New question on the devlog update of 11/03/2012:
You've mentioned that the nobility will be adapted to the structure of different dwarf sites. Does this mean the noble system is going to be changed significantly? If so how will it be changed? Will we be getting guild nobles back with this update?
As to the structure of the different dwarf sites, will the breakdown of three different types of sites be covered by the Mountain Halls settlement type, or will dwarves have their sites defined in the raws individually as with outdoor fortifications? By this I mean will we have [DEFAULT_SITE_TYPE:CAVE_DETAILED] for an entity to have dwarf fortresses, deep settlements, and hill settlements, or will we have something like:
[PRIMARY_SITE_TYPE:MOUNTAIN_FORTRESS]
[SECONDARY_SITE_TYPE:DEEP_SETTLEMENT]
[SECONDARY_SITE_TYPE:HILL_SETTLEMENT]
If not, are you going to make it possible for an entity to found multiple types of site? For example, you could have a modded civilisation that would build both cities, fortresses, and deep settlements.
Depending on how the entity files are set up, would making an entity which only founded deep settlements make that civilisation live exclusively underground?
Finally, are there any plans to make dwarves less picky about the mountains they embark on? At the moment I'm finding dwarves tend to be unable to found settlements because the mountains absolutely have to be neutral, and so when I bump up the civilisation number really high, I get a large quantity of human, goblin, and elf civilisation but not dwarf civilisations. If this isn't as much of a problem in your tests, how far out (and up, and down) are dwarf civilisations spreading with their new sites?
It may be too much to ask for the upcoming release, but if we had volcanoes to erupt, there might be some impressive opportunities to reclaim buried settlements.
A quick solution to the dwarves and mountains problem would be to provide an option for them to start out on mountains of any alignment, such as [START_BIOME:ANY_MOUNTAIN].