A vision of the future is coming to me...
...a fortress dug into hard granite in the cold north, buried under deep snow. The fortress itself is built around a cylinder-shaped open space, and at the bottom floor of the cylinder there's a hole to a layer of oil. Through the hole, at significant pressure, flows oil, which burns in a massive eternal flame upon reaching the oxygen-filled surface fortress. Even when the winter is at its coldest, the fortress is nice and warm, and the inhabitants know at any time how much time has gone by as the hole is covered, extinguishing the flame, every X hours, keeping the flame from overheating the fortress and using up all the oxygen.
The entrance to the fortress is never covered in snow, because the steep stairway leading up to the surface also serves as one of the chimneys for the hot smoke and the rising heat, which makes sure the snow is always melted around the opening on the surface.
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/001-0711101502-Oil-Rig-Flame.JPGhttp://www.menkent.dk/assistpics/flare.jpg-----------------
Or, just as likely,
Urist McBlacksmith throws a torch into the oil!It ignites!Urist McBlacksmith has died in the heat!
Urist McExpedition Leader has died in the heat!
Urist McRanger has died in the heat!
Urist McGem Setter has died in the heat!
Stay Dog has suffocated!etc. etc. etc.
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Other thoughts:
As I said somewhere else,
blackpowder is something I'd really like to see, but unlike seemingly everyone else, I want it because it would speed up mining significantly, or make it possible to just blow apart stuff I want removed in unsafe spots or whatever. For example if I'm digging a tunnel that I want filled with water or magma and want to remove that last tile separating the tunnel from the river without drowning the miner. Never really occurred to me to use it in weaponry, and I still find the idea of dwarves with muskets to be sort of silly.
Families as organizations or a kind of "mini-entities" I'd actually love, in the case of some rare, really strong or wealthy families. It's not like there haven't been powerful clans throughout history. Come to think of it, that's kinda what royal families are.
Happiness and thoughts: Dividing these in two, mood/happiness and contentment, would be a nice start here. If you've lost your mother to a natural disaster, you're going to be miserable for months, but you will still have both happy and sad moments. If you look at environments where you have deep despair (cancer wards, psychiatric hospital units, war zones, starving villages, refugee camps, grief support groups, etc.), you'll find lots of happiness, hope, friendship and love along with the bad feelings.
So watching a beautiful waterfall, admiring a great view, or participating in a party in the grand dining hall, should all make you happy, but not necessarily increase your "overall, long-term happiness". It's perfectly possible to say "my life is great, but I've had a truly horrible day -- got stuck in the rain, had to drink muddy water, and found there was no good food left when I got home".
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Topic: Dwarf Fortress Talk #8: Feedback (Read 54447 times)