I've been giving some thought to the notion of how to evaluate the quality of rooms in the fortress and I'd like to share my current thoughts on the matter. It seems like a more processor-intensive solution isn't a horrible idea since the value of a room changes very infrequently.
There are some basic ideas that I'm trying to incorporate into my method:
1) Big rooms tend to be higher-valued. Or, at least, small claustrophobic rooms are lower-valued.
2) High-quality materials that go into a room reflect the overall quality of the room.
3) Interesting architectural designs should make for higher-quality rooms.
4) Emphasis should be placed on the effective and dramatic placement of furniture.
Then I got to thinking that maybe (1) is not really about the overall dimensions of the room. A common theme in architectural design is that a space does not have to be big to feel big. Peoples' perceptions of the space really change the way they appreciate it. As such, I think value of a space should depend on the way it's actually perceived. Essentially, when a room is created or re-sized, the game looks at the walkable squares in the room and considers what's visible from each location. In doing so, the game can see what the big corridors of vision are in a room.
These corridors of vision are essentially line segments within the room itself. The important part of those segments are the endpoints. After the game identifies several critical corridors of vision (the longest segments would be preferentially more important), it labels the endpoints of these axes as critical locations. Furniture placed in a critical location is scrutinized much more by the valuation process than furniture placed elsewhere. The process would then look at each piece of critical furniture. Starting with the actual monetary value of the item, this value can be enhanced by considering the visibility of the item. Open spaces around the item are good. Materials that contrast with those of other things in surrounding spaces would be a boost. In this case, special cases can be defined. A statue would greatly benefit from its surrounding tiles being water in a reflecting pool.
I think every item should detract from the value of items in close proximity, with some exceptions. Two statues placed side-by-side is design-wise a dangerous thing. If the quality isn't closely matched and the materials complementary then it doesn't work. The worse of them brings down the value of the better. In DF, I think an item should suffer a penalty of a slight proportion of the difference in value between itself and its surrounding items. This would include engravings. However, some items are designed to be placed together, like tables and chairs. These would not decrease value.
The ultimate effect here would be to make rooms with longer lanes that have interesting things at either end more valuable. This method would be ideal for modeling the display garden of your artifacts, and having the artifacts stand alone in their own exhibit down the hallway where you can see it as you approach. Rooms like these will start to become relatively more valuable than simply cramming a current room with engravings and hoping for the best.
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Topic: Room valuation techniques (Read 973 times)