Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hectonkhyres]

This thread will have aspects of both the DF Dwarf Mode Discussion and the DF Suggestion subforum but, since I feel it has a heavy suggestion-wise bent to it, thats where I choose to jam the damn thing. I'm praying to assorted pagan gods that it was the right decision.

I, like all too many of the rabid fanatics devoted to the holy path that is DF, have developed something of an obsessive-compulsive streak in my days playing. I curse at the screen when I hit that nasty swath of microcline marring a beautiful field of smooth obsidian, I burn through endless sheets of graph paper trying to find ways to fit rooms of different dimensions together smoothly, I reject otherwise ideal map sites because some odd little feature offends me aesthetically. However dwarfy this sort of self destructive behavior might be, it is not conducive to my enjoying the game.

And so I am thinking about ways, small ways that would take little effort on Toady's part in order to bring into effect or else could be handled by fan mods, that might help keep me away from the madness that is perfectionism. The first thought I have on this would be changing how the different rock types are laid out on the map. If, for example, two or three are swirled together like marble cake rather than giving you eighteen square tiles of seamless obsidian, I think I would feel less horrified when I hit that next swath of microcline or orthoclase.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for a neurotic fool who is being driven insane by minor flaws? Any ideas about things that might be included with future updates toward that end? I am interested in hearing what the eldergods of the forum have to say about such things.

[Rysith]

Allowing us to engrave constructed floors/walls would go a long way towards helping this, I think, since then when you hit the microcline you could easily construct the correct kind of floors/walls for it.

[inaluct]

I have the exact opposite problem. I never plan anything.

And you know what? It makes me enjoy the game even more.

[Pilsu]

Mod microcline to look black

It would admittedly be nice to be able to patch up such unsightly sections with quarried stone and hide the wall behind. To my understanding constructed walls have their own symbol default so being able to quarry out a slab of natural stone to replace the wall with would be the optimal solution. Hiding tiles would be nice either way


Alternatively allow dwarves to turn any block of wall into another type of wall by expending a stone on it. I can't really think of another solution to veneer blocks of wall with the tile system we have.   Don't know what to think of using gold nuggets for that

[Hectonkhyres]

I have the exact opposite problem. I never plan anything.

And you know what? It makes me enjoy the game even more.

...
Damn it. I am currently wishing horrible, profane things upon you via the twisted netherhells that we call the internet. Tell me if tentacles start emerging from any free USB ports, would you?

[Duke 2.0]

I have the exact opposite problem. I never plan anything.

And you know what? It makes me enjoy the game even more.

...
Damn it. I am currently wishing horrible, profane things upon you via the twisted netherhells that we call the internet. Tell me if tentacles start emerging from any free USB ports, would you?

A fun thing to do is just screw it all and make the site ideal. Doesn't have a sheer cliff face? BUILD ONE! Magma pipe in an odd location? Cap it, drain it, and make a new one where you want it. Then pump the magma there.

[Warlord255]

Being able to cover up stone and then hide it would be the optimal solution, methinks.

[Pilsu]

Being able to cover up stone and then hide it would be the optimal solution, methinks.

Constructed walls don't look the same as natural rock if memory serves

Doesn't help with engravings either

[irmo]

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for a neurotic fool who is being driven insane by minor flaws?

"If you are rigid and unyielding,
you might as well be dead.
If you are soft and flexible,
you are truly alive.

Soldiers trained to fight to the death will die.
A tree that cannot bend with the wind
will snap."
Tao Te Ching, #76 (R. Hogan 'translation')

[Rakeela]

Allowing constructed walls to be engraved would fix this for me.  Then I wouldn't be upset when the king's tomb is run through with a vein of iron ore.  I'd cheerfully just mine it all out, and build new walls to match the others, upon which my engraver would scrawl fields of dead kobolds.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

I feel you, Hundred Hands.  On more than one occasion, I have abandoned a fortress that I had put sixty hours of work into, just because I didn't plan well enough and it ended up looking ugly.

Although there's no cure for the difference between natural walls and constructed walls, you may not know that you can remove those nasty veins of microcline from your marble dining hall.  If you build constructed floors over a colored stone type and then remove the floors, the stone underneath them changes to the base stone present in that layer.  I was overjoyed when I found that out.

You know how when you mine out those eight gems, it leaves behind eight green or blue or red or whatever floors?  Well, now you can make those go away.

[Martin]

Why not a 2nd type of block - 'engraved block', or some such, that has quality based on mason skill and when built looks like an engraved floor/wall. Chuck the usual modifiers for quality on top of the usual base cost and problem solved.

[eerr]

what about an anti-ocd mod that punishes perfection with seemingly random events?

[Silverionmox]

what about an anti-ocd mod that punishes perfection with seemingly random events?

I'm all for it Seriously, on of the the biggest joys in DF is adapting your rooms to the veins, patches and pockets of gems and stone you encounter. I intentionally look for spots where stone types meet to make meeting halls, and I use pocket of unusual stone ore gems to make rooms or tombs for those who like it.

[Awayfarer]

I frequently alter my plans to build around veins of ore and clusters of gems. Screw planning. If my new hallway is hematite and goes north-south rather than siltstone and east-west that's fine by me.