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[Stelladog]

Hi all. New player and new poster here. I think I might already know the answer here¹, but I thought I'd ask anyway, both to double check, and to introduce myself. Anyway, question is the title: I want my military dwarves to train outdoors so they don't get sunsick, as is often advised, but I don't want them getting negative thoughts from getting rained on all the time. Will a glass floor one z level above work to fix this? If not, any suggestions?

¹ I looked it up found a forum post from 2016 saying glass block floor tiles were non transparent in a discussion about farming, but it seems like that might have been a bug or something that got changed in the 6 years since then

[brushapocalypse]

If I remember correctly, Dwarves will become more cave-adapted the longer they spend in subterranean spaces. This effect is stalled when outside of caves but underneath a constructed roof, but it is only reversed when given a direct line of sight to the sky. Glass is exactly the same as any other material when it comes to construction, so unfortunately it won't be any help in this situation. Fortunately, in the most recent version, stress has been substantially nerfed so your Dwarves will not be driven to madness from being rained on. They can survive a little water from time to time!

[Stelladog]

Ah, okay. In a game as detailed as this I'm honestly really surprised that glass isn't transparent, but I guess it is what it is. At least the stress won't be a major problem. I'm also playing a reclaimed fortress that was full to the brim with corpses when we first arrived (and still has a lot of them laying around tbh) so they're all pretty traumatized anyway.

[Schmaven]

Last time I tried, exposing tiles to the sun marks them as outdoors, so even if they are floored over with brimstone later, they'll still grow surface crops.  I'm not sure though if this method also affects cave adaptation.  Other than seeing Dwarved vomiting or nauseated by the sun, I'm not sure how one would monitor cave adaptation.

[anewaname]

Ah, okay. In a game as detailed as this I'm honestly really surprised that glass isn't transparent, but I guess it is what it is.
...

Dwarfs can construct windows, and creatures can see through those, but a dwarven glass-maker might tell you, "you can have glass thin enough to see through, or strong enough to bear weight, but not both". The technology to create thick+clear glass is beyond the current DF technology window.

[Ziusudra]

Last time I tried, exposing tiles to the sun marks them as outdoors, so even if they are floored over with brimstone later, they'll still grow surface crops.  I'm not sure though if this method also affects cave adaptation.

It's DF, so it's complicated - there's tile flags for Inside/Outside, Dark/Light, and Subterranean/Above Ground.

Which plants can be planted is determined by the Subterranean/Above Ground flag. But for cave adaptation, it increases while in Dark tiles, but decreases in Outside tiles. If in that Outside tile while the sun is shining and their adaptation is high enough, they will get sick. That's all that matters with cave adaptation.

Once a tile has been marked as Light and Above Ground it will always be so. However, building something above it will change it to Inside, meaning it won't reduce cave adaptation, but since it'll still be Light it also won't increase it.

So you can train and quarter military dwarves in roofed over areas that are Light to prevent both cave adaptation and weather exposure.

Ah, okay. In a game as detailed as this I'm honestly really surprised that glass isn't transparent, but I guess it is what it is.

Windows are transparent, but walls and floors aren't - I think of them as being made of thick glass blocks that block most of sunlight (and ninja'ed on this last bit).

[Stelladog]

Dwarfs can construct windows, and creatures can see through those, but a dwarven glass-maker might tell you, "you can have glass thin enough to see through, or strong enough to bear weight, but not both". The technology to create thick+clear glass is beyond the current DF technology window.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Since weather related stress isn't too big of a concern, I think ill just keep the training room unroofed, but its good to know having a roof wouldn't increase adaptation