AKA Failures. But we learn more from failures (unless they eat us, or throw us off a cliff in dramatic fashion).
An odd name for a thread I'm sure, but the new version warrants it.
I was ready for anything in the new version, but many little things that were added over the months suddenly reaffirmed themselves and were neat (and frustrating) surprises for me. I suspect that others have tales to tell too.
What little things have you found that made you pause, flummoxed for a second or three, that you knew existed from the scores of notes but had simply forgotten? And what leapt out and bit you on the arse that you weren't expecting?
Here are mine so far.
I)
The world generation map (with an F9 warning no less) is in some ways good and bad. I liked the worlds generated in the days of yore, and now having control was nice, but a wee bit disheartening. Min-Max-ers will come I thought, then the Ironman(dwarf) challenges, and the attempts to reverse engineer worldmaps to have fields of platinum. The magic is in the mystery Toady, don't let too many secrets out. I wandered about and picked a nice safe-ish looking place with water and trees (no glaciers and wastelands just yet), wondered what the hell the three different civilizations meant (Trade? Creed? Politics? Ore? Would I fight one of them?), and started out. This got named Alakalak Alakalakalakalak Alak (Aceace the Ace Ace Ace-Ace of Aces. (beware Toady! Someone WILL inject Klingon eventually, and probably Tolkein Elvish, then Warcraft Orcish into the goblins, then the mandrills will become Zerglings... I shudder what they will do with the elephant.)
II)
I was ready for an outdoor wilderness, many of us were, as the lake video had shown us, but I was not prepared to see my dwarf miner dig diagonals. It took me a minute to realize that it was now normal. And watching the poor bastards die of thirst because 'Oh Yeah, I have to not only lead these dwarves to water, I have to tell them to drink'. Lessons learned.
III) Red Sand! Black Sand! White Sand! And rocks of every color! I knew he had been perusing the geology books but damn... quite a site to sight (Gabbro Toady?). Knowing now about designating spots to drink and fish (no more fisherdwarf's dipping their rods outside and bringing the whole damn wildlife preserve on my doorstep). I found the ocean to the east of my map (Simply had to see the water) and sent a fisherdwarf to see what he could catch. Beautiful. Then a Great White Shark ('S' in Blue is bad bad news kiddo) swam up from the depths and ate my Fisherdwarf (bit him in half, with one half sinking to the depths and his stubby little legs on the shore. This, plus I had no idea how to farm now, meant a lingering death for the team. I contemplated the fact that we could in theory have Zombie Sharks but no Skeletal Sharks, being cartilagerial in nature, unless floating disembodied teeth counted. More Lessons learned.
IV) Ruins. Yeah, that went well. I couldn't dig down fast enough. And goblins are poor neighbours. They ate well that night. On to the next.
V) Yaay for dirt! Farming ain't nearly the trial it was in the days of yore! I was enjoying the outside a little too much and didn't dig nearly enough down, and had no place to hide when the large pack of wolves "migrated" through me. I now have a plan or at least the framework of one in my mind; Either get busy digging, and having a door, or build a wooden fort like the ancient Canadian days before lumberjacks had evolved into hockey players. That and roads, I must figure out what to do with my roads. I always have massive roads as I believe that dwarves have a profound contempt for natures curves and undulations.
By this point I realized I oughta be keeping screenshots to show my friends who don't play ("See! that Big E? That blinking means he's scraping dwarf of his foot! Isn't that Awesome?").
...---=== Epilogue Onward and... Downward I guess ===---...
With these five "Constructive Learning Exercises" done and many more to go in the future, I have seen some of the limits of what I can do now, and unbidden, ideas are starting to sprout.
-Forget Ironforge, Spurn Rapture, Sneer at Mount Doom (complete with one crazy dwarf named Gollum) I want Dracula!
-Transylvania, in all it's hokey glory.
The winding roads will be built no matter how many ramps and dead dwarves it takes, all to make a nobles house far in a corner, and then get a count. Or rename my craziest noble to do it (albeit that is like asking for the most neurotic poodle out of the pack, clearly some noble testing will have to be done). Vampires, skeletons, Zombies, maybe a werewolf for flavour.
-A Neon Green sign showing exactly what I think about elves, goblins, humans, and elephants. I'll need to make a castle for the dwarves, plus some way to catapult livestock (I shall import cows for this purpose) over my walls at whatever siegers or non dwarf merchants show up. Will bridges launch cows over the walls? I suspect a lot of conscripted peasants will be needed.
-Rebellious hippie vegan dwarves that don't quite get the elven philosophy, but will cut down every tree in the forest to assemble their own "tree" that they will live in 'just like them neat skinny elves', with green glass to make decorative leaves. then I shall see if it is possible to burn it down when an elven caravan comes via magma.
-Moats with alligators (haven't seen a cave croc yet), and now that I know they exist, sharks (no lasers though, perhaps a grafted axe on their snout), plus all the new trap ideas, arcs for catapults, ballistae, bridges. With water and pressure plates, I could use bridges to fling Sand and make little play rooms for the kids (note to self, harass toady for dwarven day care center, Will need less than 7% alcohol for the little bearders, some toy axes and hammers (made of rock of course) and some way to catapult them into sand piles or at the very least give them some kobolds to whack.
-Hell(Dante Style!), Mount Rushmore, the Halls of the Mountain King, The tower of Babel, Mount Olympus (where I'll build a mountain ABOVE a human town and have dwarves rain crap down from above.
-Castle Figaro from Final Fantasy III/VI complete with some mad way to raise and lower the whole castle. and use bridges or somesuch to cover the gaping entrance, or some collapsed sand... hmm...
-A wharf or bridge out to see, where I can get lone crippled dwarves, give them spears, and have them stab whales till I get them as engravings for "dwarf is stabbing the whale" (it better be a white 'W'!).
Many thanks Toady, the sky's the limit now, and the truly mad will triumph! I must be off to make some things... And will return to report some more failures, and neat little bits I think may be useful.
[ October 31, 2007: Message edited by: MickEfinn ]
