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[Tradanbattlan]

Yes, I know it's a bit of a stretch, but could air pressure work? More specifically speaking, use a form of chamber and pumps to have a large buildup of air, and then release it when a raid comes to blow them away.

This could also tie in with wind, seeing as windmills currently are spinning by themselves. Perhaps rain and wind could mix and make an overcast day.
Wind could also buffet dwarves, causing their pathing to skew a bit.

[Footkerchief]

Concerning the wind part of your suggestion, there's a dev_future item that mentions "Tornados with wind flows that push items, projectiles and creatures," plus a Req item that states "Local wind patterns need to be more interesting."

[Tradanbattlan]

Oh, cool.
I cant wait to build my Airman

[Derakon]

As for air pressure, that would basically require running fluid sim for every open tile in the region (for purposes of simulation, air and water are both considered "fluids", with the only significant difference being that water is uncompressable). So I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.

[Tradanbattlan]

Oh, right. Because having air behave like anything at all means it has to exist.
And having something exist is a garunteed drop in FPS

[Footkerchief]

As for air pressure, that would basically require running fluid sim for every open tile in the region (for purposes of simulation, air and water are both considered "fluids", with the only significant difference being that water is uncompressable). So I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.

Well, depends how accurate you wanted it.  You could use a map-component type system to track pressures in enclosed areas, if you don't mind having uniform pressures within each of those areas.  Incidentally, that would be the same component system that would enable pathfinding for fliers.

[Threlicus]

I spent some of my driving time thinking about modeling these things recently.

I don't think you would have to solve fluid dynamics (which is what the current fluid system does, in a piecewise, not-really-right manner) for air pressure and wind to work. Air pressure normalizes at the speed of sound, which has got to mean effectively doing the entire map instantly -- that is to say, there's no need to model sonic booms, explosive shock waves and such -- in an air pressure sim.  So 'all' you need to do is to be able to set realistic boundary conditions along the edge of the map and solve the steady-state situation. To do the steady-state situation, and to have it be interesting, though, you would want to put in some stuff about heat sources and temperatures, probably also the effect of differential solar absorption, because thermal flows are what create wind and drafts in the first place.  I think it's tricky but doable, and since its a static problem maybe not terribly computationally expensive.

To make it worthwhile, though, I would think you would want to see underground vapors and oxygen deprivation, dusts and such, modeled in a 'better' way than current miasmas are.  Otherwise there's not much point in doing the work...IMHO, anyway.

[G-Flex]

Oh, right. Because having air behave like anything at all means it has to exist.

¯\(°_o)/¯??

To make it worthwhile, though, I would think you would want to see underground vapors and oxygen deprivation, dusts and such, modeled in a 'better' way than current miasmas are.  Otherwise there's not much point in doing the work...IMHO, anyway.

Actually having to use ventilation for your fortress would be an interesting design challenge, albeit maybe too much of one.

[Maw]

As a sidepoint - modelling such air pressure will give a more realistic reason for windmill operations too - rather than the set "the program says we have wind here.... etc".

[Sir Finkus]

I'd mostly like air pressure simulated when filling a closed chamber with water and such.  I'm not sure about actually compressing air, and using it as a weapon is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

[Tradanbattlan]

Not as a weapon per se, but more as a way to fill my "Everfilling Ditch of the Dead"

[Impaler[WrG]]

If Air trapped inside tunnels could 'resits' water it would make underground plumbing even more difficult.  I think the ability to compress air out of existence is something that should stay and isn't incompatible with wind.

[Reasonableman]

Suppose that the game only tracked areas of de-pressurized and pressurized areas of, erm, air? Like, say, you build a room, put air pumps leading into it, seal it off, and the pump produces units of "pressurized air" that fill the room. Then, you open the door, and the "pressurized air" flows out and dissipates. Depressurized air is a bit trickier, but probably doable. Wind, and other weather phenomena, could just be this same basic system on an embark-tile sized scale. Low pressure areas and high pressure areas, etc etc etc.

[Granite26]

And then matter and antimatter would cancel each other out?

Sounds... ok