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[Shonai_Dweller]

The stockpiles look nice enough in this picture, but do they work underground? Most of the time that's where they'll be. Can we see what a dug out room divided into four or five stockpiles looks like? Just wondering if the fence and sign look right when you run it against the rock wall.

[Superdorf]

I'd wonder how those piles look for something like this



where the whole floor is covered in stockpile.

[jecowa]

I'd wonder how those piles look for something like this



where the whole floor is covered in stockpile.

And where there's staircases in the middle of the stockpile.

[Pillbo]

The procgen night creatures are looking good! Though I think these and the blind cave ogre both have a bit of a funny stance. Their hips look kind of wide and maybe it's the knee being high on the leg and the bend exaggerated. It kind of reminds me of a horse standing on it's back legs.

It's really hard to tell if you don't zoom in a bunch, but I moved the right leg on the top creature in a couple pixels. I think it looks a little better that way.

[Dishmab]

Loving the sprites so far. cant wait to see a forgotten beast made of gem!

[Inarius]

I currently have a blue scaly plesiosaur in my caverns. I would love to see it !

[vettlingr]

Okay, I'll bite. First of all, this looks great. I get you are just using 2 frames, which is why I think you did a very good job on these.
Seems to me you used the right key frames for the mechanisms, though the windmill needs more frames to be more readable.

I suppose it is a weatherquern you were going for? The sprite does some justice showing it, though I think they have sail cloth applied to them when they are in use, otherwise the blades don't catch the wind. Also, horizontal transfer of power for windmills are a gameplay change right?


Tree shadows are a great addition. Im wondering if they are supposed to overlap. keeping it in would somehow make thick forests much darker, I'm pretty sure I like that. Really cool to see all of this coming together. As for stockpiles, I played around with it some more by myself, and I like the flat ground borders better than the rods and strings. It looks better when inside, though the poles and ropes looks way better outside. It is of no big matter to me since I will mostly port and play with my own tileset exclusively haha.

Edit: I also like dwarven things being made mostly out of stone, though the game doesn't really use any way do discern what stockpile tiles are made of


"There are a ton of tiles to reference, and the edges and layering are a little tricky."
I'm guessing the tiles are referenced the same way the trees and minetracks are referenced in d_init right now? not sure though, The system is probably way expandedd upon.

Other than that, I'm not going to give any further suggestions, this seems to be running along nicely.
I'll stand by if you guys need a geologist consultant when making the minerals and walls.

[Starver]

Okay, I'll bite. First of all, this looks great. I get you are just using 2 frames, which is why I think you did a very good job on these.
Seems to me you used the right key frames for the mechanisms, though the windmill needs more frames to be more readable.

Two frames is a direct take-off from vanilla (IIRC, it's been yonks since I've built a mill, what with windlessness often being apparent only after my carefully planned windfarm powertrain gets topped off by the first set of sails). I understand as not some weird bireciprocal iston arrangement. But perhaps I agree that three frames (from overhead: straight out with 1 tile extension both ways; ~0.8 + 0.5 (overlaid on a further shaded 0.3ish) extensions; 0.5(+0.3) + ~0.8 extensions the other way) could give a (four-blade, in this case) mill a better 'rotation' animation.

I suppose it is a weatherquern you were going for? The sprite does some justice showing it, though I think they have sail cloth applied to them when they are in use, otherwise the blades don't catch the wind. Also, horizontal transfer of power for windmills are a gameplay change right?

Even unclothed, a mill can catch enough wind from bare woodwork to turn (unrestrained) if it's any good. I think I'd have suggested more 'feathering' that is visibly different on up-stroke from downward, but that doubles the image resources we need (above my above 12^th-turn interval ideas) when cycling outward sprites, unless you can suggest it with a /-orientated mid-tile representation of the overtopping blade.

(The 'horizontal transfer' I take to be from the mill being atop a hole-centred floor astride a 9x9 set of gears, the way they peep out in all cardinal directions, though I've never tried that. Usually I set my mills atop 8 border walls with power down at least two verticals from the centre, in the days before climbing was an issue, to make them unattractive/impermeable to building destroyers and feed energy underground. If it's a monolothic windmill structure, the power transfer is done in a way I never even tried.)

[Fleeting Frames]

Nah, you can see how the gears have wood ends hanging off into air, while windmill doesn't have those ends.

Also 9 gear assemblies would cost more power than windmill would produce, so good reason to not see them

[Proudbucket]

I'd suggest having dwarven windmills work horizontally like helicopter fans. That should provide better top down readability.
When I first saw the image I was first wondering at what was I looking at.

[Starver]

Nah, you can see how the gears have wood ends hanging off into air, while windmill doesn't have those ends.

Also 9 gear assemblies would cost more power than windmill would produce, so good reason to not see them

You're right (x2). Should have zoomed in. I was more worried about the support issue[1] which I wasn't sure 3x3 gears would do properly.

@Proudbucket: Maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine sort of thing. Not so much a 1400s-era possibility, of course, which might mean executive veto on that visualisation.


[1] Actually, I forgot a detail about my old windmill design. Walls built 3x4 edging, on ground, a corner left until last for access. In the 1x2 inner one lever-switched gear above a channel down into the place I needed powered below, atop the prebuilt v-axle or maybe pump, the second gear below the hole in the floor above the mill transmits through. Temporary ramp up against that wall for Z+1 construction, then taken away afterwards.

[sanchezman]

Not so much a 1400s-era possibility, of course, which might mean executive veto on that visualisation.

Actually, 8th century CE Persia had horizontal windmills.


They're called Panemone windmills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panemone_windmill

Given that windmills in the game transfer power downward through the central tile, this design would make a lot of sense visually.

[Starver]

The one in your image seems to require a prevailing wind to allow wind-shielding walls like that. Wouldn't be too much different from the (visually) unidirectional mills currently depicted in DF, though I've always felt that to be a depictive compromise to 'reality'.

The Wiki page top diagram needs work (depicting a flexing/backstopped vane movement that's omnidirectional). Maybe I'll have a punt at that myself later. The clattering version is going to be so noisy (I'm now imagining Kill Bill's snow-garden background sounds on steroids and amphetamines!) so I'd favour the "flapping sail" version that uses the billowing of the cloth on atangential/aradial frames to effect the loss of symmetry, except for the building materials mismatch (not that this is so strict in DF lore, at the best of times).

It would be really nice to imagine wing-profile blades (formed from shaping the supplied logs - ignoring the unshaping seemingly undertaken every time any construction is dissasembled) for aesthetics, though that's definitely an anachronism (or not, given quantum-entangled levers/pressure-plates spookily acting at a distance).


Yes, I do like the verticality of axle, even if historically we seem to have managed to work with the other type in various designs (postmill, capmill, etc) without too many issues. But that's above my paygrade.

[Proudbucket]

What I meant was something like this:

[Starver]

That just makes me think of an updraft generator (or downdraft, I suppose).