Hey. Been hovering around the forums for a bit and never felt the need to post. However, I found this topic interesting enough where I felt the need to actually post something massive. Anyway, that aside there were a few points here from the overall discussion I just wanted to highlight with my thoughts on them.
1. Diseases and Animal Diseases/Blights/etc.
First of all, I love this idea. I like having to treat the illnesses for the dwarfs. I love the idea of having certain diseases or parasites target a specific kind of crop or animal to make it risky to specialize in limited number of food sources. I don't like the idea someone suggested of more ways to have stored food go bad, simply because I think there is enough ways already. Outside food rot and the abilities of certain vermin (like a knuckle worm) to rot food (or even steal food) make it almost unnecessary in my personal opinion.
I do have some large concerns that the current health care system isn't good enough or extensive enough to deal with it as it is currently constituted. We can take some precautionary measures but it would still be very hard to deal with, especially with how hard it is to keep everything clean. While the point was made that this accurately reflects 14th century Europe, I would prefer to have the option to allow foresight to prevent some of that, as well as more options on how to handle it. I'm not asking for an antibiotic pill to solve all my problems, but maybe more primitive or tribal methods might be ok. Perhaps there could be a herb or something could help with certain diseases. Maybe chicken soup can combat the symptoms of a common cold. Maybe we can use the colonial treatment of leaches to get the blood flowing. There are a number of interesting methods that have been used by ancient Greek and Roman doctors. Etc. I would think we would need the healthcare system to be straightened out before this was implemented. But assuming that the health care system gives us more options and gets straightened out a bit better, illness and blights would be a very nice feature.
My other main concern is that the chances for it happening may be too random. There would be nothing worse than to have a random catastrophic plague that wipes you out in year 2 or 3 before you would even have the chance to make any meaningful preparations. I like the idea someone had of of calling it illness, rather than plague, so that we could have varying degrees and most wouldn't be quite so deadly especially early on. I think that, as with most large disasters we are discussing of this nature, the chances of a severe plague happening should be miniscule to none at first and then go up exponentially as time goes on. That way we have the ability to set up the fortress AND make preparations to counter it. Also, maybe certain conditions would be more responsible for some of the worst illnesses. Like if you had a problem controlling the rats (I know it was technically the fleas on rats but there's no need to make it that complex for the engine) and the rat population went out of control, that might exponentially increase the chances of a plague like event. But you could likely prevent such a thing from happening if you had your cats to hunt vermin and control the population. Or near evil areas, maybe the chances for diseases would be greater. For instance, the demon rats might have their own form of plague. Blood gnats may increase the chances of getting another type of disease. Maybe Acorn flies from savage areas could carry their own disease. I also like the idea of waterborn diseases making your water supply harder to manage. I also think there should be a much rarer chance of an airborne disease as that is the most contagious and hardest to prevent.
All these factors could make evil areas or wet areas more prone to certain diseases. Water could be a platform for waterborn diseases and parasites, and those stagnant pools in particularly applicable areas could be a platform for blood gnats, acorn flies, etc. This balances out the advantages of a wet climate having more easy access to water with the potential for even more disease. I'm also all for adding the extra challenge of making sure you water supply is clean and not contaminated. I also think it makes sense that evil areas (or savage areas with pools) would be more likely to have certain diseases due to the nature of them.
2. About Weather.
I am fascinated by weather, would always be in favor of more weather, and love the idea of adding more severe weather. But there should probably be seasons where the more severe weather tends to happen. Maybe a strong tornado would be most likely to happen in temperate grasslands, and would most likely occur during a specific time (late spring to mid summer) instead of year round. A sandstorm would be more likely occur in the summer heat of a sandy desert. (This is realistic) A dust storm might occur in a drought, or during the dry season of a tropical plains area. A hurricane would appear on the edge of a tropical ocean during the months that would be equivalent to late summer and early fall in more temperate climate (as I believe the seasons in tropical areas are dry and wet and not the temperate four seasons) and would not occur during what would be considered winter months in temperate climates.
This also brings the subject of adding more evil weather. I love how evil weather already works in the game, but I think it should be expanded on. Adding onto the disease topic, when evil rain inflicts syndromes on your dwarfs, those syndromes can also sometimes be the result of a disease from the evil rain which can spread. Other times it would just be the rain itself (like maybe acid rain) which inflicted the syndrome. I also think that evil rain should have the ability to contaminate the water supply instead of just making it so murky pools won't refill. There is already the need to wash certain evil weather off, so that could be something for the healthcare system. I think the main problem with evil rain/clouds is that it often reflects a climate with at least some moisture and above freezing temperatures. (With the exception of dust clouds) I suggest adding variations in evil weather for dry climates or even droughts and dry seasons. Maybe an evil dust cloud during the dry season instead have evil rain during the wet season? And maybe evil snow for freezing climates or winter in temperate/cold climates? Maybe evil lightning for more variety?
The main problem with weather as a challenge, though, is that you could seal yourself off from most of it. Most dwarf fortresses are largely underground anyway. Unless there was a major flooding component that extended underground, there wouldn't be much late game challenge for the experienced player. But I still think it would be cool to implement along side other things that have consequences for sealing yourself in. So then you have to pick your poison. Do you seal yourself in from the weather and risk being vulnerable to things that more greatly effect an isolated fortress, or do you try to manage the exposure with the weather patterns? Maybe you only seal yourself in during certain seasons when the weather is too violent?
3. Volcanoes, Fault Lines, and Risk/Reward.
I do like this idea. However, I'm wondering what type of volcanic eruptions we are talking about. Is this the slower flowing magma of a Hawaii type volcano? Is this the kind of volcano that just spout some smoke and ash in the air and isn't too violent? Or is the the Mt. Saint Helens kind of eruption that destroys everything in the area. Or maybe it is the destroy the world super volcano kind of eruption like the one under Yellowstone. Perhaps there should be different kinds of volcanoes with different types of eruptions. The calmer ones may erupt more often while the more severe ones only erupt on very rare occasions.
I do like the idea of a risk/reward thing with these. For example, a fault line or volcano should give you much higher chances to find valuable ores and minerals and such. And it may not even be uncommon to find what would normally be much deeper ores and such closer to the surface when a fault line or volcano is near. But, more easily accessible wealth would come at the risk of earthquakes or eruptions (and possibly earthquakes) in the case of volcanoes. I think the same risk/reward system could be applied for a lot of things. If the risk of being near a tropical ocean is a much higher (and more frequent) chance of a hurricane, then perhaps the reward of being near one would be valuable pearls that couldn't be found in other oceans? Maybe tropical reefs provide a benefit? The advantage of being in a wet climate is access to plenty of water, at the expense of being exposed to more waterborn diseases and parasites. Etc.
And as with my take on most serious diseases, I think the chances of more severe earthquakes, eruptions, and disasters like that should be miniscule to none at first and then increase over time. And then after the catastrophic event happens, the probability of it happening again goes down to zero or close to it for awhile. And then the chances would rise again with time. For instance, a fault line often goes decades or even centuries between severe earthquakes. However, minor rumbling is a lot more common. So more minor versions of them may be more common as they are easier to deal with. And then certain weather disasters such as tornadoes are much more likely to happen every year, yet only tend to occur during certain seasons in certain climates.
4. Also, I had a question based on something I read here...
I heard about methods to prepare for things from going through solid walls if no less dangerous path was available. Just out of curiosity, what measures would you take to prevent that from happening? I ask because, currently, all my forts are designed with the concept that almost nothing too bad can get through a solid wall. I typically have one main pathway full of traps leading to the outside which can be sealed off in multiple ways, and block off the rest with solid walls. This includes walling off any underground threats I may find until and unless I feel like dealing with it. When this inevitably becomes inadequate, I have the sinking feeling I might be screwed.
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Topic: DF needs more LATE game challenges (with lots of examples of solutions) (Read 6699 times)