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[Footkerchief]

Decorations rule.  They turn a plain, boring item into a highly distinctive and personal accessory, something you can really call your own.  DF's decorations are already pretty complex, but they could use some improvements:

• Inscriptions, like on the blades of swords and such, would be awesome.  Lines of poetry, badass names, whatever.  They also shouldn't require additional materials -- a craftsdwarf can just carve directly into the blade.
• Buckets currently have their own unique "attachable" decoration, a handle.  More items should have unique components -- pommel stones on sword hilts and fullers on sword blades, for example.
• For some items, the game should be more specific about what part of the item the decoration is on.  When you have a sword encircled with bands of leather, you'd better hope they're not on the blade.
• Certain decorations just don't belong on certain items.  A floodgate's a little big to be encircled with bands of anything.
• Artistic decorations should be themed appropriately for the item.  Weapons should have depictions of war and death, barrels should have pictures of food.
  
• The big one: decorations aren't in the raws.  New decorations can't be modded in, and modders can't control which materials are used by which decorations. 

Now this thread takes a Choose Your Own Adventure twist.  If you're not a gigantic nerd, feel free to STOP HERE and reply directly to the ideas above.  If you ARE a gigantic nerd and you have way too much free time like me, keep reading as I attempt to demonstrate the feasability of throwing all the existing decoration features AND the new ideas in the raws.

Note: I'm using "improvement" as a generic term with four fixed categories: decorations, images, inscriptions, and components.  Decorations are non-artistic things like bands and hanging rings.  Components are item-specific things like handles and pommel stones.

Now let's get started with how everyone's favorite decoration, menacing spikes, might look in the raws.  Notice it has a list of materials that can be used to create this decoration (to prevent rope reed spikes), each with an associated skill and a REAGENT-style item specification, so the game knows exactly what's needed for the job.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:DECORATION:SPIKES]
[NAME:menacing spikes]
[DESCRIPTION:ACTIVE:menaces:with spikes of]
[MATERIAL:METALCRAFTING:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:STONECRAFTING:STONE:NO_SUBTYPE:STONE:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:BONE_CARVING:SHELL:NO_SUBTYPE:SHELL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:BONE_CARVING:BONES:NO_SUBTYPE:BONE:NO_MATGLOSS]

On to encircling bands.  Note the [SINGLE] tag, which prevents this decoration from being done more than once on the item (or attachment point, as we'll see later).  Also note that the description is PASSIVE, which is information DF needs to construct the descriptive paragraph.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:DECORATION:BANDS]
[NAME:bands]
[SINGLE]
[DESCRIPTION:PASSIVE:encircled:with bands of]
[MATERIAL:METALCRAFTING:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:LEATHERWORKING:SKIN_TANNED:NO_SUBTYPE:LEATHER:NO_MATGLOSS:wrapped]
[MATERIAL:CLOTHESMAKING:CLOTH:NO_SUBTYPE:NO_MATERIAL:NO_MATGLOSS:wrapped]
Now coverings.  DF seems to currently use the "covering" decoration to cover encrusting, studding, etc.  To accomodate this, the description string is broken into two parts, the first part of which ("covered") can be optionally overriden on a per-material basis using an optional final token.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:DECORATION:COVERING]
[NAME:covering]
[DESCRIPTION:PASSIVE:covered:with]
[MATERIAL:GEM_SETTING:SMALLGEM:NO_SUBTYPE:STONE:NO_MATGLOSS:encrusted]
[MATERIAL:LEATHERWORKING:SKIN_TANNED:NO_SUBTYPE:LEATHER:NO_MATGLOSS:decorated]
[MATERIAL:METALCRAFTING:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:NO_MATGLOSS:studded]
[MATERIAL:BONE_CARVING:BONES:NO_SUBTYPE:BONE:NO_MATGLOSS]
Having illustrated the nuances of the decoration tags, let's move on to images.  Note that they don't need a description string.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:IMAGE:IMAGE_SEWN]
[NAME:sewn image]
[SINGLE]
[MATERIAL:LEATHERWORKING:SKIN_TANNED:NO_SUBTYPE:LEATHER:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:CLOTHESMAKING:CLOTH:NO_SUBTYPE:NO_MATERIAL:NO_MATGLOSS]

[IMPROVEMENT:IMAGE:IMAGE_INLAID]
[NAME:inlaid image]
[MATERIAL:METALCRAFTING:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:WOODCRAFTING:WOOD:NO_SUBTYPE:WOOD:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:BONE_CARVING:BONES:NO_SUBTYPE:BONE:NO_MATGLOSS]
Here's the first new improvement -- an engraved image.  Because it's an engraving, it doesn't need additional materials.  Instead this improvement simply has the [SUBTRACTIVE] tag.  To figure out what labor gets used for the engraving, the game looks at the base material of the item, so an iron axe will be engraved by a metalcrafter, a wooden bucket by a woodcrafter, etc.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:IMAGE:IMAGE_ENGRAVED]
[NAME:engraved image]
[SUBTRACTIVE]
Another new improvement, the inscription.  This is pretty open-ended -- the easiest thing would be a name for the item, but later on crafters could quote poetry or something.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:INSCRIPTION:INSCRIPTION_ENGRAVED]
[NAME:engraved inscription]
[SUBTRACTIVE]
[SINGLE]
And finally, the item-specific components.  These can either specify materials (the pommel stone) or use [SUBTRACTIVE] (the fuller -- yes, you can grind a fuller onto a finished blade, I looked it up).  Also, I took the debatably insane step of adding a recursive [SUB_IMPROVEMENT] tag to the bucket handle, so the handle itself can be encrusted with gems or whatever.  It uses the same syntax as the item improvement specification further down.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:COMPONENT:DECORATIVE_GEM]
[NAME:gem]
[SINGLE]
[MATERIAL:GEM_SETTING:SMALLGEM:NO_SUBTYPE:STONE:NO_MATGLOSS]

[IMPROVEMENT:COMPONENT:SWORD_FULLER]
[NAME:fuller]
[SINGLE]
[SUBTRACTIVE]

[IMPROVEMENT:COMPONENT:BUCKET_HANDLE]
[NAME:handle]
[SINGLE]
[MATERIAL:WOODCRAFTING:WOOD:NO_SUBTYPE:WOOD:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:METALCRAFTING:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[SUB_IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:ENTIRE_ITEM:COVERING]
Want to stick jeweled, spiked, platinum-banded skulls all over your throne?  You got it.

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:COMPONENT:DECORATIVE_SKULL]
[NAME:skull]
[MATERIAL:BONE_CARVING:SKULL:NO_SUBTYPE:BONE:NO_MATGLOSS]
[SUB_IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:ENTIRE_ITEM:COVERING:SPIKES:BANDS]
[SUB_IMPROVEMENT:INTERNAL:left eye socket:DECORATIVE_GEM]
[SUB_IMPROVEMENT:INTERNAL:right eye socket:DECORATIVE_GEM]
Okay, so we have a nice list of improvements.  Now items need the ability to specify what kind of improvements they can receive -- and where!  This is handled via an IMPROVEMENT tag, which ideally could be used by any item.  Each tag specifies a location on the item, followed by a list of improvements usable on that location.  The list can specify individual improvements, as well as whole categories of improvements -- ANY_DECORATION, ANY_IMAGE, ANY_INSCRIPTION, or even the blanket token ANY_IMPROVEMENT (which would still exclude component-type improvements, of course).

This sword has a blade, a guard, and a hilt.  The blade only permits an inscription and a fuller, while the guard can have any old crap hanging off it, but no images or inscriptions.  The hilt can be wrapped with leather, and the pommel can have a stone set within it (note INTERNAL, which lets the game know to describe it as "in the pommel" rather than "on the pommel").

Code: [Select]

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_SWORD_SHORT]
...
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:blade:INSCRIPTION_ENGRAVED:SWORD_FULLER]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:guard:ANY_DECORATION]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:grip:BANDS]
[IMPROVEMENT:INTERNAL:pommel:DECORATIVE_GEM]
For items that don't have important locations, the special token ENTIRE_ITEM is used to specify that the improvement is smeared out all over the item, as the game currently treats all improvements.

Code: [Select]

[ITEM_BUCKET]
...
[IMPROVEMENT:ENTIRE_ITEM:ANY_IMPROVEMENT:BUCKET_HANDLE]
An illustration of how locations can be used to place interesting restrictions on improvements.  This armor only allows images and coverings on the front and back, and spikes on the shoulder plates.

Code: [Select]

[ITEM_ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_PLATEMAIL]
...
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:breastplate:ANY_IMAGE:COVERING]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:backplate:ANY_IMAGE:COVERING]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:left pauldron:SPIKES]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:right pauldron:SPIKES]

Buildings handle improvements by profession.  Once workshops are in the raws, a craftsdwarf's shop would have:

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:STONECRAFTING]
[IMPROVEMENT:WOODCRAFTING]
[IMPROVEMENT:BONE_CARVING]
While a forge would have:

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:METALCRAFTING]
Finally, some potential complications with this approach:

• It requires buckets to be moved to the raws, to avoid introducing a hardcoded dependence on a particular raws entry.
• It requires some expansions to the item text descriptions to accommodate locational descriptions and sub-improvements.
• It introduces item "sections" (such as the blade, guard and hilt of a sword) without really giving them proper definitions.  It might make more sense to wait until items are actually assembled from components.
• It doesn't include dyes.  It probably could with the addition of a fifth category, but I haven't thought that part through.

Goddamn, I'm going to go get some fresh air now.  If anybody actually read all that, please point out any flaws you found.

[Milskidasith]

It's complicated and at least somewhat unnecessary, and it kicks ass!

That means it is very dwarven. I give it two carps up! 

Keep up the good work, (footker)chief!

[Cavalcadeofcats]

I'm very fond of this plan - it seems very do-able if tracked/used solely for descriptive purposes (This is a steel axe. The handle is covered in skulls.) rather than for construction (an axe requires a head and a handle to be made separately and assembled) or combat damage (The -steel axe- handle shatters! The -steel axe- head flies away!) purposes. Though those could be cool too.

If I am rambling, it is because I am posting when I should be asleep.

Want to say there should be some way to use cloth as a covering, so that that skull throne could be a bit more comfortable... but that is a recursive suggestion-making which means I must sleep.

[Footkerchief]

I'm very fond of this plan - it seems very do-able if tracked/used solely for descriptive purposes (This is a steel axe. The handle is covered in skulls.) rather than for construction (an axe requires a head and a handle to be made separately and assembled) or combat damage (The -steel axe- handle shatters! The -steel axe- head flies away!) purposes. Though those could be cool too.

Exactly, the item sections I'm describing are purely descriptive -- they won't affect the way items are built, or how improvements add to their value.  For axes, it would definitely make sense to have the axe head as a separate item, and this system would work easily with that -- you'd specify ENTIRE_ITEM decorations on the axe head item instead.  However, for some other items like doors or whatever, the front and the back aren't really separate items, they'd just be useful ways to describe which side of the door is engraved.  In other words, purely cosmetic location descriptions are useful whether you can assemble items or not.

Want to say there should be some way to use cloth as a covering, so that that skull throne could be a bit more comfortable... but that is a recursive suggestion-making which means I must sleep.

Oh, but it's easy!  You just create a special component improvement:

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:COMPONENT:CHAIR_PAD]
[NAME:pad]
[SINGLE]
[MATERIAL:LEATHERWORKING:SKIN_TANNED:NO_SUBTYPE:LEATHER:NO_MATGLOSS]
[MATERIAL:CLOTHESMAKING:CLOTH:NO_SUBTYPE:NO_MATERIAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[SUB_IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:ENTIRE_ITEM:IMAGE_SEWN]

And allow the chairs to use the skulls and seat pads (once chairs are in the raws, of course):

Code: [Select]

[ITEM_CHAIR]
...
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:ENTIRE_ITEM:ANY_IMPROVEMENT]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:seat:CHAIR_PAD]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:back:CHAIR_PAD]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:left armrest:DECORATIVE_SKULL]
[IMPROVEMENT:EXTERNAL:right armrest:DECORATIVE_SKULL]

So the chair can still be decorated in all the normal ways, but can have padding attached to its seat or back by a clothier or leatherworker, and the padding can in turn have an image sewn onto it.  Likewise, a bone carver can attach skulls to the armrests, and those skulls can then be encrusted with gems by a gem setter.  The description would then look something like this:

Code: [Select]

This is an obsidian throne.  On the item is an engraved image of a dwarf and dwarves.  The dwarf is surrounded by the dwarves.

On the seat is a donkey leather pad.  On the pad is an exceptional image of dwarves in dog leather.  The dwarves are laboring.

On the back is a finely-crafted rope reed pad.  The cloth is green with emerald dye.  On the pad is an image of elves in cave spider silk.  The elves are weeping.  The cloth is midnight blue with dimple dye.

On the left armrest is a superior goblin bone skull.  In the left eye socket is a masterfully worked black zircon gem.

As a side note, these decorations would "inherit" material just like the new reactions will, so the game can easily track which goblin's skull you decorated your throne with.

As another side note, entities already have different preferences for different kinds of improvements (elves don't like spikes), but some improvements shouldn't be available to certain entities at all.

[Jay]

This is brilliant.
I hope it gets implemented at some point.

[Neonivek]

Alright I made a concept sketch or two and noticed patterns in the decorations of an object... Ill be posting the concept sketch soon... so be prepared

Note: It isn't made for artistic quality


Alright I got the concept... I shrunk it too much though

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alright anyhow after drawing it out I learned a few things from both the sword, chair, armor, and bucket that they are all in many ways ruled by the surfaces they use and the decorations should respect them.

I split the sword into 9 parts however if you look at the picture I made the sword 2d when the sword is actually a 3d object meaning that some of the objects here would have another surface.

Some objects such as the throne have objects that cover any sort of engraving you could have put on it prior.

Then a lot of these "Extras" seem to form naturally from specific surfaces on the object and even these extensions seem to fit... So here I go.

New Engraving Type
-Pattern: These are simple repeated patterns of no meaning

Types of Decoration
-Engraving
-Extension: An entirely new object placed upon the object whether it makes sense or not
-Covering: An object that covers that location and thus anything under it
--Leather bands on a Sword's handle for example
-Studding
-Slotting: Similar to Studding except that these are deliberate

Surface Limitations:
-Small: Surfaces that are small cannot fit large objects on them, and can
--I got this from the bucket handle... It couldn't fit a Real engraving on it.
-Decoration Extension only

Surface connections:
-Pattern: They are CAPABLE of looking differently but often don't.
-Second Side: The object is at the other side and may keep the same theme. they also are capable of sharing some features

Actually I confused myself... when I collected my thoughts Ill finish this...

[Footkerchief]

^^^

Patterns are a great idea.  They have a fair amount in common with images (we already have images of circles and squares) but they ARE potentially utilitarian as well as artistic, like a checkered pistol grip.

You bring up a good point about some improvements potentially obscuring others -- for instance, the chair pads I mentioned above would obscure an engraving on the seat.  That would be a problem because there's no way to remove improvements (under this system, anyway) -- the engraving would be covered forever.  I think the simplest approach is that whoever's writing the raws for chair decoration permissions doesn't allow engravings on the seat -- as long as you're careful, you can avoid situations where one improvement would logically obscure another.  Likewise, on swords, I wrote the permission so that it would only allow bands on the grip.

Similar for surface limitations -- in the bucket handle example, I made sure to only permit the "covering" decoration (encrusting, studding, etc).  Again, it's up to the modder to ensure the permitted improvements make sense.  Tracking surface size explicitly could get really complicated.

For engravings and stuff that wrap around objects -- yeah, if the location of the engraving is not easily described, it'd probably be easier to use the ENTIRE_ITEM token so it just works like a normal engraving and says "On the item is an image..."

[dizzyelk]

You bring up a good point about some improvements potentially obscuring others -- for instance, the chair pads I mentioned above would obscure an engraving on the seat.  That would be a problem because there's no way to remove improvements (under this system, anyway) -- the engraving would be covered forever.  I think the simplest approach is that whoever's writing the raws for chair decoration permissions doesn't allow engravings on the seat

Or, of course, a chair pad could take the same 'slot'(s) an engraving takes. So that way you could have one or the other.

[Granite26]

[ogion]

It is nice to see someone actually thought through a suggestion, and even better that it is an awesome one at that.

What I woul dlike to see though, is an option to assign specific items to recieve specific decorations, like my masterfully crafted platinum statue I'd like to encrust with diamonds, not green glass gems, as it's impossible to remove the decorations (afaik).

[Impaler[WrG]]

Now to come up with an interface that allows us to order up items crafted and decorated in exactly the manner we want down to the type of images sown on the pads of the throne while also not forcing us to Micromanage every detail of junk that made purely for export.

[Footkerchief]

Or, of course, a chair pad could take the same 'slot'(s) an engraving takes. So that way you could have one or the other.

Yeah, it might make sense to have a SINGLE token in the item improvement permissions tag, to allow only one improvement from the following list.  Something like IMPROVEMENT:seat:SINGLE:EXTERNAL:CHAIR_PAD:IMAGE_ENGRAVED.  The way I did it, individual improvement types declare themselves to be single instead, but maybe it would be better to have both.

What I woul dlike to see though, is an option to assign specific items to recieve specific decorations, like my masterfully crafted platinum statue I'd like to encrust with diamonds, not green glass gems, as it's impossible to remove the decorations (afaik).

Now to come up with an interface that allows us to order up items crafted and decorated in exactly the manner we want down to the type of images sown on the pads of the throne while also not forcing us to Micromanage every detail of junk that made purely for export.

There does need to be a better way of prioritizing certain items for decoration, and better material selection.  But I think it's important to preserve the dwarves' autonomy by allowing them to choose what images to sew, etc.  The image choice could be biased in a certain direction by the item type (swords = pictures of war, etc.) but if your leatherworker really has plump helmets on the brain for whatever reason, that should be a possibility too.

[Dhargk]

Perhaps add a decorations section to the 'z' status menu. That way you'd be able to forbid/permit a specific material for decorations. I'm seeing it in my head as something similar to the economic stone menu except you'd be able to disable specific things.

For example, you could navigate down to Pig Tail Cloth and you'd be able to disable "decorate by encircling bands" and leave nothing but sew image. Maybe even have a big list of things that can be engraved/sewn that you can specifically allow/forbid.

You could have a certain noble activate this even, if you wanted to get that involved into it.