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[Blastbeard]

While in a friendly or neutral settlement, the player should be able to allow companions to disperse and interact with the site and its inhabitants. This would give companions the chance to fulfill needs, obtain equipment, and play a bigger role in the world, rather than serving solely as ablative meat for the player.

Dispersing the party temporarily disbands it, its members agreeing to return to the current location and continue travelling together at a set time in the future. From the player's perspective, this then cuts to a screen like the one used for waiting and sleeping, with the adventurer either waiting at the rendezvous point or wandering off to interact with the site like their companions.
In the latter case, the player should be able to choose beforehand what the adventurer does in this time period. This would allow them to perform actions that aren't currently available in adventurer mode by handling them off-screen, such as receiving medical attention or satisfying otherwise unfulfillable needs, such as making romance.

After dispersing, companions should be free to do as they please, acting independently in accordance to their needs and preferences. For instance, companions with a desperate urge to get drunk should be more likely to prioritize a visit to the nearest tavern, but if the site lacks such a location, they should attend to other matters.
One such matter would be to visit the local shops in order to replenish ammunition and replace damaged or destroyed equipment. Apart from a few obvious restrictions, chiefly "do not trade away artifacts" and "do not replace equipped weapons and armor with inferior metals", this should be a hands-off process, with the only influence the player exerts being to provide their companions money or items to trade with beforehand. The end result of a shopping trip should reflect both the companion's tastes and the site's available wares, but as a rule the companion should come out of it better off than when they went in.
Regardless of what they actually do during this time period,the party should also be socializing with the local population, both to satisfy that need and to gather and spread rumors as they go about their business.

All of this should be affected by how much time the companions have to act on their own. Too little time should limit what can be done, whereas too much time leaves the player waiting for a timer to count down. Going back to the tavern example, if the party has dispersed for a very short period of time, a companion may simply go over, have a drink, and come right back. However, if the site's nearest tavern is too far away to get to and back from in the given span of time, they may opt to do something they can actually get done and be back from in time for the rendezvous. On the other hand, giving the companion too much time may lead to them spending the night at their chosen watering hole, provided it has a free bed.

Whatever happens, once time is up, the party regroups and the player recieves a summary of the each companion's experiences while they were away, similar to mission reports in fortress mode. This should include information such as what they did, any items they acquired or traded away, new rumors, and any combat they witnessed or were involved in. Once that's done, gameplay resumes as normal and the player is free to continue.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Does anyone in Adventurer actually make any effort to meet their needs? Indeed, are the consequences of not doing so even simulated in adventurer right now (beyond the main character)?

A fine suggestion for when everyone actually goes about doing what they might realistically be doing. Let your companions go do stuff, yes. But right now it looks on the surface as though all anyone does is is chat-argue-fight, react to hostiles, perform or walk to the town well and back (and now presumably do whatever moving about villaneous plots requires).

[Blastbeard]

Does anyone in Adventurer actually make any effort to meet their needs? Indeed, are the consequences of not doing so even simulated in adventurer right now (beyond the main character)?

I know as much that npcs do have needs and can fulfill them just like adventurers, but whether or not keeping them in check offers any sort of mechanical is more than I can say.
I am also 85% sure alcohol dependence affects non-adventurers as well, so there's some use in being to tell Urist to take five and hit the pub.

A fine suggestion for when everyone actually goes about doing what they might realistically be doing. Let your companions go do stuff, yes. But right now it looks on the surface as though all anyone does is is chat-argue-fight, react to hostiles, perform or walk to the town well and back (and now presumably do whatever moving about villaneous plots requires).

I originally came up with this suggestion with later versions of the game in mind, but decided to cut it down to current features to keep it simple. One of the big draws in the rough draft was that if you had previously recruited agents, they would be able to use the time away to do their thing:

This also offer party members with ulterior motives the chance to do their dirty work and possibly have a bit of Fun in the process.
Spies should take this time to gather information, establish contacts to expand their network, and perform various other acts of espionage.
Assassins may take this time take on contracts and collect rewards for previously completed. If their current target happens to be in or near the site, they may also attempt to kill them if they have enough time.
Criminals may, unsurprisingly, commit crimes, be it stealing from shops, mugging passersby, or furthering the interests of a criminal organization.

I don't know if these characters are intended to be recruitable, but if they are, this would give them the chance to both serve the player and their own interests. It would be a reason to let then disperse for longer periods of time, benefitting from more alone time to do their job.

There was also the bit where these agents may or may not omit information when they regroup in order to conceal their true nature. A spy would either keep information to themselves or present their findings in a way that doesn't blow their cover, while a thief may keep stolen goods to themselves or share the wealth without explaining where it came from. This would make such party members potentially useful, but also potentially troublesome if the consequences of their actions catch up to them.

[GoblinCookie]

Does anyone in Adventurer actually make any effort to meet their needs? Indeed, are the consequences of not doing so even simulated in adventurer right now (beyond the main character)?

A fine suggestion for when everyone actually goes about doing what they might realistically be doing. Let your companions go do stuff, yes. But right now it looks on the surface as though all anyone does is is chat-argue-fight, react to hostiles, perform or walk to the town well and back (and now presumably do whatever moving about villaneous plots requires).

Nobody eats or drinks or works or does anything in adventure mode in general at the moment.  I think this is actually a good idea for NPCs in general, but your companions should require to be fed and whatnot since the needs of NPCs being automatically met saves on the memory requirements of actually having to model the Adventure Mode site looking after it's people; but we should have to look after our companions ourselves, for as long as they are our companions. 

[Timeless Bob]

Add this to the current Fortress mode stress model as well.  A big portion of the current DF troubles is that individuals do not seek to fulfill their needs and receive bad thoughts as a result.  The price for greater autonomy in needs being sought to be met, however, is that the agents may choose to take care of those rather than do whatever it is that the Player wishes them to do.

The solution is to create a hierarchy of activities from 0 to 7 (lowest to highest), and the Player having to say how important it is that their commands be heeded. The "time off" variable can be implemented in this as well, with activities rated by time to completion and modifying their status in the hierarchy of needs.  In this solution, "0" becomes activities to be avoided if at all possible, while "7" are activities that must be taken care of ASAP. Similar to the "Stroll-Sprint" screen, Player commands could be given more or less priority, which would place them in the higher or lower tiers of need. In order for there to not be rampant chaos each tick as each agent entirely re-evaluates his/her/its actions, a task would probably need to be completed or interrupted before a new activity was qued, which would make the possibility of a Player's commands to not be given much priority if a series of Tier 7 needs kept popping up. (Which for me would be delightful - having an adventurer only go out to slay that colossus when they were bored and healthy sounds amazing)