, and I didn't want the moon to always be full on the same numeric day, but there are several other ways to do that.
Will certain materials be grouped together as the same color for simplicity just like in the f2p Dwarf Fortress game? (i.e. Andesite, Basalt, Chromite, Claystone, Diorite, Gabbro, Graphite, Hornblende, Ilmenite, Jet, Mica, Pyrolusite, Rhyolite, Shale, and Slate all being Dark Gray in appearance.)
If not, will there be a specific color for ever possible construction material?
71 types of wood (including "normal" and "wagon")
12 non-economic stones (Shale, Granite, Gneiss, etc.)
13 economic stones (Marble, Obsidian, etc.)
40 "other" stones (Stones found within deposits of other stones. i.e. "Periclase" veins are sometimes found in Marble layers.)
17 ores (Native metals and minerals like Galena)
25 types of metal (pure and alloys)
3 types of glass (green, clear, crystal)
3 types of ceramic bricks (earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain)
6 bars (Ash, Charcoal, Coke, Pearlash, Potash, and Soap)
190 total colors for constructed materials?
If every material gets its own color, will all 65 types of boulders have different colors to distinguish them from their brick counter parts? (eco, non-eco, and "other" stone)
Will there be variations in the final product beyond just color?
I know that roads made with boulders are given the "rough" modifier, while roads made with cut stone are not. Will that "rough" modifier be applied visually?
Will there be a visual difference between the materials I use in the construction (i.e. Wood, Stone, Ore, and Brick) or will they all follow the same design and just palette swap?
Will objects like wheelbarrows and minecarts also have varying color palettes, or will this super cool feature be limited to construction?
Bonus Round:
Will you finally be implementing Pearls, coral, and Amber into the game?
It uses the solid state colors from the raws. Each raw color is mapped to a palette. So several stone/wood products look the same, but there's some variety. Boulder and brick workshops etc. of the same material look the same. Some furniture and constructed floors etc. show different tiles entirely between wood/stone/metal/glass, but that's also not universal. Many items (but not all) use the raw color of the material and the associated palette. There are a few variations in products, but it's not common.
There's room to improve this of course, but it takes time to draw, and we haven't supported stuff we haven't drawn generally, since that also takes time.
No plans to add those materials for the release. No idea when anything is happening there.
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3137928 times)