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[magikarcher]

When will the next update be out? By the way, DLing right now.

[Blakmane]

I'm honoured to be a small part of the inspiration of this mod... it's easily one of the most creative and realistically ambitious mods i've seen in a long time  . I thought the least I could do to help you valkun is impart some of my own reaction experience

Things that are impossible:  skulls as a product or reagent

[REAGENT:1:SKULL:NO_SUBTYPE:ANY:NO_MATGLOSS]

This will let you use any skull as a reagent. Just tested it.

[PRODUCT:100:1:SKULL:NO_SUBTYPE:any material token:NO_MATGLOSS]

Now, this is where things get funny. The material token you place determines the type of animal the skull comes from starting from the first in the raw list and the first in the token list. With unmodified raws, putting BONE as the material token will give you a cardinal skull. IRON gives you blue jay skulls, WOOD gives you toad skulls and GRIME (the last token afaik) gives you fly skulls.

This means that you can never produce specific skulls for anything past the fly using unmodded raws. But you can get around this. If you place creature files in a new raw file which sits before creature_amphibians in the raw directory (I used creature_aaaaardvarks  ) they will now take the place of the first token entries. Theoretically speaking, you could place dummy copies of whatever creatures you wanted to use in this raw and then apply the above method to create specific product skulls.


Hope this helps. It just shows how weird the raws can get! Tell me if there is anything else I can help with  and keep up the good work!

-Blakmane

[Valkun]

Been busy with various things the last few days.  The next version probably won't be ready for another couple of weeks.  Working through the list of desired spells for the Glacier sphere now.  For some reason, it seems a bit thin/weak and needs some stuff to pad it out. 

Tier 1
Turn water, mined from ice walls, into different ice (stone) :  Snow Ice (Val 2), Black Ice (Val 3), Heavy Ice (Val 5), Ice Shard (5%?)
Prison of Ice - Cage made from ice
Collect Firewood - Low percentage chance to produce charcoal
Ice Box - An Ice Bin

Tier 2
Frost - Use Glacier II and Glacier III as ranged weapons.
Thermometer - Produces a set of melted rocks that ignite at various temperatures.  It should be able to tell you the temperature of the current location.
High Price Winter Crop - Basically Ice Berries ala Dark Dwarves
Magma Safe Ice Stone - Ice Stone with a high melting point
Ice Barrel - Ice Barrels.

Tier 3
Blizzard - Use Glacier II and Glacier III as ranged weapons.
250% Def Metal - High Defense, Low Offense and Value
Turtle Shell Aegis - Very High Block Chance/Power, but INCREDIBLY heavy
Experiment with Fixed Temp to produce a stone/creature/? that freezes any water it's dumped in.  Would a bone idol retain its bone_fixed_temp setting?
Summon Glacial Familiar (Snow Octopus)

Looking at it now, the theme seems a little scattered.  Unfortunately, it's impossible to produce armor via reactions because it always come out large.  Otherwise, I'd mod in a set of very warm clothes to survive on the most frigid of glaciers.

Blakmane, that is truly bizarre, even for the RAWs.  I made a little hack by using totems instead of skulls.

Random Question:  How does the BLOCKPOWER on Armor work?  Is it a fixed value analogous to damage or is it a percentage reduction?  Is it modified by material?  I'm assuming BLOCKCHANCE isn't affected by material.

Edit:  Ice and Water are very strange creatures indeed.  Some discoveries:

• Fixed Temp does work on metal bars.
• Absurdly low Fixed Temp doesn't cause damage.
• Standing water cannot be frozen with low fixed temp objects or cold fire.
• Water via Ice Walls can be created and used but with some peculiarities.  "Water" has three known states based on different criteria.  "Water" will turn to "Ice" when close to a low fixed temperature object.  "Water" turns into frozen "Water" in glacial areas, the only recognizable form for reactions(?).  "Water" is unusable when created in warmer climates (outside of winter?).

In summary, usable water can only be created or used when ice walls are available.  Something can be fit together if I can figure out how to use "Ice" but it's not recognizing stone:no_subtype:ice:no_matgloss.

Creating a working thermometer in-game might answer some questions.

[Nonsapient]

One thing I've noticed is that player's dwarves have a SLIGHTLY modified amount of damage taken from cold when compared to computer controlled creatures.

In a few glacial maps I've genned,  my dwarves won't take cold damage where the animals and invaders will.  This protection seemed to extend to the Outpost Liason,  but not the caravan's guards.

This may be the result of the weird maps I generate (I set the temperature and volcanism settings to absurd levels and then tell it to ignore all errors)  and crossing biome boundaries,  but I CAN tell you that player dwarves take damage differently from animals.  The dogs I embarked with would die of 'bleeding to death' within about 90 seconds if I didn't get them below ground,  while my dwarves were fine above ground indefinitely.

The imagination of this mod is amazing, man.  I've installed it and am trying to use it at the moment,  but the going is slow due to the absurd glacial maps I embark on. 

Anyway,  thanks very much man.

[Blakmane]

In a few glacial maps I've genned,  my dwarves won't take cold damage where the animals and invaders will. 

This is because dwarves have [LAYERING:50] and decent clothing. If you give creatures layering, or use creatures such as muskox, you'll find they also do not take damage.

[Nonsapient]

Nice to know.  thank you.

[DanielLC]

Now, this is where things get funny. The material token you place determines the type of animal the skull comes from starting from the first in the raw list and the first in the token list. With unmodified raws, putting BONE as the material token will give you a cardinal skull. IRON gives you blue jay skulls, WOOD gives you toad skulls and GRIME (the last token afaik) gives you fly skulls.

What happens if you put in the wrong kind of token, or even a number? I know with C the tokens are just glorified constants. For example, if you have

Code: [Select]

enum {BONE, IRON, WOOD, GRIME}
enum {CARDINAL, BLUEJAY, TOAD, FLY}it would replace every mention of BONE with 0, IRON with 1, etc. It would also replace every instance of CARDINAL with 0, BLUEJAY with 1, etc. This means it would be perfectly possible to use BONE and get the same result as CARDINAL.

With that in mind, I'd try putting DWARF as the material token.

[Blakmane]

What happens if you put in the wrong kind of token, or even a number?

If you put in anything but a material token, (for example, if you put in :DWARF:) the skull explodes in a cloud of freezing gas, killing nearby operators. This is because skulls are bone, which defaults to a fixed temp/boiling point of absolute 0 when it is not assigned a creature.

Dwarf fortress modding is a very weird thing 

[Valkun]

Dwarf Cancels Work on Mod: Interrupted by Tornado.

Actually got some work done today with some interesting results to show for it.

A Guide to "Water":
There exist three types of water in Dwarf Fortress.  Fluid water found in streams, brooks, pools, oceans, and other bodies of water.  This water is quite impossible to work with directly in reactions.  However, there exist two other sources also named water.  One is found when water is carried in a bucket, the infamous water [10] which is often spilled onto the ground by ADD dwarves.  A third water is produced when an Ice Wall is mined.  The stocks screen indicates that bucket water and Ice Wall water are not the same.

Like real water, water mined from ice walls is capable of taking on multiple forms.  If produced in a suitably cold environment, water is a STONE.  If produced in or moved to a warmer environment, like underground, it transforms into a Liquid.  Here's where it gets interesting.  If this Liquid water is then cooled, its name changes to "Ice" and it becomes a GLOB.  Unlike Liquids, GLOBS can be used in reactions.  The chances of this happening in vanilla DF is incredibly unlikely.  Finally, if heated sufficiently, water turns to steam and acts like a boiling object.  Additionally, bucket and liquid ice wall water can exist on the ground when subterranean but seem to disappear above ground.

STONE:NO_SUBTYPE:WATER:NO_MATGLOSS <- Mined Ice
GLOB:NO_SUBTYPE:WATER:NO_MATGLOSS <- Frozen Water

In the process of testing things, some other peculiarities arose.  Items with FIXED_TEMP will heat or cool other items in the same building but do not seem to affect things outside of buildings.  Objects on fire DO produce heat, no matter how cold that fire is.  This was discovered when the temperature reading on my first thermometer design kept creeping upwards.     Version 2 uses melt/boil instead of melt/ignite to indicate the current temperature.

I think that should be all the real testing needed for this update.  Temperature is such a strange facet of Dwarf Fortress and not often studied beyond "magma safe" and "my ponds are drying up!".  Since reactioned water can indeed be used, I'll probably swap out Chaos for Tempest in the upcoming release.

[magikarcher]

Urist McArcher Mandates the construction of this mod.

[Valkun]

Glacier Sphere is done, just need to give tier 3 a test before moving on.

Final Spell List for Glacier:
Tier I
Spirit of Glacier - Harden mined ice.
Spirit of Ice - Harden frozen water.
Form Icicle - Forge a keen spike of ice.
Collect Firewood - Search for wood to start a meager fire.
Ice Box - Craft a container to organize goods.
Well of Shady - Build a well that exudes cold and darkness.

Tier II
Frost - Freezes enemies with blasts of chilled air.
Create Frost Reagent - Turn black ice into a bone chilling spell component.
Usir's Sensitive Beard - Construct an elaborate temperature reading device.
Cultivate Winter Isis - Grow rare flowers out of icy soil.
Prison of Icicles - Produce an impenetrable cage.
Ice Barrel - Craft a superior container for storing foodstuffs.

Tier III
Blizzard - Pierces enemies with sharp hail.
Create Blizzard Reagent - Turn heavy ice into a deadly spell component.
Hearth of the Wise Hermit - Imbue steel with a protective spirit.
Hunter's Shortbow - Craft a bow that can be shot on the run.
Stalker's Will - Create arrows of elemental cold.
Antiboil - Form ice capable of withstanding great heat.
Chillstone - Forge metal that is always cold to the touch.
Summon Glacier Familiar

I think I'm happier with this arrangement.  This sphere is properly centered around temperature and making living on top of a glacier a bit more bearable.

The rest of the work for this next release shouldn't take nearly as long.  Maybe another week or two before it's ready for publishing.

[Valkun]

It seems I figured out how to make a fireball.  Very high FIXED_TEMP ammo + a room temperature fixed temp quiver.  If the dwarf can pick up the ammo and stuff it into a quiver before burning its hands off, it can safely use them in the quiver to shoot at things.  I saw a groundhog get a bolt stuck in it and catch on fire.  Unfortunately, when the hunter brought the corpse back, so did the wagon and all the dwarves/animals standing by it.    I'll figure out some way to work that into the mod.

[nicholasneko]

well seems yes, skulls are messed up.. but you can make totems just fine with a smelter reaction..

[Blakmane]

well seems yes, skulls are messed up.. but you can make totems just fine with a smelter reaction..

If you read my post you'll see that skulls are completely workable, as long as you are prepared to be creative =)

[Rochndil]

If you read my post you'll see that skulls are completely workable, as long as you are prepared to be creative =)

Just an FYI, Blackmane, your Reagent entry for skulls throws the same error I found when I used Orc (or anything else) there. It still WORKS, but you'll always have that message in your error log...at least until the next version, or whenever The Great One gets around to un-borking skulls.

Rochndil, who just lives with the message...