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[Rusty Mcloon]

I've been wondering, what are the advantages for the player in how DF simulates worlds. It's exciting that Toady can do it, but it doesn't seem to have that many benefits for Fortress mode. I'm sure its benefits are more clearly seen in Adventure mode, but I prefer fortress building.

So does world simulation really benefit the quality of play? What benefits does it have? I'll appreciate your insight.

[Heron TSG]

Every game is different when they are all in different worlds with different histories, climates, civilizations, etc.

replay value is key.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Detailed Simulations CAN be useful for giving meaning to and driving the 'game' along.  But DF has consistently fallen down on making linkages between the simulation and the game.  For example Dwarfs have personal deities but never DO anything because of them as their is no religion or priesthood in game play.  Adding Simulation detail for its own sake is pointless, only simulation details that area paired with engaging game play are of any use.

[Heron TSG]

engaging game play

legends mode.

[Duke 2.0]

 Before you can link a system to gameplay, you must first make the system.

 Thus why we can see paragraphs on the various conditions of a dwarves beard. For when it will matter.

It will decide the world.

[Capntastic]

Because there is more to the game than fortress mode.   Read the devnotes.   The goal of DF is to make a fantasy world generator, not just a fortress game.

[Blakmane]

A lot of stuff is currently placeholder, to be implemented fully at a later date.

Currently, It also influences trade goods, climates, who you are at war with etc etc.

The first time you get an elven king/queen you'll no longer be asking this question.

[G-Flex]

Yeah, like I've been saying in Threetoe's recent thread, a lot of the newer simulation material is built as a framework for use in later versions. Can't have the house without walls and a foundation, after all. It'll matter more once the fortress starts really interacting with other civs.

[Capntastic]

It's taking superdwarven amounts of selfcontrol to not ask what the advantage of a fortress building game is in a world simulator is.

[Rusty Mcloon]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think I understand better now. Between you all and the Black Diamond interview podcast, I can see the bigger picture. This is basically just the framework for what is to come.

I hope my CPU can handle what is to come. Haha.

[azrael4h]

We all hope computers are able to handle DF v1 when it comes. Maybe they'll have a 20ghz processor by then. At that point, it could handle 20 dwarves.

[Neruz]

Basically, when finished Dwarf Fortress is supposed to be a fully realised world simulator. Everything, the whole kit and koboodle, it makes a world that you can run around and interact with in every concievable way (aka douse with magma).

[Aldaris]

Basically, when finished Dwarf Fortress is supposed to be a fully realised world simulator. Everything, the whole kit and koboodle, it makes a world that you can run around and interact with in every concievable way (aka douse with magma).

And burn with magma
And flood with magma
And cover in obsidian
And flood with water
And destroy, burn, and pillage with your horde of tamed war-demons.

In other words, short term fun and long term Fun.

[Duke 2.0]

 Also note it is unwise to do optimizations too early, as they make it more difficult to add new features. When the optimizations come, DF will likely run a lot faster. Although it is tricky to deal with pathfinding and flows in an efficient manner, I'm sure Toady can find a way of making such bottlenecks be less wasteful.

 Of course, that is after we can become gods of war-torn countries fighting over an artifact shield used in the defeat of a great demon that terrorized the world.

[madpraxis]

Bah..in the 10 years or so till we get DF 1.0 I'm sure somebody somewhere will come up with a brand new ground breaking shiny way to program pathfinding and flow calculations. So keep your hopes up!