Bay 12 Games Forum

When it comes to dealing with dwarves with no work to do and therefore no income, I think a more detailed economic model that allowed dwarves to work for their own ends and buy/sell from other dwarves, as well as work for the government (you) would cover this better. (my 2c).

It also has all my support, but it's not the point here. It's related to Life Arc and could require a bit of Caravan Arc, but it'd be nice to start another thread about it.

Strikes seem at first a bit... violent in the DF world, meaning quite democratic in a fortress when a random guy is beaten to death for something doesn't even know about. They would fit more if the Fortress Guard was around them and the strike could get more like a riot.
Of course, not every time but if strikes came in too often, or the Captain is easily upset or he doesn't like the Guild Master.

Also, being in a guild should have advantages for the dwarves. If they're going to go on strike and share danger, hunger and quite often magma, they should be sharing the positive part of the life in the fortress (given there's one). That's why I think they should put in common all the money earned from doing their job and, once a month/season, share it either equally or depending on their skills. Either ways, the GM would get a better rent than other members.

During every pay, a dwarf would compare how much work he did, how much he earned from it and react depending on his personality : leave the guild (if he's skilled enough to earn a living by himself), get angrier (raising the probability of a strike), do nothing (for the passive-tempered ones).

Perhaps there could be some sort of Guild secrets, revealed only to a few chosen ones. The Guild master would know it, the dwarves who are in the guild for a very long time too. It would be something that would make them more efficient or give them a sort of enhanced ability, maybe just stats going up quicker, which would be useful to your fortress by itself.
But moreover, some new options for the player would be unlocked as the fortress counts a certain amount of Initiates, or it'd be unlocked as soon as you have a Guild Master and  the more Initiates you have, the stronger and more useful this option gets.

This way you have some new factions (useful for more politics, treasons and fun), dwarves' lives get a new social aspect and you would want the guild to be successful.

Perhaps fans much more like wooden fans than metal helixes. To get decent ventilation with an helix, you'd have to make it turn with quite a good speed, or it has to be huge. Without electricity, I suppose it'd be hard.

Same as Sweitx, with a little more interest in kinetic energy.

Also, I don't understand what fans would be for.

I think maybe you could get an announcement: _____ vein continues higher (or lower). But that seems really gamey. Any ideas?

Let's just reveal the ones that are below/above the end of the vein on wanted z-level. just like it currently does but in 3D : when a tile is mined out, reveal next. Of course, this would work only for veins.

Nope, he said not at all, but it's still quite blurry. Technologies that weren't used in the middle age had been discovered and lost before, and occident was far to be the most advanced.
Moreover, if you really look for an example of any use of anything, you'll probably find one. For instance, take a look at the aelopile, a steam engine designed in the 1st century.

So, while I hope modders will have the possibility to set up what they want, and although I don't want more than sparse steam-powered things in DF, I think you guys can still hope about more steampunk in DF.

It's a good idea, even though I doubt we'll kill many elephants in DF...
While we're at it, we could also talk about cow and bull horns, and the ability to turn them into gobelets.
Perhaps we could also turn some animal/diplomat skull into a gobelet as well 

Also, once feathers are in, let's not forget feather pillows and matresses that could finally allow us to build beds out of something other than wood.

... Have I digressed?

Guessed this one

Zeppelins no, but perhaps some sort of vehicle involving a dozen giant eagles. Maybe. You can start a thread in the suggestions forum about ways to fly in DF, but it'll probably turn into yet another steam-punk Vs Fantasy fight.