Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[lumin]

First of all Dwarf Fortress is awesome.  Best rogue-like I've ever played.  My favorite part is the huge, living world that the game takes place in.  I love it so much that I have spent the last two days advertising it on the Oblivion community forums so to get more people in support.  This game really has the potential to bring "rogue-likes" out of obscurity and into mainstream.

I know this game is still in alpha and has a long way to go, but here is my most wanted list (from best to worst):

1.  More Loot!  

I definately think that monsters should be carrying more items like weapons, armor, and gold.  There should be more stuff lying around the caves and boss-monsters should drop some magical artifacts.

2. Quest Rewards

The mayor (or quest giver) needs to give rewards, whether it be gold or items.

3. More interesting towns

The cities and towns ought to be a little more interesting in the physical layout.  It should, in theory, operate just like the Dwarven Fortress does.  There should be a well (where do they get water?), butcher shop, kitchen, forges, etc...  (As a long-term goal These different workshops could be used to make things by the hero for wealth...a little bit like Runescape's system).

4. Sea Travel

This one is really important to me because I have noticed that many maps have inaccessable areas because of sea barriers.  This limits the world size considerably.

5. A Story

I'm not talking about a static, never-changing story like ADoM has.  I'm talking about a random main story that is generated for each world.  For example, when you talk to a villager about surroundings they ought to tell you about the (random named) <<Great>> who has unleashed a powerful army and is laying siege to the land.  The adventurer ought to be able to begin an epic quest across the world to destroy his armies and defeat him in a final confrontation.  (This could be just one random example).

5. Funner trading.

This goes along with #1, but the hero ought not to start out with tons of equipment at first.  Also, each city should not have all the same stuff.  You should have to build up your inventory slowly, starting with cheap sticks, then moving to slightly less cheap equipment through adventuring and loot obtaining.  Also merchants should only carry stuff region specific (I know this is done to a degree already - towns near oceans already carry "fish-made" stuff), but not all merchants should have uber-powerful stuff.  You should have to travel from town to town to find better or worse equipment.

6.  Quantified Statistics

I would also like to see items and personal status become quantified.  For example, weapons should have a numerical rating of how good it is compared to something else.

That's all for now.  What else can you think of?

[ October 26, 2006: Message edited by: lumin ]

[ October 26, 2006: Message edited by: lumin ]

[Capntastic]

I agree with everything but the last one.   Numerical statistics leads to metagaming.

Anyways, all of these things are in the development notes, which you should go through while sipping your favored beverage.  It'll blow your mind all the radical stuff Toady is going to add in.

Dwarf Fortress is going to be the first next-gen Roguelike.

[lumin]

I agree with the fact that too many numbers can lead players into meta-gaming, but perhaps there could be a better way (without numbers) to help the player know which items are better than another.  Some items like Leather and Chain Mail are easy to know which gives more defense, but does Chain Mail give a sneak penalty?  We should know if Bear Skin shoes would be stronger than Seal shoes for example.  There should be some documentation on that so we would know the difference.  If there is no way to identify differences between items, what's the point of even having weapons/armor at all, besides cosmetics?  

I've read through all of the planned updates for DF and they look great.  Of course, bug-fixing takes priority to any feature, and nothing new should be implemented without it being made stable first.

I really like the idea for a random story/plot for each world.  Has Toady thought of this?  I didn't see it in the plans, but maybe I missed it.

Edit: I just read this, it explains how to differentiate between some items better

[ October 27, 2006: Message edited by: lumin ]

[Toady One]

You can go to the Consolidated Dev Page and do a search for "genre" "atmosphere" "plot" to see how this was going to be handled for Armok I.  Some similar approach will be used for DF, at some point.  It's not going to generate a story to pin you to so much as make everybody interesting enough that things happen -- if there are sufficient interrelationships and goals, and they have the power to create/destroy towns and so on, it should work out.

[lumin]

Hmm, thanks.  I especially like what it said here under Plot:

 

quote:The pre-game history will introduce many specific actors and props to start things off running, if desired. This history will be available depending on how the various entities pass down knowledge (you might make it a goal to uncover the mysteries of the past, even as the present is raging around you).  

This could be used to flesh out the world history sequence, giving you verbal and perhaps some visual cues as to what is going on in the map during the Ages of Myths and Legends.  This would set the stage for your the hero's arrival as you would have a head's up on what is going on and where conflicts have occurred or are occurring.

Very nice!  

[ October 27, 2006: Message edited by: lumin ]

[20,000leeks]

Hmm, perhaps the introduction of books would go some way to solving a few of these issues. If a town has a library (and let's face it, it'd have to be a pretty large town - those drunks don't seem the type to read up on Reg Leadchaser's theory of spontaneous frogmanination), and of course if your character is capable of reading, you should be able to saunter in and read up on local history. Likewise, maybe there's a reference section - look up deer leather shoes and you get

"These shoes have benefits over shoes made from thicker skinned animals in noise reduction and flexibility, but protection from edged, blunt, and piercing weapons is lacking"

or just deer leather or what have you. Of course, that's *if* the library has the information you're looking for - you may have to go further afield for that.

Conversely, introduce 'sages' to the town, who may have some knowledge about the location and maybe a few things relevant to that location - if they're near a forest, maybe they know that wooden armour isn't quite up to the standards of leather armour. Of course, getting them to tell you this might be a little difficult. After all, maybe they have a stake in the local wooden-armoursmith's.

[Capntastic]

I actually had a lot of ideas for libraries to suggest; with similar things such as information on item-types and materials.

It would be a good way to allow someone to read up on these things- without assigning just plain numbers.

[Mechanoid]

[Wait, no one mentioned item quality...
Wiki main page: http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Main_Page

Very bottom, materials: http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Weapons

Entire page is about item qualities: http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Item_quality

[ October 28, 2006: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

[20,000leeks]

It's more fun if there are no quantifiable numbers, though. Like in the real world - you *know* steel is better for making a sword than, say, mouldy cheese, but there's no "Hm, the material modifier for steel is 6.78 while for mouldy cheese it's 0.0001.....".

Especially if you come across new materials that your character hasn't seen before....

Hm. There's an idea. Maybe there could be an 'evaluation' skill, or just option, that lets your character compare two different items or materials and see which one s/he *thinks* is better. Of course, if your character is an Elf, they're going to know a lot about wood, and not very much at all about leather, so maybe you'd end up with a "...I don't know" or just "Wood is better."

[Maximus]

An artifact cheese is a deadly weapon however, and even an ordinary cheese can kill if skillfully thrown.