Urist Mcmainguy wakes up at the crack of dawn, turns to his side and lights a candle so he can wake up, on his other side is his 5 year old son Urist Jr. and beside him his wife Ms. Urist Mcmainguy. Across the room in another bed is his 14 year old son, too old to sleep with his parents but not old enough to be out on his own. Urist Mcmainguy is a miner under contract of the fortress, so his rent is paid and he gets rationed meals as does his family, he also gets some spending money, but not as much as a freelance dwarf might get. but he gets paid regardless if he has work so he's okay with that. Urist gets up letting his wife and child sleep, but wakes his eldest. Urist is part of the miners guild and today is his son's first day of his apprentice ship, which is being taken care of by urist's brother the guild leader a legendary miner. A great honor. His son was picked by a combination of being in the same clan and because he's the son of a fellow and high ranking guild member. They get dressed and urist picks up his pick and they head out. Knowing the dining hall is always busy at this hour he takes his son to a small stand at the end of the hall and orders two plump helmets and a cat meat sandwich with dwarven cheese. This isn't super expensive cause plump helmets are as common as apples to them, and only a small fraction of cheese is used up, and the cat meat, well you know. He puts the sandwich in his backpack and hands the other plump helmet to his son, they munch on them on the way to the guild hall.
They enter the guild hall, there are two long tables off on either side, lined with chairs, there's a small wall splitting the side were there's an engraving of two picks and a gem, they go off up to a small room were urist's brother tsiru is waiting, they trade pleasantries but soon urist leaves to work the mines. Tsiru then begins to train him in mining teaching him the basic metals. Urist begins the assent up to the exit of the fortress, he pulls up his hood to block out the sun as he leaves the fortress and heads to the mines. *i'll let all you I want better mining guys fill in the blanks here*
It is now noon, urist not wanting to make the long trek back to the dining hall decides now's a good time to chow down on his sandwich, seeing as the special mining dining hall isn't finished being furnished or stocked yet. After finishing his snack he takes a one last swig from his flask emptying it and getting back to work. Hours earlier his wife had awaken and taken urist jr. to a small daycare/school room leaving him in the care of the teachers and caretakers there, she wishes she could afford a private caretaker, but with her husband a contract miner and her only a simple barmaid, she knew that would never happen. She goes to the tavern and begins serving the retired early bird lunchers. Suddenly a door bursts open and a gnome runs out beer all over his shirt, he looks around in a panic and one of the more grizzled retirees grabs there axe and throws it at the gnome, the gnome loses an ear as it yells out in pain as it runs away into the crowd outside. Mrs. Urist sighs as she begins to clean up the blood, knowing that's more important then serving her customers. The grizzled retiree retrieves his axe and puts it back into it's belt loop. He goes back to sharing his roasted duck garnished with rock leaves with his wife and their adult son, who insists on paying for the meal, but his father will not hear of it and puts his coin on the table, his son sighs and gives in to his hardass father, they say there good byes as he goes back to his job as a book keeper.
I may continue this later but basically this is how it will play out game wise.
New day, dwarves get up, wake up anyone they need up, magically know how crowded someplace is and make plans accordingly, buy food when hungry, and buy a snack is they have none, they also carry flasks. Adults escort children to prevent knapping, and will only leave them with people they trust, ie- guild mates, other family, clan members, their masters *occupation wise*, caretakers, or hired goons if there rich enough. Dwarves get hungry much faster, not to make it harder cause food is more plentiful and less wasted. Dwarves go to bed when there tired, which is roughly every night. Dwarves work for other dwarves once the economy kicks in, but to keep control, they can be contracted, and areas can be designated as "available" which dwarves will purchase depending on size and decorations, they will build whatever they need there; lathes, looms, tables, what have you. Apprentice ships work like military training and they won't start actually crafting or doing actual work until whatever the rank above dabbling is *I can't remember* Contracted dwarves don't take apprentices cause they are doing important fortress work, they will do busy work using the guilds or the masters resources. Dwarves cannot reach Master until they complete there first masterpiece. It works normally for none actual crafting classes. Basically increase the length of a day so STUFF actually can happen in a day, even if a dwarf only builds 1 chair or digs 2 squares it might make long fortresses a huge chore but at least you feel like your accomplishing something, plus all you advance mining guys will have time to plan structures and what have you. This would also make minecarts feasible cause hey if I can move stone 4 times as fast and all at once instead of my miners lugging it out then hey it's worth building.
I'd go more in depth but i'm hungry and it's late so i'll just let people talk about it for a bit so they can tell me how stupid this idea is.
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Topic: Suggestions in a story about what I want in dwarf fortress. (Read 443 times)