Actually, this makes me wonder. Has anyone ever made forts specifically designed for !!SCIENTIFIC TESTING!!? If not, I think we should certainly make a start. To have forts designed for specific testing purposes would make the wiki editor's lives so much easier, as anyone could just jump in and test things out without having to wait for a mature, 100 dwarf fort.
The thought came to my head when I realized I really wanted to test out raiding and provide results, but didn't want to have to carefully micromanage my fort up to being large enough to stage consistent attacks. I have no problem with just using DFhack to cheat my way up the ladder for testing, but how many players who would like to test things out and provide useful information would prefer a ready set up fort for experiments?
this is a great idea!
Depends on what the goal of the testing.
With the use of dfhack, a fort can be created with some initial micro management.
Embark points at 9,999, initial picks, axes, food, booze, and hospital supplies.
Dwarf start at 120 or some form of spawn unit.
create items: beds, barrels, buckets, armorstands, weapons and armor.
reveal all
fast dwarf 1 1
dig rooms
build shop
trigger cavern / magma sea
liquids to put magma furnace and forges for moods.
train everyone weapon or armor smithing to level 1 or 2.
teleport interesting subjects to controlled rooms.
send raids.
Missing are dfhack scripts to keep track / dump reports on skill / stat changes per dwarf.