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[Enchiridion]

So most every civilization in df lives in some form of city or fortress or grouping, but they don't really have people who have become separate from their societies.

Imagine, you are exploring the wilderness and stumble upon a lone dwarf in a small cave working away at a makeshift forge. You travel the seaside and encounter a lone elf walking the shore. Near a field you spot a lone house with one human and some sheep. These are experiences you currently cannot obtain. Be it crime, misery, wanderlust or simply habit, there should be people living independently of the rest of society in the wilderness, just doing their thing.

Perhaps this can tie into morals, mental illness, advanced emotions, magic etc, but the basic idea remains the same - to have cool tidbits to encounter.

They could live in sewers, tiny homes, caves, under the sky with no roof, in the trees, be super territorial or friendly, or even shy and evasive but deadly curious(To observe the player(or any other change, such as armies/caravans, which might spot them) from a distance but flee when getting closer) or they could be dismissive and ignorant of the player if he comes from their civilization.

What if there was literally a bat-man hermit living in a cave alone, who's hobby is to collect weapons, who goes out to fight clowns!? We NEED this!

[GoblinCookie]

This idea is already largely in the game, but only for criminal outcasts.  Nobody lives outside of sites unless they are up to no good.

I think the game needs a rural population model by which there are people that live generally scattered about in calm areas, would also work for surface animal people as well except they would like savage areas.  At the moment we have what I call 'urban islands in the wilderness' by which we are either in a significant settlement or we are in the middle of the wilderness.  Our (and everyone else's) non-historical migrants would be drawn from these rural populations putting an end to the whole dwarf appears out of thin air that is the case at present with non-historical migrants.

Obviously the game would not keep track of 1000s of small villages, instead we and the other sites in the game relate to the population as a whole in an abstracted manner.  Some things however would increase the population, while other things like monsters, bandits and so on in proximity would reduce the population. 

[Shonai_Dweller]

The greatest hero of my world's times gave up his 75 year pump operating career and took to the wilderness for no apparent reason. He spent his time meditating or something (racking up a total of no kills) before emerging 25 years later and killing a bronze colossus. Thus becoming the first being ever to have achieved such a feat. Then he went home to his wife and died of old age 10 years later.

Not everyone in the outskirts of society is up to no good.

[Bohandas]

The greatest hero of my world's times gave up his 75 year pump operating career and took to the wilderness for no apparent reason. He spent his time meditating or something (racking up a total of no kills) before emerging 25 years later and killing a bronze colossus. Thus becoming the first being ever to have achieved such a feat. Then he went home to his wife and died of old age 10 years later.

Not everyone in the outskirts of society is up to no good.

Cool!

[GoblinCookie]

The greatest hero of my world's times gave up his 75 year pump operating career and took to the wilderness for no apparent reason. He spent his time meditating or something (racking up a total of no kills) before emerging 25 years later and killing a bronze colossus. Thus becoming the first being ever to have achieved such a feat. Then he went home to his wife and died of old age 10 years later.

Not everyone in the outskirts of society is up to no good.

He killed an irreplacable bronze colossus!  That what is what I mean by up to no good.

[Deboche]

Isn't this a bit unrealistic though? If the world in DF is anything like the real world, all land that can be occupied will be - given that they behave so much like medieval europeans. And isn't living by yourself all alone even more dangerous in DF than in real life? Think Into The Wild and Grizzly Man but with minotaurs and the undead.

[Enchiridion]

Isn't this a bit unrealistic though? If the world in DF is anything like the real world, all land that can be occupied will be - given that they behave so much like medieval europeans. And isn't living by yourself all alone even more dangerous in DF than in real life? Think Into The Wild and Grizzly Man but with minotaurs and the undead.

Oh hush now. All it needs is some suspension of disbelief.

[vjmdhzgr]

Isn't this a bit unrealistic though? If the world in DF is anything like the real world, all land that can be occupied will be - given that they behave so much like medieval europeans. And isn't living by yourself all alone even more dangerous in DF than in real life? Think Into The Wild and Grizzly Man but with minotaurs and the undead.

All land that can be occupied is most definitely not occupied. With more civilizations than default and a thousand years not all land will be occupied. Even in the real world not all land that can be occupied is. Have you ever seen a forest? People could live there, but they aren't. There's plenty of space. It is more dangerous, but that doesn't mean people wouldn't do it. They'd be safer from invaders since they'd be attacking the main city, and not going anywhere near the person in the wilderness.

[Waparius]

At the moment Dwarf Fortress has a really sword-and-sorcery vibe going on, so I can dig huge swathes of land being empty wilderness. That said I like the idea of the occasional hermit hut/cave/tree, especially if the hermits themselves are interesting. People being driven out by failure or strange obsessions (including religious hermits, wizards or whatever...). They'd probably be quite capable and interesting given the danger of some parts of the worlds the game spits out, and being saved from some monster in the middle of nowhere by a hermit would make a great story - especially if they have something interesting going on, whether that's having a skill they could teach you (become the finest cheesemaker in all the land!), some unfinished business to help them with or just an interesting story to tell.

[GoblinCookie]

Isn't this a bit unrealistic though? If the world in DF is anything like the real world, all land that can be occupied will be - given that they behave so much like medieval europeans. And isn't living by yourself all alone even more dangerous in DF than in real life? Think Into The Wild and Grizzly Man but with minotaurs and the undead.

No they do not behave like medieval europeans.  Actually modern people behave more like medieval europeans than dwarf fortress dwarves do.

All land that can be occupied is most definitely not occupied. With more civilizations than default and a thousand years not all land will be occupied. Even in the real world not all land that can be occupied is. Have you ever seen a forest? People could live there, but they aren't. There's plenty of space. It is more dangerous, but that doesn't mean people wouldn't do it. They'd be safer from invaders since they'd be attacking the main city, and not going anywhere near the person in the wilderness.

Forests are invariably occupied by small numbers of loggers and hunters.  There are very few actually empty areas, just areas with a low population density.

[Deboche]

No they do not behave like medieval europeans.  Actually modern people behave more like medieval europeans than dwarf fortress dwarves do.

I don't mean the dwarves, I mean all civs occupying land and fighting each other. And I guess medieval isn't the right description since all of Europe was occupied on foot by tribes that kept getting pushed north and west way before medieval times.

Have you ever seen a forest? People could live there, but they aren't. There's plenty of space. It is more dangerous, but that doesn't mean people wouldn't do it. They'd be safer from invaders since they'd be attacking the main city, and not going anywhere near the person in the wilderness.

Forests belonged to nobles. You'd be arrested for poaching there, let alone take up residence.

[MobRules]

The greatest hero of my world's times gave up his 75 year pump operating career and took to the wilderness for no apparent reason. He spent his time meditating or something (racking up a total of no kills) before emerging 25 years later and killing a bronze colossus. Thus becoming the first being ever to have achieved such a feat. Then he went home to his wife and died of old age 10 years later.

See? Stories like this are why I love this game