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Talk:Advanced entity position mechanics
These lines contradict eachother:
- Premature succession works in fortress mode with landholders. If a unit gets a landholdersposition and that landholder is the appointer of an yet-empty position, which is defined as succeeding from a third one, then the succession is immediately applied. The landholder himself can even be the successor of a newly created position.
- A landholder's position is, in fortress mode, not successable by a site-position or visa versa.
Needs further investigation Joostheger (talk)
A few little comments: 1. A fort founded/reclaimed by the game (not by the player), founded during the two weeks of activation time (of the first player fortress in a world), did give multiple site level positions to the same historical figure (ie. sheriff and mayor). And are still currently (some fifteen years later) held by the same historical figure ("hist figure A"), interestingly for the two positions only histfig2 are filled not histfig (found under entity.positions.positions_assignments for the ids corresponding to the positions in question). In another fort (founded by the game at the same time as the other fort) also two positions were given to the same historical figure ("hist figure B"), but in that case one of the positions (militia commander) was later awarded to another historical figure, eg. someone who was generated as a trader of a dwarven caravan and then settled at that site (no the caravan was not the home civ caravan of the player fortress). So technically both cases were generated during "fortress mode", but then again this makes me wonder, as the world was one with a very short history, if these things are really impossible on the site level with longer histories (during world gen). Also scripts only querying histfig (but not histfig2) will report in these cases the positions as empty (not filled). And to me it seems that a few positions on site level of dwarven sites will always be filled directly after the founding of the site (regardless of whether it is during world gen or afterwards and regardless of whether one histfig will hold multiple positions on a site level or not). Also according to the legends mode the positions in the aforementioned forts were filled in both cases by the dwarf (who is referenced in histfig2).
2. Also is there some information concerning variable positions planned for this article? 91.49.240.46 14:55, 31 January 2026 (UTC)
Hello Anonymous, Happy to have some discussion about this theme!
1. So, it seems that you've discovered that world-gen units may in fact have sometimes multiple positions, right? Have you read the part about automatic assumption and embark? If you have some insights to share, I'l like to know!
2. Well, I hope so. I did some research about interaction between variable positions and defined positions, but no interaction seems possible. That lowers my interest a bit. However when I have the time, I would like to research whcih positions are created and with what properties. The main goal for me is to gather information to create intesting mods with cool effects.
Joostheger (talk) 15:57, 31 January 2026 (UTC)
I did read the article at one point, but with all the changes, probably not the current version (at the time of writing of my previous post). I am mainly interested in the variable positions and what changes I will have to make (in a generated world):
a) to create a law-making position for a human civilization, which do not have one. While making sure that in the legends mode the appropiate event for the creation of that position is added (displayed with correct creation time). b) To get the newly created position also filled by a history figure (of my choice), which will always be someone, who visited my fortress (in fort mode) as a trader. Again with the appropiate event shown in the legends mode (afterwards). And with the new law-giver also acting as a normal law-giver (if the position would have been created and filled in world gen). c) being able to create the other variable positions, which are named "CUSTOM OFFICIAL<X>", where "<X>" is to be replaced by a natural number, so that the civ gets also treasurer, advisors, generals (army leaders) etc. Again with the appropiate events also shown in legends mode for the creation of the positions. d) Being able to fill the positions (mentioned under c)) myself, if the game does not fill them - during fort mode. And with the appointed history figures (in case I have to fill the position via gm-editor or lua acript) than acting accordingly to their positions.
And all of that without corrupting the game files. I currently have the feeling that the three (of the five) human civilizations, who did not have a law-maker position created during world gen (of my current world), will otherwise never get a law-making position. (Ie. world activities post world-gen not creating variable positions, which then can get filled). Eventhough I currently have some hope, that I might be mistaken, and that so far there was just no need to create the positions, ie. my fortress is still not a barony (the future baroness is still underage) and a few other things are currently disabled in the difficulty settings. Or to put it in other words, there is some hope that a law-making position gets created for a human civ, if the civ gets attacked by another civ. And I also have the feeling that other variable positions will not get created during normal world activities (but only during world gen).
So I probably do not have some good insight in a few things just yet, but I will usually do some edits (of existing) pages, when I am more or less sure that something is not correct. This page will not be an exception. Which also means that I am not that interested in raw-modding, but if anything in modding or scripting to have a few more things functioning/working during the simulation of the world activities.
ps. I am pretty sure I know the history events types I need for the creation and filling of the law-making position and hopefully also all other changes I need to make to actually get the position filled by a history figure (using some info on the wagon page, under the heading "when do caravans bring wagons", to create a landlord for a fortress, who no longer has a functioning landlord, as a guideline). For the other positions I will probably created a world (with the same seeds as the one I want to edit/modify), but with a much longer history, to get the missing info.91.49.240.46 12:24, 1 February 2026 (UTC)
It seems we're at two ends of the spectrum :-) My focus is primarily on modding only the RAWS. I find it hard to do anything usefull with dfhack, if i just dont understand DF yet. Also, I dont want to make a mod thats dependant on dfhack. However, I'm conviced tht with DFhack you might be able to build something truly special for entities and noble positions. I'd like to dream about a mod with real political laws, like Crusader kings. Anyway.
I think it might be hard to archieve what you really want, but with scripting you may become far. Why are you focussed on variable positions, anyway? Won't you use just a hard-code position to your liking? What is the story you have in mind and why do you need dfhack to archieve that?
Are you on the bay12 forum? We can easily continue our talk there. Joostheger (talk) 19:06, 1 February 2026 (UTC)