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[Markavian]

Construction Projects, a request to build a structure of certain size, quality, placement, in order to acheive some unknown goal.

Two angles to this. Helping new players, as kind of a tutorial, with big hints on what to do. Secondly, as side goals for advanced players who like noble distractions. This is also an opportunity to improve the usefulness of mayors by actually listening and responding to the needs of dwarves.

Some examples:
Build a bridge across the river! (Markers north and south)
Build 6 new bedrooms
Build a new dining room!
Build a gatehouse with at least 20 blocks of stone.

Counter productive to the way we currently build, in our own freeform way, the game could use build macros. A gatehouse in the last example could be a three story, 4x4 plan loaded from raw's that the nobles specify. In this way, nobles could demand constructions, and the player could respond by using a building macro in a place of their choice. The fortress would still be built and placed by the player, but with featurette tweaks based on the personalities of the nobles.

A building macro should have a name, and stages of construction. For example:

code:

[BUILDINGPLAN:GATE_HOUSE]

[STAGE:1][LEVEL:0]
wwww
wffD
wufw
wwww

[STAGE:2][LEVEL:1]
wFFw
FufF
FjfF
wFFw

[STAGE:3][LEVEL:2]
wFFw
FjfF
FffF
wFFw

Key 
 w -> wall
 f -> floor
 D -> Door
 F -> Fortification
 u -> upstair
 j -> downstair

Building plans could be rotated by the game as well. Once placed, a building plan would ask for required materials, and then it would set build orders as appropriate for each stage.

- Markavian

[ December 29, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]

[Rooster]

Neat! But there should be also workshops in the plans (this could be hard to do).

[Markavian]

quote:Originally posted by Rooster:
<STRONG>Neat! But there should be also workshops in the plans (this could be hard to do).</STRONG>

Not if workshops are specified as plans in themselves, then you could have sub-plans in a design.

[Quift]

This is a great idea!

seconded.

[Chthon]

I have been asking for this for months now.  Yes.  This is needed as it's too time consuming on our dwarve's part.

[Nesoo]

Me likes.

[Skeeblix]

I don't like any idea that takes freedom away from the player. Building mandates and room mandates basically lay a plan someone could have to waste, since if you don't get it mined out and in use fast enough, you'll piss off the nobles, and you might not want to just drop it wherever in your fort to get them to shut up.

[Dvalin]

The idea of having a mayor mandate, y'know, 'x bedrooms' or 'barrack' or that sort of thing sounds pretty nifty -- especially as a way to indicate shortages a player might not notice.

The idea of specifically mandating construction types, though, isn't one I'm keen on. :/ A lot of players have specific evil plans afoot, like pyramids, or fortresses of a given configuration, or that type of thing. Indeed, some people have simply different aesthetics -- like using only up/down stairs instead of up and down seperately, or that sort of thing. Mandating a style a player doesn't like would be sort of bleh. :/

[Istrian]

But nobles already make annoying mandates, so adding those would not change much for the experienced player who knows what to do with an expendable mayor.

I agree that it would probably help new players understand the game better. And it would add some flavor to the game. After all, it's not because you have specific plans for your fortress that your dwarves should not have their say.

[TheSilverHammer]

It would be helpful if you still had to have a blueprint which the player makes, but then was allowed to stamp them out en-mass.   The bedroom thing is a good example, I would just like to be able to place a building like a bedroom myself (and maybe do it 50 times) instead of mining everything out, waiting for it to be done, then placing in 50 beds, doors, etc...   The construction could be automated so doors, beds, chests, etc... will be made as needed.

On the other hand, bedrooms are the only thing like this I see a need for.  Other things like walls and floors just need to be set to use the size tool used for roads, farms, and bridges.

[Markavian]

I kinda forgot about this, but thanks for your support with comments. That was the other helpful point SilverHammer, if you could add your own plans/designs into the raws, then you could create your own macros and stamp out your designs across the map... and share them with other players.