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[Amperzand]

So, forgive me for my nubderpness, as I have yet to successfully play this game {My keyboard breaks whenever I try, plus I'm having difficulty with the learning cliff.}

But I had the thought that things like technological advancement could make an interesting mod. No, not some research system, but simply having the tech level of a world change with time. Meaning if you manage to keep a fortress running into the twenty-fifth millennium, you can and will be invaded by space aliens, and will already have had to deal with the threat of nuclear war with the elves. Obviously this is not a developed idea, and could use some thoughts. May I have yours?

[pisskop]

The idea isnt terrible, but it implies you are playing a long world.  It also is something Id rather see modders do extensively rather than Toady/vanilla.  And I wouldnt want progression to be very fast (the slowdown for long worlds is enough without simulation innovation and expansion of ideas, yea?)

Aside, it would help counterbalance the loss of megabeasts if suddenly gundams and golems.

Also, I dont think this is possible atm.  This is a suggestion for the suggestion forum.

[Amperzand]

I was definitely thinking of this as a mod, rather than a main-game feature, and I pretty much agree with everything you said.

Also the rate of tech development could definitely be modified, and would start out REALLY slow.  {I have this metal image of dorfs with chainguns building a wall of spent shells trying to kill a Forgotten Beast...}

Anyway, I can totally copy-paste the OP to Suggestions, if ya think I should.

[Illogical_Blox]

I was definitely thinking of this as a mod, rather than a main-game feature, and I pretty much agree with everything you said.

Also the rate of tech development could definitely be modified, and would start out REALLY slow.  {I have this metal image of dorfs with chainguns building a wall of spent shells trying to kill a Forgotten Beast...}

Anyway, I can totally copy-paste the OP to Suggestions, if ya think I should.

AWESOME PICTURE! I'm gonna draw that over the weekend and PM it to you, if you want.

[Amperzand]

Why sure!

On a side note, I meant to say "Mental" not "Metal" there.   I can type good.

"This is a pile of !!#Spent .50 Urist Shell#!!"

[vjmdhzgr]

This is far beyond the scope of modding. Probably far beyond the scope of Toady working hard on it for a year as well. I imagine with DFhack it might be possible to give civs new animals and items at a certain year, but I don't really know the limits of DFhack and doing that won't really be the kind of thing you're looking for.

[Amperzand]

Well, damn. In that case, would having "world tech" be a setting at worldgen be more practical?

[Suds Zimmerman]

No. To put it simply, that's one of those things that only Toady can really alter.

[GavJ]

Seems totally possible to me. Maybe even to a minor extent with just raws alone!

Off the top of my head, you could pretty easily make "researching" reactions that have very low probabilities of giving you something representing an advancement and have to succeed several times in a row. Or perhaps more realistically, a low chance of a more advance thing coming out of normal jobs, which you can use to open up already-included-but-previously-inaccessible workshops and reactions as far along as you want. All with just Raws. At some point it will start seeming a little bit silly that you're still doing hand-farming, etc. But even so, you could easily represent a technology tree all the way from like, late stone age, to maybe renaissance no problem.

And if you're willing to use dfhack scripts, then you can do a lot more like this, including simple passage of time etc. as a prerequisite, and fairly custom invasion setups and things.

Would be a huge amount of work though.

[Timeless Bob]

There's also the "placeholder workshop/reactions" way, where between saves the RAWS for workshops and permitted reactions can be modified to produce new/different results.  This wouldn't be coded into the game - it would have to be handled outside of a game instead to simulate the slow progress of technological change, but if there was a chart indicating what generally was required for each step, then the proper "tools" made of the proper materials would be required in-game to become reagents of the next incarnation of workshop/furnace upgrades.  In this way, only the tech that was "researched", (ie: the reagents for the upgraded workshops/furnaces created then stored before saving the game) would have to get a "facelift" by editing the RAWS to produce slightly more advanced versions of whatever until some pre-agreed upon type of tool/workshop/megaconstruction was built that would free up one of the "placeholder" workshops/furnaces to produce an entirely different set of reactions. 

   Why limit yourself and try to build the tech tree entirely from scratch when you have Players on the forum who would be happy to crowd-source it for you instead?  No need to re-invent the wheel after all. (Oh wait, this is Dwarf Fortress.  Nevermind.)

[Amperzand]

Well, I'm glad to see that there's hope!

[Zarathustra30]

The way I would implement this is to add a "catalyst" reagent to reactions that is only produced by some sort of laboratory.

It would be nice for it to be a book, but I don't know how to create them with reactions.

[smakemupagus]

A number of total conversion mods implement a technology tree of some kind, one of the first I remember doing it on a large scale is Legends of Forlorn Realms, and today it is more or less common in big mods to have some sorts of "unlockable" technologies.  Needing some kind of catalyst from a laboratory, rare enemy, etc., just like you guys are talking about.  Not the same as what Toady could implement with a system intertwined with the passage of time and a global economy of course, but an approximation.

>> Well, damn. In that case, would having "world tech" be a setting at worldgen be more practical?

Well, for example you could have a dark ages mod, middle-ages tech mod, a steampunk mod, and a modern/future times mod all on your computer and generate a world in whichever you feel like on the given day   Having all be mutually consistent with one another as if they come seamlessly from the same timeline, and having a pre-world gen script that tweaks the allowed buildings and reactions as if it was tuning the technology date across the whole spectrum, seems like it should be  possible, but requires probably some herculean effort and focus.  For arguably marginal gain.

[GavJ]

You could probably figure out a way to allow people to embark with one or more of the catalysts to choose their starting time period. You would need some way to prevent caravans from trading those things, though, while still making them available at embark. But I'm sure that's possible.

[Amperzand]

{Forgive me for not giving my thoughts on everything }

But anyway, as to getting some kind of technological catalyst from a particularly big-n'-bad enemy, I did have the thought that Bronze Collossi could drop some kind of "Living Metal Core" or something that could be used to power/craft stuffs.

Possibly bronze power armor for your champion dorfs. That makes them slowly go insane.