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[Azerty]

After reading the thread better weddings, the very complete Funerary rites and the excellent Holidays, observances, festivities, birthdays, I thought it would be a good idea to generzlise them to all significant events happening to a person or a group.

• Events describe things such as birth, the construction of a building, the elevation to someone to a noble title (coronation or adoubement) or, like in the threads I quoted earlier, weddings and funerals.
• Customs would be how these events would be celebrated; they would have, of course, tags on how to celebrate them (music, eating, dancing) and ethic codes. They would also have codes for relative importance.
• Together, they would make a Tradition.

WHY?
I think giving civilizations more occasions to be different is good, and that it would give more life to culture to have different events differently celebrated.

Moreover, making spheres more relevant to the gameplay is a good idea; this could nicely tie up with religion.

• EVENTS

They would be notable events, important enough they would be celebrated by an individual, a family, a settlement or even a civilization.

They would be defined in raws, to ensure a better modability of the concept and could have tags indicating their name, what exactly this event is, who would be concerned for the celebration (CREATURE, FAMILY, SETTLEMENT, ENTITY), its relative importance (VERY_LOW, LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, VERY_HIGH) and the associated ethics and spheres.

At world gen, civilizations would chose to celebrate events, taking account their ethic values and their spheres.

The more someone is traditionalist, the more likely he is to celebrate events, or to made them celebrated if he is the head of a group concerned with them.

Exemple of event, this one for the Moon-worshipers:

Code: [Select]

[EVENT_CELEBRATED:NEW_MOON_FEAST]
[NAME:"New moon day"] Name of the event
[SPHERE:MOON] Part of the sphere of the moon
[PERIODIC:MOON_PHASE:27:0] It happens every new moon
[CELEBRATION_LEVEL:MEDIUM] It would have an average importance for those celebrating it.
[CELEBRANT:CREATURE] A creature might celebrate it in his corner.
[CELEBRANT:FAMILY] ...or with his family.
[CELEBRANT:SETTLEMENT] ...or celebrate it as a collective body.

This is the New Moon Feast, part of the sphere of the Moon, happening every new Moon with a MEDIUM level of festivities in civilizations where moon has a great deal of importence.

Another exemple, this one for those celebrating and advocating the killing of sapients:

Code: [Select]

[EVENT_CELEBRATED:FIRST_SAPIENT_KILL]
[NAME:"First sapient-killing"]
[SPHERE:MURDER]
[CELEBRATION_LEVEL:HIGH]
[CELEBRANT:CREATURE]
[ACTION:KILL_SAPIENT_ENEMY]
[ACTION:KILL_SAPIENT_ENTITY_MEMBER]
[ACTION:KILL_SAPIENT_NEUTRAL]
[FIRST_TIME] Indicates this is the first time this action has been done by the agent
[ETHIC:KILL_ENEMY:REQUIRED]
[ETHIC:KILL_ENTITY_MEMBER:REQUIRED]
[ETHIC:KILL_NEUTRAL:REQUIRED]
As you might see, it is the celebration of the first killing made by the creature. It is an important celebration and requires ethics ordering the killing either of an ennemy, a neutral or another entity member.

Finally, let's see the following:

Code: [Select]

[EVENT_CELEBRATED:BUILT_FORTRESS]
[NAME:"Built a fortress"]
[SPHERE:FORTRESSES]
[BUILT_SITE:FORTRESS]
[CELEBRATION_LEVEL:VERY_HIGH]
[CELEBRANT:SETTLEMENT]
This is the celebration of the building of a fortress by its builders and inhabitants.

These are only basic exemples of what could be done with a system of raws for such events: they could be used to simulate the events of the life of a creature, of a community or diverse acts such as the coronation of kings, victories against siegers, learning a secret or someone gaining the rank Legendary (or any other) in a skill.

And this is only with the current version: further versions might add more events and consequently more traditions: building a boat, forming armies or the founding of a school might also be events to be celebrated by the player, whether as adventurer or as overseer.

CUSTOMS
They would be how is celebrated an event.

As with events, they would be defined in raws, to ensure further modability.

Processions, games, praying, visites to temples and erecting statues should be able to be included as means to celebrate events; of course they would be scaled relative to the celebrating body: given the same tradition, a civilization wanting to commemorate a victory over enemies would give a bigger gift to a temple than a citizen wanting to celebrate the birth of his child.

Here's an exemple of how it would be done:

Code: [Select]

[CUSTOM:GIFT_CRAFTS_TEMPLE]
[NAME:"Build a statue"] Name of the tradition
[ITEM:item:ANY_CRAFT] "item" is the item to be gifted
[GIFT_ITEM:item:TEMPLE] "item" is to be gifted to a temple
[IMPORTANCE:MEDIUM] "item" is to be gifted to a temple

Here, a crafted item (FIGURINE, AMULET, SCEPTER, CROWN, RING, EARRING, or BRACELET) will be given to a temple.

Of course, other tags could be added, such as ethics - for exemple, a civilization where TORTURE_ANIMALS is set to PUNISH_CAPITAL wouldn't organise animal fights to celebrate an event -, race and/or civilization, and possibly spheres to steer some traditions - a temple consecrated to a deity of peace would not be the best place to gift weapons; however, for a more perfect implementation, I think economy should be put back in the game.

This template could also be used to generate rituals and liturgies for temples.

HOW WOULD IT WORK DURING GENERATION?

• Initial attribution

During world gen, civilizations would receive an initial list of events to celebrate, based on their ethics and their favourite spheres and then these events would receive appropriate customs based on their importance and eventual ethics restrictions and sphere steering, creating the traditions of the civilization.

• How could they evolve?

A civilization could take a tradition from its neighbours, such as an human civilization taking the celebration of the spring from elves.

A major historical event could also create a tradition, such as a victorious defense of a settlement against a dragon. It could then, if significant enough, became a recurrent and periodic celebration.

Finally, less traditionalist beings could choose to not practice a tradition or otherwise change the custom used, for exemple replacing the building of a statue for a birth with the gift of an item to a temple).

The repression of a tradition, whether by occupiers (see the Books of the Maccabees) or by a ruler, or conversely a specially traditionalist ruler enforcing long forgotten traditions could cause revolts.

A civilization could invade another if they find some of its traditions barbaric, such as an human civilization organising dogfights to celebrate the new moon getting invaded by elves.

• Scholarship

Some Geographers and Pholosphers could redact books on traditions in a civilization, listing them either all ("The Traditions of [X]") or in part, related to the spheres ("The Traditions of [X] related to [X]"); they could also list traditions in several civilizations, listing them all ("The Traditions of [X], [X] and [X]"), by sphere ("The Traditions of [X], [X] and [X] related to [X]") or by event ("[X] in [X], [X] and [X]").
[/list]

HOW THE PLAYER WOULD INTERACT WITH THEM?:

• Fortress Mode

During Fortress Mode, dwarves would practise their traditions, taking account their work assignements. The more the TRADITION belief is high, the most likely a dwarf is to practise a tradition, or to order it practised if he hold a position with the LAW_MAKING token - after all, criminal law, womething I hope I will write about, is the way a society enforces a subset of very important traditions.

Less traditionalist dwarves could not celebrate a tradition if they find it too much cumberstone or otherwise change the custom used, which could cause conflicts with more traditionalist dwarves, especially if, as a law-maker, they change or even stop organising a custom, such as the mayor not celebrating the founding of his fortress with the sacrifice of a sheep, either stopping the celebration outright or otherwise replacing it with a party.

In order to prevent players to buy "The Worthlessness of Tradition" and making their dwarves read it so as to not be bothered with them, dwarves could get good thoughts when practising traditions and, if the traditions was especially important, bad thoughts; both would be related to the TRADITION belief.

Scholars could themselves write books related to traditions based on what they read or they heard about.

• Adventure Mode

Adventurers could find books related to traditions, pracice them (for exemple, gifting a crown to a temple of a deity of valour after fighting a megabeast) or, in places where the ruler is very traditionailstic, be punished for disrespecting the local traditions, such as not assisting to the festivities for Summer at the temple while a prayer is sung.

They could write themselves books on the traditions of the civilizations they went in or read about.

• Legends Mode

The player might be able to see the different traditions by civilizations if he choose to reveal all, else he might have to do some adventuring by himself.
[/list]

BILAN

I hope my proposition, while raw in parts, presents well my suggestion and will bring useful ideas for future discussions, and that other posters will be able to ameliorate it.

Of course, I'm sure we all will be satisfacted to see Toady will implement cultures and traditions.

SEE ALSO

The following threads can be read to speak about the topic:

• Celebrations and Holidays (April 17, 2008)
• Dwarven Funerals / Visiting Graves (March 27, 2009)
• Different Mthodes to "bury" Dead (April 14, 2009)
• Festivals and holidays- some new ideas (July 23, 2009)
• Fortress Culture (September 12, 2012)
• Coming of Age traditions (February 04, 2013)
• Courting rituals (March 21, 2016)
• Reintroduce Parties - Games & Music (July 20, 2017)

[SixOfSpades]

I was just about to start a new thread, but this one is so closely related and well organized that I'll just hop on.
This is a spinoff of the Funerary rites thread, in which:

The features this would implement should be generalized. Perhaps a general "rituals" section should be implemented, with specific groups doing different rituals for different items . . .

I thought that idea was worth exploring, and here's what I've come up with. Dwarves currently have a wide variety of actions that they can do themselves, but only a handful of things that they can do to/with other dwarves. Here is a set of small "subroutine" actions that can be combined to represent larger social behaviors--which, in turn, could be partially randomized during worldgen, giving dwarven life a richness of flavor, and a way to help make each civilization feel distinct from the next.

Subroutines. Some of these are little more than job names: for instance, "Pray" is nothing more than a brief "On Break" while the dwarf stands still and does nothing. Some of the subroutines are focused on a Person(s) of Importance, the POI. This could be the happy couple at a wedding, the new monarch at a coronation, the deceased at a funeral, the priest at a temple service, etc.

• Gathering at a location: A necessary first step. The location could be just about anything designated for the game's recognition: [ temple / tavern / tomb area / barracks / dining hall / throne room / etc. ]
• Moving to a different location: Same kinds of destinations as above, but if a more circuitous route is desired, waypoints will have to be designated. Possible variations: [ walking / marching / dancing / running / as a group vs. separately / carrying the POI / carrying an object / carrying many objects (flowers, torches, etc.) ]
• Singing / Dancing: Already implemented. May have to be expanded a bit to incorporate movement, for things like marching bands.
• General party eating / drinking / socializing: Already implemented.
• Ritualized eating / drinking: Distinguished from above by its ceremony and solemnity--think Holy Communion.
• Praying: Variations include [ praying silently / chanting / singing hymns ]
• Giving of gifts [ to / by ] the POI, the gifts are [ handed / thrown through the air / scattered randomly ].
• Individuals giving speeches to the gathering.
• One-on-one meetings with POI. A separate meeting spot, separate from the main assembly, may need to be designated.
• Reverence toward POI. The assembly may [ applaud / cheer / kneel / etc. ]
• Attend POI. This may include things like [ feeding / dressing / washing / treating wounds / cutting hair / etc. ]
• Reverence toward object, which may be [ movable / stationary ].
• Destruction of sacrificial item or creature. Disposal might take the form of [ burning / smashing / scattering / executing ].
• Ritual combat: Fighting is [ to the death / to the mercy ], combatants are [ audience volunteers / audience conscripts / separate from audience].
• Contest: This is the most varied and complex subroutine, and of such different types that it will be difficult for code for any one type to be useful for another. Regardless, all contests will involve at least one judge, who will determine which contestant (of at least two) is the winner.
• Punishment: May take place in any designatable location, but most likely a public spot like a [ barracks / temple / throne room / trade depot / etc. ] The criminal(s) is [ jailed / held immobile / beaten / marked / maimed / executed ].

Once these subroutines are in place, the game can use them as building blocks to procedurally generate rituals and other public functions. Depending on which subroutines are used, how they are ordered / nested, and of course what they're called while they're being enacted, all of these events can be represented:

Celebration of birth / reaching childhood: While I doubt any culture should celebrate both of these events, I think it's quite likely for a civ to pick one of them. It might involve something like:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gathering at [ hospital / mother's office ], Reverence toward [ mother / child ], Giving of gifts [ clothes / toys ], General party eating / socializing.

Reaching adulthood: Possible subroutines include:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gathering at [ temple of POI's favored god ], POI gives a speech, POI hands out ritual [ food / drink / symbolic gifts ], speech by [ POI's godparent / craftsdwarf / warrior / priest / etc. ] formally taking POI on as their [ apprentice / squire / novice priest / etc. ], gathering moves to POI's room in his parents' house, gathering carries POI's belongings to POI's new adult home.

Mastering a skill / entering a guild: Naturally, only after guilds are implemented, and/or it becomes far more noteworthy to reach the rank of Master in a skill.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gathering at POI's workshop, audience watches while POI makes an item (yeah, this one isn't in the list, so what), reverence toward object, audience members give speeches (which may be positive or negative) about the item, Contest where the highest-ranking craftsdwarf weighs the combined Persuader skills of those who voted Yea against the total Persuader ranks of the Nay-sayers. If the Yeas have it, the judge gives a ceremonial gift (probably a wearable token of guild membership) to the POI, gathering moves to a dining hall, general party drinking / socializing.

Earning a combat title:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gathering at POI's barracks, individual speeches from those who witnessed POI's kill(s), audience members call out possible new combat titles (based on the stories just told), the title is selected by [ POI / militia captain / the player], POI is "punished" by being marked with a victory tattoo, general party drinking.

Royal Coronation / ascension to Mountainhome:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The crown prince(ss) is attended [ bathed / dressed ], gathering at royal throne room, reverence toward POI, procession to Trade Depot (assumed to be near fortress gate). If the fort is becoming the new Mountainhome, this is when the monarch's cortege arrives on the map / meets the fort's delegation at the Trade Depot. Procession to the fort's temple of the god of fortresses (assuming there's still a 100% chance that there is one), with the POI scattering coins to the crowd along the way. Speeches given by high priest & POI, POI is attended [ anointed with oils / scepter ], procession from temple to royal throne room, POI is attended [ crowned ], reverence toward POI, general party [ eating / drinking / socializing ].

Trial:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gathering at appropriate site [ ideally, the temple to the god of laws / justice, although these spheres are rare ], speeches given by the plaintiff, defendant, and all witnesses. Contest where the judge [ sheriff / fortress guard / mayor / audience member with the highest Judge of Intent rank ] calculates the social skills of one side against those of the other, and determines the outcome of the case. (If the judge is relatively uncertain, the overseer may be tapped to provide a tiebreaker.)

Foot-race:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After waypoints are designated, this is simply gathering, procession with the flags of [ running ] and [ not_as_group ], contest where the judge picks the contestant with the highest Strength, and giving a gift to the winner.

Attending School:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Students gather in designated classroom(s) and [ read / write ], while teachers give individual speeches. Recess would include games, mostly physical--essentially sparring, but given names like "Dodgeball".

Weddings, funerals, the fort's ascension to barony / county / duchy, the creation of artifacts, the hallowing / reclamation of relics, general temple services, victory celebrations, etc., etc., etc. Doctors and patients could use One-on-one Meetings to perform house calls or annual medical checkups, or have their friends visit them in the hospital. Squires could use Attend POI to help warriors into their armor. Haulers could use Procession [ carrying_object ] to spontaneously generate multi-dwarf hauling jobs, when an object is too heavy for one person alone. Just about any action that requires 2 or more dwarves can be simulated (or at least improved) with these protocols.

Best of all, each ceremony can be coded as what constitutes the minimum "bare bones" of that particular social ritual, and during worldgen, each civilization can randomly add different subroutines onto each basic structure. One culture's typical wedding ceremony might include aspects like a child scattering flower petals, and audience members throwing seeds at the POI during the procession out of the temple--while a different civ might have the groom Attend POI on the bride, removing her old cloak & dressing her in one of his own, and the ritual ends with the audience members using Procession [ carrying_POI ] and Attend POI [ dress ] simultaneously, so that the happy couple are carried off to their new bedroom, and stripped naked along the way. Each new game would thus automatically be infused with its own quite flavorful culture--which the player could learn about by going to the Civilization screen and reading the details of the various types of social behaviors, and also witness firsthand every time one of them happens. There would also be some culture-related and religion-specific renaming: Suppose a temple has a small room off to the side, just large enough for a priest to hold private one-on-one meetings with parishoners. If this were a Catholic church, we would be able to [v]iew the humans and see that they were engaged in "Confession", instead of "Conduct Meeting" . . . but in a DF temple to a god whose spheres include Rumors, that same activity should be named "Gossip".

Other related thoughts: Critically, time would probably need to be reworked for most of these ceremonies to take place within a reasonable timeframe; the average citizen doesn't need a bar mitzvah that takes a full 4 days to celebrate. Also, attendance at these social events should drop by 50% when there is an active Siege going on--the unhappy thoughts in those who were randomly "unable" to attend should generate additional incentive to end sieges quickly.

[Batgirl1]

I love this whole group of ideas.  A couple of my own thoughts on the matter:

SixofSpades mentioned contests being (more) difficult to code, but I can visualize it as a fairly simple template:
Number of Contestants (Possibly separated into Min/Max values, come to think)
Stats (list of stats assessed for contest)
Max Die-Roll (a dash of chance expressed as a random number between 0 and x, set to 0 for truer results)
Max Judge Bias (the amount of influence a judge's personal feelings about the contestants may influence the score, 0 for no bias allowed)

From there, just plug in the values: Any contest will assign each contestant a score tallied from the values of each stat, a random die-roll, and the judge's feelings on Elves/Humans/Urist McGrouch (as applicable). Highest score wins.

Aside from all that, I can see these cultural events tying into mandates.  For example, if a ceremony requires an aluminum statue of a tree, your fort's leader may mandate the construction of one if there's nothing appropriate in the stocks.  I wonder, though: could construction/designation of a temple/tavern/etc. be mandated?

[Azerty]

Sorry for missing it but I forgot to add another source for a tradition: a deity could give instructions on a tradition in his spheres, such as a deity of hunting giving informations on how to celebrate the start of the hunt or a moon deity teach its followers how to celebrate the new moon.

Best of all, each ceremony can be coded as what constitutes the minimum "bare bones" of that particular social ritual, and during worldgen, each civilization can randomly add different subroutines onto each basic structure. One culture's typical wedding ceremony might include aspects like a child scattering flower petals, and audience members throwing seeds at the POI during the procession out of the temple--while a different civ might have the groom Attend POI on the bride, removing her old cloak & dressing her in one of his own, and the ritual ends with the audience members using Procession [ carrying_POI ] and Attend POI [ dress ] simultaneously, so that the happy couple are carried off to their new bedroom, and stripped naked along the way. Each new game would thus automatically be infused with its own quite flavorful culture--which the player could learn about by going to the Civilization screen and reading the details of the various types of social behaviors, and also witness firsthand every time one of them happens. There would also be some culture-related and religion-specific renaming: Suppose a temple has a small room off to the side, just large enough for a priest to hold private one-on-one meetings with parishoners. If this were a Catholic church, we would be able to [v]iew the humans and see that they were engaged in "Confession", instead of "Conduct Meeting" . . . but in a DF temple to a god whose spheres include Rumors, that same activity should be named "Gossip".

Should this skeleton be hardcoded in the game or coded in the raws? I think the latter, for better modability. Could the player add new subroutines to the game?

And I love your ideas of subroutines, or customs.

Other related thoughts: Critically, time would probably need to be reworked for most of these ceremonies to take place within a reasonable timeframe; the average citizen doesn't need a bar mitzvah that takes a full 4 days to celebrate. Also, attendance at these social events should drop by 50% when there is an active Siege going on--the unhappy thoughts in those who were randomly "unable" to attend should generate additional incentive to end sieges quickly.

Yeah, for exemple, in the case of the New Moon Days, it would have meant endless celebrations in Fortress Mode.

I love this whole group of ideas.  A couple of my own thoughts on the matter:

SixofSpades mentioned contests being (more) difficult to code, but I can visualize it as a fairly simple template:
Number of Contestants (Possibly separated into Min/Max values, come to think)
Stats (list of stats assessed for contest)
Max Die-Roll (a dash of chance expressed as a random number between 0 and x, set to 0 for truer results)
Max Judge Bias (the amount of influence a judge's personal feelings about the contestants may influence the score, 0 for no bias allowed)

From there, just plug in the values: Any contest will assign each contestant a score tallied from the values of each stat, a random die-roll, and the judge's feelings on Elves/Humans/Urist McGrouch (as applicable). Highest score wins.

Your idea about contests is a very good one, so good it would deserve a devoted thread.

A fortress could hold such contests and attract scholars, performers and mercenaries. During world gen, festivals could have contests, like the OTL Olympics, which the adventurer could participate to during Adventure Mode. Prizes could be given to the winner.

It could even be used to simulate sports: they could be generated by civilization, like poetic forms, and could be ball games, wrestling, throwing things and the like.

[Batgirl1]

Should this skeleton be hardcoded in the game or coded in the raws? I think the latter, for better modability. Could the player add new subroutines to the game?

Didn't Toady say something about eventually making everything be in the raws?  Or have I terribly misunderstood something?

Your idea about contests is a very good one, so good it would deserve a devoted thread.

Perhaps you should be the one to start it, then.  Personally, I can't think of much else to say beyond what's already been said.

[SixOfSpades]

Sorry for the late reply--I'll try to be brief.

SixofSpades mentioned contests being (more) difficult to code, but I can visualize it as a fairly simple template:
Number of Contestants (Possibly separated into Min/Max values, come to think)
Stats (list of stats assessed for contest)
Max Die-Roll (a dash of chance expressed as a random number between 0 and x, set to 0 for truer results)
Max Judge Bias (the amount of influence a judge's personal feelings about the contestants may influence the score, 0 for no bias allowed)
From there, just plug in the values: . . . Highest score wins.

I like the idea of having both random chance and impartiality, but the scope of potential stats to be compared seems (to me, at least) much too large to be feasibly handled by just a single function with a couple of arguments. For example, the possible social event of Mayoral Election is a combination of two Contest subroutines--one simple, one very complex.
1. Judge (in this case, every adult citizen) calculates the sum of ( Analytical_Ability , Willpower , Social_Awareness [or whatever] ) for all of their friends & acquaintances, giving their friends a x1.25 multiplier over their acquaintances. Add positive modifiers for "campaign promises" likely to please the judge (e.g., the friend is likely to mandate stone tables, and the judge is a Mason), and negative modifiers for promises that displease the judge (such as, the friend has a great deal of respect for the law, while the judge disdains it). Crunch the numbers, and the highest total wins that judge's vote.
2. One-on-one meeting with the bookkeeper.
3. Judge (in this case, the bookkeeper) counts up who won the most individual votes, with his personal bias breaking any tie.

I wonder, though: could construction/designation of a temple/tavern/etc. be mandated?

I don't see why not. I find it particularly likely that priests will become self-appointed nobles, with demands that must be met or there will be unpleasantness. Once a god has, say, 20 adult (and reasonably devout) worshipers in your fort, they all choose a Priest who appears in your Nobles screen, and requests a suitable place of worship. Once the number of worshipers hits 50, the priest becomes a High Priest, and outright demands a temple.

Best of all, each ceremony can be coded as what constitutes the minimum "bare bones" of that particular social ritual, and during worldgen, each civilization can randomly add different subroutines onto each basic structure.

Should this skeleton be hardcoded in the game or coded in the raws? I think the latter, for better modability.

I agree--in fact, there should be the potential for multiple skeletons. If each basic ritual has a flag for which kind of ritual it is, and a % chance of that skeleton being chosen, then users adding their own versions of rituals would be easy-peasy.

Could the player add new subroutines to the game?

I'm pretty sure that's a No, but I could be wrong. Do you already have anything in mind?


A couple of other thoughts, partially in reply to things said in other threads:

I don't think dwarves would care much about celebrating the anniversaries of things, like an average citizen's birthday or how Ozul Oiledpapers made a masterful cheese 14 years ago. Heralding the change of seasons (or whatnot) is fine, because that's something that's happening now, not just in the past . . . but if every single noteworthy event is going to echo through the fort for years after the fact, then a very significant amount of dwarf-hours will be wasted, with little gain for the player.

A military victory is definitely something that should be celebrated, but a defensive victory is rather difficult for the computer to determine. If your duke slays an ettin in a fair, one-on-one duel, that's an honorable triumph & deserves to be heralded as such . . . but what if the ettin simply stepped on a cage trap, and you released him into the bottom of a Marksdwarf training pit to be a pincushion for 500 steel bolts? The game cannot easily compute what constitutes "bravery" or a "fair fight", and I'd rather not see my dwarves congratulate each other on their valor when all they did was watch a troll step on the pressure plate that opens the magma floodgate. So if victory celebrations DO become a thing, I'd prefer to limit them to war parties returning from offensive actions: That way, at least the game clearly knows if there's something worth celebrating.

[Azerty]

Sorry for the late reply--I'll try to be brief.

SixofSpades mentioned contests being (more) difficult to code, but I can visualize it as a fairly simple template:
Number of Contestants (Possibly separated into Min/Max values, come to think)
Stats (list of stats assessed for contest)
Max Die-Roll (a dash of chance expressed as a random number between 0 and x, set to 0 for truer results)
Max Judge Bias (the amount of influence a judge's personal feelings about the contestants may influence the score, 0 for no bias allowed)
From there, just plug in the values: . . . Highest score wins.

I like the idea of having both random chance and impartiality, but the scope of potential stats to be compared seems (to me, at least) much too large to be feasibly handled by just a single function with a couple of arguments. For example, the possible social event of Mayoral Election is a combination of two Contest subroutines--one simple, one very complex.
1. Judge (in this case, every adult citizen) calculates the sum of ( Analytical_Ability , Willpower , Social_Awareness [or whatever] ) for all of their friends & acquaintances, giving their friends a x1.25 multiplier over their acquaintances. Add positive modifiers for "campaign promises" likely to please the judge (e.g., the friend is likely to mandate stone tables, and the judge is a Mason), and negative modifiers for promises that displease the judge (such as, the friend has a great deal of respect for the law, while the judge disdains it). Crunch the numbers, and the highest total wins that judge's vote.
2. One-on-one meeting with the bookkeeper.
3. Judge (in this case, the bookkeeper) counts up who won the most individual votes, with his personal bias breaking any tie.

Good idea for the implementation of elections.

I would have added fraud and weighted voting, since we are before 1400.

I wonder, though: could construction/designation of a temple/tavern/etc. be mandated?

I don't see why not. I find it particularly likely that priests will become self-appointed nobles, with demands that must be met or there will be unpleasantness. Once a god has, say, 20 adult (and reasonably devout) worshipers in your fort, they all choose a Priest who appears in your Nobles screen, and requests a suitable place of worship. Once the number of worshipers hits 50, the priest becomes a High Priest, and outright demands a temple.

Another exemple would be the construction of a Arch of Triumph.

As for temples, the implementation of liturgy could be like how I proposed to implement traditions: a religion would have sacrements (induction, blessings) and celebrations would be either ordered by the deity itself (see how are implemented secrets) or devised by the priests.

Could the player add new subroutines to the game?

I'm pretty sure that's a No, but I could be wrong. Do you already have anything in mind?

For exemple, I thought about a kind of party where the celebrants would have to wear a specific dress and thought what you called "subroutines" were what I called "customs."

A couple of other thoughts, partially in reply to things said in other threads:

I don't think dwarves would care much about celebrating the anniversaries of things, like an average citizen's birthday or how Ozul Oiledpapers made a masterful cheese 14 years ago. Heralding the change of seasons (or whatnot) is fine, because that's something that's happening now, not just in the past . . . but if every single noteworthy event is going to echo through the fort for years after the fact, then a very significant amount of dwarf-hours will be wasted, with little gain for the player.

Yeah, this kind of traditions might be limited to the fluff and world gen, with a description "The civilization X celebrates the anniversary of its children by being doused with water" or "The cities of civilization Y celebrate the anniversary of their founding by the sacrifice of a goat."

A military victory is definitely something that should be celebrated, but a defensive victory is rather difficult for the computer to determine. If your duke slays an ettin in a fair, one-on-one duel, that's an honorable triumph & deserves to be heralded as such . . . but what if the ettin simply stepped on a cage trap, and you released him into the bottom of a Marksdwarf training pit to be a pincushion for 500 steel bolts? The game cannot easily compute what constitutes "bravery" or a "fair fight", and I'd rather not see my dwarves congratulate each other on their valor when all they did was watch a troll step on the pressure plate that opens the magma floodgate. So if victory celebrations DO become a thing, I'd prefer to limit them to war parties returning from offensive actions: That way, at least the game clearly knows if there's something worth celebrating.

The success for an offensive action might be if the goals were realized; if, for exemple, a squad had to go to a dark toer to rescue a stolen artifact and that they managed to do this then it should count as a victory.

[Paxiecrunchle]

amazing thread, your suggeastions why, they sound like something I could expect to hear from toaday.