Bay 12 Games Forum

Thing about [PET_EXOTIC] in native DF, is that they're only applied to cave creatures.  The dungeon master is a dwarf who has dedicated his life to understanding the creatures that dwell beneath the earth, along with whatever precious metals and such might appear down there.  He is an underground-centric trainer, so there is no reason why he would know how to deal with an alligator or a harpy.  He just understands naked mole dogs, and loves them for their oh-so-wrinkly skin.  Mmm, wrinkles...

*Ahem*...  Anyways, there also lies the problem in that not all animals are really all that intelligent, and if they are they might not want to be trained.  Dogs are rather intelligent creatures, and they are very keen on doing what their leader wants.  As such, they are perfect candidates for training purposes.

Cats, while they may be intelligent, have absolutely no inclination to do what you want them to do.  Attempting to train a cat is a lengthy and dreadful process that can never truly be called successful.  Trying to get them to charge into combat or sneak along beside you in the hunt would be a futile effort.

Horses are just dumb.  They can, with significant training, be conditioned to not follow their own thoughts.  War horses are not called war horses because they charge into battle and start stomping stuff, they are called war horses because they have been conditioned to not panic or change their course under the chaotic stress of war.  A perfectly-trained horse would only ever do what its rider told it to do, and would always do that.  There are exceptions, of course, but I've only seen one horse that will pull a beer out of the fridge for you.  Also, horse are not particularly stealthy creatures, and are only of use in a hunt when you're in an all-out chase.

Bears.  They are independent, and thus not instinctually tuned towards following something else's orders.  They are also only moderately intelligent, but they can be taught simple tricks.  I don't care how much war bears and bear cavalry units rampage through the internet, they're just not likely.

War cows.  I'm not even going to go there.

Raccoons.  Worse than cats.

Pikes, carp, sturgeons, lampreys, and sharks.  Something that can still perform most of its standard actions without the need for its head should not really be considered intelligent.

Foul blendec.  It can't even decide if it's undead or not,  how would it be able to learn complex commands?

But of course, that would bring up the question as to why someone is sending you out to get something in the first place, if he's just going to let you keep it.  

Delivery quests...  Deliver the head of {questtarget:1} to {questgiver}.  If that doesn't work, deliver the head of {questgiver} to the nearest refuse pile.  That is how you complete a delivery quest.

But really, the random jobs that get assigned to wannabe adventurers can't be called "quests".  Quests are long-term adventures on an epic scale.  The "Go here and kill this thing that lives *here*" thingies are just tasks.  Errands.  A real quest would have you putting in a lot more time than you might have expected, and will span a very large area.

Heh heh...  

Gandalf the Grey:  I need you to deliver this *one ring* to Mt. Doom.  Mt. Doom is far to the east.  Complete this task and I will give you a Large .

Lord of the Rings.  One big delivery quest.

Diamond swords, on the other hand...  Fun.

Damn...   Diggles, Giants, and now Eddie Izzard...   I've never seen so many people who could understand some of my more "out there" references in one place before.

One that will make its way into your fort, and start twisting through the corridors and gobbling up your dwarves like one of those old snake games.

Cool, certainly.  But probably a long way off.  Basic multi-tile creature (always keeping the same position relative to other body tiles) will most likely pop up first, so we can content ourselves with that thought.

This of course means that dragons will simply have to sit in front of the door and poke their head in to smoke out the dwarves, as they will be too large to actually fit into the corridor.

And, in severe cases, grow extra beards.

I'm going to say

• More underground diversity
  
• More raw files
  
• Framerate improvements
  

Much as I think I'd enjoy blackpowder weaponry, I'd rather let Toady handle it at his own pace and make it fit in with the rest of DF.

[ May 15, 2008: Message edited by: Kagus ]

quote:

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Originally posted by A_Fey_Dwarf:
<STRONG>The balls just shrivel up and fall off after a couple of weeks.</STRONG>

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Eeek.