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[Cespinarve]

Alright, so I have seen it noted that there is a limit of 256 tiles and that they are all in use. Why, and, why can this not be increased?

[gtmattz]

Why, and, why can this not be increased?

As with most any other question starting with 'why' in regards to DF, the answer is simply 'because that is the way Toady has it'.

As a side note, if you use TTF mode, all of the tiles for letters are freed up for use in other things, however TTF support is not fully implemented yet, so re-tasking the alphanumeric tiles tends to bork a few different screens.  Have a look at ironhands tileset for reference to this.

[Urist Imiknorris]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Character_set#What_tiles_are_used_for_what

Tiles not used:

◙ (10)
↕ (18)
∟ (28)
↔ (29)
ì (141)
Ä (142)
É (144)
ù (151)
₧ (158)
á (160)
í (161)
ú (163)
ª (166)
¬ (170)
½ (171)
¼ (172)
╢ (182) (may be used for smaller rivers entering a major one, not sure)
╟ (199) (see above)
⌡ (245)

[Cespinarve]

I'm just worried that there'll be a point where Toady cannot add something new to the game because all his tile options are being utilized.

[gtmattz]

I'm just worried that there'll be a point where Toady cannot add something new to the game because all his tile options are being utilized.

I am sure that if the time comes Toady will be able to expand the number of tiles if needed.  As it stands, you can already specify custom tiles for all the creatures with graphics packs, if needed he can just use the same code to apply to all the stuff covered in the main tileset and ditch tilesets altogether(which TTF support is the first step to acheiving).

[Lamphare]

i think to expand the tileset, some other character-encoding table is needed, other than the much exerted ASCII.
currently you dont get to exceed 255.

[Hans Lemurson]

I'm just worried that there'll be a point where Toady cannot add something new to the game because all his tile options are being utilized.

It has already come.  What happens when an Elf, and Ettin, and an Elephant all come into a room?  Cows and Camels?  Bridges and walls?  Vertical spikes, a well's bucket-chain, and north/south flying crossbow bolts?  What about the commands for making a Soapmaker's workshop or a Slab?

Toady in one of his interviews has admitted that he's already restricted by the limits of ASCII graphics.  It sure did enable rapid prototyping, though!

[Cespinarve]

I'm just worried that there'll be a point where Toady cannot add something new to the game because all his tile options are being utilized.

It has already come.  What happens when an Elf, and Ettin, and an Elephant all come into a room?  Cows and Camels?  Bridges and walls?  Vertical spikes, a well's bucket-chain, and north/south flying crossbow bolts?  What about the commands for making a Soapmaker's workshop or a Slab?

Toady in one of his interviews has admitted that he's already restricted by the limits of ASCII graphics.  It sure did enable rapid prototyping, though!

But is it correctible? How much work and code re-writes would be needed to increase the tiles. IS it something he simply hasn't found the time for, or is it a save-breaking six month long rewrite of so many different little things?

[gtmattz]

i think to expand the tileset, some other character-encoding table is needed, other than the much exerted ASCII.
currently you dont get to exceed 255.

Well the thing is, the game is not really using ascii, it is simply using a tile sheet which is simply a matter of mapping what tile is where.  This is really beginner game programming stuff right here...
As I said in my last post to this topic, The game already supports odd sized tile sheets with the graphics support, so the underlying architecture is already there, it is really just going to be a matter of changing where any specific entity goes to look for its graphics, and according to some posts by Baughn in the Ironhand thread, there is a good possibility that everything is going to be using this code some time in the near future.

tl;dr: this is a non-issue, the means to handle any shortage of tiles are already in the game.