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[varkarrus]

How's this.

As the game progresses, new technologies are invented, and word is spread across the land. You need word of this in order to build it. Strange moods can lead to you creating the new technologies yourself. If you continue, you may be able to go to space, though it would require using that specific world for a long time.

[Silverionmox]

go to space

No. Technology is roughly 1400 AD for various reasons, for example game balance, atmosphere and a preference for detailing the interaction between the existing game elements, rather than adding a new machine out of the  box every time something needs to be done (eg. instead of making a razor apparatus, give swords a new function).

[DennyTom]

Technology tree would be interesting:

Year 0: No civ can smelt, create glass, prepare alcohol, etc.
Year 32: Dwarves invent brewing alcohol.
Year 58: Goblins invent smelting.
Year 98: Urist McSmarty is kidnapped and lives in Dark Tower for 15 years.
Year 109: Humans learn how to work with leather.
Year 113: Urist McSmarty escapes to dwarven civ and learns them smelting.
Year 114: Dwarves start to use magma for smelting.
Year 127: Human civ buys smelting technology for know-how of leather working.

[irmo]

Technology tree would be interesting:

Year 0: No civ can smelt, create glass, prepare alcohol, etc.
Year 32: Dwarves invent brewing alcohol.
Year 58: Goblins invent smelting.
Year 98: Urist McSmarty is kidnapped and lives in Dark Tower for 15 years.
Year 109: Humans learn how to work with leather.
Year 113: Urist McSmarty escapes to dwarven civ and learns them smelting.
Year 114: Dwarves start to use magma for smelting.
Year 127: Human civ buys smelting technology for know-how of leather working.

Year 1000 or so: At the point you start playing the game, all these technologies are mature.

Does anyone actually want a series of random worldgen events to determine what subset of technologies their civilization will never get to use? "Oh, sorry, your dwarves never invented the pick. Have fun."

[DennyTom]

Does anyone actually want a series of random worldgen events to determine what subset of technologies their civilization will never get to use?

Speaking for myself, yes. Also when possible to invent new tech in-game, no doors are closed.

"Oh, sorry, your dwarves never invented the pick. Have fun."

There can be starting set of tech so game is playable.

And finally - this is just a fun idea. No one said it is a good idea.

[varkarrus]

Shh! I'm trying to imagine a steampunk dwarf fortress world!

[Bricks]

You'd need lots of brass.

I think tech trees would be a terrible idea for an in-game set of events.  Even if it were possible, it would probably follow suit with the rest of the game, where the dwarves would just invent whatever random technologies they were interested in.

However, having different innovations occur during worldgen would add some interesting flavor (imagine being able to date ruins based upon what techs the civ used in its construction).  Also, if Toady ever finds a way to add things like generated rocks, monsters, or civs to the worldgen without it looking like so much "static" (his term), it seems feasible that certain random technologies could exist, perhaps even following a natural progression.  Scenario:

Random goblin civ is populated in tundra/glacier terrain
Goblins are exposed to certain resources given their environment: ice, fish, etc
Goblins "invent" bone-related industries (crafts, crossbows, bolts, daggers?)
Goblins "invent" ice-related industries (crafts [ice sculpting? heck yes], weapons [icicle ballista bolts, ice arrowheads, ice swords])

...and then you are attacked by a race of goblins with masterwork ice maces that menace with spikes of fish bone.  T'would be awesome, especially when they run past your magma moat and all of their weapons melt.

[irmo]

I think tech trees would be a terrible idea for an in-game set of events.  Even if it were possible, it would probably follow suit with the rest of the game, where the dwarves would just invent whatever random technologies they were interested in.

However, having different innovations occur during worldgen would add some interesting flavor (imagine being able to date ruins based upon what techs the civ used in its construction). 

Given that Toady's time is finite, I would rather he focus on things that will actually have an effect on gameplay instead of screwing around with worldgen flavor stuff that does nothing. If you want to imagine that the goblins in your world didn't invent bronze because they lived in an area with no copper, nobody's stopping you. Imagining that farming isn't broken doesn't work so well.

Also, if Toady ever finds a way to add things like generated rocks, monsters, or civs to the worldgen without it looking like so much "static" (his term), it seems feasible that certain random technologies could exist, perhaps even following a natural progression.

This seems vastly under-appreciated around here, so I'm going to explain it yet again: "Static" stuff is what gives the game recognizable flavor. You play the dwarves, who are short and have beards and dig tunnels in mountains and drink alcohol and forge things out of steel using magma. This is all "static"--Toady thought about how he wants dwarves to work, clearly influenced by centuries of mythology and literature, and put them into the game as a complete culture. And they WORK.

This Mad Libs crap, where you play (random racial name), who are (height) and have (physical feature) and (construction activity) in (terrain type) and consume (substance) and (industrial process) with (material), DOES NOT WORK. It's boring.

[Enzo]

Damnit irmo, I was with you until the last paragraph there. Who says the mad libs crap isn't awesome?

The technology tree idea? Eh, maybe not so much. The suggestion about giving civs equipment based on their nearby resources (no bronze if they have no access to copper, etc) is a good idea though, and can be used without all this random technology event rubbish.

[Bricks]

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was overly descriptive a system.

As for static - imagine if the environment was truly randomly generated.  No good.  There needs to be some sort of overbrain that keeps reality in check.

My ideas were more along the lines of - why can elves make x out of wood, but dwarves can't?  And then you can pin it to world gen, instead of happy-slapping a trait to every little aspect of the civ.  Yeah, it would be insane to try to program in all of this functionality.  I wouldn't be heartbroken if it went completely unpursued.

And yes, madlibs-style generation is obnoxious and empty, which is why I think there should be some sort of definitive reason for the traits of different cultures.  So modding in "Graggleflaxes" and telling them to live in swamps will automatically feed them, as part of the worldgen, traits that make starting an outpost in a swamp a good idea, and starting one in a mountain a terrible idea.  Instead of adding all of the [CAN_****] tags by hand.