First if you don't mind some backstory on my experience with DF (If you don't much care about this, then skip to the part marked Suggestions). I started to try DF about 1 year ago. I grabbed a random Tilepack (I believe Phoebus? Or Obsidian), then set off to play 2 games of adventure mode. I fell in love more with the world creation. the legends viewer, and by extension the fantasy behind DF then the game I was playing. I would spend hours and I do mean hours pouring over text about certain people claiming the world around them, fighting mythical beasts, etc. However I didn't have the experience to play AM so the 2 playthroughs (1 as a paladin like character and 1 as a archer) fell flat, I then went into fortress mode...... 20 minutes of that and I had bought Gnomoria and was off to the races in a game I would spill 100s of hours into. Recently a video popped up in my feed on youtube from a youtuber I watch a lot named Nookrium, his play through of LNP and rebuilding the Dwarven empire had me excited again to see the DF world, this time however I watched his around 50 minute tutorial and then set off to fortress mode. 200 Dwarfs later and about 40 hours in and I had made a fort that could stand the test of time, although I didn't go into the caverns much I decided the reason for the fort (to get me familiar with the game) had been accomplished thus twinklingchambers was retired into legend.
Then my second fort.... Which was boring tbh, I still didn't want to dig down enough to fight creatures, no I wanted epic sieges and huge above ground battles, so I retired my new fort in it's second year, the year 12 of the world that I had created and moved to DF Masterwork (where I am today and may just stay forever, thank you Meph for the ability to play as other races, try new things, and all the work you did, I hope MW gets updated one day to the latest versions). Anyways that is my backstory with DF, I have also tried to get about 7 friends to play DF but none seem to easily grasp it, idk why most have played Towns. Gnomoria, etc. And tbh DF is those games with more complexity, world gen, and a terrible UI.... What works in those games mostly works in this, but oh well on to the crux of the matter.
Suggestions Intro:
A bit of an beforehand thing. I have been looking into every single interview done by the DF devs, I have watched a few more of Nook's and Quill's videos to better udnerstand the game and have fun just hearing their stories, so I think I have a decent (though not complete mind you) grasp of both the mechanics and the current state of DF, so that is where my ideas stim from, onward.
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Suggestions:
1 (Intro). I would love to get back into AM, I love anything where you are plopped into a world and play as YOU, it's enjoyable to create ones backstory and to interact with the world around you. However oddly enough I played Elona as less of an adventurer and more as a business owner, I play MP Project Zomboid as the cook, I play Minecraft as a miner.... I like the support things, the being the person who may not have a mile long kill count, but was there for things and was apart of them. What I have always wanted was a game that created a near living and breathing world around me, one where every character had their own place, ideas, ambitions, story, etc. This is that game (or at least in my eyes the only game that comes close). As such there are tons of roles I would love to play in AM such as: A diplomat, a soldier, a king, a builder, a miner, a farmer, just a plain citizen, a cook, etc. I wonder what it would be like to march with an army of humans to attack a goblin fortress, or to be sent to settle a dispute between 2 human civs, or to cook the meals of a baron, to play my music in the halls of a king, to own a house inside a large human city and just live there and go to work everyday. to be a bandit that ransacks villages for profit, etc. etc. etc. I cannot imagine nor fathom the sheer amazement this would be, to literally be anyone in the world you want, to be just a dwarf on a expedition to found a new mounthome, doing tasks the expedition leader set and helping build a fortress with the AI in charge instead of you...... I also don't even think this would be possible, I am not a great programmer, I have modded a few games, so I do not pretend to know the scope of such a thing so here is the suggestion:
1. Make is possible to be anything in adventure mode, including a soldier, diplomat, miner, etc. Open the roles up to even the mundane for those that want it. (if it where possible) and allow people to buy homes in towns, work with a city to build new building in real time, etc. (Is this even possible?)
2. (Intro). I love that orcs are a civ in MW, however why are they not in vanilla DF? Seems kind of weird that all the "fantasy" races are shown off except the poor orcs, any reason to this?
2. Make Orcs a civilization in the world
3. (Intro). I imagine this has already been touched on a lot, as a matter of fact I have seen it in the forums, on the development page, and other places in one form or another, however it is mostly assigned to adventure mode, and I think cavalry in fortress mode would be nice.
3. Make animals mountable in fortress mode so you can use cavalry to fight off other nations cav that they bring.
4. (Intro). There are many things about the UI, game mechanics, etc. That seem purposely off putting, I cannot imagine this being intentional so here is a few small things that would help with things for new players
4. Make zones and stockpiles expandable (no more deleting them and adding them again, give us expanding options), make dirt and paved roads a floor type not a building (I can kind of understand why it is a building, however it is very annoying only being able to do little patches of road then of a bug crawls on the space you have to suspend the darn thing and do it again, very aggravating) tbh most of it's issues could be fixed by having dwarfs move things that are in the way, chop things down that are in the way, pick things that are in the way, etc. When I tell them to build somewhere they need to be smart enough to clear a area, I think that would make a lot of big construction easier.
5. (intro). I have been playing a town of humans on MW for a few hours, I know they will not be added to the game as playable (I don't think they should either, it's dwarf fortress after all). However one thing that is really annoying is the tedium of building above ground, and I think 1 little thing would fix this.
5. Let dwarfs build up 1 Z level, just 1 would help in wall construction. roof construction, etc. It's not that unfeasible and would make things like little above ground houses easier to do for those that want to do that.
6. (Intro). I have an idea while playing (again) as far as I am aware human, dwarven, elven, etc. Civs don't interact with eachother, I may be wrong on this but I don't remember seeing a single Human vs. Human war or Dwarf vs. Dwarf etc. Nor any diplomacy going between the two, you just interact with YOUR mountainhome and that is it, no trade caravans from another dwarven civ so here we go:
6. Make it to where each races civ has diplomacy with all other civs of it's race (be it they can be at war, have a trade agreement, ally together, etc.) Would be cool also if there was a sort of "race government" dependent on race, like: Dwarfs can have kings that meet together (if they are close enough of course) and call out a high king, this high king leads both nations (so it will be uncommon for dwarfs to fight dwarfs)). Meanwhile Humans might not get along together and be more prone to inter-species wars, goblins could have war chiefs that do somewhere inbetween of the humans and dwarfs (so they are more closely knit then humans but are more prone to inter-species wars than dwarfs).
6 (caveat). I don't know if I have ever had 2 of the same races civs close enough to encounter this, as such this may already be a thing (so sorry if it is).
Closing: I think that just about covers it, hopefully this post is semi readable and at least some of the suggestions are not things people have talked to death, I look forward to responses to this (do the devs respond to forums alot? Just curious). Anyways thank you for reading and have a swell day.