With bribery now a thing, it seems to make sense to (re)introduce coins and the use thereof into fortress mode. Is there a specific reason you are not doing so, the development does not require the economy because the goods the dwarves buy with their money can simply be conjured into existence in the hands of visiting peddlers the same way the caravan's goods presently are? Is bribery going to be ruled out in fortress mode altogether or do you instead intent to have non-money based bribes by which actual goods are given to dwarves; that would seem to require gift-giving to exist normally so as to provide cover for this mechanic.
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8050864#msg8050864GoblinCookie (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8051074#msg8051074Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8051105#msg8051105GoblinCookie (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8051318#msg8051318Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8051320#msg8051320GoblinCookie (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8052369#msg8052369It's more work, and there just isn't time - it's not crucial if the other methods are sufficient for now. We haven't implemented bribery yet in fort mode, among the available options, precisely because of the item-based side of it, which complicates things. I'm not sure if we'll get there.
Fortress mode question!
The blog mentions being able to "track down" and "send somebody after them" when it comes to villains. Does this mean sending one dwarf, or a military squad to capture a villain? If they can be captured, will they be escorted to one of your dungeon cells?
I'd find it really fun to capture my fortress's nemesis and put him on display somewhere. To ultimately give him some creative dwarven justice.
Carrying on this question: "Can people who have been marked for arrest prior to leaving be pursued across the world map? As in to locate the identity of a were beast or fleeing vampire/villian/opportunistic artifact theif and then return them to the fortress in custody or otherwise."
I guess the devil is in the detail to how informal/formal the accusation whether player set on meta-evidence they know (saw the werebeast transform into the identity they're chasing or discovered the vampire by some means) or deduced from your dwarves witness statements and interrogation are credible to use.
We haven't done this yet, but it might end up being both. The way "army controllers" work, it doesn't matter if it's a squad or an agent/scout of some kind - the missing pieces are the interface for giving the orders and also recognizing the appointment of agents (probably in the occupations section as with site-wide messengers etc.) and their validity for certain mission types. The more "villainous plot like" the controller is, the more a single person fits the structures, though, and at some point, the squad stops working. Squad-based assassinations and captures are probably fine - we already have raids that are quite similar to this.
And yeah, assuming we get to these options, we were planning on just have them escorted on to the edge of the map and walked to a cell, just like the regular arrests, except that the squad member would need to be recognized for a time as a valid escorter.
And that should let you follow suspects off the map, yeah, but you'd need to set up the mission on the 'c' screen (or the new justice screen depending on how it works out). In the case of bringing somebody back, it could very well be a single fortress guard that leaves the map rather than an agent or military member. But we'll have to see what ends up happening since there could be a technical obstacle there.
Speaking of traps, will Villains be able to start making lairs in our fort if they corrupt including traps, documents etc?
Ha ha, nothing like that happens.
will we be seeing armies demand to have specific residents of the fort turned over to them / executed on the spot?
FantasticDorf:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8052087#msg8052087We haven't done anything like this. The artifact demands and parley options have us a step closer to that kind of thing, but nope, not yet.
Actions like flattery can increase trust but decrease respect, for example, depending on the personality of the NPC.
Does that mean we can flatter and flirt with any random person in adventure mode?
You can fill these jobs yourself with any worshipper you like - we thought it would be too cruel to randomly take one of your best dwarves away.
I think this is too bad. 1: Because I was hoping for entities like religious organisations and craftguilds to be factions inside your fort that you don't have direct control over. 2: The question of if the ruler gets to assign a religious head or not is a classic conflict in history. 3: Because I think it gives your dwarves additional personality when they themselves decide they want to apply for a position like this.
Does manually assigning someone to the priest position cause a negative thought in your religious population similar to how overruling the vote for mayor does when you just manually assign a new mayor, or does assigning a priest work similar to how assigning a barkeeper works with no strings attached?
I assume you're intending to put off the work on the power and influence of these uncontrollable factions inside your fortress to when you get into the status/laws/etc update after magic, right?
To add to that:
Is it possible that certain organized religions may petition to install their own priest instead when a petition is put through? This would possibly be an additional cool way in which outside agents can weasel their way into your fort, too. Also: what options or actions do villains in charge of a religious organization undertake to further their evil plans. Would an evil Cat Pope or whatever install agent priests all over in an attempt to start a cat uprising or some such ridiculous mischief?
So priesthood is a fulltime occupation? Do priests do anything in the fort(sermons, consolation, I guess other religious rituals are out of the question for now), or are they like barons and other nobles, in that they are not supossed to work but do because that nowork tag is currently bugged?
Ha ha, no flirting yet. And some of the actions are restricted to interrogations.
I understand the objections and various situations from history etc., but it's something that'll take a lot more effort to implement in a way that isn't game-breaking, I think. Taking a random dwarf away, especially in some of the earlier-game situations that can crop up in relatively religiously homogenous worlds, might be too serious. Eventually, we can do more, allow some negotiation and partial concessions etc. We do want these groups to feel powerful when justified, eventually.
Yeah, it's a full-time occupation. They should end up with a few tasks before the release, though I don't recall if that happened yet.
Is there a possibility to start a "war" between two vilians? Especially between player-vilian and AI controlled one?
FantasticDorf:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054026#msg8054026Yeah, I suppose it depends on what you mean. We haven't yet implemented player-led versions of the war starting plot, but in terms of assassinations and so forth, and being hunted down, this is in the cards but not yet done.
Can player necromancers create the new constructed undead that you added a month or so back? What about the intelligent undead?
It would be a little odd compared to the rest of the game for the player necro to be incapable of one of the major things necromancers can do given the way you have treated inconsistencies like this previously(usually from what I’ve seen you don’t let these sorts of inconsistencies into your game (And I think that’s for a good reason))
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053406#msg8053406Untrustedlife (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053441#msg8053441Can player create a plot just to use it's powers to fight another plot?
We haven't done player-initiated plots yet, but the idea is that these are simply tools to use as you like. If orchestrating an assassination stops a plot, then it works out that way. Hopefully everything will end up being versatile.
How looks harpy and ogre eyes? How ogre and harpy see?
therahedwig:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053671#msg8053671PlumpHelmetMan:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053672#msg8053672ZM5:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053702#msg8053702PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8053707#msg8053707In the upcoming version evil regions can gloriously spread outwords from necromancer towers. In adventure mode in the current version the player can become a necromancer the player can also use their zombies to build a camp. So will evil regions spread outwards from these sorts of camps If the player takes some time to build up the zombie population?
A while ago you talked about “really bad things” causing a region to turn evil (whether by sacrificing many creatures with a small age number, or some other terrible catastrophe. Is that still planned and will players be able to do this?
FantasticDorf:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054143#msg8054143PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054198#msg8054198Untrustedlife (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054229#msg8054229Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054285#msg8054285As I recall, it won't happen for adv interactions because it doesn't tie the raising event to a site you are in, since you just raise things wherever you do it and the more abstracted versions tie it back to goings-on at a site. I didn't do anything with regions turning evil for other reasons than the ones mentioned in the log, and at this point that'll likely be out in myth/magic country.
With all this swaying of loyalties going on, have you considered the reverse? Time and again in fantasy fiction, the "infiltrator" makes friends, falls in love and finds his/her loyalties to the Big Boss conflicted. With love, respect and loyalty messing up our critter's brains now, seems like this is quite possible.
Eric Blank:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054957#msg8054957Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8054959#msg8054959FantasticDorf:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8055082#msg8055082We're sitting in the muck of this now, and somebody having conflicted loyalties is one of the situations we've been aiming for, as this is story fodder. However, it's tricky to get people to think about all of the things they should be thinking about all of the time in every situation, so it's just a matter of continued work. There are already situations in w.g. where the infiltrator puts themselves in this position (with a lover or friend), and for fort mode, hmm, I don't recall how far their social relations advance in the regular chat function. It's hard enough for dwarves that I assume not much happens there. But of course, their, like, uncle could already be in the fort when they start. They might even be trying to flip their uncle. These situations should be amplified and shown off, really, and it does set their default trust/etc. values differently when there's a relationship with a family member, but it isn't something you'll notice yet, especially in the fort where we don't show conversations etc. I'm not sure if interrogation will get at any of this yet. But, well, another bit headed in the right direction, slowly.
Will we have any meaningful interactions to the dialogue interrogators have with POW's and other non-agents caught in cages?
We are just coming upon that, so I'm not 100% sure if it'll all be sheriff-led. That seems less interesting, but we'll see what's feasible now - we don't have the whole conversation interface from adv mode to lean on for various reasons, so it'd be more like those diplomacy screens, and that may or may not work for this purpose currently. As stated in the previous response, it would be very good to get way more conversation stuff in here and at a few other points, rather than just the occasional shout in combat and personality screen thought bubbles. But a full conversation integration is too much of a project for this time.
Can you build temples or temple complexes to specific religions before being petitioned or has the interface changed in the new version? Right now I find that making a temple for each god keeps dwarves happier than having the one all-purpose temple (not scientifically tested). So, I'd probably do this anyway way before any priest asks me to.
Also, do priests and high priests suffer from jealousy over the value of their temple compared with other temples? That still happens with nobles and their room value, doesn't it?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8055341#msg8055341Shonai_Dweller (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8055362#msg8055362You can set them up in advance for any organized religion present in the fort, as I recall.
We haven't done anything interesting with priests quibbling, but of course the whole hope of these subgroups was to eventually get them to provide some varied texture for fort life. Nothing yet though!
If i recall correctly adventurer mounts are in the upcoming version. If so, how does one get a mount, do they have to start with one if they want one or is there a way to purchase them? Also , does riding it make you move faster ion the world travel map?
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8055664#msg8055664Yeah, as Shonai_Dweller says, we haven't implemented taming or purchasing. There was that whole undead mount discussion from before, ha ha, so I guess there is technically another way to get one. Yeah, riding matters vs. speed.
Talking of party set up, did you say you were going to add a save button to party creation like we get with dwarf mode setup? I know it's more complex than a standard "save" feature what with availability of animal people and certain types of equipment and so on in each world, but it would be nice to get a basic setup saved and then just have to tweak the details.
Kind of related to this suggestion:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=173825.0
I didn't add a party save button. It's a reasonable idea, though as you say, certain differences will need to be accounted for, and there are quite a few more things that can currently be tweaked about an adventurer (personality etc.) though it all lives in the same "character sheet" object as the dwarf mode starting dwarves.
As the mythgen update will add artifacts with actual effects, how far will this control extend in terms of mods? Would it be possible to, for example, have a library of user-defined artifacts (with set names, effects, materials, etc) that will be guaranteed to show up in a world?
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8055709#msg8055709Yeah, doing specific user-defined <anything> is on the editor side of things, and we're planning on that in terms of the architecture, but we're not sure when we'll actually have them, since that's an additional large chunk to an already large large initial release.
Any plans to increase the depth of the Adventure mode "Bard" playstyle? Social skills are getting alot of new mechanics and I was wondeirng if theres any plans to further improve the performance aspect of this? Rather then just the social part.
Not immediately, no. But yeah, it doesn't feel like it's quite at even an initial stage, and there are various broken aspects about it. I'm not sure yet where, more broadly, the next push toward non-confrontational playstyles will reside, but it's something we are interested in.
Adventurer investigations is still ongoing, right? What's the plan for when you finally track down a villain at the top of the network? How will the player know? I imagine someone playing the new interrogation game for hours while the villain adamantly denies working for anyone without ever realising they're telling the truth. Some pay-off would be nice. Not just, well he's dead, did I win? Did I miss a clue?
Yeah, we've felt time-crunched and wanted to get our fort flags planted, but we're working on adv investigations. Ha ha, yes, it is one of the unsatisfying things about conspiracies and spy-hunting and all that, the imperfect information and knowing when you've accomplished something important. This has been a central issue to some of our side projects, and now that (as usual) side project stuff gets into DF, the issues reside here, and we've been mulling them over. I think it's probably valid for now to signpost it a bit, since tops of networks are easy enough for the game to recognize and the feeling of lingering paranoia is probably a little too realistic to be fun, he he he.
Any plans for improving the currently existing structures like catacombs and dungeons? Will villains hang out in those places if they don't have somewhere better to hang out? Any additional plans for improving them, such as making catacombs more "undead filled" rather then a maze of non-animated corpses skeletons and sarcophagi with the occassional mummy for example could intelligent undead move in down there??
Since some evil biomes spread now could they then overtake a human city/town and inadvertently fill up the catacombs with undead in that way. Could it destroy the town making it a ruin with catacombs filled with undead? Or perhaps be a vector for a new “slay the undead in the catacombs” agreement. Much like the current attack the tower trouble.
I didn't change any of this for this time, and I'm not sure when it'll be revisited. The map rewrite touches everything, but it's hard to say what'll happen there since I'll be more just getting things to work in a new system and doing improvements when and where I can easily do so.
Hmm, I don't think the vegetation death part of the evil biome is recognized by w.g. farming, just the site placer, since it didn't know it would need to check for future changes. So expansion will halt, but existing towns will survive currently.
Do the plans/current work for fortress mode Villainy include any standing measures the overseer can actively set up to stop, or at least complicate, plots, rather than passive measures in the form of reports to the justice screen that the overseer might potentially notice before the criminal has left the fortress?
I'm thinking of things like guards that actually stop thieves/assassins from accessing restricted areas, rather than just note that they stole/murdered the artifact/monarch (while asleep in the bedroom), and anyone raising alarms (rather than just filed a report) when an outsider is seen carrying off an artifact (that hasn't been given away, of course, although I wouldn't mind if some dorfs would eventually be grumpy about that as well).
Obviously investigations would be active, but they'd have to be based on indications, and so doesn't fulfill this need. The fortress has long been short on standing means to protect against (visiting) vampires and spies (I've never actually seen a "real" spy, but plenty of goblin civ performance troupe members reporting back, as seen by invaders bypassing traps).
therahedwig:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8057861#msg8057861PatrikLundell (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8057866#msg8057866Untrustedlife:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8057994#msg8057994PatrikLundell (op):
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058030#msg8058030Untrustedlife:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058032#msg8058032therahedwig:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058042#msg8058042Access was a big part of our planning and is abstractly calc'd for w.g. plots. Over in play, it was going to start with a revamped guard system for adv mode, which would turn into a new guard system for fort mode. Now, time is short and this may not happen for the release. Using the fortress guards to generate more witness reports is a decent enough way to mimic this (so posting a guard by the artifact pedestals is meaningful, and structuring their placement with theft in mind), but it certainly doesn't have the heft or utilty of actually stopping people and enforcing restrictions.
Sorry for the large amount of questions this time around, in your talk you mentioned how mannerisms dont really effect things in the current version of df, now that you have added interrogation, will mannerisms come up? Will you add this for fort mode investigations/adventurer investigation? That would make it impact the story Alot. Also when will clapping be added, it is defined in the raws but ive never seen it happen. Unlike spitting which happens all the time.
PlumpHelmetMan:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058023#msg8058023Despite this being what they were added for in the first place, I haven't done anything with mannerisms yet. They'd need to be incorporated more fully for it to work out here, so they are sort of fighting against themselves and it'll be hard to find time to fix it.
What's this about raw clapping? I couldn't figure out what you meant - search just found the word 'clap' in the language file.
1. In a previous FOTF you mentioned the DEMON tag would become usable by modders. Would this allow modders to create their own dark fortress rulers or just make demons that live underground? There seems to be a difference between the two, but I might be overthinking things.
2. My memory might be betraying me here but was it mentioned that caravans would spawn in the world now? Not to like actually serve as an economy yet but just travel between towns as a flavor thing. Could I rob them?
3. So necromancers will teach their secrets to willing co-conspirators if their personalities allow it. Would a type of secret holder who does not live in a tower also be capable of gaining disciples? Like, if I were to make a worldgen secret that did not make the user immortal but taught them how to throw fireballs and the like, could that person teach others how to do it? Right now, that sort of thing only happens in towers to my knowledge, so I'm curious.
4. On a similar note, it was mentioned how necromancers could reanimate sapient undead or special experimental monsters, which could gain independence and flee their master to wander the wilderness. Would it be possible to repurpose these interactions for transformed beings rather than reanimated ones? Like for example, say I made a wizard who could transmute corpses into, just for example, elves, would they function the same as a conventionally reanimated lieutenant? Or some other monster. Essentially, would it be possible to create wizards who create new forms of living monsters and races in addition to the vanilla undead ones?
5. What compels an NPC to wear gloves/armwear/cloaks? I've noticed some of them do, but some of them don't. I can't seem to find an underlying logic to it. Is it random?
Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058135#msg8058135EternalCaveDragon:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058148#msg8058148PlumpHelmetMan:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058157#msg8058157EternalCaveDragon:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058162#msg8058162Untrustedlife:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058170#msg8058170Shonai_Dweller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058175#msg80581751. Yeah, UNIQUE_DEMON is available. I have no idea if it works. It looks like the only tags restricted now are "GENERATED" which marks a creature as coming from the generation function, and SOURCE_HFID and SOURCE_ENID which refer to a historical id number for the generation. So everything that can be out is out, for creatures.
2. No caravans for the next release. I'm not sure what that might have been.
3. Ah, I only added the immortality inducement, so other teachy bits will work as currently, I think.
4. I can't think of a way to do that with the new stuff. They just don't think to create new populations with other interactions, and anything the player does happens on a person-by-person basis rather than establishing a pop.
5. In the same site? It's all based on temperature as I recall. But maybe somebody that moved from another pop is semi-buggily using their original home's temperature instead of the new spot's?
Well i dont know if this is a sneaky hint or not regarding whether any subtle changes to unit inventories are being implemented, because that kind of action doesn't really habitually happen, often preferring to keep things they interact with in hands and have a little freakout when they're holding a mug and a object in the other for instance they can't just hook on their belt or put on their person like a player adventurer can with generous inventory.
Very rarely ever swapping or putting on back weapons they're using (opaquely connected to armor layer room space or whether two weapons being stored clash it seems like), and reacting to a very specific situation like crossbowdwarves changing weapon to melee (which can be micro'd like sending them to a training range just to revert back to active crossbow-weapon but its unreliable and single type of weapon dwarves are preferred for novice soldiers).
"If the infiltrators (more to say also covering spies/questers) bring a outfit as part of their disguise or profession attire that's bulk (lots of things already attached and full Armor layer %, posing as a mercenary for instance) and wear the artifact on their way out, have you made any contingency to have them trade equipment or will they walk very slowly on their way out trying to wear a platinum helmet without taking the copper one they had on before off."
I would hope that a discarded helmet, and witness reports of the dwarf/agent wearing a stolen helmet would help piece together a unanimous decision from the kind of meta-data the player sees about ownership and the gui stuff being chucked around under the improved system. But i don't think anybody really knows yet at what stage dwarves will get suspicious of the agent's intentions.
Untrustedlife:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058380#msg8058380Yeah, they normally just carry it in their hand, but the sheathing/strapping of weapons is a special case, so they did that with the pick. I think a helmet thief would keep it in their hand, without trying to put it on their head, helmet or not.
Do you think it will ever be feasible (post-mythgen, of course) for a player's various DF worlds to form a sort of "multiverse" similar to that of D&D? In the sense that different worlds generated within a single dataset could be connected in various ways and perhaps even have magical travel between some of them be possible? And if so, is this something you would actually have any interest in pursuing (which is perhaps the more important question)?
PatrikLundell:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058546#msg8058546Untrustedlife:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058581#msg8058581Yeah, as people have mentioned, it's tricky if you want them all to be doing stuff, and any non-primary worlds would need to be kept small. It might be possible with some effort to take two small worlds and merge them into a single save file with portals, etc., and we've tossed around some ideas. But there are so many possible info/object/mod conflicts etc. that is might be a true pain to implement. Hopefully the easier versions, like running ten pockets as part of the same myth set/world but having them go their separate ways during history gen and then interconnecting them variously as you play a character or site in any of them, will capture a lot of what's interesting about the actual multiverse case. But it would be cool to get at things like alternate timelines or multiple versions of the same character.
One last question, more of a fun one. How much were you inspired by daggerfall? The impact on adventure mode is palpable. And in my opinion thats amazing.
Also when will you add openable/enterable windows in adventure mode so we can do a cat burgler style thing in order to enter the villains tower or something? by like climbing the wall then entering the window.
therahedwig:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169696.msg8058712#msg8058712Hmm, yeah, it's hard to say, really. A lot of the things that look like influences from Daggerfall can probably be traced to Ultima/roguelikes/pnp/etc. and other stuff from before. Though we did play Daggerfall a lot! So direct influence is also certain. It depends on the specifics. C Dragslay had large maps with several towns and things before Daggerfall came out in '96 - Arena also had those but we never played or saw Arena (until this or last year.) The scale was more from Starflight, for us, if anywhere, and several 80s games had overland travel maps. And the many-building town maps also have earlier sources, though there I think Daggerfall was probably one of the things in mind, sort of. It's hard to tease it all apart from this distance. I may be forgetting something, but I think the spell editing system was probably the most influential thing about Daggerfall for us, and it's definitely part of what led us to our current plans - we had played Spellcraft and a few other earlier games that had hints of this, but Daggerfall was definitely the most brazen one we personally encountered. Stuff like vampire/werewolf players is going to be hard for me to separate from other influences - it is very similar to Daggerfall, but I don't recall if it was even in mind when we did that, since we were in an overall horror mode at that point and player-monster parity is more of a Roguelike/Ultima thread for us. But if we said, ooo you should be able to be a vampire in adv mode, and it didn't come out of fort mode thinking, Daggerfall would have been the thing, and it no doubt came up at some point. Ha ha, it's a stew and I don't remember. But maybe I mentioned it on here ten years ago? I wouldn'r surprise me if it were a direct line through.
I have no idea when architecture is changing, generally. I've actually been read a few architecture books since I last thought about it, as I was lamenting to a friend my lack of knowledge in the area, and they got me one for Christmas -- I recall somebody also mailed me one! The suggestions forum is just one of many avenues, ha ha. But yeah, the map rewrite is the next spot, but as I wrote earlier, it's not possible to promise much on any particular existing feature there, since so much will need to be done.
Is something going wrong behind the scenes that causes the forums to keep going down?
Obviously there's some kind of problem, but I have no expertise here. I can't tell if it's the size of the forum when it is doing routine maintenance vs. resources available (there are large CPU spikes like clockwork which come from the routine automated maintenance, I think), and that sometimes gets in way of the server critters or what.