Bay 12 Games Forum

The number of religions that form during world gen can get out of hand as history progresses.


That's six different religions dedicated to the same god, out of a possible thirty-one objects of worship, in a hamlet with less than a hundred people. I haven't bothered to do the math, but at a glance it just doesn't look right to me. This is not an isolated incident, neither in the world I used as an example, which is 256 years old, or my experiences as a whole, with worlds which are generally 500 years old.

Having so many identical groups seems redundant. It would be one thing if these were isolated sects unique for every site, but right now you can get any number of different religions to the same god spread unevenly across a civilization, and the only thing distinguishing them is their name. Sometimes, they don't even have that much going for them.


I think there needs to be a way to cull the number of religions down to something more manageable, or at least keep it low enough that the chances two religions share the same name are slim to none.

One way would be to consolidate redundant religions as time goes on. If two religious orders worshipping the same figure occupy the same site, sooner or later their members are going to mingle. If this happens, the two religions may officialy merge to form a new faith. This could snowball until you have a single religion for a given deity encompassing an entire site or possibly the whole civilization. New religions dedicated to that deity may periodically branch off or form independently, and they may or may not merge into the larger faith as time passes.

Another method would be to give people the ability to abandon religions and convert to new ones, either worshipping a deity or religion observed by at least one other person in their site, or simply going faithless with a chance to adopt a new religion at a later date. They could choose to do this for a number of reasons, such as being convinced or forced to convert by someone else, through a bad experience such as a deity curse, or simply because they lose interest in the religion. The number of living members a religion has should play a factor, with larger religions being more appealing than smaller ones that worship the same deity. Personal relationships should matter too, with people being more likely to convert to their spouse's religion, or remaining with their current one solely because their parents were members.

Both methods would lead to a pattern of larger religions eating up smaller ones as time goes on. This would keep the number of religions down to something more sane, but it would also make it harder for new religions to form. This may not appeal to everyone, but personally I would prefer something like this over having to sift through three or more pages of religions just to find one that doesn't worship a god of lies when I intend to play as an honest do-gooder, or just worship a deity directlty.

The suggested feature works like this: When you place a door, you have the option to specify a certain size threshhold, much like a pressure plate. Any creature above the set size that tries to pass through the door has to go prone and crawl through. That's all there is to it.

Implementing This could help create defensive choke points and possibly regulate civilian traffic. To that end, maybe make it so the sized door is treated like a solid wall as far as dodging is concerned, in order to to prevent oversized combatants from dodging into a prone position and putting themselves at a disadvantage. Nothing about the sized door itself should stop enemies from pathing around the door if possible, and likewise nothing should stop a building destroyer from just smashing the thing. It shouldn't be an impassible defense in and of itself, it should only be an inconvenience that can be used to your advantage in the right circumstances.

This idea is mainly inspired by Kobold Hall, an old D&D adventure featuring a clever band of the eponymous skulkers as the antagonists. The defenses they set against adventuring parties are designed to put anything larger than a kobold at a disadvantage. In particular the entrance into the dungeon allows kobolds to pass freely but forces anything bigger to expose itself to attack.

Not too long ago I rescued a certain child from a dark fortress. It was business as usual until I returned him to his mother. The mother in question happened to be the queen of a dwarven nation, something the child failed to mention.
I had no way of knowing this child was royalty when I found him, but as he was reunited with the queen it occurred to me that if I had met him as a free dwarf I still wouldn't have known he was royalty. It's not the first time I've come across this little omission of information, either. When visiting the town's keep and the odd mead hall, I'll often find a seemingly-out-of-place child among a room full of colorfully titled humans. Only after an extensive interrogation will I find out just who the child is related to, when this should have been common knowledge to begin with.
In real life, a king's son is a big deal and as such is called a prince. In Dwarf Fortress, he's just another kid who's dad happens to be the ruler of the nation. That isn't fitting of nobility at all, they would want everyone to know just whose child that is.

Since nobles are succeeded by their children, shouldn't they be regarded as important? The noble's spouse receives a title, so why not give one to the kid who's going to replace them too? Something as simple " [POSITION_NAME]'s son/daughter" would make identification easier and prevent a bit of confusion.

We've all got one. Adventure mode of Fortress mode, that one animal is always giving you problems. Unnatural or rare creatures like megabeasts and bogeymen don't count, it's their job to make life harder for you and having one type that's better at it than the rest isn't anything special. We're talking about a normal animal that always comes along to try and ruin your day no matter what mode you're playing.

For me, it's alligators. They're not the most dangerous animal out there, but they're not exactly pushovers either. Biting attacks bypassed armor up until this latest release, and 'gators are damn good at biting. Even now that they can't bite your head off through a helmet, they're a menace to individuals who don't have armor, such as fisherdwarves and newer adventurers. They're prevalent too, You can run into them at just about any river deep enough one has to swim through. The fact that they can lay up to thirty eggs at a time doesn't hurt them either.
I've never had too much trouble from them, but then again I've never not had trouble with them either. Every time I run into alligators, in a fortress or out adventuring, they try and cause me problems.

So how about you?

We've all been there. You take your BAMF vampire/necromancer/husk/all of the above out for a spin in adventure mode, and you come across a particularly gnarly historical figure with a great many kills to his/her/its name, eager to reduce you to nothing more than another name on a list I'm about to go off on. You're quite gangster yourself, and honor dictates that only one bad dude can survive the ordeal, resulting in a battle the world will remember for all time.
As you do battle against this worthy foe, he/she/it makes certain to remind you of all those who came before you and fell like so much wheat before the harvest.
Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.
It gets repetitive, it gets old, it gets boring. What should be a clash between living legends becomes a crawling ordeal repeatedly interrupted by a long list of people who lost the not-dying contest, which you have no choice but to sit through before getting back to the action. It would be like if a boss battle of any other game was interrupted by a cutscene every time you landed a hit.

Anyone who's played adventure mode long enough has dealt with it at some point. Some opponents are better about it than others, almost never mentioning their kills, while some will rattle off their list every single turn, dragging out the ordeal for much longer than it needs to go on. It can wear on the nerves after awhile and subtract form the experience, but I will admit, it is a very strong motivator to kill the offending creature.

So how best to deal with this issue? You could include the option to remove kill bragging entirely. More options is good options, but there are better and more subtle ways of handling this.
I do think creatures that cannot speak should not have any ability to brag about their kills. If the creature cannot speak, it has no way of conveying that it has killed other creatures, and whoever it would convey this message to should have no knowledge of the creature's history unless learned from elsewhere, such as hearsay from the inhabitants of a nearby settlement.

As for historical figures who can speak and tell you all about who they've killed, I suggest a much more fluid way of getting the bragging out of the way. Instead of having them list every single historical figure they've killed all at once, it would be better if they did one at a time in a way someone would actually say such a thing.
For instance, at the beginning of a fight they could say something like "Say hello to Deadguy Firstexample when I send you to the underworld!", or " I didn't beat Wimpy Weaksauce to death with his own foot to lose to the likes of you!" The latter could tie in with how injuries sustained during duels are tracked, with the braggart stating how he injured a previous opponent in some way.
As the fight goes on, the way bragging is conveyed should change to reflect the pace of the battle.
"You remind me of Mook Monkeybreath. I hated that guy."
"Come on now, Diesinonehit Letdown put up a better fight than you!"
"I haven't had a fight this good since Opponent Worthyfights!"
The way the opponent brags about past victories doesn't necessarily have to reflect how much of a fight you're putting up, or how much of a fight the previous opponent put up. The point is the braggart should brag in small increments, and more importantly putting at least a little variety into how they get the message out.
If they have to tell you about every single one of their kills, it should be at an appropriate time, namely when it appears as if the fight is about to end. If you're getting the upper hand and it looks like they're about to die, they might want to take the time to tell you their life's story. If you want to do away with the current method of kill bragging entirely, you could have them just give a quick summary such as, "I am Enpeecy Killquest! I have killed many foes, and you will not be the end of me!"

I just think it's a royal pain to have to wade through conversation window after conversation window just because a certain successful historical figure can't shut up about who they've beaten. Something should be done and this is all I've got to contribute to see that end met.

I'm just sayin'.

There are two types of adventurer, those who die and those who live. Nothing more needs to be said of those who die, but those who live can grow to a point where the only things capable of killing them have long since died by their hand. It seems a waste to just leave such effective killing machines to rot and move on to another world.

I want to take an adventurer from one world and put him in another. Not a new adventurer with the same name, that same adventurer, with or without the equipment.
Is it possible to transfer adventurer data from one file to another? Is it possible to do this now without tools, or would a special script or plugin need to be created?
I play Cataclysm on the side, and it's possible to do just this in that game by copying and pasting the character's file into the new world folder. But could it be that easy? Is the adventurer contained in a file somewhere? Could that file be duplicated and placed elsewhere without issue?
In Cataclysm, transferred characters can retain any item that isn't a procedurally generated artifact, but they appear in a random and potentially very dangerous location with no knowledge of the local area or its inhabitants, much like an outsider in DF. Would that even be possible in DF? what would stop the transferred adventurer from appearing inside a mountain or the lowermost depths of the caverns? What about the art engraved on their equipment? Would there be a problem with faction data, how would the world treat the newcomer?

I don't know if this is possible, but I want it to be. I'd like to continue an adventurer's career in a new world, and I'm willing to put up with any inconveniences that result from it. Can it be done?

I've had this idea rolling around in my head for awhile. Expedition Mode would not be about an adventurer on a quest for fame, glory, and phat lewts, nor about a group of rugged pioneers trying to carve a home out of some hole in the ground.

Expedition mode would be about of group of dwarves/player race traveling the world to do... something. Like fortress mode, that would be entirely up to you. You control a group in a similar manner to Fortress Mode, but you are not bound to or responsible for the management of a single site, and can freely travel the world as in Adventure Mode. You are in control of the group as opposed to the individual, and the loss of any one member of your expedition is not the end of the game.

As for what you're after, that's for you to decide. Maybe you're a posse of vigilantes out to kill all the enemies of your nation, or maybe you're trying to capture and tame an exotic animal for use by your civilization, or perhaps you delve down to map the caverns of the world. Whatever it is, you're doing something, and you're paying for it with the nation's tax money. As such, you need to justify the continuation of the expedition in any way you can. You do this through a points system. Every action your expedition performs is measured in the wealth it costs or awards your civilization.
 If you wipe out a bandit group, you are awarded points equal to the damage they caused, with a bonus for any loot you acquire. If you burn down down the forest retreat of an elven civilization that killed tens of thousands of people in a tree jihad, you receive points equal to how much everyone hated those elves for killing everyone as well as a bonus for whatever loot you haul away.
 If one of your members is killed and their equipment is lost, you lose points equal to their life, accomplishments, and the equipment lost. If you replace that lost member with a civilian recruit from some hamlet somewhere, you gain points equal to that person's life, skill, and equipment.
The points accumulated would not be some arbitrary number to brag about on the forums, the expedition would receive assistance and notoriety equivalent to its score. A high-scoring expedition will receive more support form their benefactor civilization, in the form of better equipment, skilled recruits, and more frequent resupplies. An expedition that isn't doing so well will recieve less support and may be forced to end if the loss outweighs the gain too heavily.

A higher score also results in heavier resistance and reaction from the outside world. A popular expedition will receive support form other civilizations that are sympathetic to you and are benefiting form your work, and hostile civilizations are more likely to go out of their way to attack and pester you in a manner similar to fort mode sieges.

I really don't know what else to say about this. It's been an idea and only that for awhile now. I have no idea how to flesh it out further.

My friend doesn't play Dwarf Fortress, and doesn't quite get how it works, but he managed to come up with something horrifying and perfectly dwarfy nonetheless. I promised him I would share this abomination, so here it is.
Gentlemen, behold.The only downside to this thing is that it requires custom body parts to work, supplied here. Simply copy and paste into body_default.txt for results.
Enjoy your nightmare fuel.

Edit: Thanks, Putnam.