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[GhostDwemer]

We need a Dwarven Institute of Science.

I often find myself making quick little forts to test some theory I have, because I don't want to mess up my main fort. What if we played a succession game where we posed questions and then someone volunteered to download the fort and test out the theory? It would become a giant Dwarven Institute of Science! We would need a boringly safe and secure fort, but one with ready access to goblin test subjects, so that means a TON of cage traps as the main defense. We would need some cave in traps surrounded by cages as well, to deal with beasts.

Each experiment should be isolated as much as possible from the main fort. Ideally, one of the possible outcomes of each experiment should be a dead something. For instance, I want to know if water filtered through a grate will spread mud. I don't think it will. At the DIS, rather than simply filtering water through a grate and dumping it in a pit, we would lock a dwarf in a room with filtered water, a bucket, and a pit. If he can make a farm, we know that filtered water spreads mud. If he can't build a farm and dies of starvation, we know it doesn't. How long will it take dwarfs with various personality traits to go crazy in various circumstances? Will a dwarf eat his own pet if he gets hungry enough? What kills goblins faster, magma, or magma mist? Does adamantine protect from magma longer than steel? How quickly will a well in a busy meeting hall spread deadly contagion? How often can an elite goblin bowman shoot through fortifications ten tiles away? From six? From two? Will an elite goblin bowman on a rope shoot at a titan? What if he's locked in a watchtower? These are important questions, and gentledwarfs, we need answers!

The DIS would also serve as a demonstrator for various dwarven technologies, like reactors, repeaters, kitten operated spike traps, catapult stone movers, drop towers, and of course the ultimate goal of the institute will be to build a flying machine. I think we just need to build it entirely out of aluminum. Surely, that will be light enough to fly!

We could publish a thread of our questions and findings, call it "Ask Doctor Dwarf." Anyone up for this?

[Urist McUristy]

Sure, put the fort on an island, that way nothing can get to it.

[GhostDwemer]

Sure, put the fort on an island, that way nothing can get to it.

Right, I thought of that, but where would we get test subjects? I mean, there is only so much you can test on dwarfs alone. How do you pit a dwarf off a drop tower to find the optimal height for killing steel clad enemies without stripping them first?

[Urist McUristy]

Change the raws to make children and babies grow up immediately and make it where they breed like cats, or faster. Then take away their emotions, so they don't get tied to the subjects.

[GhostDwemer]

Changed the title, damn my fumble fingers. :/

[ISGC]

if you're planning on doing this, wait until a later stable version
I expect .19 will come out soon fixing most of the .18 problems

[GhostDwemer]

if you're planning on doing this, wait until a later stable version
I expect .19 will come out soon fixing most of the .18 problems

I haven't noticed any problems in 31.18. What do you mean? Looking on another thread, I see that some people appear to be having crashes. I'm not. Are there other problems with 31.18?

[GhostDwemer]

Change the raws to make children and babies grow up immediately and make it where they breed like cats, or faster. Then take away their emotions, so they don't get tied to the subjects.

Messing with the raws to make things easier also messes up the SCIENCE! And what's the point of making things easier? This is supposed to be a dwarven institute. Things should go horribly, horribly wrong as often as possible.

[GhostDwemer]

if you're planning on doing this, wait until a later stable version
I expect .19 will come out soon fixing most of the .18 problems

I haven't noticed any problems in 31.18. What do you mean? Looking on another thread, I see that some people appear to be having crashes. I'm not. Are there other problems with 31.18?

Um. Switching back to DF from this very post, it was locked up tighter than a nun's, uh, very precious things she wants to keep safe like in a safe deposit box or something. So, maybe you have something there.

[Tuxman]

I like this.

Always wanted to know which height is fatal to be dropped from...

[NewSheoth]

!!*Dwarven Institute of !!Science!!*!!

Now that is an idea I like. Let's test as many things as we can! And, by the way, we can re-establish the institute in every new version (or most of them anyway) to test out the new bugs.

[Urist McUristy]

!!*Dwarven Institute of !!Science!!*!!

Now that is an idea I like. Let's test as many things as we can! And, by the way, we can re-establish the institute in every new version (or most of them anyway) to test out the new bugs.

This is a masterful !!DWARVEN INSTITUTE!!. It menaces with spikes of !!SCIENCE!!

[UnrealJake]

I like it! I know it would be better to try it with a stabler version, but right now it's only a DSI, and we want a =DSI=... I'd put in the masterwork sign but I don't know how.

Getting some basic stuff out of the way, and each release we can test some stuff, if a new update has something big in it, a new material, a new profession etc. then we can try it ASAP.

We could do with setting a good world, without any embarktions. Try and keep it average [IE not too young, not too old etc] and then find some good stops, embark, save, and then upload them to here. That way people can start from scratch for their own things. And you could do this with basic forts with all the basic stuff like a few traps, rooms and farms.

I like it, let's get this thing on the go!

[kawaiidesunekochan]

ooo, I have an experiment to request!

Slade bins. You would probably need to hack the game to be able to make them. But if you do, how effective would they be when abandoning a fort, considering slade is the heaviest metal in the game? Would your items stored inside fly everywhere?

[Frogwarrior]

I like it! I know it would be better to try it with a stabler version, but right now it's only a DSI, and we want a =DSI=... I'd put in the masterwork sign but I don't know how.

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