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[Trekkin]

One could play dwarf fortress as an MMO?

This isn't a serious suggestion AT ALL or it'd be in the suggestions thread, but what if we could all play in the same world in some strange hybrid of adventurer mode and dwarf mode; we could control a single dwarf who'd be able to attack/behead bronze colossi with bunnies a la Adventurer Mode and dig/do workshop things a la Dwarf Mode. You'd get whatever equivalent of guilds/corps running fortresses, I'd think, but i don't know how you'd go about refreshing resources. Either an infinite world or periodic volcanic eruptions dropping new minerals in.

And all in ASCII.

I just had a bizarre idea and wanted to share it. So...would it?

[HatfieldCW]

Yeah, buddy.  DF has a lot of features that fit really well with persistent worlds, and so many opportunities to make things that other people can appreciate.  The community is a big part of the game, and we already get together and share our feats and tales here on the forum.  I think everyone could enjoy doing it in real-time in shared worlds.  The "shards" would be more than traffic-management clones, they'd be distinct worlds with their own geography and history, and they could be opened, run and retired at will, each leaving a legacy of achievements and catastrophes.

Obvious obstacles include time reconciliation, massive balance problems and the unimaginable strain the server would face when eighteen forts breach the underdeep simultaneously, but it sure would be something to experience.

Even ignoring fort mode and treating it as a WoW-esque single-character world, I think I'd enjoy logging in and seeing a long list of menial tasks that I can perform in exchange for credit with the fort, which can then be exchanged for manufactured goods and resources.  Haul 50 socks, buy a pair of socks for myself.  Earn money turning a screw pump, spend those dwarfbucks to put up a contract for a midnight blue pigtail cloak, with a sliding scale bonus for quality.  See a contract up for a steel spear, buy metal from the stockpile and rent a forge to make it, then drop it in the weapon pile earmarked for the guy who requested it.  So much better than making and deleting thousands of gloves and potions to grind XP.

[Trekkin]

It occurs to me that since DF is moving more toward magic and less toward tech, a system of portals could always be in place to allow passage between generated worlds. Walk onto tile, walk into next world, and so on. Perhaps forts could even build one as an artifact.

And actually, having some forts run by NPCs via the credit system would be awesome. I was just thinking how cool it would be to actually be one of the embark dwarves or something, carving out the mountain and building workshops and etc, adventuring around, finally dying, and seeing later character-players engrave your deeds. Or, on the other end, seeing all the weird social structures that crop up out of a game this open-ended and the need for people to have all the wonderful items forts provide; the community's certainly intelligent enough to keep the world from degenerating into barbarism.

And you just know the communal megaconstructions would be mindblowing.

[Acanthus117]

This would be an awesome MMO.

Imagine your player run caravan taking player-made goods to a player made town, when all of a sudden, you're ambushed by a powerful player's bandit NPC lackeys?

I'm getting a metaphorical hard on.

[Arihim]

All the races would be playable. They'd be a bunch of players as goblins building goblins fortresses and training goblins warriors and others as dwarves. Eventually they might siege each others fortresses.

Then yad have your wow-esque type adventurer mode character wandering into player run fortresses causing havoc or even aiding in battles with their uber skills and artifact weapons.

Oh and the ability to control mega beasts haha.

One day, surely. 

 

[SRN]

This would be the best MMO in the history of ever and I would play the shit out of it. Not that it is in any way possible at the moment, but holy damn, it would be astronomically awesome. Imagine the level of player opportunities, it is mindboggling.

[Trammelkey]

A Dwarf Fortress MMO would really bring an entirely new level of role-playing, and because of the nature of how the world works it would almost be completely player driven.

I don't think resources should regenerate, I think it would be cooler if, at the beginning there was plentiful resources. But as time went on mountains would be dug out and mines exhausted. This would then force entire civilizations into war over regions, or make the fortress with valuable resources become incredibly rich.

Eventually that world would be abandoned by most players. Those players would go on to new worlds and tell grand stories of not only their exploits, but of war between two nations and the heroes that they both produced.

Oh if only.

[tps12]

See a contract up for a steel spear, buy metal from the stockpile and rent a forge to make it, then drop it in the weapon pile earmarked for the guy who requested it.  So much better than making and deleting thousands of gloves and potions to grind XP.

Maybe I just don't "get" MMO's, but those both sound equally mind-numbing.

[Creamcorn]

Or how about a mode where there is one player playing as the overload and demands certain things to be made. Kinda like the game is now except every other player is a citizen of the fort but there is one player who is practically Armok.

[Organum]

^ That idea would be pretty cool but you just know someone would disobey on purpose.

[Flying Carcass]

A Dwarf Fortress MMO would really bring an entirely new level of role-playing, and because of the nature of how the world works it would almost be completely player driven.

I don't think resources should regenerate, I think it would be cooler if, at the beginning there was plentiful resources. But as time went on mountains would be dug out and mines exhausted. This would then force entire civilizations into war over regions, or make the fortress with valuable resources become incredibly rich.


Oh if only.

I agree. After awhile the players would all start to act like kobolds once all the raw resources are depleted and run around stealing each others' goods.

Of course, fortress rulers would find it necessary to ally with other forts for mutual protection and to guard trade routes. To add an additional layer of depth to this, boats would have to be implemented so that coasts, islands, and rivers become strategic points. Maybe even add a valuable resource to the bottom of the ocean that's hard to get and rare.

[Arkose]

Or how about a mode where there is one player playing as the overload and demands certain things to be made. Kinda like the game is now except every other player is a citizen of the fort but there is one player who is practically Armok.

There's a game called Space Station 13 that plays kind of like this, actually.

^ That idea would be pretty cool but you just know someone would disobey on purpose.

Yeah, definitely Space Station 13.

[Jayce]

Having other players pop in to your fort would be amusing until the griefers arrive.

[eclipsetail]

But if other people could attack...

An ambush! Curse them![/b]
You realise your fort is pretty strong, and it's probably just some nooby player trying to take over.

But then you realise they're player-run bronze collosuses.

[Devonus]

well how bout this, like a good persistant world, the mayors and such would be voted on by the players, and only that person would be allowed to que work orders and designate buildings/mining. Only after being designated would the Regular players actually be allowed to work on said areas. Perhaps certain NPC's could be generated such as Gaurds/wardens to stop players from being OVERLY idiotic, which would punish the normal list of law givers, and considering the intracacies and random idiocy of noob players, they would not be able to stand up to the awsome might of the all mighty hammerer as he draged them to his cell to await the logging on of the mayor/King to decide his punishment.... overly noobish players would instead, be dead from hammer strikes ^^ god bless dwarven justice!

Of  course to prevent endless wars and over powered i beleive all the normal creatures should run as normally, no player ran broze collosi etc etc, the possibility of a succesful fort being able to capture and tame a roaming dragon and using it in their war would eliminate the constant siege halting trap lines, and perhaps each race would be able to hire mercanaries and NPC creatures at certain stages, in particular the ones they normally use. Dwarfs might need some editing, but goblins bringing along Trolls would already be expected, and with them being building destroyers a similar destroyer creature would have to be a mercanary/creature for hire by each race. Not to mention siege engines would need to be workable at this point and time to to prevent the "OMG its DEVONUS"S ARMY OF DOOM< BUILD A WALL, HA HA, you can't get in......"

then again, with some members of the army being player characters, its actually quite logical that they could be used as sappers to penetrate the enemies fort, but with them dieing and the enemies army promptly repusling the intruders and building a wall in the gap to stop further threat from that section would lead to some very dynamic, and even fort ending battles.

"Yeah, they can't get in, i have 1000 traps in our only entrace way...... wait what? what do you mean they just broke into our booze stockpiles on z-level -3, what do you mean they let a dragon in?!!?!?!?! WSAVE THE BOOZE!!!!!!!" this could lead to some very interesting fights, fort ending sapping operations. actual siege like battles as the defenders inside rush to plug the wholes and protect the food stores while they await aid from any ally, and the attackers trying to breach walls and devise ways to end the fort.