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Messages - XenoZergie

Pages: 1 [2]
16
DF Suggestions / Possible new job
« on: January 26, 2007, 02:56:00 pm »
First of all, I realize that as Toady is currently working on immigration as the groundwork for armies, he may be doing some related clean-up in the code.  If any of what I'm about to discuss has been pre-empted by this, then feel free to ignore it.

Anyway, as immigration currently stands, all immigrants arrive with three skills pulled from the pool of skills tied to their job.  (There are exceptions to this, but only in those cases where the job does not have three skills to pull from, such as Miners and Mechanics.)

However, these three skills are not necessarily random; as of v0.23.130.23a., all immigrant Farmers arrive with Grower, Butcher, and then one other skill chosen from their vast list.  By the same token, all immigrant Carpenters arrive with Wood Cutting, Carpentry, and then either Engineer or Bowyer.

Of particular concern to me in this discussion are Farmers.  As mentioned, a Farmer's third skill is pulled from a very large list.  In fact, there are more skills tied to Farmer than other any job, with the consequence that in a large fort where specialization becomes crucial, you tend to need more Farmers than any other type of dwarf.

Therefore, I propose the creation of a new job, the Rancher, which would take over the following Farmer skills:  Butcher, Tanner, Milker, Cheese Maker, and Soaper.  One could conceivably add one or two more to this list such as Lye Maker or Wood Burner.  The non-random job for Farmers would remain Grower, and the non-random job for Ranchers would be Butcher.

This would be beneficial in a number of ways.  First, it would increase the chance of a Farmer arriving with a useful skill like Cook or Brewer by giving them two random skill slots instead of one.  Second, by removing Butcher from Farmers, it means that separate dwarves handle two time-critical tasks (planting crops and butchering animals) instead of forcing the same dwarves to prioritize.  I cannot count the number of times a kitten has saved itself in the nick of time by adopting, just because a Butcher couldn't get to it in time.

I realize that I likely do not have a full appreciation of the technical hurdles involved, but should this idea be feasible, I
think it could be a very useful change.

Edit:  fixed some organization issues.

[ January 26, 2007: Message edited by: XenoZergie ]


17
DF Suggestions / Job-less skills
« on: January 25, 2007, 11:04:00 am »
Before proceeding, let me state that my findings are current as of v0.23.130.23a.

Currently, there are several skills that do not affect a dwarf's chosen job, despite being related to the job.  To maintain consistency, I was wondering if these might be changed.

For instance, despite all immigrant Carpenters being (among other things) Novice Wood Cutters, Wood Cutting is not itself a Carpentry skill.  You can see this for yourself by starting a new fortress and giving a dwarf nothing but Wood Cutting.  He will end up as a Peasant instead of a Carpenter.  

Building Designer and Masons are in a similar boat.  All immigrant Masons arrive with their Architecture job turned on, but with no skill in Building Designer.  Furthermore, if you start a new fortress, giving a dwarf Building Designer makes them a Peasant, same as with Wood Cutting.

No dwarf comes with either the Siege Operator job turned on or any skill in it.  It is my opinion that Siege Operator should be tied to Mechanics, such that immigrant Mechanics will arrive with Novice Mechanic and Novice Operator, and such that increasing Operator skill will cause a dwarf to become a Mechanic if it becomes higher than one of their other skills.

In summary, would it be possible to make Wood Cutting count towards making a dwarf a Carpenter, and to make Building Designer count towards making a dwarf a Mason?  Furthermore, could immigrant Masons come with Novice Building Designer, and could immigrant Mechanics come with Novice Siege Operator?

These changes would not only make all skills consistent by tying them to a job, but would make Operator and Building Designer, two relatively difficult skills to increase, a bit easier to level up.

I realize that all of the Hauling jobs provide a counterpoint to this, but as it states in the Development pages, there is eventually a Hauling profession planned.

If any of my topics are bugs, I can cross-post this in the appropriate forum, but if they are intended, I think it would be beneficial to change them.

[ January 25, 2007: Message edited by: XenoZergie ]


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