Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[dr33mz33]

https://imgur.com/a/T9l5LPl




(sorry, just trying to get the img link properly set, it's the first time I post in this forum)

So I recently began playing this game, and everyone seems to argue in favour of mist generators. But according to the info I gather on DT (this is a normal, standard fort) the  ratio of positive to negative emotions seems about equal, with negative emotions having double the strength (-2 vs +1).

I'm pretty sure I might be missing something here, but given the effort, materials and FPS hit you take from building one, it might be a better idea not to?

Just interested in your opinion

[Salmeuk]

for some dwarves, it is really important to have every bonus possible, since they seem naturally inclined to unhappiness, or are poorly situated to receive bonuses from the rest of the possible positive thought options.

so the mist generator is the most democratic of fortress improvements since it hits just about everyone.

You can make fairly FPS-cheap versions with only a few tiles of water flitting about a series of pumps and tubes.

[Thisfox]

They're good for upping the spirits of every dorf, and thus upping the spirits of those who absolutely need it.

I like putting the waterfall part of the generator in the entryway of taverns and temples, so that everyone goes through them. As an added bonus, when they pass over the floor gratings through the waterfall, they get washed. Mud, blood, Forgotten Beast dust, vomit, and other things collect in pools under the mist generator. Not all dorfs wash, but they're all washed in the mist generator waterfall!

[caveman98]

For practicality, they're not worth it, at least in recent versions. However, alongside bringing happiness to dwarfs, the mist generator also brings happiness to the players as they watch how their own device produces those little shifting mist blocks.

[dr33mz33]

I appreciate the comedy but thus far I don't really see the argument. They could give an unhappy dwarf a good thought, true. Could also give him a bad one. So not seeing it. As to washing dorfs, that might be good, but I use DFHACK cleanall from time to time so possibly not much value there either. FPS hit is a concern too.
Thank you for your answers regardless.

[martinuzz]

You can make fairly FPS-cheap versions with only a few tiles of water flitting about a series of pumps and tubes.

I think just a single pit/pond tile filled by bucket is enough to sustain a mist generator. The single tile of water will go round and round.
No tubes required.

I haven't ever seen a dwarf get an unhappy thought from it, only happy. Haven't set up a mist generator yet in 50.x series though.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I appreciate the comedy but thus far I don't really see the argument. They could give an unhappy dwarf a good thought, true. Could also give him a bad one. So not seeing it. As to washing dorfs, that might be good, but I use DFHACK cleanall from time to time so possibly not much value there either. FPS hit is a concern too.
Thank you for your answers regardless.

What unhappy thoughts does mist produce? Never seen that in all my years of playing.

[Mungrul]

As an added bonus, when they pass over the floor gratings through the waterfall, they get washed.

Wait, WUT?!
This is potentially revolutionary for me!
So instead of statues in each square the water lands in, I can have floor grates? And the water doesn't drop through them, stopping the mist generator?

[dr33mz33]

interesting, DT shows the feeling of rejection but it doesnt show anywhere in the in-game display. Might be a DT  bug?

[Shonai_Dweller]

If it doesn't show in game, then yes, very likely a DT bug.

[Maolagin]

As an added bonus, when they pass over the floor gratings through the waterfall, they get washed.

Wait, WUT?!
This is potentially revolutionary for me!
So instead of statues in each square the water lands in, I can have floor grates? And the water doesn't drop through them, stopping the mist generator?

Think you misunderstood. The four-statue design is for making a highly compact generator with minimal FPS impact, and it only involves two z-levels. Thisfox is talking about a waterfall design, where the water is allowed to fall *through* the level where the folks walk. A floor grate allows fluids to pass through but provides a walkable floor, so the water (along with any washed-off gunk) ends up in a basin on the level below (or farther down if you like). But because the water crosses multiple z-levels, you do have to operate a multi-level pump stack to complete the circuit.

Also worth noting *why* the statues setup preserves FPS. One element is that each pump picks up the stack of water the same tick it's dropped, so the water never has a chance to flow. Perhaps more importantly, because the water is dropped on an impassible tile, it never interrupts anybody's path, forcing an expensive repathing calculation. The floor grates method can be made no-flow, although it's trickier, but the water falling through the corridor will interrupt pathing from time to time unless you very carefully control the size of the water stacks. So in most cases, such a setup will be less FPS-friendly.

[Saiko Kila]

I always set up a mist generator (the one with statues and four pumps) in every game, and so far in v.0.50.x they seem to generate only positive emotions.

Also, if mist works as it used to be, it should eliminate contamination, which could be even more important, under circumstances.

[IronGremlin]

I don't think you can reasonably claim to have a "normal" fortress if happy thoughts and bad thoughts are breaking even with each other.


There are very few bad thoughts that come from things outside of player control - like, getting into arguments I guess is one, and sure sometimes dwarves die but that shouldn't be a source of continuous bad thoughts.


Everything you do for your dwarves gives them an opportunity for a positive thought or at least prevents a negative one, so the overwhelming majority of your dwarves should have a positive thought balance at any given time, with only a few malcontents having majority neutral/negative thoughts.



That having been said - a mist generator isn't better than, say, making sure your dwarves have clothes. Both are optional, both have rather extreme effects on the mood of a fort over time, but neither one is going to make up for your dwarves living in squalor while surrounded by their friends corpses / ghosts.

[Thisfox]

As an added bonus, when they pass over the floor gratings through the waterfall, they get washed.

Wait, WUT?!
This is potentially revolutionary for me!
So instead of statues in each square the water lands in, I can have floor grates? And the water doesn't drop through them, stopping the mist generator?

As someone else said, the things that generate beneficial mists in my fortress are rarely run with pumps. I just have water flowing out of the aquifer, down through some pipes, down through a waterfall with floor gratings so the dorfs walk through it (often referred to as a "dwarfwash") and thus onto statues for a mist generator level or three of elaborate waterfalls, then finally out through the side of the map somewhere at cavern level or below that. No pumps necessary. I include some well cisterns at some point that get continuously refilled (if they are several levels of 7-water deep, the well bucket doesn't pick up any contaminants) and various mist waterfalls in different points of the fort. Fluid dynamics in its various iterations has been a big thing for me in this game for well over a decade.

I don't experience the FPS problems everyone else talks about, or not from waterflow anyhow. Having too many items to track, sure, but a tapped aquifer with waterwheels, waterfalls, mist generators and the like never seems to affect my FPS at all.

[Anandar]

Currently on my 4th or 5th fort since steam release, not much play time so far but yeah not happy with how the first few went, about to use the river on my map to make a cistern above my tavern with a bunch of different spots for mist generation using the diagonal water flow method to reset water pressure so that only the mist generates as it falls through grates I will set up in the floor flowing out the side of the map… the layer it will fall to I had already decided I will not use for things like guild halls housing or any other purposes before deciding to set up mist generation… I have never seen any dwarves get negative thoughts from mist… only being caught in rain something OP mentioned was a concern… as long as it’s mist and not like actual water or rain drenching them the dwarves always get happy thoughts