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Author Topic: How tall is a Z-level  (Read 10975 times)

Nitrousoxide

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How tall is a Z-level
« on: March 21, 2009, 11:47:46 pm »

I'm wondering because I'm starting a new fortress and I want giant 40-60 foot pillars lining the entrance to my mountain home, but I can't be sure of how many Z levels these need to span in order to really be that tall.

Here's an idea of how it will look at the base level.


That entrance hall will be copied over each z-level until I reach the hight I'm looking for.  I'll engrave all of the walls on each z-level before finally channeling out all of the floors except for the bottom.   All of that stuff behind the entrance hall will be space for defenders to fire from in the event of a siege.  My drawbridge to completely seperate my fortress from the outside world will be inside of the fort itself so as to not mar the appearance of my entryway.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 11:49:59 pm by Nitrousoxide »
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Jim Groovester

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2009, 11:54:02 pm »

It's anyone's guess. I sort of imagine them as about as tall as each story on a skyscraper, so ten to twelve feet, I suppose.

But really, use as many z-levels as it takes to make you feel satisfied about its height. If that's twenty z-levels, then make it twenty z-levels tall.
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Scruga

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2009, 01:04:18 am »

That's a lot of stone ::)
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inaluct

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2009, 01:12:06 am »

A z-level is tall as your I M A G I N A T I O N
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SHAD0Wdump

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2009, 06:05:00 am »

Especially due to the fact any megabeast,no matter how large its name suggests,will fit on a z-level.
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martinuzz

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2009, 06:16:04 am »

When we assume the blocks in the game are square, your height is pretty small, seen that 2 dwarves cannot pass through a 1-wide corridor at the same time, meaning the corridor is less wide than 2 dwarves are fat.
However, it is also very, and probably infinitly large, seen the herds of elephants you can squeeze into 1 tile..
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LegoLord

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2009, 07:00:04 am »

When we assume the blocks in the game are square, your height is pretty small, seen that 2 dwarves cannot pass through a 1-wide corridor at the same time, meaning the corridor is less wide than 2 dwarves are fat.
Wrong.  An infinite number of any creature will fit into a one tile wide passage, and can indeed pass through it.  They just prefer not to and it slows them down.
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Nitrousoxide

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2009, 07:42:15 am »

That's a lot of stone ::)

I like my entrances to be giant and imposing.  Even if it takes a year for my initial 7 to dig out, dammit, they'll spend that year in the rain.
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Duke 2.0

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2009, 08:08:58 am »

 A tile is small enough that two kittens walking through one will force one to crawl over the other, and large enough for titans to rampage through.
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Scruga

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2009, 08:24:00 am »

That's a lot of stone ::)

I like my entrances to be giant and imposing.  Even if it takes a year for my initial 7 to dig out, dammit, they'll spend that year in the rain.

I allways build a huge gatehouse from all the stones i've got by carving ou their bedrooms  :P
My dwarves have beds ;D
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Kagus

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2009, 08:41:00 am »

A Z-level is roughly as tall as two tiles are wide.

When you're dealing with DF dimensions, you can really only measure it against itself.

Tormy

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2009, 08:55:03 am »

When we assume the blocks in the game are square, your height is pretty small, seen that 2 dwarves cannot pass through a 1-wide corridor at the same time, meaning the corridor is less wide than 2 dwarves are fat.
Wrong.  An infinite number of any creature will fit into a one tile wide passage, and can indeed pass through it.  They just prefer not to and it slows them down.

Correct. 1 tile / 1 z-level has no real size as it is now...they are infinite big basically. Yeah it makes no sense, but I am pretty sure that Toady will make the necessary changes in the future.
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Exponent

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2009, 09:00:11 am »

A suggestion on the digging:  Instead of digging normal floors, and then channeling them when you're done engraving, build up stairs on the lowest level, and up/down stairs on all levels above.  Once engraving is done, mark the highest level stairs for channeling.  Once that level is done, do the same for the level below.  Finally, remove stairs/ramps on the lowest level.  You won't need to worry about dwarves getting themselves stuck this way, nor will you have to micromanage the channeling on each level.
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Chromie

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2009, 02:58:57 pm »

As far as building goes, I sort of imagine the xyz plane as a cube. So for pillars I'd worry most about their proportions (do they look too squatty etc) than what "real" height they translate into.
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Danarca

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Re: How tall is a Z-level
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2009, 03:05:15 pm »

IIRC someone a while back made some math based on water and whatnot and got 1 z-levels height to 2.5 foot or something like that..
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