Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[OldMiner]

I had a saved game from DF 0.22.120.23a, just downloaded DF 0.22.120.23b, and found my Craftsdwarf, Mistêm Ralam, oddly flickering yellow to red, in a most seizure-inducing fashion.  He has this flickering look both under the unit list and when [v]iewing dwarves on the overhead map.  Soon, the still he was occupying with several others, all seeking a healthy alcoholic drink, was filled with smoke.  And it would appear underground smoke makes dwarves decidedly unhappy.  Bad news.

It is early autumn, underground, in a temparate climate, on the west side of the underground river.  I doubt there is any legitimate reason for his sudden combustion.  Luckily, drinking alcohol while aflame does not kill you, nor catch the highly flammable alcohol on fire -- yet.

He does have an artifact, a silk mace -- please don't explain to me how that works in itself -- but I don't know how to determine what is on fire -- him, his clothes, or my rage at his making an artifact and not turning legendary.  Regardless, I am unhappy with the smoke he's constantly creating in his wake, disturbing his fellow dwarves.  Also, from what I've heard about his likely future death by steam, I'm not going to be saving under this new version.

I reloaded the game after force-quitting to see if it was repeatable, and it was.  When the game is loaded, paused, he is not on fire, normal blue colored.  Unpause, and he's instantly aflame.  I find it interesting that he is troubled by the smoke he produces, but not so much the being on fire part.  Apparently being aflame is not an unhappy event, but the byproducts are.

Meanwhile, I'll be reverting to the earlier version of dwarf fort till the present fire bugs get hammered out.

I believe this is a bug.  I'll be saving a copy of the save in case anyone (e.g. Toady) is interested in a copy.

[ December 12, 2006: Message edited by: OldMiner ]

[Toady One]

Was this artifact created in an older version?  Back when there were all kinds of weird artifacts with blank materials and strange materials being created?  If any of the materials used to create the artifact weren't recognized properly, it might give nonsense autoignition points, including ones that cause the object to burst into flame and torch the holder.

[OldMiner]

quote:Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>Was this artifact created in an older version?</STRONG>

Nope.  As stated, this is a game from the previous version.  The world may have been generated a few versions previous, but the actual game, and all the dwarves in it, are from the just prior 'a' version.  The mace was created with mostly shell and bone plus, apparently, some silk.  I honestly didn't seem him actually pick up the silk, but the stockpiles were all right next to one another, so I might have just missed it.

[OldMiner]

Oh, and that raises one additional question -- Is there any way to tell which items, if any, a dwarf has on that are on fire in dwarf mode?  It might help for, say, commanding them to change their weapon (if weapon is on fire), or change their armor settings (if armor on fire), or give up and wait for their steamy demise (if clothing on fire).

[Varil]

Hm. I could go for some wine. *WHOOSH* EGADS! I'M ON FIRE! OH MY DWARVES! IT BURNS! IT...IT...it doesn't seem too hot at all. Hmm. *cough* *gasp* Smoke's makin' me dwarvin' eyes water, though. *cough* Durn smoke.

[RP]

quote:Originally posted by Varil:
<STRONG>Hm. I could go for some wine. *WHOOSH* EGADS! I'M ON FIRE! OH MY DWARVES! IT BURNS! IT...IT...it doesn't seem too hot at all. Hmm. *cough* *gasp* Smoke's makin' me dwarvin' eyes water, though. *cough* Durn smoke.</STRONG>

LOL. Isn't he going to set the wine on fire too?

Ah, a drink... *WHOOMP* Dagnabit.

[Toady One]

The burning items are surrounded by double ! in their inventories.

[OldMiner]

Then that means it's not his clothes or items on fire at all, but actually himself.  No exclamation points appear, neither dobuled nor singled.

For giggles I loaded up the archived save file again with the latest patch (b).  The problem was observed -- still repeatable.  Next, I loaded up the more recent version of my fortress I've been playing on (a), and wanted to see if the same problem happened if I opened it under (b).

Surprisingly enough, it does.  Mistêm (and only Mistêm) sets on fire after single stepping just once after loading the paused game.

The natural question that arises at this point is, "What does a craftsdwarf sound like as he dies in a brutal steam explosion?"  Being a naturally curious dwarfmonger, I set to drafting good sir Ralam and then ordering him to the fortress' as-yet-unused second agrarian plot, and proceeded to flood the area around him.  After a bit of struggling and burbling, I turned off the floodwaters to find a whole, entirely healthy...still smoking...craftsdwarf.

I guess this is likely more to do with flows not being updated entirely yet and temperature transfer not entirely being in.  But this seems to confirm there's no fire, just smoke generation...

I'd be happy to email the region file and folder in a ZIP file, or just point to a URL where you can grab it if you're so inclined.  Unfortunately, its size is a good 8MB, and the bandwidth on my wee server is limited, so I'm leery of posting it here.

[OldMiner]

Alright, a hopefully final reply to myself.  

For a little further checking, I drowned off my craftsdwarf.  The spot where his corpse lied still smoked most excessively, so I set a bunch of dwarves to only do item and/or burial hauling, and waited to see if they moved the smoke-producing item.  Well, it looks like it is indeed the artifact being screwy.  When it is hauled by a dwarf, it causes the hauler to also flicker as if on fire. Once placed inside a weapon bin, the bin continues to smoke, though the bin does not flicker like the dwarves do when they contain burning items.

The messed up artifact might just be some mundane buffer overflow problem, since I've never been able to see the mace's full name.  It's always cut off at 'âmzanor Lathodîbeshzursul Össek, "Spokenhearts the Mythical Crazy Sever o...'  Or perhaps it's because the game has some emergent intelligence where it realizes maces composed of silk are not terribly effective for goblin slaughtering, and it just wants to burn away the very idea.

[Toady One]

Any artifact that failed to comply with the material restrictions will have all kinds of issues.

So what's the deal with nonsense artifacts currently?  Last I checked, it was all resolved.  But they are making silk maces now?  Any blank material artifacts?  Just for the last few versions.

[OldMiner]

quote:Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>Any artifact that failed to comply with the material restrictions will have all kinds of issues.

So what's the deal with nonsense artifacts currently?  Last I checked, it was all resolved.  But they are making silk maces now?  Any blank material artifacts?  Just for the last few versions.</STRONG>

Nope, this was the first really screwy artifact that I recall.  I mean, so long as you don't think an artifact mechanism is weird in and of itself.  (Something that is only useful if it's used to make something else is sort of less-than-impressive.  I'm waiting for a weaver to make an artifact chunk of cloth.)

Although it does seem odd that he took over a craftsdwarf shop and made a mace at it.  Is that abnormal?  Or can weapons be made at both the metalsmith and the craftsdwarf shop when people are insane?  (Makes some sense, since you can make obsidian short swords as the crafts shop already.)

[Pacho]

Looks like our first taste of magic in Dwarf Fortress!  I couldn't help but laugh as I read the thread, it just sounds so freakishly odd.

[Toady One]

The material determines the shop for the most part (it's actually the skill they are using).  So if it's a silk mace, they'd go to the crafts  shop.  But a mace shouldn't be a valid output type.