The Making Of Dwarf Fortress

[Prime Junta]

English is the modern Latin. Just one of the things you have to know if you want to leave your village. Which doesn't mean you should neglect your native language, either.

The nice thing is that it's one hell of a language -- broad, rich, deep, expressive, with a bewildering variety of dialects, accents, variants, and pidgins, and a grammar that's relaxed enough that almost anything goes. Very well suited to the job, that is. I hate to admit that I prefer it to my own.

Re programming languages, there are plenty developed in languages other than English; they just never caught on in the mainstream. Here's an example from the 1950's, invented by one of your compatriots, a guy called Rutishauer:

 Für i = 10(-1)0
 ai =>= t
 (Sqrt Abs t) + (5 x t x t x t) =>= y
 Max(Sgn(y-400),0) =>= h
 Z 0i =>= b20-2i
 (h x 999) + ((1-h) x y) =>= b21-2i
 Ende Index i
 Schluss

My personal favorite is LOLCode, though.

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
	UP VAR!!1
	VISIBLE VAR
	IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE

Edit: I almost forgot: here's a language with some actual, serious uses that is based on no human language at all. It has a bit of an unfortunate name, though: "Brainfuck."

Here's a Brainfuck program that outputs square numbers from 0 to 10,000. (By Daniel Cristofani.)

++++[>+++++<-]>[<+++++>-]+<+[
    >[>+>+<<-]++>>[<<+>>-]>>>[-]++>[-]+
    >>>+[[-]++++++>>>]<<<[[<++++++++<++>>-]+<.<[>----<-]<]
    <<[>>>>>[>>>[-]+++++++++<[>-<-]+++++++++>[-[<->-]+[<<<]]<[>+<-]>]<<-]<<-
]

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I know that with English. I'm using it since the mid-80d (school) myself.

I think I can regard myself of using it halfway fluent, although i must admit that my *written* English is far better than my *spoken* English.

But still ... I think that I'm getting old and I'm simply becoming tired and lazy having to translate everything.

Anyone wo wants to learn about Gothic and ends up in an German-language forum discussion or fan site gets to know a little bit of what i mean ...

Besides, I never knew there was this thing by Rutishauer ... interesting ...

 

[Guest]

KazikluBey, that smal room full of water has nothing to do with the flushing system,
you can use it as much as you want. It will not flood the fortress or the entrance, I made sure of that.

 

[VPeric]

I don't see the complaint - you don't even need to know english to learn a "english-based" programming language - there's usually only a handful of reserved words (if, then, else, for, while, var, function, void, integer, float...) and it shouldn't be hard to remember 'em. You'd have about as much trouble with your native language, because you'd still have to remember what word does what.

Of course, then there's also the stuff Prime Junta said.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

there's usually only a handful of reserved words (if, then, else, for, while, var, function, void, integer, float...) and it shouldn't be hard to remember 'em.

Of course, but they are English-language based.

But I must admit that this goes too far away from the initial "Dwarf Fortress" discussion.

Last night I dabbled with the game, but there were many words which aren't too common to me, so I didn't understand them. And always working with an dictionary beside me ... Well, I have 5 English dictionaries already in fron of me, at one side of the monitor, but still ...

My biggest weakness with the English language is the lack of words having to do with crafting of any kind, I noticed.

What I *did* understand, though, were the many, many names for minerals and stones - due to my study of Geology/Palaentology in the 90s. Gneiß, Schörl, many of the special terms for minerals and stones originate from the German language and were then transported into other languages, like Schörl, for example, which is listed within the game as Schorl, or Feldspat ( = Feldspar), or Gneiß ( = Gneiss). (Pronounciation: sch = sh.)


Well, I realize right now that I may have weaknesses in some fields, but that I have strengths in others fields, too.

 

[magerette]

@KazikluBey, if you're following this thread... what's your external tool for taking those lovely 3D snapshots of Gatelightning? I believe the poor unwashed masses not initiated into the beauty of the True Dwarf Fortress Graphics appreciate them. (Me, too.)

I could actually tell what the screenshots were depicting there in KazikluBey's version! Very nice--as a lowly unwashed observer, it was quite interesting to see a recognizable scene instead of some blurred red and yellow dots which could claim to be absolutely anything without me knowing any better.

 

[Guest]

I wanna somehow pump water from a brook 3 levels lower than my fortress entrace
to use in various things I had in mind. First, is it doable? Somehow using water wheels to generate power and use a shitload of pipes and a pumping mechanism of somekind? Any downsides or pitfalls?

 

[Guest]

What would happen if I was to build 30 floodgates right next to each other along a 1-tile corridor. Then link all the gates to one switch or pressure plate....
A trap that would make jelly of everything on a certain corridor immediately?
I could first make it 2-tiles wide... then when the gate thing is finished i could open them up.. build walls to make it 1-tile wide again and then the perfect trap would be ready...

 

[Prime Junta]

I wanna somehow pump water from a brook 3 levels lower than my fortress entrace
to use in various things I had in mind. First, is it doable? Somehow using water wheels to generate power and use a shitload of pipes and a pumping mechanism of somekind? Any downsides or pitfalls?

Yes, it's doable. Rewarding, too. Read up on water wheels, pumps, gear assemblies, and axles on the DF wiki. Downsides? None really, except that as with any ambitious attempt at hydraulic engineering, you run the risk of accidentally flooding your fortress.

You can also do the pumping manually, which has the additional advantage of giving your dwarves a workout -- their strength and agility go up.

 

[Prime Junta]

What would happen if I was to build 30 floodgates right next to each other along a 1-tile corridor. Then link all the gates to one switch or pressure plate....
A trap that would make jelly of everything on a certain corridor immediately?

Nope, a floodgate won't close if there's something blocking it. For that, you'd need a drawbridge -- dropping a drawbridge on something will squash it dead. Using drawbridges as insta-kill machines this way, though, is frowned upon as an exploit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks again, PJ.
Water wheels and pumps it is, then.

Could I link a pressure plate on three floodgates in a way that once
a hostile steps on it.... two gates would close down the corridor trapping the hostile inside and a third would open up unleashing a watery surprise?

 

[Guest]

Whoa. That pumping thing seems pretty complex.
Especially when pumping water multiple z-levels up.
Don't know if I'm up for the task... We'll see

 

[Guest]

It's Alive!!! It's Alive!!! Feels so great !!
And it's pumping very fast, too! The pool I dug for the water filled up
incredibly fast! I'm gonna post a screenshot soon, I'm so proud of this
contraption I built

I did not read the wiki that much, didn't feel like it, just checked out the basics.
and went with that.
I don't know if this thing is efficient or if it makes any sense but it does what I want it to do

EDIT: I attached the image:

 

[Guest]

I also connected the gear to a switch so I can turn the pumping system on/off as I see fit, which is nice.

Can I build multiple waterwheels next to each other, separated only by an axle, to produce power at a higher rate? Would the produced power "stack" when using the same gears etc for all of them? The river is wiiiiiiiide and there's lots of water flowing down there... untapped potential....

 

[Prime Junta]

I can't see why you would want to -- each of your machines has a fixed power draw, and as long as there's enough power supplied to them, they'll run. Adding more power than you need will just waste it.

 

[dteowner]

Yeah but....we're talking MORE POWER! I haven't even played the game and I'm rooting for about a dozen waterwheels lined up, spilling enough power that the moisture on the rocks seven chambers away can electricute you. Now we're talking good times!

 

[Guest]

I can't see why you would want to -- each of your machines has a fixed power draw, and as long as there's enough power supplied to them, they'll run. Adding more power than you need will just waste it.

Yeah, true... but I'm gonna build three or four more of those pumps and pump the water three or four levels higher.

Why? Because I can! Muuhahahahahahahahahaha!

Now let's see... So far - during the time I've been posting to this thread trying to teach myself (with much appreciated help from PJ and others) the true beauty of Dwarf Fortress - I have built (among other things):

- moisturized underground dwarven floodgatefarm.
- underground flushing system.
and soon:
- automated multi-level waterpumping system.

Yeah! Yeaaaaahh.. I'm about as cool as a dwarf can get, huh?

 

[V7]

Sigh - acording to the wiki my plans for steamed goblin are unsupported.

 

[Guest]

Sigh - acording to the wiki my plans for steamed goblin are unsupported.

That would have been cool. I think you're a real dwarf too.

My automated multi-level waterpumping system is already in action
and there's plenty of power still left

 

[Prime Junta]

I was trying to set up a plate mail factory -- that is, the full production chain that would work with minimal intermediate inventory and intervention. I got pretty far, but then some son-of-an-elf let in a fireman that toasted my master smith and half my furnace operators, so that's all she wrote that time. I'm still not sure how he got in. Next time, I'll put in a sprinkler system; that'll learn 'em...