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[GreyMario]

Because currently? Here's an example...

code:

<18> <GreyMario> dwarf dwarf dwarf bloated tuber dwarf dwarf
dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf larch dwarf dwarf dwarf
dwarf dwarf dwarf  crescents diamonds diamonds maple alder tuber
dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf
dwarf dwarf dwarf dwarf 

^ That's what my floors are looking like. Somewhere around 85 percent of my engravings are dwarf, dwarf and dwarves, or dwarves. The rest are the interesting things, i.e. dwarf raising artifact, artifact, jaguar striking down dwarf, and falling wagons.

I'd like more interesting things.

EDIT: newlines

[ May 12, 2008: Message edited by: GreyMario ]

[Derakon]

Newlines! For the love of glayvin, newlines!

That said, the big value from engravings is in how they record the history of your fortress, and when there's not a lot going on, the engravings tend to get rather tedious. Perhaps the game could track what subjects have been engraved frequently and try to encourage dwarves to not make "derivative" art?

Except of course for those dwarves that make engravings of other dwarves' engravings. That's serious modern art right there.

[Jetman123]

Mine seem to be a little more varied than yours. Since I had an early goblin raid and two artifacts, most of my engravings have to do with dwarves striking down goblins, goblins striking down dwarves, humans making plaintive gestures while elves laugh or look menacing, dwarves making artifacts, etc...

There are even some that have dwarves striking down dwarves, referring to a recent stint of a berserk weaponsmith.

[Capntastic]

They're pretty varied so long as your fort isn't completely boring.   Also, as new stuff content is added into the game, new engraving depictions should naturally spring up, obviously.

[Aquillion]

Maybe we need more interesting engravings to commemorate 'day-to-day' things, though.

For instance...  engravings commemorating the first striking of any recently-found ores would make a great deal of sense.  There would probably be engravings of the first harvest after that happens, if the game can detect it...  Engravings celebrating the first birth in the fortress, too.  That's something that always attracts attention in the real world, in a new community.  Engravings for jobs that don't produce masterwork results might be good, too...  an engraving of dwarves hauling things could be quite appropriate.

There's some of those things already, I think, but it could be bumped up a bit.

Some of it is in the wording, which is probably temporary.  For instance, "This is an engraving of dwarves and dwarves.  The dwarves are talking to the dwarves."  That could probably just be "This is an engraving of dwarves holding discussions."  Or something similar, to avoid making it sound like something from the Smurfs where they randomly use Dwarf for every third word.

[ May 12, 2008: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[Kagus]

But you see, that would lead to the trouble of engravings showing a dwarf that's raising a +felsite discussion+.  

I think that there should be slightly more of an artistic bent to engraving.  Currently, after a short period of time, every engraving turns into a depiction of a historic event or the symbol of your parent civilization.  Human and goblin cities get engravings of burning candles, sinking ships, crescent moons etc., but all that gets pushed out by a fort's history.

Hell, while we're at it, make them use euphemisms.  Sure, it might be an engraving of a melting candle, but what does it mean?  Might lead to some interesting descriptions in Adv. mode.

"This is a masterful engraving of a drifting cloud by Bill Thunderson.  This artwork relates to the induction of Rupert Snotswallow into the fortress guard of Beetoasts in 1056."