User talk:Teres Draconis

the sig

(pulled from below to form it's own section)

again, for my benefit, because I never remember how to do this... --jaz ... on this day, at this time.

duh, me... there's a sig button. I've gotten used to typing it out by hand, though. No timestamp, but hey, time is relative.

It's --~~~~. Comes with built in timestamp.--Zchris13 23:17, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Ok, several people have commented in several places (including in that horrible meatspace place... no, not the b(u)tcher shop, the other one) about my, uh, "unusual timestamp". Part of it is that yes, there is a sig button(which I didn't see the first time because there are more than three buttons and I was more concerned with content than italics and such). Yes, there is a nifty tildy thing (which I would, no doubt, forget how many to put in anyways)... but I've gotten used to typing it out by hand, and really. Who cares /when/ it was written? It was written before you read it this time, and after last time (if there was one)... or possibly, if you've read the comment in question a few times, the time three before that. It should be clear in context of who it's responding to (of?) what it was written after, and who commented on it and therefore wrote after it, ...and, really, does it truly change the nature of the universe if it was always there and you just didn't notice??? So, thank you all for your helpful pointing out of things that at one point or other I didn't know. I do really apreciate it because yes, I am new, and no, I don't know everything. And yes, there are still many things I seek to learn. I think, though, I will continue on my merry way, typing it out by hand, with my own unusual timestamp. -- jaz (you're on my page, you don't get a link) ... on this day, sometime after the post being commented on.

The timestamp is for other people's convenience. Although it seems you think others shouldn't care when something was written, that will not stop them (or me) from wanting to know. Considering it is actually less work for you to let people know than to deprive them of that knowledge, perhaps you should include the timestamp. VengefulDonut 23:36, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Definately not FOUO

Hehe... FOUO huh? :p -Edward 22:34, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

No. Definately not. For everyone's use... The page that is, not me. I'm definately FOUO and permissions are hard to come by. - jaz

My personal note taking place

A lot of the following is just for my own personal note taking stuff. Feel free to add or comment or whatever. I don't mind. Some of these questions may be answered in the forums. I'll go check at some point, until then, this is where I'm storing my questions so I don't forget what it was I wanted to ask. ... the personality tags aught to have one for forgetfulness... which would related directly to how long they continue to think about things that have happened. One who was extremely forgetful might not list "slept in the rain" for as long as someone who had a clear recollection of things long past.

I play three versions of the game, randomly... one, the pure, out of the box, only thing messed with are the init files. Another with minor modifications to things like, oh... domestic cats are spayed when captured (affected by the child tags being replaced with [NO_GENDER])... we'll just pretend that they continue to breed like crazy out in the wilds.

--- For my modding purposes (uh, I've turned the smelter into a store to "buy" stuff from) , if anyone knows the TYPE:SUBTYPE:MATERIAL:MATGLOSS tags for any of the following, please please pretty please share them.

ivory, pearl, coral (I don't care if the creatures still don't drop them. I can "buy" it from my smelter, once I figure out the values for them)

containers with stuff in them. (for example, the cage the cow is in, the bag the sand is in, etc.) I figure the contents have to be listed seperately, but how do you get a barrel full of booze, and not booze in one hand and barrel in the other?... though, hey, now I have the idea for a booze-rfall. Must go attempt.

Sadly, the boozerfall did not work. Nor the blooderfall that I had going in the smelter next to it (I figured, two trials for the price of one)... Even using a smelter to make a waterfall doesn't work. Apparently, any liquid product from the smelter, even if it is not stackable, does not flow out of the smelter, no matter how many you have... and if you unmake the smelter in the attempt to let it flow, it does not, but rather mysteriously vanishes into the unseen ether.... for my trial I used the (seemingly absurd) number 13,263. Strangely, 13263 waters will not overflow the smelter, nor run down the channels next to it, nor anything. They just sit in the smelter, making it nie impossible to use due to the liquid clutter.

It would have been glorious, though. The plains flooded with Dwarven Ale. The gentle nurse lowering her bucket into the giant lake of booze to tote back to the wounded soldiers. The Generator [1] making sweet smelling (and potentially intoxicating) mists... Sadly, this method does not work. I'll see if I can find another...

Perhaps if I fill a room with 10000 barrels of booze, and then go mod the melting tempurature of the barrels to really low? Or, hmmm... wonder if you can make barrels out of ice? No, it acts like rock, and there are no rock barrels... except for... so maybe, hmmmm... ok! Gonna go try that next!

"plant cheeses"... like, say, tofu. ... how do I get the plants to let me make cheese from the extract? Twice I've tried, twice I've failed. I can keep experimenting, but... eh.

- For the game designers and those who speak to them (go ahead, claim credit, I'm ok with that)... things I'd like to see in future versions...

cobalt being used like crystal in glass making to make cobalt glass... you know, that pretty blue glass everyone loves?

a way to burn wooden items to get ash or charcoal the way you can melt a metal object to get the bars back.

a way to mod the workshops themselves. For instance, when I tell the manager I want to make 300 cheeses, I don't want the "make cheese" task to fill up the farmer's workshop I've dedicated to my spinner (making plant thread). I can dedicate /who/ works there. I'd like to dedicate the kinds of tasks that can be performed there, too.

I know I can make a task repeatable... but if I want to save out 100 of my 400 barrels of milk for direct cooking, and don't want to have to forbid them, unforbid them, etc... besides, this was an example... could just as easily be "make stone toys" at the bone carver's shop.

I'd like to see a tag to put on things like sheep that allows for sheering. I want to make wool cloth without having to slaughter my sheep for them. ... and angoras, too. Poor bunnies. Not that I get cloth now... I get leather still, but...

Probably would have the same problem as milking currently does. Perhaps when they get around to fixing that, they may put this one in as well... if someone makes them think of it.

I'd like to be able to make dyes from animal products. For instance, there are snails that produce a lovely purple color when crushed. No, I'm not with PETA, how did you guess?

I'd like to be able to dye worked cloth. The dress was made with undyed cloth? Should be easy to fix. I'd also like to be able to redye dyed cloth. In real life it would simply add color but I'd be ok with a "paint over" kind of effect.

Maybe mix dyes to make new colors? ... The only way I can think of right now to mod that in is to have a plant for each of them and then smelt two dyes into something else, red and blue make purple like iron and pig iron make steel.

And then there's... clay. You have a perfectly good kiln and I can't figure what it's good for except making clear glass at the glass workers furnace... I wouldn't mind so much except that its a whole "workshop" with only 1 (sub)task that I don't use very much. Usually only 3 times if I even have sand (vials for the soaper), and otherwise not at all. Go ahead and add another workshop if you like (the potter's wheel) and then put that kiln to use. Suddenly you've got clay crafts (mugs, etc), bricks, etc. But only if you have a source of clay.

I think bones (raw hides, skulls, shells) should be binable. I mean, really. I have 10 fishbones a cat's skull and a turtle shell that take up the same floorspace as 12 beds?!? Put them in a bin. On raw hides: it rots. Ok, two choices. One: don't let me bin this. I'll still be happy if I can bin the friggin' bones, shells, skulls. Or, two: The rot spreads to everything it touches, and, since it's "in" something, it produces miasma. Even if the bin is outside. I don't think that "rat remains" and "dog chunks" and such should be binable. I mean, ew. Also, those don't go into the workshop stockpiles for processing. At least, not in /my/ fortresses. ... again, ew.

... One or two last thoughts before I actually post this...

Is there a way to make a mixed group of creatures that spawn together? I mean, take your average herd in Africa. You're going to have zebras and elephants and girraffs and several other things besides, often all walking together. Sure, often you find a herd of just elephants, but often you'll find one or two in a mix of other things as well. And flocks of birds who travel with them, too.

I'm considering adding a new medium-heavy mod that accounts for things like mixed herds, beehives (worker bees, queen bee, guard bees), maybe beemen... though antmen could use this, too. Antmen could maybe have pet Giant Aphids (who, storywise they milk but who aren't tamable to humanoids)...

And, thirdly (I know I said one or two)... feralization. I can keep my tame but unclaimed pets mostly in one area by defining it as a meeting zone... but if I don't... and if they wander off (even if they don't)... I think that if they don't see one of their caretakers for, oh, two seasons (maybe less... maybe a tag that says how quickly?)... they should feralize. Easy way is just to make them go back to being the wild version of that creature. If it's in the wrong biome... uh, oops? Might die sooner? Might get eaten by a grue, I mean, uh... Another way is to make a whole other classification (wild, tame, feral)... maybe it adjusts how aggressive it is. Maybe not. Maybe it adjusts how easily it goes back to being tame. Would this tag be passed on to it's young? Or would the young just be "wild" to start with? If you were near another outpost, city or whatever, would you have their feral creatures start wandering into your area on occasion? Just what you need, the neighbor's feral dragon has decided your keep is it's new home!

Ok, Done. I'll edit and such later, and reduce the noise as I get answers. Or, you know, you can if you like. Whatever.

-jaz

I would really really like to see a little option pop up. When everything pauses and recenters because the miners struck something new on a level, and it says ... whatever it says... I'd like there to be a (d)ig, (s)trip, (f)orbid option.

(d)ig would just dig the squares you've already designated.

(s)trip would designate for mining squares of that type, on that level, /as they are discovered/, even if they aren't currently designated. If it's done "as discovered", you won't neccissarily know how much you're getting until it's done, thus maintaining the mystery. You should still be able to undesignate squares that have been designated automatically.

(f)orbid would un-designate squares of that type, on that level, as they are discovered.

That way I don't have my newbie miner failing the attempt to mine out the diamonds. I can just leave them there for later. And if I have 4 levels of mining going on, I can't watch every level all the time to see if a new deposite of something already mentioned shows up, or whatever... I can just say "no, not that" as it's discovered, and all the miners know to leave it, and all other instances of it, alone.

Umm... Yay for vodka

Yay?--Zchris13 02:18, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

actually, I was thinking "rootbeer", but since there are no non-alcoholic drinks in DF (except milk, which no one, not even elves, actually drinks)... well ... vodka it is! Wheee! -- jaz ... on this day, at this time.

Noise Reduction

Things that got answered... They will get deleted out all together at some point as I don't want this talks page to be 40 bajillion pages long.

Zchris13 distroyed my dreams of milkable cows via the [milkable:33333] tag on 23:17, 19 May 2009 (UTC) I cried. Bad you, making (potentially pretty, but who can tell through the computer screen) girls cry. No, really. Ok, I admit maybe it's not your fault, but... can you explain why the tag seems to work for the purring maggots? I don't speak geek, so go slowly. The words "hard coded" do not help, btw. I've heard that before.

-

Which brings me to paints. I think there should be a way to make paints. So-and-so likes the color lavender? Paint his room that color. I think that painting things should remove the preference bonuses for things that are made with a prefered material (if she likes oak and green, and all of her oak furnature is painted green, it gets the personal value bonus for green, but not oak.) I'm not sure I stated that clearly, but hey, whatever.

You do realize that the Great and Mighty Toady One doesn't frequent the wiki, and isn't going to check your wiki talk page anywho. Put it on the forum. --Zchris13 23:17, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

I know the other Toady (my sister has been Toady longer than he has, so he's stuck with "the other one" in my mind, even if he is also the /better/ one in my mind) doesn't read these things. That's why I also said that anyone else could bring it to their attention. I'm ok with that.... (I'm not so foolish as to think Giant Toads would even notice a little olm like me.)

(I whine now, feel free to skip)I have problems with the forum. There's too much stuff there. I can somewhat manage with the wiki because there's less to wade through since I've been wading through it since it was a wee little wiki. I have poor google-fu and don't like repeating a question that's already been answered. Makes me feel foolish and like I didn't bother to research when I just spent an hour looking for it because I worded it differently than they did. But I am happy to try twice more, because you asked.

Commented on someone else's string. Added my two bits. Going to go see what other of my noises can be reduced by such activity. - jaz

-

Zchris13 tells me there will be a way of saying "creature A and creature B can breed together to make creature C" in the next release. I mean, where do you think mules come from? I have several donkies of both genders, I have several horses of both genders... every once in a while, instead of getting a donkey foal or a horse foal, I (will, next release) be getting a mule foal... and no, mules still can't breed (IRL, anyways. We'll see about IG).

Will there also be a way of preventing such things? I mean, if I keep my horses in one vault and my donkies in another, am I going to get a whole seasons worth of foaling turned into mules? -- the ever curious jaz