Print

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

[panoptiC]

One thing that sort of is really amusing me it that time passes "too fast". I know, I always could turn the FPS cap to 75 or so, but that's not quite it.

Think more along the lines of: Rome wasn't build in one day. Usually in 1055 I got pretty much everything in place and from there on it's just minor tweaking.
Perhaps it would work with a simple setting in the INI file, or so.  

The basic idea is that a fortress should need a few years longer to develop, say 20 or so? Immigrants should not appear that fast, perhaps only each second year? And perhaps in easier biomes not in such great numbers- as it is not much of a challange, is it? Hence dwarf civs would see easier biomes as "below" them.
One year should take longer to pass, while the overall speed and production should be only slightly lenghtend.

I have noticed this all while looking at my carpenter, who needed in his humble beginnings almost a month to build a bed. Later in the game he did spit them out like there was no tomorrow.
Not knowing how other think about it, but I would rather enjoy a longer game run and thereby more enjoyment from seeing my little buggers progress. Dunno, just a thought. Perhaps someone had similar ideas?

R

[Ixen-bay]

I think you might just be spending too much time playing the game so that it seems too short.  How long in real time does it take to get to 1055?

Of course when I get to that point I try to figure out how long it takes me to convert 3/4ths my food supply to being from my elephant farm. Or silly things like that.

Although I would like to see immigrants as an event trigger.  Sort of a way in which game events could be driven.  "10 immigrant refugees arrive from <insert>.  Accepting these refugees will cut off caravans and relations from the dwarves for 2 years"  or some such.  Though I imagine such things will have to wait a while.

[panoptiC]

quote:Originally posted by Ixen-bay:
<STRONG>I think you might just be spending too much time playing the game so that it seems too short.  How long in real time does it take to get to 1055?
</STRONG>

Uh, dunno, seems like an evening, I guess some 5 to 8 hours. Apparently not long enough     I basically check every hour for updates... I figure that is about normal, is it not?

R

[Ixen-bay]

It takes me a lot longer to get to 1055.  I guess that explains it.  I might get to mid-1053 in 8 hours.  Unsure if that's game-running speed or my micro-managing.

[TotalPigeon]

I kind of know what you mean, personally I don't like the speed at which and the extent to which dwarves develop their skills - irl the majority of people don't become masters at their skills over a couple of years, they're barely out of apprenticeship by then, and while there is always going to be a pronounced difference between the quality of finished work of a master and apprentice, there is far less of a difference in the rate of work - I can see a master managing to work at three or four times the rate of an apprentice, but the difference in DF is something like an order of magnitude with no penalty to the quality of the finished work, and even worse with high agility modifiers. This is something that I find really grates with me, because it is horribly unrealistic.

Now, I'm not proposing that we cut them right down to the same level as reality, but I think something really needs doing. I mean, right now, once I get one or two fairly agile legendary craftsdwarves in a particular skill, I have absolutely no use for any other dwarves with those skills, because they are so far outclassed.

Now, I can see how this sounds a little off-topic, but if you understand that the main point I am trying to make is that I would like dwarves to take longer to develop their skills, it kind of makes sense. The rate at which your fort develops is related to the skills of your dwarves, after all.

In addition, once dwarves start taking ten years to become masters, all of a sudden your legendary craftsdwarves become completely invaluable and irreplaceble, even if they are nerfed like I would like, because of the quality of goods they guarantee. There would also be a far greater sense of achievement in getting them to that level. And your other dwarves in that profession who haven't quite managed to keep up aren't rendered useless, because they can still work at a reasonable pace.

[panoptiC]

quote:Originally posted by TotalPigeon:
<STRONG>
In addition, once dwarves start taking ten years to become masters, all of a sudden your legendary craftsdwarves become completely invaluable and irreplaceble, even if they are nerfed like I would like, because of the quality of goods they guarantee. There would also be a far greater sense of achievement in getting them to that level. And your other dwarves in that profession who haven't quite managed to keep up aren't rendered useless, because they can still work at a reasonable pace.</STRONG>

Very well said.
Legendary, after all, is the stuff legends are made of. By 1055 I got at least 3 miners, 2 or 3 masons, 1 or 2 woodcutters/carpenters and at least 2 or 3 craftsdwarves with the status legendary.

On the other hand, this is all still beta and first priority should be bug-fixing, game balance comes later (or at least that is what game developers out there always say   )
I guess this would lead to the question of how long a game of DF should last. 200 hours like Baldur's Gate? Or rather 5 to 10 hours like Fable?

In any case, I totally agree with the opinion that a fortress should take longer to develop and should really reward with the aforementioned sense of achievement.
I would guess that this might be something that requires interaction on the side of the player, as there are enough players who play a fort quickly and start a new one. As opposed to those who would like to play their fort for as long as possible, perhaps even without it becoming a duchy? So perhaps a tweak in the INI or an additional starting menu entry:
Dwarf Fortress (quick)
Dwarf Fortress (long)
...

R

[panoptiC]

quote:Originally posted by Ixen-bay:
<STRONG>It takes me a lot longer to get to 1055.  I guess that explains it.  I might get to mid-1053 in 8 hours.  Unsure if that's game-running speed or my micro-managing.</STRONG>

I guess a mixture of both? For some reason the old fortress always kicked my ass. Now with z-X and that outdoor farming all is a lot easier.

R