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[KillerClowns]

Interesting thing to note about the demon populations: Each individual type is listed in the world population stats as 'unnumbered'.

The only thing that has a similar designation is some few, freakishly numerous, vermin. Ants and such.

Apparently any single demon species has enough numbers backing it to... match, in a strict number sense, the population of pretty much the rest of world's species, combined. Any single demon species. The smallest worldgen default has 20 of 'em.

Dorfworld is officially screwed... and that's considering the state it was in before.

....wow.
I see two possible causes of their unholy populations.  One, they're actually infinite, spawning from the glowing whenever needed.  Two, my personal theory, is that the demons are technically finite.  It's just that their biome (Hell) that spans all of creation, and there's nothing that can kill them if they stay down there.  They don't fight each other, they have no predators, there are no sentient beings hunting them for food, sport, or vengeance, and they have an infinite lifespan and possibly the ability to reproduce.
Hell is... well, hellish, and I am beginning to truly appreciate just what sort of brutality our Toady Overlord has thrown at us.  Any attempt to take hell will necessarily be incomplete, as there are far more demons that anyone can reasonably wipe out.  The best dwarfkind can manage will be to enter and seal off a chunk of it, and make rude gestures at the marauding hellspawn from behind the safety of their walls.
I wonder if there are any further surprises waiting for us in DF 2010.

[Asehujiko]

Interesting thing to note about the demon populations: Each individual type is listed in the world population stats as 'unnumbered'.

The only thing that has a similar designation is some few, freakishly numerous, vermin. Ants and such.

Apparently any single demon species has enough numbers backing it to... match, in a strict number sense, the population of pretty much the rest of world's species, combined. Any single demon species. The smallest worldgen default has 20 of 'em.

Dorfworld is officially screwed... and that's considering the state it was in before.

....wow.
I see two possible causes of their unholy populations.  One, they're actually infinite, spawning from the glowing whenever needed.  Two, my personal theory, is that the demons are technically finite.  It's just that their biome (Hell) that spans all of creation, and there's nothing that can kill them if they stay down there.  They don't fight each other, they have no predators, there are no sentient beings hunting them for food, sport, or vengeance, and they have an infinite lifespan and possibly the ability to reproduce.
Hell is... well, hellish, and I am beginning to truly appreciate just what sort of brutality our Toady Overlord has thrown at us.  Any attempt to take hell will necessarily be incomplete, as there are far more demons that anyone can reasonably wipe out.  The best dwarfkind can manage will be to enter and seal off a chunk of it, and make rude gestures at the marauding hellspawn from behind the safety of their walls.
I wonder if there are any further surprises waiting for us in DF 2010.

It's the square cube law: Surface or near-surface races are confined to one, ultimately extremely thin layer. Demons have the three dimensional core at their disposal, resulting in their population being completely out of whack compared to the rest.

Another theory: This is a Demon world all along and at one point they noticed a bunch of meteorites incoming so they covered everything with indestructible slade to survive the impacts. Downsides ofcourse them loosing all communication to the outside of their bubble. Dust from the impacts settles and life flourishes in the new surface layers. Poorly crafted slade decays over time into adamantium, resulting in the weak points. Something opens it and the demons realize that the surface is once again habitable. Cue invasion.

[sjaakwortel]

"You hear screams coming from the dark"
exit my fortress, who doesnt like butterfly demons. those MF*ckers didnt even get slowed by my traps.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

So... Do they generate raw files for demons when you create a world?  I was thinking it'd be awesome to go into them and enable them for the arena but I can't seem to find the right file.  And before you say they're in saves, I know that, I just need to know what file to look at/for.

[Rakonas]

Did the horrible screams text box send shivers down anyone elses spine the first time they opened it unintentionally?

[TBot Alpha]

the festering, Molten Core*-reminiscent pit.


*I'm sorry, but it really was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the place.  I blame it on the fact that I was drinking when playing both games.

I can see why you might imagine it like that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.freakygaming.com/gallery/game_wallpapers/world_of_warcraft/molten_core.jpg

Also, it seems only natural that a place that is essentially Hell would be full of things that Dwarves cannot use. It is Dwarven Hell, where all the bad/stupid/noble dwarves go when they die. Of course there'd be nothing there for them to craft, except maybe the remains of demons (but how they'd kill the demons I cannot fathom).

I had a thought: what if we could get refugees out of the glowing pits? They could be peasants, with no clothes or items with them and no skills, and would sometimes spawn with wounds from their torture. You could save them and allow them to join your fort, and after patching them up have them work and serve their saviours. Even better: have them share the names of figures from worldgen who died, and even add in Legends mode: "Urist Mcrefugee died in the year 132, and was later retrieved from the underworld in the year 824".

And then, as we gather ever more refugees, we could truly begin the conquer Hell itself.

[KillerClowns]

I was bored, so I crunched some numbers.  I exported data from a medium-sized world, and looked for the largest population of non-unnumbered creatures; flies, with a population of 28,629,129.  I then counted the number of demonic species (23) and multiplied it together with the fly population numbers I got.  The resulting number was, strictly speaking, less than the minimum possible population
I'd like to know what the cutoff point for "unnumbered" is, but according to my calculations:
Minimum demonic population > 658,469,967
That's a strictly greater than sign, and a very large number.
Well, my little "dwarfkind should conquer hell" idea is looking kind of dismal.

[Zironic]

When I find a "deep tunnel" should I be afraid?

[Glacial Eidolon]

I just unleashed the demon horde and my dogs ripped a few fiends of steam to shreds (before being killed by the more deadly boiling brutes and winged fiends)... Amusingly, the fiends of steam failed to do anything with their steam attacks except... erm, scald themselves (apparently not even the demons around them). If I recall, they also kicked my dogs and dwarves before dying. Their attacks were mostly deflected by my dwarf's pig tail cloaks, making them useless.

I think throughout the whole time I was fighting them they did nothing except scald themselves and cause a few bruises. The other demons, however....

[The Mad Engineer]

Of course the legions of hell outnumber us.  Think about it.  Each generation, a fraction that represents the total amount of bad people alive gets added to the population count.  And considering the Kobold's love of theft, the goblin's love of war, the elves' love of being elfish, and dwarves'... yeah... that fraction is a significant amount.  As the population of the world increases exponentially, the population of hell increases at an even higher order.  Every demon you fight is actually a damned soul.

Please please please please please let the next version have heaven.  I want to fight blood angels and meet Armok!  It is my dream that one day "A Kobold's quest II" might be accomplished in game.

[immibis]

When I find a "deep tunnel" should I be afraid?

I think a deep tunnel is just an underground road. So no, not really. But you should be a little bit careful, invaders can probably come through it

[Fault]

DIG GREEDY... DIG DEEP!



EXCELLENT! I found one.



Oh no. This could be bad.



Je-E-e-E-e-E-e-E-e-SUS FUCK!!!

IT"S A GODDAMN ZOMBIE FORTRESS

Somewhere in there lies an Adamantine Longsword.

It must be mine.

[The Mad Engineer]

ITS A TRAP!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Somewhere in there lies an Adamantine Longsword. It must be mine.

You SURE you want to do that? I mean, it's alot of zombies to wade through for one little sword...

[Fault]

yeah I sent a miner in there (he had to dig up underneath the slade, cause you can't dig through it normally)

Of course, then the skelephants came pooring down the ramp after him..

I did uncover a bit of the temple's contents though. The upright adamantine sword was surrounded by blue tiles labeled "glowing floor"...

I wonder if they can be mined to get raw GLOW