I've been thinking about ways to make an Entertainment Industry using the existing game structure. Entertainment would be a mature fortress kind of industry designed to increase happiness.
First instinct is to make a workshop called a Stage. From the Stage, you can cue up various entertainment shows, such as Drama, Music Concerts, Dwarf-Fu Demonstrations and Animal Acts. A dwarf comes down to the Stage like he would to any other workshop and performs the show. A higher quality performance gives a happier thought. The material quality of the stage increases the quality of a performance, so i.e. dwarves will enjoy a golden Stage more than a wooden Stage. Drama quality is based on the performer's social skills. Dwarf-Fu quality is based on the performer's fighting skills. For Music Concerts, a dwarf selects an instrument from those available and the quality of the performance is based on a combination of social skills or musicality and the quality of the instrument used. Animal Acts are performed by a dwarf with a pet. The quality of the Animal Act is based on the animal's pet value.
The performance affects dwarves which are nearby. Dwarves with No Job or On Break can go to Stages, and dwarves that are just passing by or working nearby also get a happy thought, though not as much of one. Ideally, this effect should be able to cross Z levels so you can build balcony seats. Bad performances by novice performers could give nearby dwarves an unhappy thought instead. Dwarves might also prefer to have seats while near a stage.
A more complicated way might be to make another new item called Bleachers. Unlike Chairs/Thrones, Bleachers are area items, like Bridges or Farm Plots. Once a Bleacher is built, the player connects it to a Stage, similar to defining stockpile links. Dwarves have to be in the Bleachers to get the benefit from the connected Stage. I think this would be easier on FPS, since instead of checking if each dwarf is near each Stage, you check if said Bleachers are close enough to said Stage only once while connecting them, and then just check if each Bleacher seat has a dwarf in it, and if so, give dwarf a thought.
A lite version might make a 1x1 Stage furniture item from which a room can be defined, like a table or statue. Dwarves then randomly attempt to perform at the Stage using their social skills, and any dwarf within the defined room gets a happy thought from the performance. Since this would be less controllable than a workshop Stage, I would suggest that bad performances simply give dwarves no thought and waste stage-time rather than giving them an unhappy thought. With this method, very high ranking nobles might demand personal Stages.
It would also make sense to me to give Entertainment dwarves a bonus for looking good, but there doesn't seem to be an attribute for attractiveness. I guess you could assess attractiveness as a combination of the physical attributes like Strength and Toughness. Also, wearing high quality clothing might make a show seem more appealing. That gives me the idea of making Costumes, sets of clothing which dwarves only wear on Stage. So a performing dwarf would grab a Costume from a stockpile, then if it's a Concert, grab an instrument from a stockpile, then go the Stage and start the performance. The Costume would have to be optional.
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Topic: Entertainment Industry (Read 572 times)