
Why the creator of Dwarf Fortress is really excited about boats - rhlala
http://www.pcgamer.com/why-the-creator-of-dwarf-fortress-is-really-excited-about-boats/
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pavel_lishin
I never really paid attention to individual dwarves when playing, so I had no
idea they had so many personality traits:
[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Personality_tr...](http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Personality_trait)

I wonder if someone's written an online quiz to give you a code to insert at
the bottom of your emails, like those old hacker code one-liners people used
to put into their sigs. (Can't for the life of me remember what they're called
now, and searching for "code email signature" is about as useful as you'd
expect.)

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mmastrac
You're thinking of "Geek Code":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_Code)

~~~
pavel_lishin
That's the one!

~~~
southbridge
Oh... When I saw that in passing I always thought that it was short hand for
the psychology discipline - you learn something everyday.

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Rzor
A bit off topic, but regarding DF: If I wanted to make a much more simpler
game where some "factions" would iterate basic geopolitics among themselves
what kind of resource should I be looking for if I was aiming at basic
consitency? I mean probably some AI book, but other than that or maybe exactly
that, there is some blog or article that would exemplify the basics? Perhaps a
paper? DF is full of simulations, super complex, but I wonder what is the
simplest implementation to get surprised by the "emergence" of the game itself
and not pre-established design.

~~~
intended
You don't need AI. The starting simulations and agents don't need to be that
complex. You make a toy first, and then see if it's of use. (I think Europa
universalis and other games from that house may suit you?)

Matter of fact, if you have time, use the bay12 Way.

Write a story of what you'd like to see. Then break it down into interactions,
atomic items, compound items, and then go from there.

Do note, that DF allows for hugely complex interactions and emergence partly
because it has the advantage of a millions year of development time,
unburdened by having to conform to market or business expectations.

So this allows for moderately deep systems to interact with shallow systems
and yet more systems which are very deep.

The sheer number of systems results in all sorts of emergent behavior, without
having to resort to depth of simulation.

So for example, you don't need a z axis when you start out. You may well want
geography though, since that determines ecology and weather.

These inform resources, nutrition, growth, abundance and derive from there to
economy.

Assuming you don't simulate evolution, and hard code races/civs - you have the
basics to define conflict.

But unless you write a story down, it results in an antiseptic sim. A story or
text helps you identify quirks of your style, which you want to see reflected
in your sim (you may want people to always have a predilection for ponies, or
prefer cats over dogs. You may hardcore pacifism as a civ trait which leads to
other results )

This keeps some sort of emotional and narrative hook, which makes the
simulation worth engaging with.

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ThrustVectoring
I'd be super happy if Dwarf Fortress managed to make canal locks navigable by
the AI.

