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[Agent_Irons]

I've been thinking about tweaks and very small improvements to DF that would take almost no time at all to implement. Stuff we can do ourselves with raw modifications, or very very simple code changes.

Rule of thumb: If it would take more than one hour to implement, or you think it might take an hour maybe, it's not micro enough.

Examples: Lowering SHOOT_FORCE and SHOOT_MAXVEL to something more reasonable values(there is a lot of !!science!! that has been done on bolts and bolt impacts. Essentially, currently bolts travel so quickly they instantly punch through all plate. No plate provides any protection whatsoever. Lowering SHOOT_FORCE and SHOOT_MAXVEL to 25 and 250 produces less absurd behavior.)

Counter-example: Currently the weight of bolts is calculated as an integer. All bone/wood/adamantine bolts are rounded down to zero and have MAXVEL velocity every single time, because their weight is effectively zero yet they have finite momentum. Changing this to a floating-point number would involve changing I-don't-even-know-how-much code, and possibly invalidating a few optimizations. (strangely, for knockback mechanics, the weight of bolts is calculated in floating point. Adamantine is less effective than wood is less effective than bone)

So maybe that would be less than an hour for Toady One, but maybe more. It's a type change to an important variable, with potential side effects. So it's not a microsuggestion. Play it safe. Maybe a millisuggestion? Currently it's on mantis, anyway.

Historical microsuggestion: The implementation of accurate melting points for all the different kinds of rock.

Possible microsuggestion: Current leather production. There is a hotfix for this one, which turns skin into a 'glob' and then tweaks the tan-a-hide reaction so that it consumes globs. It's hardly gamebreaking either way, but it weird to get a rhino hide and a turkey hide and get the same amount of leather out.

Anyway. Significance, esotericness, or controversiality be damned. Size and complexity of the change is all we care about in here. What is the smallest change you would like to see in DF?

[GuesssWho]

Change "rutherer child" to "rutherling" LOL

[PeridexisErrant]

I've mentioned these elsewhere, but interested in feedback: 

Make moving the embark area more intuitive.

Currently, the embark area is moved within a region with 'uhmk', changed between regions with arrow keys, and in ten-region jumps with shift-arrows.  Only the first of these can be changed to different keybindings in "interface.txt"; and at the edge or a region there is a hard limit to embark movement.  I propose a set of related small changes: 

1.  Allow all movement controls to be set by interface.txt, so that alternative control schemes are possible
2.  When the embark area is against the edge of a region and moved in that direction, move to the corresponding edge of the next region.  This will work well once the artificial edges are removed, and significantly reduces the perception of them.
3.  Change the keys used for movement to arrows for moving an embark by one tile, shift-arrows to move to the next region, and alt-shift-arrows (or ctrl-shift, etc) to skip ten regions.  This maintains the 'modifiers move further' paradigm while unifying the movement modes. 


Make resizing the embark area exactly like resizing a construction in Fortress mode.

Currently the embark area is resized with 'UHMK', and uses the SW corner as a reference point (ie size changes only affect the north or east edge).  This is close to the Fort mode system of 'uhmk' to resize (allowed following #11) and taking the center as reference point; removing these differences should be fairly easy.  Reducing the number of UI paradigms for players to learn and remember is always a good thing, and in this specific case it will also teach new players the control scheme for constructions. 

[vjmdhzgr]

Stuff that I removed because there was a lot of it but still need a quote to show who I'm replying to.

I think most of that is okay (though I see little point in adding 2) except for three. I think it's best that the controls be kept as they are because changing between regions is the most important movement on the embark screen and should be kept the easiest one to do. It would also be less intuitive as arrow keys are what somebody would probably try first, but all it's going to do is result in really slow movement across a huge map. Though, really the embark screen is never going to be easy for new people to figure out.

[cephalo]

Make crowns wearable.

[Agent_Irons]

Make moving the embark area more intuitive.

Currently, the embark area is moved within a region with 'uhmk', changed between regions with arrow keys, and in ten-region jumps with shift-arrows.  Only the first of these can be changed to different keybindings in "interface.txt"; and at the edge or a region there is a hard limit to embark movement.  I propose a set of related small changes: 

1.  Allow all movement controls to be set by interface.txt, so that alternative control schemes are possible
2.  When the embark area is against the edge of a region and moved in that direction, move to the corresponding edge of the next region.  This will work well once the artificial edges are removed, and significantly reduces the perception of them.
3.  Change the keys used for movement to arrows for moving an embark by one tile, shift-arrows to move to the next region, and alt-shift-arrows (or ctrl-shift, etc) to skip ten regions.  This maintains the 'modifiers move further' paradigm while unifying the movement modes. 

You're bang on the money for 1 and 2, but there's no double-modifiers elsewhere. Control-shift-arrows wouldn't accelerate anywhere else(I mean, more than shift-arrows), which is my only concern.

Make resizing the embark area exactly like resizing a construction in Fortress mode.

Currently the embark area is resized with 'UHMK', and uses the SW corner as a reference point (ie size changes only affect the north or east edge).  This is close to the Fort mode system of 'uhmk' to resize (allowed following #11) and taking the center as reference point; removing these differences should be fairly easy.  Reducing the number of UI paradigms for players to learn and remember is always a good thing, and in this specific case it will also teach new players the control scheme for constructions.

This is what I'm talking about. The smallest possible unit of improvement. Quantum suggestions?

[GuesssWho]

Make crowns wearable.

This. Why the Hell are they not wearable?

[Orange Wizard]

Make crowns wearable.

This. Why the Hell are they not wearable?

They are wearable.

[GuesssWho]

Not that I've ever seen. Or did that change lately?

[vache]

Migrating hunters sometimes wear crowns made of the parts of their previous kills as trophies.

Suggestion: 

More mythology and legends.  The actual framework for this wouldn't be too bad, but filling out the possibilities would probably take more time.  I hate how when I make a very short history world, I get a ton of statues like "Bronze Status of <some elf>: This statue is of <some elf>.  The elf is traveling.  The artwork relates to the first journey of the elf <some elf> in 4."  In one fortress, 90% of the statues created were about that traveling elf.  In the absence of history, it would be nice if dwarves created artwork related to their god(s), or other "legend"-type events.  Some examples that come to mind are the creation of the first anvil, the discovery of adamantine, the creation of dwarves from stone by the god <some god>, gods battling each other, Greek-mythology style legends of god interactions, the invention of steel, etc.  It would add a lot more flavor to the world, and get rid of a lot of elfiness.

[King Mir]

Not that I've ever seen. Or did that change lately?

I think they're only wearable in adventure mode, and nobody but an adventurer would wear them.

[GuesssWho]

I hate how when I make a very short history world, I get a ton of statues like "Bronze Status of <some elf>: This statue is of <some elf>.  The elf is traveling.  The artwork relates to the first journey of the elf <some elf> in 4."  In one fortress, 90% of the statues created were about that traveling elf.

Mine is at year 110 or so, and at least half of my engravings are of Sive Lacechains, twilight horror wife, and how she tamed some bobcats this one time. *Facepalms*

[Scruiser]

Make crowns wearable.

Bracelets, amulets, and such are occasionally worn by hunters/vampires of their kills/victims (check the material they are made of to determine which it is).  Dwarf mode usage of crowns, mugs, crafts, toys, jewelry, and instruments could all go together into one update.  Right now they are basically worthless except as trade goods.  I want to see dwarf children playing with toys (for small amount of xp related to toy type), dwarfs filling up mugs (so they can drink and work at the same time), nobles wearing gaudy crowns and amulets (so they can have one more thing to whine about), lazy dwarfs entertaining each other with instruments (so musicality can actually go to use), and hobbyist dwarfs collecting crafts(one more source of happiness when the get what they want and FUN when they don't).

[thvaz]

*Sheriffs need an office. Make them use them, by having to sign arrests,release prisoners and receive orders from the mayor/complaints from the population.
*The Chief Medical Dwarf should need an office too, where he will control the registers of the Health tab.

Basically, to make these positions consistent with the manager and bookkeeper.

[GavJ]

Of all the minor RAW additions I can think of (which is my favored type of micro-improvement), I think the highest bang for the buck are custom jobs, reactions type of stuff, which seem to be the biggest accelerants of modder creativity to me. Any/all of:

1) Adding customizable job priorities in RAWs. Presumably there's already a list of the numbers just sitting in the code somewhere that could be directly migrated to raws with little or no special code extra. And it would be hugely useful.
2) Adding the remainder of the buildings as valid custom reaction sites.
3) Adding the other existing reactions to the reaction raws to allow us to mess with them (such as the carpentry and masonry reactions, and the like).

Also individually micro, but continuing down in order of lower priority:
4) Adding a "time to complete" tag to reactions, which presumably also already exists (see: strand extraction).
5) Adding the option for a reaction to apply a syndrome to the person performing it.