Some though on the expedition/embassy system and enhancing it.
What about merging it with the embassy and expedition system. E.g. Send a diplomat to a chosen civilization, if all goes well they will send as diplomat/migrants etc. back. For sieging etc., add an Attack civ mission (good loot, high risk, high chance of siege)
For expeditions in general.
Ideally would require more than one dwarf for the harder expeditions, as this is not? possible suggest:
- Remove the dwarf from use for a period of time (1 season?) (e.g. like bard) (suggest immobile/noeat/drink/sleep instead for a transform so don’t reroll stats). Also means need to guard (military/building/traps dwarf in some way).Don’t produce the results to the end of the period and only if dwarf still alive (via self targeting interaction, ensure has cooldown so can only apply once)
- Require significantly more resources to start most missions (expect spy/caravan/diplomat), and also require rare ingredients (aka. blueprints, map of <xxx>). However on successful mission and some failures the, much of the supplies are return with a chance for the map of <xxx> in included in the expedition result crate. Intension is that by having the high up front cost and locking the goods for the duration, harder to send out simultaneous expeditions.
- Bump up the danger level, for the fortress not just for the individual dwarf. E.g. Dwarf catches minor/major infectious illness, dwarf is cursed vampire/werewolf/undead etc. (mainly from ruins type expedition), chance of siege (raid found out), or ambush (bandits following caravan, diplomat) etc.
- As required bump up the rewards to match.
Missions
Diplomat
Requires directions to <xxx> capital. Purchasable from trade caravan of appropriate civ. Not consumed (e.g. can send diplomat unless the civ trade conditions have been met). Not required for dwarves.
Success - civ diplomat (from embassy), chance of a civ specific trade good as a token of friendship (e.g. clockwork for gnomes, bloodsteel tings from drow)
Chance - Followed by bandits (ambush from <civ>)
Chance - Disease (moderate minor, small major)
Chance - Death (low), does not prevent any other result.
Call for migrants
Success - migrant wave
Chance - Followed by bandits (ambush from <civ>)
Chance - Disease (moderate minor)
Chance - Death (low), does not prevent any other result
Raid
Requires directions to <xxx> village (chance of dropping on death from members of civ)
Success - chance of civ specific loot
Chance - Followed back (ambush by <xxx>)
Chance - Revenge attack (small chance of siege by <xxx>, note won’t happen if civ siege not met (e.g. you are not important enough for revenge !yet!))
Chance - Disease (moderate minor, small major)
Chance - Death (moderate), does not prevent any other result (e.g. managed to hide loot for retrieval)
Attack
Requires directions to <xxx> town (chance of dropping on death from members of civ, if possible this should only be dropped by members of a civ that occur in sieges, not raids. I.e. Until they siege you, you should not be able to attack them as they will not be able to attack back is the civ siege conditions are not met.)
Success - Significant loot.
Chance - Followed back (ambush by <xxx>)
Chance - Revenge attack (high chance of siege by <xxx>)
Chance - Disease (moderate minor, small major)
Chance - Death (moderate), does not prevent any other result (e.g. managed to hide loot for retrieval)
Explore Ruins/Dungeon/Deep etc.
Requires map of <xxx>, acquired from archaeologist (treasure/relic drop), small chance of gaining from bard mission. Chance of being returned (I.e. still unexplored rooms)
Success - Significant loot (due to risk significantly higher than at present). Could use different maps allow the player a better choice of specific loot if they can get a few maps.
Chance - Bandits after the loot (ambush by random civ(s) <xxx>)
Chance - Learn secret (small location specific, e.g. become ice sorcerer)
Chance - Disease (moderate minor, small-moderate major, small interesting special diseases for different location (e.g. ancient mummy plague))
Chance - Curse (small-moderate undead/werecreature/vampire/carp cult leader, small interesting special curses/added interactions (good or bad) for different location)
Chance - Death (moderate), does not prevent any other result (e.g. managed to hide loot for retrieval)
Advanced - Could chain missions, e.g. make use map of ruins one use, but has a chance of returning further one use map(s) (e.g. map of ruined runeforge, map of deep tunnels). You explore using these maps (which might have additional expedition good requirements) for more specific/better rewards but possibly more danger (and can chain these, map of ruins, chance of map of deep tunnels, chance of map of ancient lair, chance of map of dragons horde). Once the basic system is in place these are easy to add, but might need spiting into a separate workshop for ease of use.
Bard/Caravan
Requires directions to <xxx> village (expect for dwarves) (chance of dropping on death from members of civ)
Chance - Disease (small minor, high chance if none dwarves)
Chance - Death (low), does not prevent any other result
Chance - small chance of Map of <ruins/dungeon/specific ruin part>, just from bard?