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[alfie275]

Mainly for dwarf mode, but also for adventure mode.

You would have a fortune teller noble, the noble must be able to tell the future, such a dwarf can migrate to your fortress or be born when any of the following conditions are met:
Correct alignment of stars
HFS breached
Mother or father has been in a possesed mood
Born near a titan of correct sphere

The fortune teller predicts certain things, depending on skill it can be a one word answer such as "Death" or "Gold" or a whole sentence such as "The elven diplomat will bring plague" or "A comet of platinum will fall on the 2nd of granite".

[Safe-Keeper]

I feel I can't answer this without answering another question: how supernatural do we want DF to be? I can handle gods, as they're in already and presumably real in the DF world ([atheist]not that we've ever seen one[/atheist ]), but I'm really not sure what I feel about psychics and magic, except in a very limited form. Then again, both have enormous potential and a very, very wide range of material to draw from.

What would be really fun would be if Toady put in a totally ineffective psychic who literally just rattled off random and vague predictions, for then to leave it to the confirmation biases of the players to attribute her skills ("oh yeah? She predicted the arrival of a hammerdwarf just before it happened!"). Would be so much fun to watch the community up in arms, trying to work out whether or not psychics have actual powers .

[profit]

It would go well with the other useless nobles.

[Safe-Keeper]

Urist McFortuneteller has predicted the banning of certain exports of goods.
Urist McNoble has banned certain exports of goods.
Urist McFortuneteller has predicted a change in the prices of goods.
Urist McNoble has changed the prices of goods.
Urist McFortuneteller has predicted a change in the prices of goods.
Urist McNoble has changed the prices of goods.

Seriously, though, I wouldn't mind another way to get advance warning of things to come. I suppose I'd be fine with a fortune-teller noble as a rare occurrence.  He/she could have a random skill level (from legendary to charlatan) and it'd be up to the player to apply scepticism by keeping track of predictions and noting which came true and which didn't.

Predictions could also have a certain poetic or crpytic tone to them.

[Euld]

Urist McFortuneteller has predicted an invasion by a vile force of darkness on the 10th of whateverstone.

Those sorts of predictions could be useful, although that may have to change how and when sieges/ambushes are determined to arrive.

[silhouette]

Yea there is something in the dev notes about making it so you can send some of your military out in the future to scout around, spot incomming seiges and that.

This could work too.

"Urist McFortuneteller has predicted an ambush on blah"

But obviously there would have to be a limit to how far they can see into the future..
Would be quite annoying having it like...

12th granite 200

"urist McFortuneteller has predicted an invasion by a vile force of darkness on the 5th of hematite 300!"
Would be hillarious though...

[Safe-Keeper]

I'd be against 100% precise predictions complete with date stamp. Sure, that's how some fortune-tellers operate, but I don't think there's a whole lot of them, as the odds of actually getting such predictions right as slim to say the least.

Yea there is something in the dev notes about making it so you can send some of your military out in the future to scout around, spot incomming seiges and that.

Obviously a better solution - I wonder if the ability to build tall watch towers to spot enemies early might be an option in the future as well. I predict (cough) that the fortune-teller, if one is added, will be more of a rare occurrence, a bit like the philosopher.

[alfie275]

Yeah, the chances of a fortune teller coming to your fortress is pretty slim, and the accuracy should depend on skill as well. Note that this would be the predicted future that would happen unless the player intervenes, ie "Urist McEveryone'sfriend will die of a leg infection in a season" the player could let it happen, and it might, but the player could also chop off the leg.

[madrain]

Urist McFortuneteller predicts a demand for mugs!

...which naturally leads to a mass creation of crafts only for there to be nil demand from all traders the following year. 

I like this idea.

[Doro]

im not sure what i think about this fortuneteller but i still have few suggestions for that.

Fortunetellers should be rare and somewhat randomly arriving at your fortress and there is a chance that he isnt a real fortuneteller but "fake fortuneteller" or even heretic that could give you some random information about random things that arent true or if he is heretic he could cause unhappy thoughts when converting people to believe in his / her own gods...


... i wonder how i got that heretic there

[Safe-Keeper]

Hehe, anyone played Dominions 3? It's a deep 4X strategy game that reminds me a lot of DF because of its depth (units age, they sustain wounds in battle such as "Lost eye" that are recorded and affect their stats), and revolves heavily around spreading religion (your religion, in turn, affects the stats of the territories in which it is dominant). While of course you had stealthy missionaries you could send into enemy territories to convert people, but a more memorable unit was the "Sceptic", who could reduce the religious strength of people in his territory.

What I'm trying to get at with my rambling is that I like the idea of having units like these - a Fortune-Teller, a Prophet, a Charlatan ("fake" fortune-teller), the Philosopher, the Missionary, etc.

Urist 'Sylvia Browne' McFortune-Teller cancels Make dire predictions: interrupted by Randi McSceptic

[Ralje]

I like the idea of having units like these - a Fortune-Teller, a Prophet, a Charlatan ("fake" fortune-teller), the Philosopher, the Missionary, etc.

I'd like them all to have some use to the fort, especially if they're demanding things.

Useful predictions could be:
Urist McFortuneteller has predicted an invasion by a vile force of darkness next season.
Urist McFortuneteller has predicted <undiscovered high-value ore> lies west deep below the earth.
Urist McFortuneteller has predicted Urist McMoody will be blessed by the gods.

What if he came in on certain seasons, rather then sticking around the fort?

[Safe-Keeper]

I'd like them all to have some use to the fort, especially if they're demanding things.

And if you think they're greedy little ****ers when they arrive, just wait 'til the economy kicks in and the masses get money to spend .

[Craftling]

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=36023.0
But hell, was that hard to dig up.

[Bricks]

I don't exactly understand how fortunes and fates can really work in a game that is so dependent on simulation and procedural behavior.  You can sort of force an action or tweak the RNG, but that would take a lot of work just to make it not look like crap compared to the rest of the game.  It'd be a good side-project during the magic arc, but for now it's just not a reasonable goal.