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[Lancensis]

I know. Wolfram is way better than titanium

[slink]

I know. Wolfram is way better than titanium

For lightbulb filaments, yes.  For bicycle frames, no. 

[Lancensis]

I'd way rather have a Wolfram bike than a Titanium one. Once I got it up to speed, I could ram lighter bikes off the road.

[Kinoko_Otoko]

You guys talking about refrigerants, vacuum chambers and electricity being unavailable to dwarves are forgetting something.

This is a fantasy setting. There's elemental magic here.

It's not implemented yet, but as I understand it, it's eventually going to be present in some form. A dwarven mage may not sound very dwarfy, but when you think of it from the perspective of a dwarf spending his life trying to smelt some mythical ore, it makes more sense... The dwarves don't have combat mages; they have metallurgy mages, using the powers of lightning, ice and warped space to forge the ultimate metals. This even stays within the DF theme, because you're not conjuring a non-existent metal, you're using real-world processes aided by dwarven magic.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic... Thus, when you need technological advantages in a medieval setting, replace technology with magic in a fitting manner.

[G-Flex]

That makes sense, but it might not be the sort of magic Toady wants.

I can distinctly remember him saying things to the effect of wanting magic to remain mystical as opposed to being another mundane tool that the creatures within the world use to accomplish tasks.

So, while I understand your point and think it's valid enough, I'm not sure we'll see it in DF (at least not by default) as some kind of consistent, industrial process.

[anomaly]

Toady has mentioned that his arbitrary cutoff date for technology in DF is c.1400AD.  This means you aren't getting a blast furnace or anything that requires remotely advanced technology to make.  This is the reason a lot of things just aren't included in vanilla DF.

Blast furnaces were used by the chinese back before 500 B.C. so I wouldn't be surprised if a dwarf could have figured out how to use one.

I mean, dwarves in this game can use magma to power their forges, and that's something that is completely unheard of in real life.  We could assume that dwarves would be superior metalworkers than any humans have historically been, and that would include the chinese.

[G-Flex]

Toady has mentioned that his arbitrary cutoff date for technology in DF is c.1400AD.  This means you aren't getting a blast furnace or anything that requires remotely advanced technology to make.  This is the reason a lot of things just aren't included in vanilla DF.

Blast furnaces were used by the chinese back before 500 B.C. so I wouldn't be surprised if a dwarf could have figured out how to use one.

To be fair, China's a completely different beast. Europe's technology in 1400 was way different from that of China, Africa, the Middle East, India, Mesoamerica, or anywhere else, really.

Really, making a comparison to the real world by giving a year only works well when you're giving a location as well. As far as we can tell, that's Europe, although I know dwarven alchemy is based more on the Muslim/Middle Eastern model, which does stretch back at least a few hundred years prior.

[anomaly]

it seems to me that the quintessential fantasy dwarf would be superior in all ways to humans when it comes to metalworking.  I can see no logical reason to exclude chinese (unless you're saying chinese aren't human).  technologies available to all of humanity before 1400 should also at the BARE MINIMUM be available to dwarves.

[G-Flex]

Well, that depends on your interpretation of dwarves, doesn't it?

I could definitely see that being the case; I was just making the point that you can't say that just because something existing SOMEWHERE in 1400, it fits. Some people seem to make that argument, but its logical conclusion winds up being a fantasy culture that doesn't even make sense because it's too much of a mishmash of different tech levels and influences.

Dwarves are certainly established at being better than anybody else when it comes to metallurgy, though; after all, they have steel and humans don't.

[anomaly]

somewhere in 1400?  humans were using blast furnaces ALMOST TWO ENTIRE MILLENIA BEFORE 1400.  It seems obvious to me that dwarves should be able to use blast furnaces.

[G-Flex]

Yeah, I kind of forgot what we were talking about specifically. It seems that TRUE blast furnaces were in use in Europe by sometime in the 12th century, and sort of proto-blast-furnaces were in use centuries before then.

[Lancensis]

Well, that depends on your interpretation of dwarves, doesn't it?

Nope. It depends on the author of the mods' interpretation. If you think something in the main game is innappropriate, that's an issue for Suggestions, or General Discussion, but it's silly to try and say what should be allowed in modding.
If someone wants a magic forge, and you don't like the idea, I guess you get to not download it, but you can't tell them their idea is wrong.

[Derakon]

Toady has mentioned that his arbitrary cutoff date for technology in DF is c.1400AD.  This means you aren't getting a blast furnace or anything that requires remotely advanced technology to make.  This is the reason a lot of things just aren't included in vanilla DF.

The word that should be emphasized here is "vanilla". This is the modding subforum. You do the math.

[G-Flex]

Well, that depends on your interpretation of dwarves, doesn't it?

Nope. It depends on the author of the mods' interpretation.

There's a reason why I said "your" and not "Toady's" or anyone else specific.

[shadowsofwhite]

In the same respect of technology not passing 1400s, europe time, the vikings had steel without much of the technology of the rest of the world. This was due to that the found out how to use a kiln to extract steel directly from PEAT, of all things. If peat is burned under the appropriate oxygen/fuel(peat) ratio, a lump of unrefined steel will form. Refining the extracted steel is left to forging.

Under this, why can peat not be used to directly create steel? It could even be an easteregg, if dirt was left behind under the excavation of soil.