Sounds to me like this could be easily segwayed into a sort of tutorial. In any case, I've always been a fan of starting quests, in adventuring games, and by giving you starting leads the game'll have a lot more "purpose".
Plus, making Adventure Mode more of an adventure mode, and not an open ended kill stuff mode with no real conclusion or closure, is something we've needed for a while.
I'm feeling comfortable at the thought of Toady straying from the all-too-common console RPG tropes, and while I'm not against them, perhaps he's thinking in a way of adapting some coherence and plotlines inside the adventure, without removing the fun of it. I understand the OP idea, like being able to learn the not-so-basic ropes while also being prone to be killed; If you somehow begin your adventure at the coldest edge of the map, where water is scarce and there's an evil frontier and powerful political enemies, well, that would be like beginning in hard-mode: more Fun, but also more chances of ending your adventure way too soo, and this should not be changed.
What I'm trying to say is that difficulty should not be scaled down. Something I love from DF (and I think a few people agree) is that, being a simulation, is strikingly hard and you can die anytime, you're not the scrawny spiky-haired hero who's just eager for innocence and love and gets prophecied to beat the Mother of all Evil with an useless contraption of a weapon, but you're just a mortal, just like any unsung hero has died way before facing a dragon, in a world populated by their zombie counterparts, railgunners and lightsaber-wielding lashers. Yes, demigods ought to be kept until better leveling and survival chances arise, and even then, Achilles died by an all-too-unnecesary arrow to the heel, and no more adventures for him (was Paris a kobold marksman?).
But I'm all in for fleshing out, and this is just great. Also, nothing stops us to beat our enemies to death with a mule bone scepter, so I'm not against useless contraptions.
Giving you an state of affairs in the Civ choosing screen would be neat, as Toady said, something quite similar to the Embark Screen, but obviously with relevant information. What should be displayed? Just suggesting:
- Capital city, population (perhaps both historical and non-historical), number of owned sites, political landscape (here we get a glimpse of the number or relative strenght of the enemies, maybe the looser we get the info the better we can use it), and, I don't know, something to add some flavor, like current leader or estimated wealth (well, the last one could be there in a later update, as soon as the economy gets revamped).
Those are my two (lead) cents.
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Topic: Devlog Discussion Megathread (Read 1284 times)