March 6, 2024: Dwarf Fortress 50.12 has been released.
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[Make it so ALL labours are enabled for each dwarf. Rather than activate/deactivate them, we simply move them up and down in the list to change the priority order in which they are done]
[This then just needs another (U)nit screen which just shows selectable units in one column, and the labour order of the selected dwarf on the right. Another skills/unit screen would be helpful that shows all the skills in one column and then another column with the name of each dwarf. Each dwarf would show in brackets the position in their skill list the selected skill is and the list would be organised from dwarves with the highest priority down to dwarves with the lowest (or which ever order you want)]
[That way in the first unit/skill screen you can fiddle with the labours for each dwarf from the one screen, OR move the priority of a labour for all dwarves in the second skill/unit screen]
[A labour like "Wait for higher duties" could be moved up and down to stop dwarves doing very low order jobs]
[Sorry for using my vote to make suggestions! 
]
Is there a (d)esignate, (F)orbid option so we can select all the items on the ground outside during seiges and forbid them (hence stopping the siege dance)? I never use forbid or dump, so...
But I agree with the subtle-effects style Toady has suggested. Until the OP's thoughts I was quite pessimistic about the introduction of Magic. Now I can see how Magic can be incorporated and still keep the progressive, cause-and-effect sense of the game. In the current magic-in-game-fantasy-world paradigms, the more subtle effect type of magic would be very different to what we've come to expect of the genre. I imagine it would also be far easier for Toady to incorporate into the coding, as well as keep the organic nature of DF's developments (i.e., start small and subtle and grow the concept as players and designers see fit -over time-).
Love it.
quote:
Originally posted by Sean Mirrsen:
<STRONG>Also, I don't know if it's possible (currently), but maybe add an option to assign workshops to specific dwarves? So as to prevent a rookie mason from allowing your stone stockpile to fill when a legendary one is loitering, or to prevent your legendary carpenter from "binning" your entire wood supply in under 10 minutes.
</STRONG>
Surely is possible, it comes with the Manager noble or someone. When you get them, use <q> on the workshop then hit
to block or allow specific dwarves or dwarves greater than or less than a certain skill proficiency (so you could block all legendary carpenters from the carpenter's workshop).
I really like the expandable workshop idea as if from some central feature like Sean said about bedrooms. I also agree with Katawa that the deconstruction and transport of workshops isn't necessary under the current system. Yet, the idea that workshop output quality is dependent on the features and quality of the workshop is nice.
I'd be concerned that introducing extra limitations on output based on these features would add a whole layer of micromanaging I don't really need right now (consider just how many jobs are queued that frustrate us right now, and how little we want gets done because we can't control the dwarves like we want to. Think, also, what playing would be like if item construction was divided into several smaller steps, all the more interruptable by needs such as eating, drinking and bum scratching!). However, it does make more sense and make it more realistic. I would love to see a novice mason churn out decent doors if he were working with a masterpiece obsidian chisel, and to be turning out doors one grade higher than rolling rocks if he were, say, chiselling with a rock (this would be extra special when magic is incorporated and tradesdwarfs create spontaneous magical artefacts because they used that hammer made from the weird glowing rock found deep within!).
I'm happy at the moment that workshops don't specify what is in them and that they can still operate because Grokaebmi Gfjsak is engraving with the only chisel on the other side of the fortress. And I'm also happy that Toady only needs to make a workshop LOOK like a workshop and that he doesn't need to spend the effort labelling and naming each of those 9 tiles we currently see.
Great speculations!
[ June 21, 2007: Message edited by: Faces of Mu ]
On the point about child birth, wouldn't it be great if one of the nobles (maybe Mayor?) unlocked a Culture screen? This is probably more related to the advent of Religion, whenever that will be, but it would be great to modify/toggle/review such things as:
- Average number of preferred children
- Marriage rites and relations
- Monogamy/Polygamy
- Sexuality
- Gender roles
- Religion, observance rates
- Tolerance
- Global preference effect for jobs, items, places
- Sociability and social practice/place preferences
- Communality/Individuality scale (as well as other valued personality traits)
Etc Etc.
I'm sure there's plenty of threads here about these factors, and I imagine many such suggestions tie these things to one Noble who governs and decides these factors.
One thing I certainly love about DF is the Dwarfity (/Humanity) and inclusion of individual differences in the working of the fortress. This is one of the big reasons why I like to keep the population number low (less that 25) as this way I get to know and value each dwarf a lot more than a huge, anonymous populace.
[ June 17, 2007: Message edited by: Faces of Mu ]
quote:
Originally posted by Grek:
<STRONG>Maybe require dwarfs use salt to preserve food? They would need to trade for that. Not much use if you build trade tunnels like above...</STRONG>
My thoughts re: the ultimate defence was something like this, except dwarves don't really need to be attached to the surface AT ALL. Therefore, as long as you can find enough magma, and it doesn't turn hard, you could create an egg of a fortress underground (an entire empty layer around the whole fortress, with 2x2 supports periodically). You fill the space between the shell of your fort and the rest of the earth with magma. Any foe tunneling to you will get incinerated. Even if they try to go for your supports, when they hit a diagonal to the magma (which they will with 2x2 supports) then they'll get incinerated. They just won't be able to touch you without hitting the magma first and they'll never be able to knock all your supports down. If catapults COULD blast the ground, then maybe they could drain the magma from underneath (AI allowing), but if you make your outer magma penumbra go all the way down to the bottom of the map, there's no chance you can be caved-in (unless an unnattached column of rock that is 'sitting' on the bottom of the world is considered disconnected).
quote:
Originally posted by Felix the Cat:
<STRONG>The dwarves could easily do it themselves with simple emergent behavior: whenever a dwarf runs into another dwarf, he moves one tile to his right.This naturally segregates traffic going opposite directions without having to muss about with manual settings and movement weights and the like.</STRONG>
I've seen this happen when two dwarves are heading in the same direction. If the faster dwarf is behind the slower dwarf, the fast dwarf will step to the side to try to get around the slower one. Meanwhile, the slower one has gained a one-tile advantage over the faster one (because of the faster one's detour) and the faster dwarf eventually steps back in line according to it's pathfinding. Then, when it catches up to the slower one, it occurs all over again.
Diagonal pathfinding will help eliminate this, but I dunno what it will do to oncomming traffic. You'll probably see both dwarves change lanes must still move forward diagonally when they reach other. If it were RL, they'd stop and do a little side-stepping dance for a few ticks until one took the initiative the other didn't!
This is a great idea with obviously many benefits.
Do you mind if I ask what problem you feel it is solving, besides making improvements? What do you feel is lacking right now that this could "fix"?
I didn't agree with the anti-clumping towercaps rule when I read it. I think plants SHOULD grow out from clumps, and be a nuisance if that is the case.
I really look forward to being able to do something like this. It would be like Dwarf mode in Adventure mode: you WOULD have a unit you play through while other units you control do all the tasks such as building, working, creating, processing and refining. This reminds me of that game....Spell Force? Where you summon the creatures and units that do the work for you, and the further you progress, the higher creature types you can summon and the more buildings you can create and resources you can harvest. It'd be different because the bodies of the creatures you defend yourself from and kill would restock the creatures expended in the killing. Each attack or siege would be like a wave of immigrants. As creatures don't really move around that much and attacks would become rarer as you settled in and prayed on the locals, you would probably need to travel further and further afield until you have zombified all life in a large radius. Your neighbourhood would become like a silent graveyard devoid of all living things and inhabited only by your obedient slaves. As above, undead would probably move and work slower, and I would reckon that their skills would be capped pretty low to account for this. However, the corpse beetle idea would help to make slow zombies into their faster moving skeleton kin.
In such a necromantic possibility, there might need to be a way that your minions could catch living creatures and bring them to you alive for slaughter and raising as undead. Some of your minions may even break free of you and become either neutral to you or as equally hostile to you as they would be to the living.
Later, if you die or decide to start anew somewhere else, the undead would still plague the area and your tower or lodgings would become ruins and the home of some evil force that the locals want killed. Perhaps even your adventurer's own spirit would be the nuisance!
The whole notion of having a solitary wizard's tower makes me want to see novices and apprentices want to come and stay with you and learn from you, too! Certainly a fancier option than the spear catchers we're used to.
I like it. I like it alot.
I would like to see some non-conventional ideas and suggestions peeps would have about this, and also how they would like to be able to play a necro-style adventurer?
AND HOLY CRAP! I just noticed the thread screen below the "Preview Reply|Add Reply" buttons for the first time!!!! Oh man....! So much time wasted cutting'n'copying and Back-ing and Forward-ing this year! 
Edit: Inserted about undead speeds + skill caps, and corpse beetles.
[ October 14, 2007: Message edited by: Faces of Mu ]
