Ah yes, dwarven children. Precious little puffs of light and purity, until they are corrupted by the passing of a loved one (through the maw of a dragon) or the ensnaring taste of booze (taste being a generous understatement). But before they reach that corruption that makes a hairy drunkard of them, they don't do much but mouth at the air where their false friends are, or just play around like good-for-nothing freeloaders little children. I have an idea that would bring a whole new world of fun into DF in regards to the dwarves of dwarves.
Learning
Once babies become children, they should be capable of entering an apprenticeship under a dwarf which you assign. This apprenticeship will hone the child's skill in whichever craft they are being taught, as well as hone the master's teaching ability (and perhaps a few other social skills too). This is how it would work: The baby reaches childhood, the announcement comes up indicating such, moving the camera to the fresh child's position (much like how migrants, strange moods, etc. are announced). A query will be included with the announcement asking: "Assign apprenticeship? Y/N". if you say yes, you will be able to choose the labor to learn and the dwarf that will teach your new child. Also, there will be another menu in the command window available where you can tweak these settings.
Once the child is an apprentice, you are able to schedule how often demonstrations/lessons/sessions occur through out the year (by month-like giving them lessons during the autumnal and winter times much like school in the US, for example). Once the time comes that they are required to apprentice themselves under their master, they will follow their assigned teacher until you Each lesson consists of the master performing a craft/labor that you assign them with the child by their side, practicing. In addition to the dwarf working as normal, their student will gain experience in the field they are studying (and perhaps even procure goods or resources, like ordinary working dwarves). If the dwarf teaching the child is killed, the apprenticeship ends and the child will get a bad thought. They cannot be assigned another apprenticeship. If the dwarf teaching the child is injured enough to disable them from teaching, the child will be forced to remain idle until their master can work again. If the child dies or suffers injury, the same consequences occur. Children will suffer an injury while practicing from time to time depending on what their labor is, at which point their master becomes responsible for nursing them until they can work again.
Once the child reaches adulthood, they can emerge with a skill in their labor not exceeding Professional.
Now here's the fun part. Depending on the personalities of the dwarf and child, they may not get along very well-or at all. Cue arguments, bad thoughts, and potentially, tantrums and insanity. Conversely, maybe they get along too well, only to have the child witness the gruesome death of their master on one of their routine mining missions to a forgotten beast. Cue terror, bad thoughts, tantruming/insanity. Or maybe the child will suffer a brutal end and the master will become so distraught that they will be the ones throwing goblets and flipping tables. What if the teacher enters a fell mood and butchers the child? My, I'm sure their parents won't be happy. Certain mechanics may synergize very amusingly with the apprenticeship mechanic, bringing a new dimension of Fun into the game.
Thoughts?
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Topic: Giving Children a (Fun!) Purpose (Read 825 times)