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Author Topic: Inventions  (Read 2669 times)

Kidiri

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Re: Inventions
« Reply #15 on: June 29, 2008, 03:23:09 pm »

Would the stuff be limited to that which is already in DF, or would they eventually be able to make stuff like automobiles and all that? Because it'd be weird to be in year like 4000 and still have just picks and wagons.

I would like to see a Fortress at year 4000, then we can talk again.
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Sometimes, when my Dorfs are exceptionally stupid again, I wonder what exactly the [INTELLIGENT]-tag does.

Erk

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Re: Inventions
« Reply #16 on: June 30, 2008, 01:32:40 am »

By the time your fortress reached year 4000 you'd have probably worked out a way to make some kind of automobile thanks to exploits in the game code coupled with existing machinery... some kind of water powered perpetual motion cavein, falling constantly and never hitting the ground. or something... after all, how many gameplay hours is that?



Anyway, the idea of inventions in worldgen is a solid winner. It's a fantastic idea, seriously. I say make all workshops and labours available from creation, but all smeltings beyond a few very easy ones are discoverable, as are nearly all creatable items except the most rudimentary (stone axe ftw). Allow certain techs to be tagged "required" by users in RAW so if you don't want to play in a world that doesn't have steel, you can ensure that the world is rejected unless steel was discovered.

Tech theft would be mediocre. I mean, humans trading steel off dwarves doesn't mean they could figure out how to make it. It's a complicated process. Likewise, owning an elven wooden harp doesn't make a dwarven craftsman capable of making one out of stone.

regarding inventive "moods" for legendary dwarves, 2 thoughts:
1) only dwarves who'd reached Legendary and still had no artifact moods should qualify, making these moods very rare, and
2) chances should be much higher (50:1 or so) that the invented item will be something another race has discovered and the fortress has obtained by trade or some other method. This means Urist is more likely to figure out how to make a dwarven stone harp by retroengineering the elven wood harp than she is to invent a rock guitar (hyuck hyuck) entirely from scratch.
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Granite26

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Re: Inventions
« Reply #17 on: June 30, 2008, 08:35:33 am »


regarding inventive "moods" for legendary dwarves, 2 thoughts:
1) only dwarves who'd reached Legendary and still had no artifact moods should qualify, making these moods very rare, and
That's an excellent way to slow down the invention rate in the game to 'possible but still damned unlikely'

2) chances should be much higher (50:1 or so) that the invented item will be something another race has discovered and the fortress has obtained by trade or some other method. This means Urist is more likely to figure out how to make a dwarven stone harp by retroengineering the elven wood harp than she is to invent a rock guitar (hyuck hyuck) entirely from scratch.
I really like this one too.  Combine it with a rudimentary 'requires' tech tree and a concept of complexity.  This would make you more likely to invent simpler things, even if they are high on the tech tree. 

You could emulate the ages system.  To get from bronze to Iron, you'd need iron smelting, but you'd be far more likely to learn to smelt a bunch of simpler ores along the way.  When Iron becomes available, steel would be the next barrier, but with Iron comes a host of simple tools you'd be far more likely to invent.

You wouldn't have the civ style rush to gunpowder, because you can't pick stuff, and most civs would be at approximately the same level (because of theft and the string of pearls development.) so there wouldn't be a major power level shift based on tech.  Nice

Joseph Miles

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Re: Inventions
« Reply #18 on: June 30, 2008, 10:18:56 pm »

Would the stuff be limited to that which is already in DF, or would they eventually be able to make stuff like automobiles and all that? Because it'd be weird to be in year like 4000 and still have just picks and wagons.

I would like to see a Fortress at year 4000, then we can talk again.

I'm not talking one fortress through the whole 2000+ year time frame, I THINK that when you make a new fort its a year after the end of the last fort you made, so one could(In theory) keep making a fort and abandoning it to get to a world that old in maybe an hour's time rather than what would be at the very LEAST a year.
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Erk

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Re: Inventions
« Reply #19 on: July 01, 2008, 05:28:24 pm »

I'm not talking one fortress through the whole 2000+ year time frame, I THINK that when you make a new fort its a year after the end of the last fort you made, so one could(In theory) keep making a fort and abandoning it to get to a world that old in maybe an hour's time rather than what would be at the very LEAST a year.
You're not describing a fortress that fits regular gameplay standards, though, so for the tech curve to be broken in such a fort would hardly be a problem with the game; it's a problem with the user screwing with the game dates.
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