Which, as I said before, is the point of them. It's to make dwarf fortress more a simulation, and less a game with arbitrary rules.
The names aren't derived from the simulation, they're just arbitrary labels with no cause or effect otherwise. I would like the dwarves to take up hobbies and then have "Urist is a dabbling potter" in their profile.
I'd say you were missing his pont, but that would require me to understand what yours is. Are you saying that the simulation should not simulate the differences between master and merely proficient skill levels, or...what?
It's in fact a replacement for gradual learning. The skill levels are lying so close toghether that people can't easily see the difference between them, making an arbitrary level up mechanic in a gradual learning curve (for the dwarves, not the humans).
It's still an arbitrary level up mechanic in a fancy package. A misapplied one, IMO, because these terms have real concepts behind them which make them unsuitable for a straight hierarchic ladder of labels, and could be developed in so much more.
It's not a perfect system, but many (most?) of the skill levels do actually apply to a more-or-less linear increase in skill, from "just starting" to "capable" to "among the best in the field."
I'm content with knowing that my dwarves are currently proficient in their skill, and that dabbling is bad and master good.
Great, then why do you need more labels than half a dozen?
Because there are differences between proficient and talented, and when I want the best possible crafts I turn to my talented crafters over the merely proficient!
Sigh. Can you guys start making readabe replies - something that is not four posts in one? Anyway:
Simulation of course should know about differences in crafter ablities and their seniority. And it can track internally a lot of things.
It is presentation to player that sucks - you note that you want to use best for job. But does text really tell you who is best? After all, there is notable difference in master which just dinged and master for is one craft from level up. Most people i know off use therapist and do theese three things:
* Sort dwarves by skill and pick the ones at top.
* Look for square or diamond in list and use that one.
* Simply not really care and assign job to dwarf of right color or even to some random dwarf.
Usually, there is not much competition for job so you have very few candidates and sort by experience level is more than enough.
In fact, from using too much of DT, i hardly even know the names of "levels". They are just flavor for me. And that flavor is not really well done. Many terms are misued - dabbling, for example (which should denote that dwarf does it for hobby) or talented and others.
In fact, it is just barely better than rat -> dire rat -> giant rat -> elder rat -> demon rat -> rat lich -> etc... descriptions of rat mob denoting its power in imaginary rpg game - random list of vaguelly ascending terms that are somewhat related to skill levels. It is one of thing where if you have to use wiki and newbie to tell difference, it is failure. Showing number is not failure here, it is being pragmatic and saving those labels for real use (guilds, reputations, aptitude) is worth it.
