I was going through the DF0.31 attributes (still using .01, admittedly, but don't supposed it's changed much) and their presentation[0], and the way that I handle them on my tracking spreadsheets (yeah... I know). With the old SAT (Strength Agility Toughness) measures having been both extended and reimplemented from the general area into what I think of as the "Is/ButIs" part of the description screen[1], where I had to use a different way of recording them than before, I realised that arbitrarily ordering the attributes for Health, Endurance, Agility, Recovery, Toughness and Strength like that, the initials (from which my spreadsheets handle the details) I get the word "HEARTS". So I wondered if I could do the same with the "Has/ButHas" section that follows the preferences.
The trouble is, of course, is that there are (if I've properly identified all distinct and partnered qualities, on both positive and negative sides) thirteen of the blighters. This means both a longer word (or grouping of smaller words) and a bigger issue about what initials to give to each attribute.
The following are mostly ordered (in the dwarf description) by descending order of magnitude, as per the HEARTS set, but I've provisionally boiled them down, in my mind to (alphabetically):
- A(nalysis) - Qualities mentioning "analytical abilities" and also "intellect", if I have it right, but the latter clashes with 'intuition'.
- C(reativity) - All that I've seen/identified, on my Dwarfs, mention just that word.
- E(mpathy) - And/or "E(motions)", but that makes no difference to initial.
- F(ocus) - Again, seems to be a universal keyword.
- I(ntuition) - Another seemingly universal keyword.
- K(inesthetic Sense) - Also covers a couple of "position of his/her own body" phrases, of course, but "P" is used elsewhere.
- L(anguages) - Apart from "very little linguistic ability", which is close enough, seems to be always a mention of "language" and/or "words" (but "W" clashes)
- M(emory) - ASUK.
- P(atience) - ASUK.
- R(elationships) - Technically, I suppose, it could be "Social Relationships", but "S" would clash with the following.
- S(patial sense) - Also seen "a great feel for the surrounding space", but haven't encoutered a complete set yet[2].
- W(illpower) - Mentions either "will" or "willpower".
That leaves one: "Music" or "Musical Ability" (taken straight from the descriptions I've seen) both clash with Memory for its initial. Going to both mental and physical thesauri: "Performance" clashes with Patience; "Entertainment" with Empathy; "Amusement" (or any variant on the word Audio) with Analysis (unless I could shuffle it back to "Intellect" and change "Intuition"); "Song"/"Sonorousness"/etc clashes with Spatial Sense. So I've stumped (provisionally) for the rather less direct T(unefulness). One way or another, at least one term needs to not be the same as a primary keyword.
So, we have ACEFIKLMPRSTW. But what word(s) could that make?
One of the things that pops out is FLICK PRAM STEW. Which is maybe a partial reference to Dwarven food, but isn't particularly good for all that. Of course there are only three vowels, meaning one has to rely upon some consonant pairings (maybe triplets) /and/ judicious word gaps to eke out the phonemes.
Perhaps the solution is to turn one of the consonant descriptors into a vowel (or Y), or just to another 'rolling consonant' (although the R and L are already used) or H could modify things. Abandoning uniqueness could work, also, but would play hell with my underlying spreadsheeting system that I use.
So, this may be a distraction from the regular discussions on this bit of the forum, but I still think it's relevant to ask here if anyone can spot any thing interesting... Perhaps even know of an intentioned initialism, from the Toady's mouth!
(Of course, the next big task[3] that I've not even tried to sort out is integrating the "When worried"/etc stuff into the personality set listings, which otherwise seems to follow the 40D layout (including the Alcohol, outdoors and PTSD[4] reflective and occasionally modifiable traits), although I really don't think it's worth trying to initialise those fields.
- There's probably a wealth of information on the Wiki and mentioned (in passing or in whole treatises) on the forum, but it's the kind of person I am that I'm doing as much of this myself, by myself, for myself. Although if I then later spot I can usefully add to the Wiki anything not already mentioned (but the mamny, many people who are doubtless well ahead of me through collaborative analysis and even backwards engineering), I may well do so.
[1] The order the attributes are listed in (within and across the respective positive and negative sections) is by the indicated magnitude, overall best to overall worst. i.e. /very strong/ always before an /agile/ and /very agile/ always before /strong/. Within like magnitudes, however, there is no absolute consistency, possibly indicating that within the system there is a finer degree of magnitude stored than indicated by each label. But I've no doubt that everyone who cares has already worked that out. :)
[2] Am assuming 4 positive and 4 negative, from a couple of cumulative groupings I've seen. BICBW. 40D, of course, had six levels of SAT values (0==unmentioned and five levels of increasing positivity), another sign that things have changed.
[3] Before I even think of untangling the bodily features listings, noting that a largely underlying ordering of "build, eyes setting/shape, chin" sort of ordering is complicated by eye colour being listed right after skin colour if both are listed individually, but the former with the eye setting and shape if mentioned and the latter integrated into "wrinkled skin" and before "<hair colour> with a touch of gray" even though normally hair colour is immediately before skin colour. Still, there's an obvious pattern to it.
[4] I got a couple of early immigrants (autumn and winter of first year) with "X is getting used to tragedy" on arrival, on the game I later abandoned (and rolled back a couple of seasons[5]) due to the expedition leader dying of thirst from over-exuberantly pursuing the assigned Noble duties.
[5] I didn't want to explore this strange new world without the Broker and trading functions, so in this new trouser-leg of time I quickly re-assigned duties to immigrants that had arrived already with appropriate skills. Another interesting development. One was already better at book-keeping than the leader I had originally worn out.
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Topic: A good acronym/mnemonic? (Read 1045 times)