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[Outcast Orange]

I wouldn't mind seeing oil,
 as long as it isn't being utilized by complex machinery,
 and isn't used as any sort of special fuel.

Lanterns, yes.
Mechanisms, no.

Actually, I wouldn't mind if the end game got a little steampunk,
but that isn't Toady's vision,
 and there will probably be mod support for that sort of thing by version 1 anyways.

So, oil isn't going to be useful for "conventional" stuff.
Though it would be cool to get more efficiency
 out of your contraptions by making a "maintainer" or "oiler",
 and having him occasionally put oil all over your moving parts.

[Name Lips]

Oddly enough, I think that the exact technique they used to make chainmail links might have been lost. It's very hard to make rings like that with simple blacksmith tools - you have to rivet each one individually to fit it into the mesh.

It's not that difficult, really. I have a friend who makes chainmail. He brings pliers with him so he can pull it out and work on it anywhere, like an old lady does with her knitting bag.

All you need is to have learned how to draw the metal into wire. After that, you just coil the wires around a rod and snip it along one side. Voila, a few hundred rings in one go. The making of a few hundred (or thousand) rings goes really fast, compared with the tedious opening and closing of each ring with pliers as you weave them individually into the pattern.

The "riveted" chain mail adds a new level of complexity to this and makes it more time consuming and difficult, but the basic way you get rings is the same. You have to individually work each ring so that it accepts a rivet before weaving.

It's fascinating watching him work.

[Mel_Vixen]

For qualities sake, and if you dont like the labour of wire-drawing (or molten metal on your hands) i suggest a beginner should use just plain steelwire from a Homeimprofment-market (?). Stainless stell isnt needed if the shirt is worn on a regular basis.

Rings of both varities are also avaibable just look for some cheap ones.

[alway]

Oil also would have no valid reason to evaporate... Which means a 1/7 square would be sufficient for an everpresent flamable menace. And oil would float on water. Which would imply you could burn the oil on the water, leading to all sorts of fun.
IMO the game is just about right how it is now with steampunk. We got our fun, awesome deathtraps, and really that's all we need.

[smjjames]

Well, oil (or more specifically, the tar that comes to the surface) has been known about since prehistory. In fact, the fabled greek fire likely had oil as a major component. I don't know how much it was used or what it was used for before chemistry and knowledge had reached the point where it could be used in wider applications.

To whoever said about plastics, they weren't developed until the mid 19th century for cellulose plastics and 1903 for true plastics (Bakelite) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic

So, plastics are way outside the tech scope that Toady is aiming for. However, oil lamps have been used since ancient times and there is evidence from prehistoric times of oil lamps. So, those are well within the 15th century cutoff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_lamp . Also, note that the article says that crude oil deposits may have been used as well.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Speaking of armour, and with the mention of resizing clothes: With the new release and more complex bodies, how will armour wearing actually be handled? Will there now be any ability to (or progress towards) modding in more complex suits of armour, with additional pieces?

Such as lorica segmentata, gothic plate, plated mail, etc. where to get a complete suit, you'd perform more than the current number of manufacturing steps.

I think layering has been mentioned, but what about smaller pieces on top of larger ones?

[Footkerchief]

Speaking of armour, and with the mention of resizing clothes: With the new release and more complex bodies, how will armour wearing actually be handled?

I think layering has been mentioned, but what about smaller pieces on top of larger ones?

The only change to bodies that would affect clothing is body size stuff (BP relsizes, caste body size, individual variability), and it sounds like clothing pretty much ignores that for now:

Will the tall dwarves be able to equip human-sized equipment in the upcoming version? Or is it eons away?

I think it's a little farther away -- the flipside is having to size clothing for different dwarves, and that is a nightmare.  Of course, you could go one way and not the other, but that starts to get kind of ugly itself.

If the fortress-playable race includes castes which are wildly different sizes, will the player still be able to make appropriately sized clothing for all of them?  Or is clothing universalized or some other temporary solution?

The clothing is done via temporary solution.

So armor wearing isn't going to be much different.

Will there now be any ability to (or progress towards) modding in more complex suits of armour, with additional pieces?

Such as lorica segmentata, gothic plate, plated mail, etc. where to get a complete suit, you'd perform more than the current number of manufacturing steps.

Manufacturing mods will work better in general, since reactions are more flexible, and you can do them at custom workshops.  There's nothing special for armor though.  If you have multi-step construction, item types for ringlets or metal/leather strips or whatever will still be a hassle, like in the current version.

[Chthonic]

I don't remember seeing whether animal care is making it into this release along with improved healthcare.  This might have been asked already, but . . . Are dwarves with animal care enabled going to be able to splint wardogs' broken legs and so forth, and in general make veterinary care functional?

[smjjames]

I don't remember seeing whether animal care is making it into this release along with improved healthcare.  This might have been asked already, but . . . Are dwarves with animal care enabled going to be able to splint wardogs' broken legs and so forth, and in general make veterinary care functional?

That would be kind of cool actually.

[Footkerchief]

I don't remember seeing whether animal care is making it into this release along with improved healthcare.  This might have been asked already, but . . . Are dwarves with animal care enabled going to be able to splint wardogs' broken legs and so forth, and in general make veterinary care functional?

It's come up, albeit without a definite answer:

What about injured pets/animals/friendly tamed beasts? Will it be possible to heal their wounds in the hospital?

I haven't decided on the vet stuff...  up to this point it has happened under the semi-magical "animal care" profession.  That code is kind of gutted now, so I'll have to do something, but I'm not sure there will be any animal surgery.

[jokermatt999]

Just a quick and easy suggestion for the next version,don't know if it's already in or not.

Will the site finder have a "next" function if multiple sites meet the finder's criteria? Also, will we ever see any expansion of it to include items like sand, trees, elevation and such?

Seems like it should be simple to add, and it'd make site finding much easier and more enjoyable.

[Footkerchief]

Will the site finder have a "next" function if multiple sites meet the finder's criteria? Also, will we ever see any expansion of it to include items like sand, trees, elevation and such?

Oh yea, I have a thought, what about the site finder? Half of the choices are going to be obsolete. So, how is the site finder going to work now that there are so many changes? Stuff like temperature, savagery, elevation, rainfall, and flux will certainly stay.

It's one of the remaining hanging issues.  The easiest way will be to cut things out.  The underground is interesting enough now that hopefully people won't care so much about using the site-finder for that sort of thing.

Additionally...

quick and easy suggestion ... simple to add

Quick and easy * several hundred = no longer quick and easy.

There really are a lot of requests and miscellaneous items that have accumulated over the last more-than-a-year (hundreds of them), and I've just got to order these and decide what must go in and what's out this time.

there's a moratorium now more or less, since I want to get the game out.

[Cardinal]

All you need is to have learned how to draw the metal into wire.

The making of wire, and hence the creation of all manner of convenient things like, oh, nails, is actually much more complicated than you'd ever think, so half the problem (or, maybe even 90%) of historical chainmail was getting workable rings.  Early nails were a real hassle, too.  Obviously, the current DF model is a mix of technologies and techniques that, in typical fantasy fashion, has been mushed together, so the only way you can promote someone using an inferior technology is either through arbitrary means or by giving some ahistorical benefit to particular tools and techniques.

[Heliman]

Oh my god it was updated!

[Totaku]

Oh my god it was updated!

What's been updated? The Dev log looks the same as yesterday and the cat bug was fixed a while ago but was only updated a few days ago.

I don't see anything different? (or maybe you just haven't visited this thread in a while?)