Bay 12 Games Forum

The new unit list has a pair of sorting methods, Prof A and Prof B. Putnam asked for suggestions regarding what to name these on the Kitfox server, both of which should fit in the same small space.
Prof A sorts miners, then all woodworkers, bowyers, carpenters, and wood cutters, et cetera. Prof B goes by each profession/position individually and alphabetically: brokers, butchers, captains, carpenters, and so on.


I suggest that Prof A be named "Cat." (category), as this is the technical term for the color-coded groups that each unit type is sorted into. Graphics raws ask for a PROFESSION_CATEGORY when coloring the default clothing.
Prof B should remain as "Prof." (profession). This is the term that's used elsewhere, when renaming units on their character sheet and when specifying creature-specific [PROFESSION_NAME]s.

In addition, the smaller column margins to display names causes longer names to be shortened and/or displayed on two lines. It's uncommon with typical dwarven names, but creatures with legendary titles or custom nicknames are affected by this.
Image from Logem Cilobdural:


If anyone else has any suggestions for the new unit list menus, please do reply.

We do see this a bit when asking for information, where [You receive detailed information] comes up, as well as performances being described rather than quoted. I think having dialogue can have its charm, especially when giving out specific information.
Statements of value or personality are better as dialogue,
*Kadol Umiddodok states the nuances of truth.* vs "There is no value in telling the truth thoughtlessly.  Consider the circumstances and say what is best."

I think greetings are a bad example of something that should be abstracted away - there's a lot of contextual information that can be expressed more succinctly as dialogue. The reply changes if you're a foreigner or known as a hero. Peaceful characters attempt to "dissuade you from this foolishness" if you're traveling alone, and religious characters give out a little aphorism relating to their deities.

Descriptions of conversations are good when they clearly relate to confirming the player's actions and updated status, the other examples you provide are well-chosen. Detailed directions are saved in another menu, so it makes sense to be a little meta to confirm you have the information. Being accused of theft makes the player's status that the reputation is directed at you clear (even if displayed with dialogue), and the last one confirms that a player has successfully made a deal.

You'd have to add a creature that actually exists I think, not a dummy one that's only there for materials. Look at how milk is coded in whatever animal you like

Added a bunch of extracts to a single creature owned by the civ, I'm amazed how quickly that worked!
Haven't been able to test extracting from the creature, though. Tame purring maggot shenanigans.

It'd be nice to see drinkable liquids that aren't water or characterized by all the various baggages of DRINK items (units seek it out preferentially, satisfies "drink alcohol" need)
On a tangent, the material token [CHEESE_PLANT] was recently deprecated.

Did the hippo man wrestler in the trailer organically accept to come with, or was there some manipulation behind the scenes? I tend to have trouble recruiting in my adventure games.

This might be more of a raw-loading issue than anything. You should have the FORCED rarity for turbans added to the mountain entity, then generate a new world to create dwarves from that template.

It would definitely need its own data storage to be modifying units on the fly, but it could do a lot of interesting things especially when combined with this being a caste-level thing.
Caterpillars might even be better to handle as a separate caste (with the proper overrides to still not get freshly-hatched adult moths), since the body is completely regenerated during pupation (itself could be handled as a separate caste). Allow for branching paths and you might be able to implement huge evolution chains.
Certainly lots of mythical creatures gain additional powers as they grow up, like the kitsune's many tails and its immortality.