Actually I had a thought along those lines about cave-ins myself...
Mostly, my idea involves making "cave adaptation" useful, by having it actually make dwarfs gain natural infrared vision when they become adapted. Going outside blinds this infravision, while not affecting the dwarfs' normal vision; the sudden disconnect between the two sources of visual input is what triggers the sudden onset of nausea, much like spinning around confuses our natural sense of balance. Over time, sunlight semi-permanently blinds dwarven infravision, removing their "cave adaptation."
Despite what people see in movies, cold blooded creatures and natural stone would not be "invisible" to infravision, because dwarven infravision is focused by their eyes the same way normal light is. This makes their infravision capable of detecting not only sources of infrared light, like many snakes can, but also resolving it into a picture of anything illuminated by it. Thus:
1. Warm blooded animals and "hot" substances would act as light sources, illuminating everything around them and making them impossible to conceal to infravision. Even under a pile of wet leaves, or cloaked by an invisibility spell, warm-blooded creatures would still shine like a flashlight... the dwarfs may not be able to tell exactly what is radiating the light, but they could tell something was there, and the nature of the creature could be discerned pretty quickly from how it behaves and moves about.
2. Cold blooded animals and room-temperature substances would not radiate as much light, but still be essentially self-illuminated to infravision. More to the point, the amount and quality (shiny, sparkly, glossy, flat, etc.) of infrared light being shed by any given substance at a known temperature (which is fairly stable, underground) is unique to that substance, and tiny emissive differences caused by the pressure being exerted on the substance are easily visible. Essentially, cave-adapted dwarfs become walking infrared spectroscopes, able to "see" faults and flaws in stone before actual cave-ins occur as naturally and intuitively as seeing any other object. This could be displayed on the map as flashing red or yellow numbers appearing on walls or floors in danger of collapse near cave-adapted dwarfs. Red numbers indicate where stresses are actually damaging the rock and will cause a collapse if not relieved promptly, while yellow numbers indicate stresses that are growing increasingly close to starting the process of fracturing (and are only visible to dwarfs with sufficient skill in Mining to actually know what the stresses indicate... or maybe Masonry? Building design?)
3. Warm-blooded thieves and other creatures that try to conceal themselves are ridiculously easy for a cave-adapted dwarf to spot... except kobold thieves. Kobolds are not only cold-blooded, but have permanent infravision that isn't blinded by sunlight. This allows them to skillfully camouflage themselves to infravision as well as normal vision, usually by curling up on the floor in cloaks painted with clay to give off the same infrared signature as one of the local varieties of rock. Goblin baby-snatchers, on the other hand, are immediately spotted as soon as they enter a cave-adapted dwarf's line of sight, but a non-adapted dwarf still won't be able to see them unless they are right next to them, as usual (or warned by an adapted dwarf, at which point the baby-snatcher will give up on stealth and instead drop to snatch-and-run tactics). Human and elven thieves aren't stupid enough to try to rob dwarf fortresses, except through their trade caravans.
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Topic: Dwarf Fortress Talk #8: Feedback (Read 54433 times)