>> McDoomhammer: "I feel for your situation, but at the same time, randomness is a strength of the system. You could just as easily end up with a fort full of legendary weapons, masonry and leatherwork next time. Or you could try and keep your dwarves skilled in the professions you want artifacts from and thereby influence the odds in your favour; it provides no guarantees, but it is at least logical and becomes its own kind of game challenge."
> Othob Rithol: "No sympathy needed really. I've been playing this game long enough to have had dozens of 15-20 year forts. I remember one in particular where I had an entire artifact suit of plate (no shield sadly) made of various materials. I only cite my current fort because out of its 30-something moods the weakness of the existing mood system is apparent (at least to me). Said fort is a majority legendary, with just about every major job covered with at least one legendary."
@McDoomhammer: It seems you're arguing from fear that the principally random nature of DF will generate more artefacts when more skills can lead to fey moods.
* First, a greater variety of fey vectors will not lead to a greater frequency of fey moods (more fey artefacts), only more diverse artefacts.
* Second, the current system is not really very balanced or entertaining, when you get a bloody bunch of fey stonecrafters, bonecarvers and woodcarvers. You can't argue that greater diversity in fay fields and outcomes will either hurt gameplay or unbalance the game.
* Third, again, the amount of artefacts should not be fixed. When you argue "don't fix what isn't broken" you're saying "I like it as it is", when the very reason you're arguing that is because other people do not enjoy the current state. Changing this hard means a lose-lose situation. You will acceept that game enjoyment and play style is individual, and role playing games elegantly exemplifies that players line up along a line when it comes to materialism (here: artefacts), the end points being the "rare until nigh on non-existant" and "exceedingly plentiful" (d20, Diablo) extremes. There is two ways of satisfying all players in these situations: (1) make different games, which is rather unlikely in this situation: or (2) a SETTING, which is what the config file is for. So yeah, we can have the cake both ways and eat it plenty.
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>> Mikademus: "Building on my own post, above, about fey miners, I'd love to see a feyminer dig out a peaceful chapel, a possessed one dig out a daemonic summoning chamber (which perhaps would mine the way for an animal trainer to go fay and become a beast summoner/shaman sorcerer?), or go morbid and dig out and build a Gothic necropolis. The possibilities are endless with mood-stricken miners!"
> Othob Rithol: "By in large I do like this idea. This is also what I'd like to see for the engraver. Architecture has roughly the same effects and perks in the game as a trinket: increased fort value, interesting descriptions of dwarves and dwarves, and being decidely dwarvenly. To keep it beard and shoulders above normal work, a single tile (the altar, a pillar, pentagram, idol etc) could be engraved and decorated with spikes of kitten leather just like an item. Imagine a 10,000 coin pillar."
I think these kind of ideas deserves its own thread. In here, and I remember one or two other threads, we have discussed other ingresses to fey moods than just vanilla crafting and smithing, and a number of alternative fey products. There is the recent thread with artefact suggestions. And the concept of fey/possessed/morbid miners and architects producing spaces that in turn might open new avenues, bonuses or obstacles is interesting and powerful. Fey hunting/ambushing and animal training is worth exploring, perhaps brewing, plant gathering and farming, too. And the posts on special output of legendary skills should be summud up and discussed.
[ April 14, 2008: Message edited by: Mikademus ]
