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[lordcooper]

the game

I lost thanks to you...

[Willfor]

the game

I lost thanks to you...

You should try out this other game that you can only lose. It's far more fun, and people won't hate you for playing it. It's called Dwarf Fotre-- wait... Something tells me you already know about it.

[lordcooper]

the game

I lost thanks to you...

You should try out this other game that you can only lose. It's far more fun, and people won't hate you for playing it. It's called Dwarf Fotre-- wait... Something tells me you already know about it.

You've just come up with the best marketing ever.

[Lancensis]

MORE underground, eh? I forsee a lot of innocent dwarves meeting horrible ends, due to my curiosity...

[carebear]

the game

I lost thanks to you...

You should try out this other game that you can only lose. It's far more fun, and people won't hate you for playing it. It's called Dwarf Fotre-- wait... Something tells me you already know about it.

You've just come up with the best marketing ever.

Dwarf Fortress: A game you always lose, but when you do it's actually fun, unlike with that other game.

[smjjames]

Also of great stories involving spelunking expeditions (I know we don't actually have rope ladders or any other climbing gear yet) sent to explore the depths. With tales of death, awe, and only one dwarf making it back alive.... barely.

Given that some of the titans will ooze stuff, the first sign we may see would be the slime (or whatever) trail left by the titan, or even its victims, and if its a webber, its web, rather than seeiing the titan itself.

[Mr.Person]

Actually, I like that. Have the workshops take the stockpile(s) they need by burrow automatically or manually, path to them, and only update the path either by telling the workshop to redo the paths on some or all stockpiles, manually drawing a new path yourself (feature request, but it would be useful), or if the old path gets obstructed somehow. Of course, stubborn dwarves will probably refuse to use a new path, free-thinking dwarves will reject *your* path, and combat-oriented and/or swimmers and/or miners with enough determination might just go right through the obstruction.

Not only is it realistic, it also saves FPS and gives those personality modifiers a chance to actually do something meaningful. Of course, since the pathfinding itself isn't the big FPS hog, it probably won't save much FPS, and depending on your fortress and how many stockpiles you use, it might cripple your fortress's production capabilities. Of course, that's the price of progress.

Really, I just want to see the personality of the dwarves do more stuff.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I sometimes think that whatever pathfinding algorithm is used, it should only update its node graph or whatever the term for "collection of paths on a map" is, when the path is being used, and found invalid, and maybe at random intervals. For example, the dwarves always use a route from point A to point B. There's no need to update that if the landscape changes in the location, unless a dwarf wanders in there and says "hey! there's no path here!". In real life, you don't automagically know there's a traffic jam three blocks ahead of you, and only start planning alternate routes when you see that you're stuck. Applied here, the real-life principle may even save some CPU cycles. Maybe. I don't really know how this pathfinding stuff works.

If it would be possible to separate invader pathfinding into a different structure, it would be even more realistic. If the map is checked in smallish chunks, then the invading army would first have to make a beeline for the closest thing resembling your fort, then the next closest thing, and the next. It would only have the path data for the parts the invaders have set foot on, and it would force them to explore instead of just charging through your mazelike corridors like they've lived there all their life.

[Lancensis]

Also of great stories involving spelunking expeditions (I know we don't actually have rope ladders or any other climbing gear yet) sent to explore the depths. With tales of death, awe, and only one dwarf making it back alive.... barely.

Given that some of the titans will ooze stuff, the first sign we may see would be the slime (or whatever) trail left by the titan, or even its victims, and if its a webber, its web, rather than seeiing the titan itself.

I'd love to see creatures dragging off dwarves into the dark unexplored areas and bringing them to their young, or something. It'd be pretty awesome to send out a party after your legendary miner, only to find them cocooned up like in Alien, only they're in the process of being turned into a Purring Maggot.

[AbacusWizard]

Maybe workshops could have multiple behaviors?  Suppose at every season-change or once a "day" or whenever would be appropriate, each workshop does the elaborate pathfinding check to every individual stockpile set to use workshop-appropriate materials, and records the stockpiles in order of preference.

Then, when a job requires a material, the workshop checks each stockpile in order of proper distance for the material it needs without calculating any paths or running any algorithms beyond "what's the first suitable material in this stockpile?".  If there's nothing in the stockpiles, then it goes hunting the map using a more intensive method.

/not a computer scientist

...actually, not a bad idea.  When a dwarf does a job, and it is to a stockpile not already accessed by that workshop, the workshop stores a pointer to the pathing object.  Then subsequent dwarves can access the path to the stockpile they want from the workshop that they are doing the job for.  You can then make an optimized algorithm for searching stockpiles, since there are some general assumptions you can make about them (usually comparatively large and obstruction free).

I am actually reminded somewhat of ants, or at least of SimAnt...

How about this: dwarves needing materials will start with a random search; if they find what they're looking for, they pick it up, and leave a trail of pheremones job-conditional high-traffic designation leading back to the anthill workshop!

[sluissa]

I like the idea of work related dwarven pheromones

[Lancensis]

I am actually reminded somewhat of ants, or at least of SimAnt...

How about this: dwarves needing materials will start with a random search; if they find what they're looking for, they pick it up, and leave a trail of pheremones job-conditional high-traffic designation leading back to the anthill workshop!

They stole your idea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization

[ToonyMan]

There's barely anything left on the list! 

We might be seeing a '09 release!

[zchris13]

I'm still skeptical.

[Mipe]

The forum activity sure is rising lately...