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Author Topic: Clever ways of using a utility  (Read 507 times)

Kagus

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Clever ways of using a utility
« on: May 12, 2008, 01:50:00 am »
Howdy folks.  Since I'm someone who fancies himself a storyteller (ha ha), I've come to know and love the various "cheat" utilities that have been so graciously provided by our resident hacker community.  Most of the uses for these utilities are pretty straightforward (although gatting them to actually fulfill those uses is another matter...), but there are some fun tricks that come from experimentation.  This thread is here to try and share as many handy, useful, or just plain cool ways of using your favorite cheat-machine.

I recently settled on a temperate map, which apparently gets hot enough during the summer to broil all the local ponds.  Water isn't a problem thanks to the aquifer a few levels down, but it just bothers me having all these empty ponds lying about.

Well, I found out something cool.  Using Tweak (thanks Rick), I "tweaked" a single wall tile in one of the ponds and turned it into an aquifer.  Lo and behold, lifegiving water poured out and filled the pond up again.  My aquifer-ponds are now fighting a constant battle against the heat, but now at least they're on the winning side.

Now, if only there was a way I could get one of these damned groundhogs into that cage trap I set up in the perfect spot.  I swear, one of those things went up and sniffed it before turning around and going back the other way...


If you've got tricks, techniques, or just helpful tips for working these programs, spread the wealth.

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Deon

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Re: Clever ways of using a utility
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2008, 02:48:00 am »
I usually use them to tweak the dorfs' names and genders at the start if I want my own story.
Also once I hurt the immigrant hunter's leg but gave him a tame war bear cup, and was imaging that he killed a bear with his hand axe but found its cup so he took it with him to raise and train.
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Keizo

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Re: Clever ways of using a utility
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2008, 02:53:00 pm »
Yeah, the whole broiling ponds into permanent muddy pits always bugged me. Genius solution though, I'm definitely going to have to steal that.
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Tahin

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Re: Clever ways of using a utility
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2008, 11:45:00 am »
I've been trying to find a mod that will make the expedition-leader/mayor changeable. Not sure how it could be done, or how elegantly, but it's become increasingly difficult to control who gets "elected" with the automatic starting social skills.
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Arkose

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Re: Clever ways of using a utility
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2008, 07:32:00 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by Tahin:
<STRONG>I've been trying to find a mod that will make the expedition-leader/mayor changeable. Not sure how it could be done, or how elegantly, but it's become increasingly difficult to control who gets "elected" with the automatic starting social skills.</STRONG>

Start out with each dwarf having no skills except for your chosen expedition-leader, who has only social skills. Then use a skill-setting utility to set everyone's skill levels to the amounts that you would have had if you had set their skill levels normally.

Is there a utility to edit dwarf preferences yet? I'd often like to temporarily give my engravers an obsession with whatever it is I want to decorate a room with; a variant on possessed dwarves with the room as their artifact, essentially.

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