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[Androconus]

Hi all,

It feels like this must have been already posted, but I can't seem to find it.

The idea is this: Dwarves with a level in a military skill can get military strange moods. They vanish off the map to go find a lost artifact or to vanquish some important enemy figure or forgotten beast, and come back a legend. When they come back (if they come back) and socialise with another dwarf, you get a battle report of how the fight went down. How detailed the report is would vary depending on how social and outgoing they are (a very outgoing dwarf would be merrily telling great tales of his exploits in the dining hall while a reclusive dwarf might only deign to say a few words about what he did)

That's about it. I hope you like it. Please do post any questions and/or additions below, I'd love to hear more ideas relating to this.

[Bumber]

Seems kind of boring. Usually strange moods create stuff.

A future update will have fighting styles, so a mood could invent one of those.

[Androconus]

That is true. If the mood was to go find a lost artifact (that's not specifically military based, though. It's more generally adventurey. I reckoned a military dwarf would be best suited to adventure.) then it would yield something: not created as such, but it would bring in an artifact to the fortress.

Honestly, though, I like that it's not creating stuff. Let the craftdwarves create stuff when they get a funny compulsion. It feels right that a military dwarf might feel compelled to set out in grim determination. The fact that it's slightly different adds some variety to the mood system.

Though I do also like the idea of a dwarf locking himself in a barracks training room for a week and all you hear is exertion noises until he emerges covered in sweat having just invented a deadly new fighting style.

[Miles_Umbrae]

Wouldn't a trophy be a better result from a moody military dorf?
Like a minotaur-head from a named minotaur?

[Su]

that's against dwarven ethics, I believe.

[IndigoFenix]

Strange moods (as they currently are) are planned on being phased out at some point anyway.  Toady wants the game to be a bit less "gamey" and more of a simulation, where actions are motivated by logical drives rather than just being stricken by inspiration at random.

While dwarves deciding to go out and kill a notorious beast makes sense, it will probably be less of a strange mood and more of a personal vendetta or simply an urge to make a name for themselves.

[Miles_Umbrae]

Strange moods (as they currently are) are planned on being phased out at some point anyway.  Toady wants the game to be a bit less "gamey" and more of a simulation, where actions are motivated by logical drives rather than just being stricken by inspiration at random.

While dwarves deciding to go out and kill a notorious beast makes sense, it will probably be less of a strange mood and more of a personal vendetta or simply an urge to make a name for themselves.

Makes sense.

[FantasticDorf]

Strange moods (as they currently are) are planned on being phased out at some point anyway.  Toady wants the game to be a bit less "gamey" and more of a simulation, where actions are motivated by logical drives rather than just being stricken by inspiration at random.

While dwarves deciding to go out and kill a notorious beast makes sense, it will probably be less of a strange mood and more of a personal vendetta or simply an urge to make a name for themselves.

I mean i personally see it as a credible strange mood like compulsion, because for a average dwarf to break away and go on a epic argonaut'esque quest is quite a undertaking, and we already see it with dwarves pursuing adventurer lifestyles & worldgeneration journeys to the centre of the earth taming expeditions.

However losing potentially critically useful military dwarves to this that may have had a lot of hours carefully being managed in training on what is essentially a roll of a dice offmap to die to a very underpowered enemy and lose all their equipment seems like a major inconvenience.

[Starver]

I'd say an Adventurer's Strange Mood (Wanderlust?) should afflict anyone, perhaps taking their not-traditionally-moodable skills into account (Plant Gatherer goes out on a botanical hunt, to return with something new, or else now able to add knowledge of a previously unfarmable plant into the pantheon of horticulture; a Geographer (Scholar) might come back with very detailed knowledge of some other site, either directly useful or adding to the success-rate of a later Mission (but not itself produce a Raid/Exploration/etc result such as retrieved captives or artefacts).

I'm inclined to say an obvious Military Strange Mood (or its successor) should indeed be an on-map process developing a new attacking or defending style (effectively a weapon/armour skill bonus, pass-onable by training by one who has acquired its mastery). But I can imagine Ambusher(/Sneaking) moodable taking advantage of an off-map adventure (becoming 'one with nature', so long as they can overcome the fear of turning into an elf) or the Observer skill (sitting still and comprehending more of the surrounds, making more suitable for lookout duties) or Tracking one (the dynamic alternative, assessing the movements of (a) specified individual(s) of prey or thief/kidnapper or other foe).


How prescriptive should this be?  Well, with the disappearance of Moods as we know it and mumble-mumble-mumble-Spheres being developed up, it may be a bit different and capable of being different.  Some 'traditional' transitions from journeyman to craftsman by a suddenly masterful application of a production skill, some innovate or revelate in more intangible ways. I could even imagine a (version of) Military Mood coming up with an idea for a new piece of equipment (I'm sure I've been involved in this discussion, but a quick look for Procedural Weapons gives something I wasn't involved in) which needs documenting (in-game scribing or other information-passing) then is added to the Forge options. Pinch/repurpose some of the newer worldgen instrument-defining code for this, perhaps? Either as a worldgen's "potential future discovery"(/ies, as a list) or as a wacky createNewItemClass()-ish sort of thong at mood-time.  (It might be an option for a weaponsmith/armourer mood-type-thing, but I like the idea that a warrior would come up with the thought "you know, if I had a sword-gauntlet/knee-hammer/turtle-like-back-shield, it would solve <problem>...")


But this is all out-there-speculation, a little aimless and a lot straying beyond the direct focus of the thread.

[Androconus]

Strange moods (as they currently are) are planned on being phased out at some point anyway.  Toady wants the game to be a bit less "gamey" and more of a simulation

That sounds pretty good. It would be much cooler if dwarves began personal projects because of their personality and currant mental state as opposed to their highest skill and a random dice roll.

However losing potentially critically useful military dwarves to this that may have had a lot of hours carefully being managed in training on what is essentially a roll of a dice offmap to die to a very underpowered enemy and lose all their equipment seems like a major inconvenience.

That is true... Perhaps if it wasn't as common as the regular strange moods are now?

I'd say an Adventurer's Strange Mood (Wanderlust?) should afflict anyone

Indeed! That would be good. The lowly fisherdwarf sets out because he's heard of a big fish in some distant river can grant you wisdom if you eat it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_of_Knowledge

[IndigoFenix]

I'd like to see more options for dwarves just picking up and leaving a fort of their own will.  At the very least, if a fort's conditions are so terrible that they can drive a dwarf to murder, madness or suicide, leaving should be an option...

To avoid the wrong dwarf leaving at the wrong time, it would make sense, I think, for the player to be able to designate laws for the fort at large and individual units.  Simply toggle an "allow to leave" option.  Maybe this could give a bad thought to a dwarf that wants to leave but isn't allowed, but it would prevent the mechanism from heavily disrupting gameplay, and also help with the accumulation of useless migrants problem that plagues so many forts.

[Starver]

Maybe a "petition to leave" meeting with the on-sige leader (and thus you, with allow/disallow option as per petitions for citizenship) which might also give you forwarning about their thoughts on why they are thinking of leaving, prior to actually asking that 'permission'. (And, above a certain level of dissatisfaction they could go anyway, but at least you've been poked about the possibilitiy, rather than it being all sudden.)

[FantasticDorf]

You can expel dwarves from the site now, that converts them into a visitor to wander offmap usually never to return.

I could probably imagine turning them into a adventurer or other visitor type this way with a task handed down from you (obviously in-universe someone like the mayor or baron, like how in-universe banishment is applied by them by a medium of you the player) and hoping they return, regroup and come back.

Equip this dwarf in gear, turn them into a visitor you can at least direct around while they claim a room as a long term resident waiting for a mission and send them out with the C screen.

> Retire fortress, assume control of ex-fortress dwarf for adventure mode.