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Author Topic: Dwarven Culture - for difficulty and variety.  (Read 943 times)

Dibbler

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Dwarven Culture - for difficulty and variety.
« on: July 12, 2022, 07:02:12 am »

The dwarven civilizations offered on embark are very same-y. It would also be fun to make the game a bit more different between worlds. What if civilizations had different cultural traits? They could evolve over time, be generated during world gen, and be a fun slider for world gen ("amount of problematic civ traits"). Some ideas for traits:
  • Preference for X - anything in the preferences list for the dwarfs, being more common for this culture.
  • Hatred for X - dwarves get unhapy thoughts around the material/thing. Could be a lot of fun if you get this for steel/adamantine..
  • Technology - lacking access to tech (or perhaps gaining access to new tech?..)
  • Happy/Grumpy - how fast do they tantrum
  • Vegetarian/Carnivore - Either wants no meat, or refuse foods without meat
  • Hungry/Thirsty - Consumes more food, could also be in steps. 
  • Greedy - Grabs more stuff, want to aquire stuff a lot, might start fights over stuff if none is available.
  • Clumsy/Careless - Wears down equipment a lot quicker
  • Lazy - Takes longer to do tasks, like to hang out more.
  • Religious - Will get more god worshipping, and be more assertive in taking the time to pray.

Imagine being about to embark, and having the choice of civilizations: "Hmm, I could go with this one, they all like gold (awesome!) but they are hungry and clumsy, or the happy/religious bunch."
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SixOfSpades

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Re: Dwarven Culture - for difficulty and variety.
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2022, 05:49:46 pm »

Additional scope for variation in:
  • Respect for / Importance of family
  • Respect for / Importance of military
  • Respect for / Importance of artisans
  • Respect for / Importance of scholars (including medical professionals)
  • Relative strength of the idea of personal property
  • Relative importance of personal modesty (a perennial suggestion, esp. considering the amount of clothing "necessary" in Hot vs. Cold biomes)
  • Distinction between wild animal vs. livestock vs. pet

Most of these differences would be reflected by imposing modifiers to the strength of related emotions--a society that places less emphasis on family would place something like a x75% modifier to the intensity of emotions caused by becoming a parent, or from not speaking to a family member for a long time, etc.
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Putnam

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Re: Dwarven Culture - for difficulty and variety.
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2022, 07:15:33 pm »

Different values already cause different emotions. For example, if your civilization does not value decorum, they will feel ambivalent when uncovered rather than embarassed, mortified etc.

Azerty

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Re: Dwarven Culture - for difficulty and variety.
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2022, 06:46:51 pm »

Maybe traditions should be introduced.
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"Just tell me about the bits with the forest-defending part, the sociopath part is pretty normal dwarf behavior."