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Author Topic: Family Units and Lineage-Based Last Names  (Read 22762 times)

GoblinCookie

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Re: Family Units and Lineage-Based Last Names
« Reply #135 on: June 21, 2018, 06:42:45 am »

I've mostly read all pages but I'll admit it was not in much detail so forgive me if I state something already said.

I came to this thread because being able to know how my dwarves are related is important to me but I also would be very interested in being able to know of their family line without having to spend hours in legends and having family based last names is how we do it in real life so it seemed logical to use the same in DF.

However from what I read I understand hos it wouldn't work very well having too many duplicates for one and also too few last names from the worldgen and as such very few generations removed we would have only a couple last names remaining defeating the purpose of having them inn the first place.

So I would like to add my vote to these two ideas I picked in the previous pages : 

1-Having a clerck that keeps track of lineage and being able to check it on a specific screen in fortress mode. If it was also added to legends it would be great of course but the point is being able to see it by staying in fortress mode.
Ideally you would have a way to know if a dwarf in said lineage is alive or dead or undead (if it's known) but also his or her actual location (if ti's known).

2- Having some kind of lastname convention found that prevents having only very few of them still alive after a couple of generations.
Being part Latin American and part Spanish my vote goes to Double-barrelled surnames like described below

At worldgen each dwarf gets Firstname Lastname at random just like it's already done.
Say Urist1 A and Urist2 B marry , they become Urist1 A and Urist2 B of A (short for spouse of A). When they have kids they'll be LittleUrist A B
If you go 1 more generation LittleUrist A B marries OtherUrist C D and they become LittleUrist  A B and OtherUrist C of A and their kids will be AnotherUrist A C and so on and so forth.


Whose last name is predominant in real life is of course the father's but in DF it could be  chosen on the following criteria in order :

-One is noble and not the other, noble takes precedence.
-Both are nobles then the highest rank is chosen
-Same rank (nobles or not) then the highest family prestige (will elaborate further down)
-Same rank (nobles or not) and same prestige  : does one care about lineage more than the other. OF course that implies a new trait for dwarves regarding lineage.
-Lastly if no factor can be determined, at random.


Prestige : it could be a weight attached to every lastname that would be increased or decreased every time something significant happens to someone wearing it.

Adding points in increasing order when :

Creating mastercrafts
Being grandmaster in a skill
Being a Noble the higher the rank the more points
Writing a book
Creating an artifact (books excluded)
Defeating ennemies , a tiny bonus for killing a giant bat , bigger if said bat has a name and then in order named ennemies during raids/sieges, megabeasts (the more famous the more points), forgotten beasts (the more famous the more points), demons
Any other idea welcome

Removing points in increasing order when

punished in the justice system for minor crimes (brawls, vandalims etc), the bigger the crime/punishment the more points removed
Killing a pet
Killing a civilian
Killing a noble to usurp a lawfully given title
Being cursed
Becoming a necromancer
Any other idea welcome

Based on prestige only in my naming convention examples A would have more prestige than B at the time of the marriage and same with C having more than D. It may happen than by the time AB and CD marry B or D have become way more prestigious that wouldn't be taken into consideration as it's only A and C that will be passed on to the progeny as such it's the "primary" lastname that should get the prestige increase or decrease as it's the one that will be propagated.

So say AB does something grand  A will get a bonus but if BA is the one doing the deed it's B that is impacted.


Hope this was not too convoluted and that I manged to explain it clearly. It's not always easy as English is not my first language (or even the second :p  )

The problem with all of these point based systems, is the lack of objectivity in what increases the weight of a given name.  How do we decide whether someone who writes a book is more valuable than the bookkeeper of some place.  What about the difference between a famous book and an obscure one, or the difference between the bookkeeper of some minor hillocks against the bookkeeper of the civilization capital?
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