I feel enthusiastic about this coming release. Continuing history, succession, and so on will surely enhance one of my favorite things about DF: the ability to play out the epic story of a civilization, as well as the stories of individual dwarfs and forts. I can see myself playing a given world for a long time. My questions relate to details of this lengthened history and continued evolution of these simulated societies.
Do you have any plans to allow civilizations to progress exotic animal training to fully "Domesticated" now that their history will extend?
Once a fort is successfully retired, will its local resources (minerals, wood, animal products, etc.) become available for trade to future forts of its civilization?
In Fort Mode, will succession be governed entirely by AI, or will the player have some sort of influence over the process?
Currently, when a noble or administrator dies, they lose association with their former status. This can lead to things like the duke getting unhappy thoughts about a dead monarch's royal tomb ("a lesser's pretentious burial arrangements"). Art featuring these deceased nobles/administrators references "Mafol So-n-so, mason," rather than "dead baron" unless the subject matter is their ascension. Etc. Will succession include any features that "remember" nobles' status post-mortem?
And one more off that theme:
Now that you're implementing the scripts for generating different types of sites, will these interact when it comes to conquered sites? Say elves conquer a hill dwarf settlement, or dwarfs conquer a dark fortress. Will its ongoing development follow the original site type or is there a chance of hybridized settlements?