Tales from Dwarf Fortress

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » May 7th, 2010, 9:38

Dog Pants wrote:I'd say use the same starting point, that way we get the most similarity. I don't mind where it is - in fact somewhere a little more difficult might make it more interesting (and quicker). The desert start I did was certainly interesting. In fact, we could use one of the recover sites.

that all sounds good to me, i was going to ask if it would be easier for you to put a save up for other people to grab than it would be for you to get the save if someone else did it?

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 7th, 2010, 9:55

I don't know, I've never tried to upload such a large file. The region file only looks to be about 50MB, so it's probably not a problem for me to download and it's not like we'll be moving them around a lot.

If we all start games with a new region does that mean we lose our old ones, along with our current games?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 7th, 2010, 10:01

How well do the saves compress? I'd expect very well if they're that big.

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 7th, 2010, 10:22

Dunno, I'll give it a go.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 7th, 2010, 11:01

Dog Pants wrote:I don't know, I've never tried to upload such a large file. The region file only looks to be about 50MB, so it's probably not a problem for me to download and it's not like we'll be moving them around a lot.

If we all start games with a new region does that mean we lose our old ones, along with our current games?

The whole save game naming is retarded. I can never work out which one was my latest save. Even sorting the folder by date/time doesn't seem to work and when I load the 'latest' one it somehow ends up being an older savegame. Am I missing something obvious?

And yeah, it appears you can only have one region live at a time. I think.

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 7th, 2010, 11:03

I can't work it out either. I just continue game.

A zipped up region (my region at least) is 47MB. Not a huge compression.

Post by **HereComesPete** » May 7th, 2010, 11:03

Doesn't look like it's a cpu/gpu hungry game, could you not run two distinct and separate copies?

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 7th, 2010, 11:04

Probably, but it is a HDD hungry game. My DF folder is 2.4GB.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » May 7th, 2010, 11:11

I get the impression that the game's code isn't very efficient and it's quite resource hungry, especially for a text based game. For me it will stop responding for a few seconds during loading and saving.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 7th, 2010, 11:24

Probably. Mind you, the ASCII interface belies a pretty complex bunch of code in the background. Apparently the first version had graphics, but he ditched that in favour of improved gameplay. Good call imo.

(And most games stop responding during load/save - they just hide it better

)

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » May 7th, 2010, 11:56

friznit wrote:Probably. Mind you, the ASCII interface belies a pretty complex bunch of code in the background.

Indeed. I played enough of the game to see how deep it goes and it gave me the fear, so I stopped. I'm not criticising the game overall, it's obviously an incredible feat. It's just that it's one bloke doing all the work and he's obviously focusing more on the core gameplay than anything else.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 7th, 2010, 12:08

Yeah. Kinda wish more game devs would do that eh?

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » May 7th, 2010, 12:16

im pretty sure ive had multiple forts running in one region at a time, i will just check, ive made 8 regions and played like 12 games , still have most of the saves for them all.

the saves are done by the fortress name, and then game type, and then its the region number and the season and year, the only problem is its not the translated fortress name so it can be a bit confusing, so i find its easier to remember the region it was in, although then it gets confusing when you have multiple fortresses in one region

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » May 7th, 2010, 21:35

i quickly slapped a squad together in my newest fort and somehow managed to get them to do proper training, or atleast wait to do proper training if the arsenal dorf wasnt shit at his job as theres aparantly some equipment mismatches, although that couldve been cos of the weapon traps i built

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » May 7th, 2010, 21:45

that was lucky timing on drafting that first squad, i just had my first snatcher, and imidiatly after i killed him an ambush arrived, who got caught in my traps and then slaughtered by my fresh recruits

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 7th, 2010, 22:20

I've just had my first gobbo ambush, 2 years in. They killed a peasant and then got rapidly dispatched by my squad.

Something nasty in the army screen causes CTDs. I seem to have fixed it by stripping all their gear, dispanding the squads and reforming them. They're now properly sporting a full set of gear and training happily.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 9th, 2010, 14:21

had my first gobba siege today, which I saw off with only 2 or 3 losses. Unfortunately the game then CTD'd so I had to do it all again. When it CTD's a second time I gave up. Not worth the effort if it's going to keep doing that.

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 9th, 2010, 14:29

Siege seems to be a bit of a misnomer, since it's just extra goblins with some critters. Shame about the CTDs though. I've not had a single one.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » May 9th, 2010, 14:31

Yeha, I've not CTD'd either.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » May 9th, 2010, 17:46

Hmm. Maybe I'll try running on a single core.

Then again, I'm not convinced my machine is entirely happy. Odd things crash oddly but it's all very sporadic and non-repeatable. Possibly time to upgrade to 7 from fista64 I s'pose.