Bay 12 Games Forum

Migration Skill Scaling

In a recent fort where, for reasons related to a project, I did no digging and created very little other than wooden blocks, constructed walls and bridges and a batch of training axes to trade to the first caravan, I found myself with a handful of legendary migrants (artifact creators) coming to my fort in the first year. By any reasonable standard, my fortress was a miserable, hot mudhole with little protection from the rain and a terrible infestation of overgrown insects. It struck me as odd that any accomplished or noteworthy dwarf would want to live in such a place.

When the game selects dwarves for migration, it should try to account for the relative status of a player's fortress compared to the skill of the migrant dwarf. Highly skilled dwarves would logically be well off in their current homes and have high expectations for any place they consider migrating to and thus refuse any player fortress that they consider below them. An exception would be dwarves with a high Excitement Seeking personality value, who care less about the status of their home and more about the promise of adventure an up and coming fortress can provide.

Migrants and Artifacts

When a dwarf creates an artifact, they either claim it as a family heirloom or offer it to the fortress it was created in. When an artifact creator migrates, the status of their artifact should be checked. If it was claimed as a family heirloom and has not been stolen or otherwise lost, the dwarf should carry it with him when he migrates. Related to the above, attracting artifact-carrying migrants should be difficult to attract and rare. Likewise, an artifact creator who is expelled from a fortress should take their artifact with them when they leave. These are incredibly valuable possessions and a dwarf should not part with them lightly.

Migrant Management

The player has some control limited over migration by changing settings in d_init, but there should be in-game means to influence migration waves. Through ingame menus, the player should have means to set

• Maximum fortress population
• Maximum immigrant wave size
• Requested migrant skills (increasing the chance of receiving a migrant with any of the requested skills)
• Forbidden migrant skills (eliminating any potential migrants with forbidden skills)
• Minimum and maximum allowed skill levels for migrants (allowing the player to eliminate unskilled or overly skilled migrants)

Imposing regulations on migration could potentially have impact on the resulting migration waves. More restrictions = fewer potential migrants = smaller waves and slower growth. Managing migration could be done as a function of the Manager noble. Changes to migration regulations could also be made to require word to reach the player's civilization before the take effect, either through the caravan returning home or by sending one of your own dwarves as a messenger.

I love to see a new one up. I never lost faith in this amazing story. ^_^

Dream World: 1) Undergo initiation while drunk. Spin the bottle/Seven minutes in heaven with Ima and Ale. At the same time.

2) Try to remember what happened with the real Cipone

Main Story: 1) Paint the turtle up like Amala's lost hat. ALTERNATIVELY make a new hat for Amala and a small one for the turtle as well. Better hats than the one Amala used to have! There should be plenty of reeds and grass and flowers around, so it'll only take a bit of time. Let Aleya Feralwhispers do it... She cares enough about the turtle to make one for him.

2) Determine how much can fit in the boat. How many elves? How much of the caravan supplies? How many trips will it take to get everything across? (Use one of the ropes to tie the boat to a tree until we're ready to go for real)

3) Find out if we have any elves present who have the necessary skills to harvest more wood in the elven way. We had that one hippie elf who fought for the right to be able to sing as we pleased... He probably could've done it, but he got his hed bit off. See if there are any others like him, but smart enough to know when to keep their mouths shut.

4) Determine how many more boats we can make with our current resoueces and decide if we want to make them the same size as the original, or if we should invest in a few smaller ones (to hold a few bow-elves and scout the swamp/protect the main caravan). A few barrels were likely emptied during the celebrations.

5) Any elves not involved in the above should try to see if there is anything useful that can be made with what can be found in the swamp. Can any form of rope be made with swamp materials? Are there any fallen logs nearby that can be used in boat construction? Can we safely extract some of that frog poison that caused that one elf to overdose and use it to coat our weapons (Do not even attempt this one unless we know what killed him was licking it and not just skin contact... Unless we've got some nice thick gloves available)? These elves should not wander out of sight of the camp. If anything is discovered, soldiers should be present while it is harvested, but not so many that the camp is left vulnerable.

I never actually finished one of these before my OCD took over and I abandoned, but I've tried this several times. Here's what I usually do...

Embark somewhere with a river (not brook) and a good freeze-thaw cycle. It may take some experimenting to find a good spot. This is more due to the OCD I mentioned than any necessity... You'll never run out of ice and you won't have to ugly up the map to get it.

Start building your walls right away. How important this is depends on how much of an aboveground area you want to secure. I tend to go big... Large walled off area with the aboveground part of the fortress inside, giving my civilian dwarves aboveground safety and a place to grow aboveground crops. Everything several Z-levels high. Because of this, I usually have to get started right away to assure I am walled off before the first ambushes come. If you're aiming for a area or are going in a permanantly frozen area, this is less important.

Likewise, enable masonry on as many dwarves as you can spare. Building constructions doesn't grant experience (atleast last time I played, which was 31.18 I believe), so even if you prefer your dwarves have clearly defined roles and not get experience in jobs you don't want them doing (like captain OCD here), it won't be an issue. Again, how important this is depends on how large scale your project will be.

Build a small constructed/underground path from your fortress to the river. This will allow you to continue gathering ice and building, even while under siege. When the freeze comes, you can dig a ramp into the ice and begin mining into it without exposing your dwarves to death from above. Again, only matters if your map has a freeze/thaw cycle. I usually go with a constructed path because I don't like to ugly up my map with unnecessary digging.

As mentioned above, you can only rely on ice for constructions. Buildings and bridges will melt.

A legless one-headed hydra is a good idea... But an eyeless, toothless, legless, one-headed hydra is a better idea.

Or... Do polish until you're satisfied with it. Then post it when you're ready.

Seriously... Were it me being told not to bother trying to make it look good, I'd probably respond with intentionally crappy drawings. Stick figure Amala stabbing stick figure Cipone in the eye with what appears to be a fork and then proudly proclaiming "Now to rescu the careavan!" and a panel of her flying while carrying it all away.

I've been following this since about March... Even though the only updates since then have been the recent ones in Amala's mind, I've been checking back every few days, waiting for this to return. This is the first time I've actually posted on this thread.

First off, congrats on finally getting your new tablet. Though, considering how good your drawings using only the mouse are, I'm surprised you even need it.

Second, I would like to see Amala's first battle. The first time she had to pick up a weapon and fight to protect her own life and possibly her home as well. The first time she actually had to kill another living thing for reasons other than food. (Then again... Cannibal elves, so we might see some of that in the aftermath of the battle anyways). So...

> Imagine Amala's first battle.

Or...

> Imagine the princess without her clothes on.

... That works too.

"Whoa... This chair is really comfortable... This chair is even MORE comfortable... This is the most comfortable-OH MY GOD! How is this even possible!? It's not the chairs that are comfortable...It's my pants! I have the most comfortable pants in the world!"