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[Bytyan]

This suggestion share some elements with other hobby suggestions, but I feel it's different enough to warrant a new thread.

I propose a change in the function of the mayor from occasional meeting holder to dwarf interviewer. (a more full time position)
Once the mayor position opens up, a new screen is available; The dwarvish message board. The mayor systematically interviews all the dwarves, and occasionally one with generate a request; These requests would be quite mundane and specific in nature, Appearing in the form of "(Dwarf) Request (Object) to (Process) For (Motive)" i.e. Urist McReligion requests a stone bolder to carve into a statue for personal warship or Urist McSweetheart request a necklace to give to his wife to mark the 20th anniversary of her being attacked by a honey badger in OffSite. There is no penalty for ignoring these requests (they can even be deleted off the board), but fulfilling one only required a few button presses (to select the exact bolder you want to let Urist have) and generates a happy thought. Once a request has been filled, the dwarf stops their current task back on the que, retrieves thier granted object, uses it for the requested purpose, and goes back to work with their break and sleep timers reset.

Dwarves could also request materials for a hobby; "Urist McNinja requests a sword to practice with" or "Urist McIndustry requests 10 stone boulders and a table to practice carving with". A martial request would have a dwarf take the given weapon, carry it about, and when they go on break they would have a high chance(Based on personality) of going to their room to do weapon drills. A crafting request would see a dwarf take a table and set up a special 1x1 workshop in their room, assuming they have space. The dwarf could then spend breaks in their room using the equipment; Objects would be produce at a very slow, non-increasing rate, would not consume any of the resources allotted, and would be the personal property of the dwarf who made them, to keep or give away as they please. Hobbiests would gain boosted experience to make up for their painfully slow production rate.

The function of this mechanic would be to breath more life into individual dwarves, and give RPer something more to base their stories off of, and to give optional lategame goals to players trying to run a utopian fortress.

[nwob]

I like this idea - dwarves can seem a bit two-dimensional at the moment and this will help flesh them out.

[Matoro]

Awesome. Would make an individual dwarves much more interesting and the life in a succesful forts more entertaining.

[Jheral]

It does seem like an interesting idea, on many levels. Dwarves having their own life is something that is sorely missed in the game. I just hope it won't pull the framerate down too much.

[VerdantSF]

Great idea!  Lots of potential for fun & interesting stories to pop up.

[Linkxsc]

I like this, also wouldn't this work fairly hand in hand with the economy?
Would be nice if on top of having happiniess boosted, it also gave a slight bonus to the dwarf's XP in a given group. Such as the stonecrafter hobbyist (whos normally a grower), in his "on break" times, would go and work around with his stonecrafting hobby. Getting xp, happiness, and generating some personal wealth for the economy, maybe. Then when breaks over, he goes back to growing or whatever (or you could make them a dedicated crafter now since you know that it's their preferance)

Ofcourse while tinkering in his room with some minor stonecrafting, he won't be doing major fortress jobs directed by you. But you'd still get a few of the trinkets he made, that you can the trade to elves or whatever you prefer.

[Bytyan]

I like this, also wouldn't this work fairly hand in hand with the economy?
Would be nice if on top of having happiniess boosted, it also gave a slight bonus to the dwarf's XP in a given group. Such as the stonecrafter hobbyist (whos normally a grower), in his "on break" times, would go and work around with his stonecrafting hobby. Getting xp, happiness, and generating some personal wealth for the economy, maybe. Then when breaks over, he goes back to growing or whatever (or you could make them a dedicated crafter now since you know that it's their preferance)

Ofcourse while tinkering in his room with some minor stonecrafting, he won't be doing major fortress jobs directed by you. But you'd still get a few of the trinkets he made, that you can the trade to elves or whatever you prefer.

Absolutely. I think it would be an awesome thing to have a little intrafortress commerce going on without the players having any direct input. The reason why I specified doing the hobby during breaks is so that it won't take any extra time away from fortress work. They are already taking that time off, so nothing new is lost (except the mayor)

It does seem like an interesting idea, on many levels. Dwarves having their own life is something that is sorely missed in the game. I just hope it won't pull the framerate down too much.

The extra objects are something of a concern, but much less of one then cloths on any given dwarf. I don't think it would be much of a problem for anything short of 5 year+ fortresses, which are ticking framerate bombs anyway.

[TheBeardyMan]

Urist McReligion requests a stone bolder to carve into a statue for personal warship

Shouldn't that be Urist McSeaCaptain ? But jokes aside, this is a great idea for adding flavour to dwarves' personalities.

[Telgin]

I like this, also wouldn't this work fairly hand in hand with the economy?
Would be nice if on top of having happiniess boosted, it also gave a slight bonus to the dwarf's XP in a given group.

I'd say maybe treat whatever they're working on as if they "like" it.  That gives a bonus chance to make higher quality goods.

Anyway, this is an interesting suggestion.  It overlaps some with guilds I think, which I believe are eventually going to involve guild heads making more specific mandates than the nobles currently do.

I wonder perhaps if it could be implemented a bit more passively though.  Perhaps setting aside certain items that are publically available and a dwarf on break may decide to make a personal trinket out of them?  The "submandate" idea has a bit of appeal too though, especially if Toady begins to implement increasing levels of abstraction to the gameplay and economy as the fort grows larger.  It would help mark your distancing from everyday things to a managerial role where you plan and approve things more than directly keep track of every last little detail.

[Jheral]

The extra objects are something of a concern, but much less of one then cloths on any given dwarf. I don't think it would be much of a problem for anything short of 5 year+ fortresses, which are ticking framerate bombs anyway.

True, but it also implies dwarves having personal goals and desires that can be fulfilled or not (and therefore, could change and develop as the game moves on). That's the stuff I'm worried about performance for, since it ties into individual personalities. That in turn would, since this is Dwarf Fortress, be complex and deep enough to do much more than just make requests (after all, the Toady One doesn't seem content with "simple but functional" ). But then, a personality rewrite is on the horizon anyway, right?

All in all it would likely be a big addition, hence the performance worries. But it would be awesome, there is no doubt about that.

[assasin]

I like it. But it should also be possible to set certain stockpiles as rations to specific groups of dwarves [eg. , to a certain class a payment for work, free to the whole fortress etc.] so you don't get bombarded with petitions all the time.

[FritzPL]

It's a cool concept, but what if it's exploited to the point where insane dwarves are restored to ecstatic by doing some old things, mandated by them? Make the mandates ridiculous, up to 1-3 at a time and then we're talking.

[Deepblade]

It's a cool concept, but what if it's exploited to the point where insane dwarves are restored to ecstatic by doing some old things, mandated by them?

So, kinda like how some mental institutions will have crafts for their residents to make and that's what actually brings them out of any delirium they may be suffering from?

It's obviously not what he was suggesting. Or, do you mean Dwarves on the brink of insanity/depression? If brink then I think it'd be fine. Doing a hobby can be an effective distraction from real life problems until you're ready/forced to deal with the issue.

[Xolroc]

This is one of the best suggestions I've seen.  There's nothing more to say than that.

[assasin]

Personally I like the idea of having independent hobbies and goals, but I'd prefer the option being able to preset this stuff and they'll only petition [seems a better term than mandate in my opinion] you if they don't have access to it. An example would be setting a stockpile as a communal resource.