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Author Topic: Fluid Measurement  (Read 903 times)

Impaler[WrG]

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Fluid Measurement
« on: December 07, 2008, 01:33:28 pm »

Currently DF has several containers for holding liquids but theirs little ability to transfer things between them and no underlying volume system for doing so. 

It seems to me their are at least three distinct and separate systems, Barrels, Buckets and Vials.  Barrels hold alcohol and are drunk from directly without any interaction with water on the map.  Buckets hold only water and are the only means to interact with 'map' water though its unclear exactly how many buckets are needed to fill a 1/7th z level.  Vials are used for extracts which can't do anything, but we can assume the vial is smaller then the bucket because the same material that forms one bucket forms 3 vials.

I'd like to see some clearly defined system that states 1/7th z level = X Barrels = Y Buckets = Z vials to that things can be efficiently move between these containers.  For example using buckets to fill barrels with water or combining the contents of many vials into a barrel.  It need not be a system based on any real world system like cups or pints or letters just so long as its consistent.  This will also pave the way for the variety of other liquid based applications so many have asked for like bath tubs or mega barrels.

Such a system should probably be based of the smallest unit of liquid which would most naturally be the 'drink' unit that a dwarf consumes each time they drink from a barrel.  If a Vial and water skin was 1-2 'drink' and a Bucket 5-10 that would fit well with Barrels holding 25 drinks.  Its all rather flexible because these things clear right now.  What do others think the correct numbers really are?

In addition consider how other things will interact with fluids, metal bars can be melted into liquid and this might need to be translated into the liquid system, dose a bar fill a bucket or a vial or neither?  Do powdered materials in bags follow a similar system?
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Grumman

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Re: Fluid Measurement
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2008, 02:09:13 pm »

The vial would be the smallest unit, followed by the "drink" (1/7th of a space). A bucket holds one drink, and a barrel holds... however many drinks they currently hold. You'd just have to work out the ratio between the vial and the drink.
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Draco18s

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Re: Fluid Measurement
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2008, 02:37:28 pm »

I thought a bucket held 10 drinks, which were 1/7 zlevels.
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Impaler[WrG]

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Re: Fluid Measurement
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2008, 04:11:54 pm »

Buckets will create a stack of 10 water when dumped on the floor, but its not usable or drinkable again in any way so its hard to say much about what these units are other then being 1/10th of a bucket.

Dwarfs drink one bucket of water when they are given water but its hard too imagine a person drinking a full bucket of water if the bucket is anything like what we call a bucket roughly 2 gallons minimum.  I think we can assume that dwarfs don't fetch a full bucket when they are giving water.

Barrels can hold a maximum of 25 drinks but this seems to be from nothing other then the fact that the game forces all the alcohol from a stack of plants into one barrel and the largest stacks are 5 plants.  I think it would be possible to put more in barrels if the plant stack sizes were raised.  Clearly this needs to be replaced with a real volume.
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