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[Fieari]

This is almost more a thought experiment than a real suggestion.  But the problem is real.

The problem is that since every player gets dwarves with moods, and moods aren't THAT difficult to fulfil, everyone gets Legendary Dwarves.  In fact, it makes it so that really, there's only two types of dwarves: low class plebes (including the so-called nobility) whom no one cares about, and legendaries.  Furthermore, this makes anything below masterwork quality basically junk.  If you can EXPECT to have a legendary craftsdwarf, then anything below masterwork is rubbish.  Fit to be given away in order to increase your frame rate.

This basically makes a huge portion of the game meaningless.  When lower skills are basically just waiting for legendary, you may as well not have them there.

So, here's the thought experiment-- consider this re-working of the situation:

1) On his own, a dwarf can only gain experience up to Next Level -1.

2) Upon reaching Next Level -1, if your fortress is grand enough to support the next skill level, that dwarf has a chance to enter a mood.

By grand enough, I mean has a certain value, certain number of tiles mined, certain population, whatever.  (Currently, there are these kinds of restrictions that determine how many moods your fortress can support-- ie, at tiles dug X, you can have 1 dwarf mood in your fortress histroy.  at tiles dug Y, you can have another one. at tiles dug Z, you can have a third mood.  Instead, I propose that these markers say that at tiles dug X, you can have Novice Level moods, at tiles dug Y, you can have Skilled Level moods, and so forth)  Perhaps there should be restrictions so that your whole fort doesn't go moody at once.  One mood at a time, and maybe only one mood per season.

3) The dwarf creates a "Masterpiece"... literally, a piece that shows mastery of a skill.  Like current artifacts, this will involve multiple objects mashed together with art and such, but UNLIKE current artifacts, not all craftsdwarfship will necessarily be of the highest quality.  Instead, the various aspects of the creation will have the quality of the skill the dwarf is obtaining.  Upon completing the skill, the dwarf gains one single experience point, levelling him up to the next skill rank.

4) Under no circumstance do you want to have to do this for EVERY SINGLE DWARF, EVERY SINGLE LEVEL.  So, you make certain that you set up schools/guilds.  Your highest level dwarf will be given teaching duty, bringing other dwarves up to snuff.  Then, one of them will hopefully get a mood and level up to the next rank.

5) Legendary Mood requirements should be significantly higher than all other mood requirements, and teaching up to legendary should be impossible (Grandmaster, yes, Legendary, no).  This will make legendaries special: they first had to skill up to just below legendary, and THEN get a mood.  No more dabbling to legendary in a day.



Not all skills would require this system.  Mining, farming, woodcutting, and so forth for instance.  But then again, perhaps those skills could skip the mood, but still make it random and fortress-prereq locked before they level up.  These could also perhaps combine working and teaching, if dwarves were assigned a close enough area to each other when digging or cutting or whatever.



So, what's the result I'd be looking for with this system?

1) Making players deal with having lower level dwarves in general, for extra challenge in a game that's been getting too easy.

2) "Mid level" dwarves are valued, even when not legendary.  High level immigrants are VERY valued, as they may be able to teach skills beyond your fortress' means.

3) Less-than-masterwork goods are still valued, and there's a slow progression in the quality you get.  In fact, it might make way for a much larger number of item quality rankings, to match the number of skill rankings!

4) A general feeling of progression as your fortress increases in stature.

5) More challenge when faced with sieges (assuming you don't just wall and trap up everything) given that higher skills and better armor and weapons are harder to come by.  More casualties should be expected, and thus more danger from sieges in the first place.  They'll be actually somewhat threatening!

[Gotdamnmiracle]

As I understand it dwarven economy will fix your idea completely because a masterwork willow bracelet will always be worth less than a fine selenite ring because the material will be less common. It's only at this point that we have set values and multipliers. Also the teaching skill is extremely important as far as military goes and it has been suggested a number of times to use it to teach other skills beyond combat.