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[WillowLuman]

The disadvantage to choosing a historical figure, of course, is that you don't get the satisfaction of inventing your own character with its own backstory. You're constrained by whatever shortcomings or obligations or relations that figure had, rather than the freedom of starting from scratch.

You could start as Demon-lord of the goblins, sure, but then you're not going to make any adventuring friends, or form any relationships. Maybe you can lead your minions on evil campaigns, but you're missing out on the fun of fighting your way to the top of the hierarchy first. Maybe he's made of fire, so if you try to go looting as him, you'll just ruin everything you'll touch.

[Broken]

I dislike a lot that adventures come of nowhere. After all, with all the magnificient history that DF can provide to the worlds, is sad
that your adventurers have no family, nor backstory.

And about making the game easier, that is meaningless, since there is not any measure of success in the game except your own. DF doesn't give you points. Is like saying that demigods should not exist because they are better that peasants, or that you should not be capable
of changing embark points.

[PigtailLlama]

I think it would make a nice middle ground is if the last 100 years are "in dispute" historically for a world. As in, all accounts are not reliable, and as a result, whatever modes the player goes into, the last 100 years gets changed a slight bit in order to incorporate your new adventurer or your new seven to ten dwarves - When you start, your character(s) might have skills you didn't intend them to have, they might be missing a few digits, toes, or a leg or arm, or already be legendary in a skill you wanted them to have.

Speaking of skills... Has there been any discussion of adding hobbies to personalities? Like a dwarf likes fishing, but doesn't want to do that as part of his duties in a fortress? And has apprenticeships been considered to make child dwarves more useful instead of just waiting on a strange mood to strike them?

[Dutchling]

That would require something like a world generation parameter

It doesn't count. It is an all or nothing sort of thing.

Having an option to turn it off is the same as having the option to have it in the first place.

It isn't about the urge to use it but rather the fact that it is there in the first place. If I have to not use a feature to enjoy the game, I can do that manually without messing with the game's options.

Ah, that makes sense I guess. I thought you had something against being able to play historical characters for the sake of them being historical which I thought was odd.

[Footkerchief]

Speaking of skills... Has there been any discussion of adding hobbies to personalities? Like a dwarf likes fishing, but doesn't want to do that as part of his duties in a fortress? And has apprenticeships been considered to make child dwarves more useful instead of just waiting on a strange mood to strike them?

Suggestions go in the Suggestions forum, where these are frequently posted:
search for "hobbies"
search for "apprenticeship"

Toady has discussed leisure activities:

Toady:   [...] I'm all for dwarves being proactive, especially on their free time where they might just now be sitting on break or doing parties where they don't do anything and just stand around.

[...]

Toady:   I think adventure mode is going to have ... it's mostly going to be locals and people visiting for market days, as well as some travellers and people hanging out that you can perhaps hire. Whereas dwarf mode it's going to be more particular for dwarf mode at first, especially when you've got diplomats and merchants showing up as they do now. If they're going to stay for a while then they might need to eat and drink so you'll have to take care of them a little bit, and if they're going to stay a while - I mean how often do dwarves sleep - if they're going to stay a whole season you might need to put them up in a room. But there will be locals there. It depends on how soon we get back to a local economy inside the fortress, but it's basically making meeting halls more interesting for your dwarves at the very start, with the dwarves going in and instead of just claiming a room for parties or going on a break and just hanging out doing absolutely nothing they can take you up on the amenities you set up for them in your meeting halls, or dining room. It's kind of like a meeting hall and a dining room, those things might all get mushed together, and you'll have your dwarves go there, they'll be able to drink and play with little games and use their musical instruments ...
Menendez:   (banjo backing)
Toady:   ... and I don't if the kids show up at the bars and use their toys ... We want to get toys and instruments in but I'm not sure the toys ... like their little mini-forges, I don't know if you go to the bar for that, maybe you do if you're a dwarf.
Capntastic:   What sort of things will you be able to place, like amenities wise, and how much will dwarves care if the inn is not well stocked, what penalties could that incur.
Toady:   I don't even know if ... Tavern-wise, it's not like your own dwarves are going to stay at your inn, that'd be kind of cruel wouldn't it, if the seven dwarves arrive and they make an inn and then they have to stay at their own inn, but for your dwarves it's basically the same as it is now, they just need to be supported drink wise, they need to have good food, and they need to chat with their friends to bolster them up a bit, and if there's specific pleasures that come out of playing music and listening to people tell stories and that kind of thing - I don't know about dwarven dancing - and then playing with different types of games, which we'll talk about in a bit I'm sure. Those kinds of things for dwarves, it's really just an extension of the current mechanics and getting them to ... Right now if they go to a party, if they're talking to people and making friends that makes them happy but the party should be really more of a release than that for the dwarves, especially if they've got a lot of their minds that they need to have cancelled out, then they should have lots of different funny specific happy things to do there.

[Mr S]

Mmmmm...... new devblog.  Delicious.

Thanks Toady!!

I love watching the process of how a feature gets turned around, squeezed, tried on for size, re-fitted, broken, fixed, broken again, completely re-engineered, decided to cut entirely, decided to put back in, but in an utterly different form and finally made ready for a release... for now.

Also, MEAD HALLS!!!  I. Can't. Wait.

[FearfulJesuit]

Looks like we're on track for the longest dev cycle in DF history. Ah well- good things come to those who wait.

[LordBaal]

On the issue Neonivek has over an option on the game, it seems some kind of OCD behavior for considering a set of rules or game options to be the right thing. It's extra weird on a game like Dwarf Fortress where tons of options both for the world at hand and the whole game itself has almost infinite combinations and such.

[del]Not that long ago[/del] A long arse time ago I went to create a thread about that very same topic, in which I asked about what settings where the most popular to play the game, and the general consensus was "whatever the hell you want to".

Having said that, it's kind of silly to oppose options on a game, because that's what they are, options. The more we have in all faces of the game, the better it gets and more wider the audience.

Also consider this, adventure mode could be effectively become a dual game, or separated modes or difficulties, where the first is about getting an average Joe and turning him into whatever you want and the other mode or difficulty level is about steeping on a defined roll and character and either trying to fulfill said roll or go crazy and do other stuff.

As always there's no goal beyond the one you make of it.

[hermes]

Well on the other side of the coin, from the standpoint of game design and general criticism of games, I'm almost completely against options.  Games that encourage players to toggle everything to their preference smack of designers not having a clear vision and/or wanting to please everyone.  No personality went into the game, you get none out when playing.  The whole point of *game* design is there are limits.

That said, games where the creators have carefully crafted a default world but the option is somewhere available to change somethings somehow, this is good.  TES games are the classic case in point, and everything Toady has said in interviews leads me to believe this is the path he's taking, which is great.  He's said arena mode, jumping into historical figures, digging invaders and other things shall likely be init file options.

[smjjames]

The mead halls are back? I heard from someone that they got removed after 40d and since I didn't do a whole lot of adventuring in 40d, I don't remember the mead halls. So, could someone describe them as they were in 40d?

[LordBaal]

Of course, every option needs to be carefully planned, implemented and balanced in a full array of other options. Options for the sake of moar options is as blundering and idiotic as non having at all.

I guess that's why most game designers don't bother with them at all. Also it depends heavily on the kind of game, there are games such graphic adventures or fps where you want to tell a history on a linear fashion and the trill is on the challenges you are presented, not the gameplay options you can have, and by necessity this games tend to be limited otherwise they'll never end up telling the history as they should.

DF, being a open world, huge arse open world, and now a dynamic one at it, can only benefit from more options, as long they are carefully inserted.

[Neonivek]

The mead halls are back? I heard from someone that they got removed after 40d and since I didn't do a whole lot of adventuring in 40d, I don't remember the mead halls. So, could someone describe them as they were in 40d?

They were basically bars... sort of empty except with tons of drunks and an upper floor with more drunks and beds.

I THINK the mayor was also there, but I cannot remember clearly.

[smjjames]

Maybe they're getting set up as a sort of prelude to taverns?

[LordBaal]

I seem to recall Today speaking of a place where the occupation force gathers after taking over the site. Isn't this? Or it was some sort of town hall?

[Knight Otu]

Maybe they're getting set up as a sort of prelude to taverns?

The mead halls are for the town lords to reside in until we get proper manors, from what I gather. They're probably also part of the fake taverns for gathering drunks and adventurers. Sort of a double-purpose placeholder.

And since it seems we'll get at least one more set of answers, something I noticed a while back...

Spoiler: Wants to try hard and thinks he's great, but just doesn't have it (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Your future emperor (click to show/hide)

The gods' names in these two images are titles, rather than proper names. Is that something that we can force to happen/not to happen, or is it random for each entity?