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[FearfulJesuit]

In regular Dwarf Fortress, there are three axes of sight: north/south, east/west, and up/down.

Idea: using a fourth set of "arrow keys", make a 4th dimension mod...

[Wirevix]

Your 4th dimension key is ".", the one-step-forward key while paused.  And save-scumming is the closest you get to a "backwards" key.

Being able to fast-forward and rewind would be amusing, but fast-forward wouldn't be able to combat FPS loss because it couldn't make the game not have to calculate everything that it calculates anyway.  Rewinding would be an alternative to save-scumming, but seems like it'd be pretty unfeasible to hack in.

[612DwarfAvenue]

Hm, Braid Fortress...

[BigD145]

Hm, Braid Fortress...

I think my CPU just widdled itself.... in fear of melting into complete slag.

[Stungun]

I don't think he's talking about time as the fourth dimension, Wirevix.

And that said, it's a bad idea to try and represent a four-dimensional environment, which is extremely difficult for any normal human to comprehend. Can you honestly try to envision a tesseract (like a cube but four dimensional instead of three)? Can you honestly comprehend how you would play a four-dimensional fortress?

And how would creatures traverse across this dimension? How would your dwarves slip into another W-level? (arbitrary letter used for that coordinate.) How would you keep track of potential attackers coming from the fourth dimension, especially when combining that with the existing third? How would leaking fluids travel across different W-levels?

You'd basically have to be keeping track of a matrix of two-dimensional environments (with one axis being Z-levels, and the other being these 'W-levels'), from a player's standpoint... and that kind of fortress planning would be just beyond all sensibilities.

[profit]

In theory you could represent the fourth dimension by a color gradiant superimposed on the 2 dimensional DF map.  But since you cannot even see three dimensions now the rate at which it would get confusion would be somewhere around lim(0)seconds.

I dont know how it would improve gameplay either...

However...

I think it actually is doable... and would look freaky and weird.   Maybe show how close something is in the fourth dimension to the dimension a dwarf was in by alpha blending so that as it got closer it became more and more opaque.

Hell throw fifth dimensional creatures in with a red shift....

[darius]

I suggest making a world gen parameter- spacial coordinate count (1,2,3...,1258...) this way everyone would be happy (and bonus points for having 2d era back, somebody wanted that)

[Lancensis]

Hmm. You might get a lot of pathing lag on a 1-dimensional fort, but at least fortress defense would be simpler

[Phmcw]

It is useless, yet awesome. I wish it will be done, but doesn't believe it.
(better yet, hell would be in four spacial dimension once you go through the glowing pits.
Now colonize THAT!)

[Levi]

Dang gobbos would always get in my fortress through some 4th dimensional opening I missed. 

[Deon]

Nac Mac Feedle Fortress.

[Lancensis]

"An animal has become a War Hound of Tindalos"

[Musashi]

What exactly do you mean by 4th dimension, if it isn't time? 

[darius]

See here: A puzzle with 4th dimension

[Zidane]

I think dhokarena56, is He Who Shall Not Be Named. Trying to trick us into revealing some unknown horror.