Bay 12 Games Forum

Now that we can send dwarves out to raid other sites, and now that trade routes are a world-gen thing, it makes sense to be able to send traders to other people.  I feel that this would be a good place to add player-made trade routes, outgoing caravans, and wagons.  Some thoughts on how it would work:

1.  To create a caravan (and for larger raids or even military campaigns), you would need to build wagons at an appropriate workshop.

2.  Player-owned wagons could be loaded and unloaded like a depot.

3.  Players could also order a player-owned wagon to be moved to a specific point on the map, which would allow them to be used for transporting goods internally (although that's not their main purpose.)

4.  Wagons can be assigned to outgoing expeditions.  In that case, everything in the wagon is available to the expedition.  Larger or longer expeditions could require food and might need wagons to supply it; raiders could bring back more if they have wagons to carry it.

5.  You could send wagons on 'trade' expeditions, or set up recurring ones.  In this case, you set what types of goods you want the wagon to buy (like a trade agreement), load it up, and send it off with some dwarves.  The dwarves sent with it would handle the trading (and the highest trading-relevant skills among them would obviously be important.)  Dwarves with particular likes or dislikes may end up buying stuff you didn't request, though SELF_CONTROL and DUTIFULNESS can reduce the risk of this.  Dwarves who are easily SWAYED_BY_EMOTIONS and with high WASTEFULNESS or IMMODERATION may end up buying more unnecessary stuff, too.

6.  Dwarves could be sent to trade without wagons, but wouldn't be able to carry as much.

7.  In addition to trading, this could also be used to offer tribute.

8.  Most importantly, the player should be able to establish long-term trade-routes.  First, you'd send a diplomat to whoever you want to trade with to agree to it; then, you'd assign a depot to that trade route, as well as some dwarves and wagons and a list of desired goods.  A depot assigned to a trade route will automatically send any items the player places in that depot outward along the trade route, and will automatically receive incoming caravans and trade with them according to its list of desired goods, without further player involvement.  This would allow players to set up ongoing trades that don't require constant attention or micromanagement, while letting the player create trade routes that could be meaningful to other game systems or if the fortress is retired.  Players could check in the depot to see items currently offered there by the other civilization if they want to manually force a specific trade, but otherwise it would all be handled by the trade route agreement.

This might be so obvious that it doesn't need to be said, but since player mounts are being worked on now, this seems like the time to discuss it...

The game ought to have a riding skill that improves your ability to command your mount.  With no or low skill, your attempts to convey your intention to your mount could sometimes fail, while high skill would make it more likely that your mount could overcome terror or other mental effects that could prevent them from obeying your commands.  Much like riding itself, this could eventually be reused when leading groups of people in combat (though keying off of Leader rather than Rider.)

The act of mounting or dismounting could also depend on your Rider skill - highly skilled people could do it faster, while unskilled people would sometimes fall.  And, likewise, your ability to remain mounted when you or your horse is struck could sometimes test your Riding skill.

A lot of dwarves (and visitors) seem to have distractions from being unable to fight or practice military skills.  Currently, to serve this need, you have to put them in an actual military unit for a while, then take them out, every single time; this is a bother and doesn't really make much sense.

I suggest providing a way to set up "recreational" training zones where people with appropriate personalities and desires will go to train lightly in their free time.  This would not provide as much of a benefit as formal military training (since it's not as rigorous), but would serve as a way to satisfy this need.  Possibly this could be an activity zone, or possibly it could be a setting for barracks (and possibly archery ranges.)

Since temples are apparently being added to Dwarf Mode, it seems like a good idea to post ideas for them.  Some of these might seem obvious, but it's still fun to write them down.

Dwarves will apparently visit temples or taverns based on their personality.  Temples, I assume, should require a priest or priests; the higher the priest's social skills, the more they can improve the mood of the dwarves who visit.

Dwarves are probably generally more likely to go to taverns than temples, but one idea that I think would be cool and realistic would be if dwarves facing extreme pressures or tragedy are more likely to go to temples (assuming their personalities or beliefs aren't totally opposed to it, of course) -- there are people in the real world who consider themselves technically religious but only get involved on major holidays or major life-events, after all.  More importantly, though, this would make temples valuable for the same reason they often were in real life -- dwarves facing extreme grief from a recent loss could go there to receive comfort from the priest, reducing the chance that they'll tantrum.  Eventually, perhaps, there could even be more formal funerals than we have now, where all the dead dwarf's loved ones attend and the priest (and maybe other people who knew the dwarf) gives an eulogy which can help manage mood -- of course, if someone does terribly on the eulogy it could make things worse.

Possibly priests could also have a skill for religious or supernatural knowledge, which gives them a chance to spot or harm vampires and a chance to successfully exorcise ghosts; this skill would also improve the quality of the temple as a sanctuary -- a priest who is highly skilled at rituals could keep the undead from entering, and civilian dwarves could automatically flee to there if they see undead.  Of course, this depends on exactly what powers religions have in Dwarf Fortress, but exorcisms, spotting vampires, and providing sanctuary against undead seem logical.  An extremely skilled priest might even provide temporary sanctuary against the dreaded clowns, although I doubt it would hold up for long.

I was browsing the bug tracker when I came across this:

Parents spam cancellation messages when Ghostly Babies.

I find the fact that parents freak out trying to reach the ghost of their baby to be amusing, at least.

Another fun one:  Merchants attacked but unharmed collapse and stop moving.

The merchants were attacked by a wereiguana and, despite nobody taking any damage, found it so traumatic that they collapsed into blubbering heaps forever.  The dwarves, understanding as always, immediately took their wagons apart to make cabinets and stole all their stuff.

This related bug suggests that the dwarves may not be deconstructing the wagons; the wagons themselves may be getting horrified and exploding.

Ambush by harmless noble when reclaiming ruin.  I picture a nobledwarf with a top-hat and monocle popping out from nowhere with an "A-HA!"  And then taking a sip of tea and doing nothing else.

Staying with the "evil noble" theme, Nobles go to live in goblin-controlled former capital, murder fellows - the goblins took over the dwarven capital, and as a result, new nobles apparently decide they are goblins, move to the goblin-occupied capital, and start murdering people.

What other entertaining or amusing bugs have people found on the bugtracker?

Chaos Seed is a previously Japan-only SNES game where you play a cave hermit who has to heal the damaged earth by building a magic cave and summoning monsters to help you use it to gather energy.

The catch, of course, is that when a weird-looking cave hermit sets up a cave and fills it with monsters, the local government tends to react violently, so you also have to defend your cave from regular invasions from above (as well as monsters invading from below.)  The game is sort of a combination of an action-RPG with Dungeon Keeper themes; you choose what rooms you'll build and where, and set up patrol routes for your monsters so they can keep your cave running.

Anyway, you can get the translation here; it seemed like it might be of interest to some people here.

When an enemy boasts in Adventurer mode, it'd be cool if they played up the importance of artifacts and other important objects, too.  For example, if they're wearing or wielding an artifact, they might say something like:

"Fool!  You dare to challenge Thorin, son of Glorin, wielder of Ixialdor, the Breeze of Sorrows?"

It could be 'bearer' for things that are just carried -- eg if someone is carrying something like the One Ring, that can be more important than their titles, etc.

Similarly, they could mention your artifacts, if you're wearing, wielding or carrying one:

"Even Yaganor, the Tomb of Silence will not avail you here!"  Or even "I will take Yaganor, the Tomb of Silence from your cold dead corpse!"

(If they created an artifact, they might boast about that, too, but I'm not sure if they do already or not.)