For those of you who hang out in Google Chat, you may have noticed my recent series of status messages along the lines of "Today's disaster: _______". This initially started because I'm the de facto sysadmin at my office (along with my normal programming job) and every day when I got in to work, something had gone wrong and I needed to fix it now now now.
Well, work got better, and at home I picked up Dwarf Fortress. I'd initially seen it referenced on /v/, which is a video game forum (sorta) that you're really better off not being linked to. Dwarf Fortress is a base-building game much like Dungeon Keeper, but the graphics are colored extended-ASCII drawn using OpenGL, with the option to use a sprite sheet for some specific images (eg. creatures). If you've ever played Nethack, imagine being given a handful of dwarves and being told to dig out the first 6 or so floors.
It's actually quite a lot like Nethack, in that things go wrong all the time and it's about managing the disasters. My Sheriff bled to death the other day, leaving his widow as the highest-ranking member of my military. My expert miner got himself killed in a disastrous structural collapse. (Note to future miners: it is a bad idea to mine out all the floor around you when there is nothing supporting the square you are standing on.)
And today, one of my unarmed fighters, Private Etostîton, brought his dinner to practice, left it out during his wrestling match, then promptly got punched out and is in bed resting. Nobody else is tidying up his dinner, because he'll want it when he gets up, I expect. Even though I've marked it as trash to be dumped into the nearby volcanic vent because it's started to rot and is giving off huge clouds of purple miasma that are making everyone miserable and can't be speeding up Etostîton's recovery.
Him-Person
18 hours ago
1 comment:
I almost had a *fantastic* tragedy myself.
So, on one side of the cliff face I use as my entryway, I've got a massive waterfall being constructed. Work is nearly finished, I just hope the pre-existing pool at the top has enough water to power (when I drain it through some water wheels) to boot-strap the whole pump system / water works.
But I digress...
On the other side, I'm building a magmafall. Kind of like the waterfall, but... you get the idea. It's similar in construction, but far more demanding in what materials I can build it out of. The power supply (a bank of windmills), was completed long ago, and the final magma pump is being worked on right now.
I got to the power switch just in time -- if not, the system would have kicked into gear the moment the last pump was built. The source pool of magma is hot, the power is live, and the containment for the magmafall has yet to be constructed.... heh
Post a Comment