Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MrWillsauce]

It'd be neat if the journey from the mountainhome to your fortress site actually had an effect on your dwarves. For instance, if there's several tiles of haunted land between the mountainhome and where I want to settle, all seven dwarves shouldn't arrive in perfect condition and in an okay emotional state. The same could go for good-aligned biomes: if the wagon travels through some joyous wilds on the  journey, the dwarves would probably be in a pretty good mood when they arrived. You could also take it a step further by actually controlling the dwarves on their journey, or at least planning out the route. You would have to take additional supplies to be consumed during the journey in addition to those used in the eventual fortress. I don't think this should necessarily be mandatory, but it should be an option. For people who really want to build a fort on Undead Tentacle Island, they should be able to disregard the journey altogether, otherwise it would probably make it impossible to get a team of dwarves to the site alive.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Maybe, but you should be able to choose a route. If the quickest path is through the Plains of Horror, you might get there early and have more supplies left over but would risk deaths of dwarves and livestock; you could go around, arriving later in the year and with fewer supplies but with less of a chance of dead dwarves.

As to controlling the dwarves during the trip? Meh, sounds dull. Unless they come across a treasure, map feature, or Big Problem along the way, of course...

[Owlbread]

For people who really want to build a fort on Undead Tentacle Island, they should be able to disregard the journey altogether, otherwise it would probably make it impossible to get a team of dwarves to the site alive.

But perhaps that should actually be a "thing". It would be nice if you set up a fortress on a haunted island in the far northeast of a world when you've come from a civ in the arctic southwest, then actually be recognised for that triumph. It's not really very exciting if you can set fortresses up anywhere without concern for the length of the journey or the dangers that lie on it. It would also encourage you to build fortresses closer to your home civ, that way conventional empires would begin to take shape.

Basically, DF would go a bit "Oregon Trail on Steroids". I'd love that though, it'd be great. Imagine creating a Dwarven adventurer and becoming an expert tracker/mountain man, then you get hired by the king to lead an expedition into the far distant mountains across the jungles you know so well. You are tasked with setting up an outpost, and with time, your adventurer becomes an expedition leader of your greatest fortress. Seamless integration of adventure mode and fortress mode, as is planned in the future.

[GreatWyrmGold]

For people who really want to build a fort on Undead Tentacle Island, they should be able to disregard the journey altogether, otherwise it would probably make it impossible to get a team of dwarves to the site alive.

But perhaps that should actually be a "thing". It would be nice if you set up a fortress on a haunted island in the far northeast of a world when you've come from a civ in the arctic southwest, then actually be recognised for that triumph. It's not really very exciting if you can set fortresses up anywhere without concern for the length of the journey or the dangers that lie on it. It would also encourage you to build fortresses closer to your home civ, that way conventional empires would begin to take shape.
Basically, DF would go a bit "Oregon Trail on Steroids". I'd love that though, it'd be great. Imagine creating a Dwarven adventurer and becoming an expert tracker/mountain man, then you get hired by the king to lead an expedition into the far distant mountains across the jungles you know so well. You are tasked with setting up an outpost, and with time, your adventurer becomes an expedition leader of your greatest fortress. Seamless integration of adventure mode and fortress mode, as is planned in the future.

Sounds good.
It would allow better Migrant control, too.

[Owlbread]

Sounds good.
It would allow better Migrant control, too.

Exactly. You should get fewer migrants depending on how difficult the journey is to your fortress from the other settlements in your civilisation. However, it could be difficult for a really crazy group of wild pioneers to hold out with a very small number of Dwarves in a hostile place (I'm thinking of enemy armies conducting raids on you and the like). Perhaps you could have agreements with other nearby Dwarven civilisations to allow immigration to your fortress in exchange for some kind of tribute. As a further extension, perhaps you could hire manual labourers from other civs of different races who work for your Dwarves on a contract. That adds another layer to diplomatic relations between civilisations - e.g. you'd be hesitant to go to war with a particular goblin civ because they are close allies with some humans who you lease Dwarven miners out to on contracts.

[10ebbor10]

Sounds good.
It would allow better Migrant control, too.

Exactly. You should get fewer migrants depending on how difficult the journey is to your fortress from the other settlements in your civilisation. However, it could be difficult for a really crazy group of wild pioneers to hold out with a very small number of Dwarves in a hostile place (I'm thinking of enemy armies conducting raids on you and the like). Perhaps you could have agreements with other nearby Dwarven civilisations to allow immigration to your fortress in exchange for some kind of tribute. As a further extension, perhaps you could hire manual labourers from other civs of different races who work for your Dwarves on a contract. That adds another layer to diplomatic relations between civilisations - e.g. you'd be hesitant to go to war with a particular goblin civ because they are close allies with some humans who you lease Dwarven miners out to on contracts.

If you're settling in a place of honor, it might become a matter of honor for your civ to keep the outpost alive. Hence you get few dwarves, but they are often highly skilled, as long as the relations with your civ is good.

This'll probably tie in with alternate starts and fortress purposes. (Ie, X fortress is founded for Y reason)

[Owlbread]

If you're settling in a place of honor, it might become a matter of honor for your civ to keep the outpost alive. Hence you get few dwarves, but they are often highly skilled, as long as the relations with your civ is good.

This'll probably tie in with alternate starts and fortress purposes. (Ie, X fortress is founded for Y reason)

That's an interesting idea. The idea of actually having a kind of "honour" mechanic like that for Dwarves and their settlement. I think though as long as it doesn't become too expensive for the civ to maintain, that would be a good idea.

[GreatWyrmGold]

It can be amazing what people will do for honor...

[MrWillsauce]

It can be amazing what people will do for honor...

See: feudal Japan

[GreatWyrmGold]

It can be amazing what people will do for honor...

See: feudal Japan

See: Feudal everything, to some extent.
See: Easter Island. Those last, biggest moai were erected as the last of Easter's forests were being used to erect said moai.
See: EVERY CULTURE ON EARTH, at some point.

[Owlbread]

You know, one side effect of this is that you may become even more attached to your original 7 Dwarves if you've had to guide them through danger and protected them throughout their long journey.

Perhaps as an adventurer you could be hired not only as a caravan guard, but also as a guard for one of these settler groups. When you arrive and they get set up, they could hire you as a guard for their fledgeling fortress, and eventually you form their first militia. With time, you become a great general.

[Roflcopter5000]

So... I don't think guiding the Caravan would have to be boring at all.

Oregon trail is an entire game built around essentially doing exactly that, and it was a blast.

[GreatWyrmGold]

So... I don't think guiding the Caravan would have to be boring at all.

Oregon trail is an entire game built around essentially doing exactly that, and it was a blast.

Oregon Trail was a game about travel. Dwarf Fortress is not. I'm not a student of recreational theory, but time-consuming things that distract from a game's main activity tend to by less fun.

[Owlbread]

So... I don't think guiding the Caravan would have to be boring at all.

Oregon trail is an entire game built around essentially doing exactly that, and it was a blast.

Oregon Trail was a game about travel. Dwarf Fortress is not. I'm not a student of recreational theory, but time-consuming things that distract from a game's main activity tend to by less fun.

Dwarf Fortress is a fantasy world simulator. It incorporates many genres of games - RTS/city builder, roguelike adventure, I don't see why we can't incorporate a game about travel into the mix. And anyone who plays adventure mode will tell you that you do a hell of a lot of travelling. The OP also clearly stated that you wouldn't have to do it if you didn't want to.

[GreatWyrmGold]

So... I don't think guiding the Caravan would have to be boring at all.

Oregon trail is an entire game built around essentially doing exactly that, and it was a blast.

Oregon Trail was a game about travel. Dwarf Fortress is not. I'm not a student of recreational theory, but time-consuming things that distract from a game's main activity tend to by less fun.

Dwarf Fortress is a fantasy world simulator. It incorporates many genres of games - RTS/city builder, roguelike adventure, I don't see why we can't incorporate a game about travel into the mix. And anyone who plays adventure mode will tell you that you do a hell of a lot of travelling. The OP also clearly stated that you wouldn't have to do it if you didn't want to.

I was mostly trying to point out that using the fun of Oregon trail to "prove" that a caravan-following-system would be fun for DF doesn't work.