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Author Topic: Hidden world properties and reversed embark profile  (Read 833 times)

eurydike

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Hidden world properties and reversed embark profile
« on: June 12, 2020, 08:32:35 am »

Toggleable option to hide world details before embark

The player would not be able to see precisely some of the following things:
-Mineral layer and geology
-Forest type
-Other civilizations
-Biome and temperature information

Reordered embark profile, selecting the dwarves and their equipment before choosing embark site

A toggle for reordered embark profile. The player would first choose the dwarves and their skills,
and only the choose the embark location. Why?

Combined with the previous suggestion, this would allow the information the player gets to be conditionally dependent on various things, such as skills.
This could have following consequences:

Want to know what minerals the embark site contains?
 -Get a trained geologist to go with the group.

Want to know about the biome and animal information?
 - Get a trained biologist / herbalist / animal trainer-caretaker to come along

Want to know about temperature?
 - Get an astronomer to come along?

Choosing civ before choosing embark location - Embark as travel on the world map

The player would choose which civilization they would emigrate from before selecting actual embark site.
This would allow constructing features such as, initiating a journey on the worldmap from the starting location, and using the knowledge of the dwarves to find a nearby fort-location.
Traveling could consume food supplies, embarking further away from the civ, would be more costly and time consuming.


Vanilla system is fine

I don't think there is anything particularly wrong about the vanilla system. If this type of thing would be included, it could be under a toggleable set of configurations, such as,
when generating a new world, you could flag it as `obscure world` (player wouldn't know stuff), and enable the civ-embark feature for the world. Therefore without enabling the features, everything would work as before. Personally I would find that interesting.

Any thoughts or comments?
What other pre-fortress embark features would you like to see?
What other features would you complement this set of suggestions with?
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: Hidden world properties and reversed embark profile
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2020, 09:19:03 am »

The first two sections could be swapped somewhat; reading the first I was like "hm wouldn't this just result in players running over area to figure those things out"

Regarding other civilizations, could tie them to geography skill and/or civ knowledge - though visitors means that in longer world every civ has heard of all visitable places. It'd also mean that mercanery organizations would need to recruit outside their main fortress, much like priests proselytize.

If keeping ability to switch civs during embark screen (and lock out embark option if cannot travel to), would mean one could see different maps with using different civs. Since lot of players don't even know you can choose starting civ, I think hiding away this detail might actively work against the point of including it.



The traveling to site reminds me of adventure mode, and that reminds me one can already start with party of seven adventurers, travel to site, and then turn it into fortress mode gameplay with some hacking. But I think ability to know where one is going is necessary for some types of gameplay; though going in blind has advantages of discovering stuff one didn't know they wanted as well.

nik the dwarf

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Re: Hidden world properties and reversed embark profile
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2020, 06:56:36 pm »

I just pretend that the dwarves have already scouted everywhere, and that's why you have the embark details. I also agree with you that it could be more interesting for a player to willingly hide that info. Or maybe have to unlock it.

Idea 1: your civilization has already scouted some areas, but not everywhere. You can embark to a known place or go into the unknown. Historical explorers could add to civ knowledge during world gen.
Idea 2: before choosing embark skills and gear, you can spend some embark points as "scouting points" to get info about a lesser known area. It costs more points to send a more skilled surveyor, or scout a larger area, or get more details.
Idea 3: make it take calendar time. After you send the scout, you have to wait until they return before you can embark. You could choose to get a detailed report of all three caverns on the other side of the world, but you'll have to delay embarking by a month or more.

Just ideas, for immersion and interesting choices.
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