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How Dwarf Fortress is built

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Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you feel good I think it's OK. Most passion projects don't really generate a lot of revenue.

Yea, but you specifically mentioned this as a career. You'd want _some_level of success if your passion project is your career.

me bad, I'll edit the post.

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh Markus where were you like 5 years ago?!? :)

Me? I don't really have any completed passion project :/ so sad I wish I could at least finish one of them.

I meant to tell me that before I started :)) I’m just completing mine, but it’s taken a while. Not one of those people who can do things in a weekend…

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#205

Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, but that was a big one. Q: Why was this was a mistake? A: When you declare a class that’s a kind of item, it locks you into that structure much more tightly than if you just have member elements. It’s nice to be able to use virtual functions and that kind of thing, but the tradeoffs are just too much. I started using a “tool” item in the hierarchy, which st…

In the LPMud LPC language objects could inherit from multiple other objects, so they could combine behaviors. I haven’t really seen that in other languages.

The "about inheritance in LPC" - https://www.mars.org/home/rob/docs/IntermediateLPC/chapter6....

and a bit about multiple inheritance in LPC - http://graphcomp.com/info/mud/mudos/lpc/constructs/inherit.h...

And another bit - http://www.geas.de/tutorial/lpc_57.html

As to seeing it in other languages... this gets into a mixing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixin

An example of that in Scala - https://docs.scala-lang.org/tour/mixin-class-composition.htm... or https://www.baeldung.com/scala/class-composition-mixins

The issue is that for most situations, the additional conceptual load of multiple inheritance gets difficult.

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#206
post #33

> What’s your favorite bug and what caused it? > A: It’s probably boring for me to say, but I just can’t beat the drunken cat bug... That was the one where the cats were showing up dead all over the tavern floor, and it turned out they were ingesting spilled alcohol when they cleaned their paws. I think that bug explains very well just how deeply complex Dwarf Fortress really is. Drinks can be spilled. Some drinks ha…

Other amusing DF bugs:

Dwarfs trying to clean their inner organs (dwarf wounded, doctor closes the wound, dirt stay inside)

Undying children in the moat water (for years... just swimming there...)

Killer carps (there was a long time during which carps were really overpowered because constant swimming was buffing them up really good, dwarfs getting close to water sources were eaten by carps)

Catplosions (Tarn loves cats, cats reproduce, too many cats kills DF performance)

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#207
post #2

I read everything about this game I can get my hands on. I don’t fully understand why I find dwarf fortress so intriguing. It’s such a pure passion project… that actually made it.

I am the same. I also started to play a few times, but not knowing the mechanics and not having enough time/motivation to learn them in detail is frustrating. But there’s a nice alternative: https://youtube.com/c/kruggsmash

Watching someone else play Dwarf Fortress can be surprisingly entertaining. Just start one of his series from the start.

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#208

IMO that's one of the best ways a single programmer can spend his career. No weird requirements, no deadlines, no nothing, nada. Just one's passion and a product. Whether it is successful is irrelevant. Kudos Mr. Adams for making the achievement and moves gaming history. Going back to the interview, I found this line (and the logic attached) interesting: >Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, b…

> No weird requirements, no deadlines, no nothing, nada

Well.. until you accidentally create a broken release, that is. That's _real_ sweat.

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#209
post #23

Dwarf Fortress consumed hundreds of hours of my life in high school, I have so many fond memories of it. Every year or so I come back to it and I'm always surprised that they've managed to add another mechanic or feature that just makes the game feel even more like its own little universe. After enough time in the game there really is a moment like that scene in the Matrix - "I don't even see the ASCII anymore. All I…

> I don't even see the ASCII anymore. All I see is dwarf, plump helmet, magnetite ore

It's even more than that - I can spend ridiculous time in legends mode just reading facts and events going from one personality to another trying to "feel" the world. It's like from these pieces of trivial information a bigger picture emerges, partially consisting of the facts and partially of random connections my brain made. It's an amazing experience.

Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built

#210

IMO that's one of the best ways a single programmer can spend his career. No weird requirements, no deadlines, no nothing, nada. Just one's passion and a product. Whether it is successful is irrelevant. Kudos Mr. Adams for making the achievement and moves gaming history. Going back to the interview, I found this line (and the logic attached) interesting: >Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, b…

I was with you until: > Whether it is successful is irrelevant. At some point something needs to be successful or you can't keep working on it, right?

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