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[KittyTac]

any group of units (including an individual unit) marching across the map is an army, and these small groups make armies, so it seems pretty army to me; the only real distinction is that every member of your own army is a hist fig, so you don't have hordes of abstract numbers following you

The Army arc will expand on large squads (hundreds of people), I think. Along with things like battles.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Pre Mythgen devnotes (not yet done bits - not all will get done though) :

Seizing position-holders as prisoners (see below)
Assassinations of position-holders

Basic hill dwarf / administered site interactions:
 Shows all your off-site armies, send a squad or messenger to activate them
 Defensive off-site armies, ability to stall and report on incoming sieges
 Army-army battles, offensive orders for off-site armies (see Army Improvements below)

Portions of Improved Sieges (below) are on the table
Also: prisoners from attacking soldiers surrendering/yielding
Prisoner trades, executions, release

Adventurer military improvements:
Gaining civ-level entity positions (e.g. baron) by reputation or intrigue
Basic command of large armies on travel-scale map

"Improved sieges" includes:

Eliminate remaining edge-of-map exploits
More highly trained attacking soldiers when appropriate
Many trap exploits are handled above by requiring more to produce a trap, things like cage traps should make more sense vs. large creatures etc. (respect strength/ability vs. material, large cages might be separate object)
Coming up with a plan to overcome pathing obstacles to reach fortress innards
Ability to dig (optionally, default on)
Ability to build bridges/ramps
Ability to use grappling hooks/ladders/climb
Learning from mistakes if first attempted assault plan fails badly
For instance, if many siegers are killed, caged, etc. in a given hallway, they shouldn't generally go that way again, even if that means building/climbing/digging
Siege engine improvements depend on state of boats, lifts/moving fortress sections, since these should all use the same framework

(But traps and siege engine improvements have been ruled out for this time - probably be with boats and moving fortress parts).

"Army Improvements" includes this lot (doubt much of it will make it, but we can always hope) :

Make armies/beasts that attack fortress come from actual groups moving on world map (partially done).
Ability to fight other armies with your dwarven armies
Larger armies should spread over multiple mid-level map squares
Ability to create fortifications/lines/etc. instead of spreading haphazardly
There are complications to be worked out if you can zoom in to battles and control them at the local level, concerning what happens to your fortress
If you can zoom in, situations like being surrounded need to be respected and have the desired results regardless of what area is zoomed in on
Allow villains to attempt to demand tribute from you

[Shonai_Dweller]

So (double post, sorry)
Yay for villains. Bandit forts, castles and Better Towers.
Yay for more Hidden Fun.
Seems like a fine arc indeed.

But when I can raise a thousand hill dorfs and have my axe lords lead them into battle against legions of elephant riding elves I'll be very happy.

And post-mythgen when I may actually be able to watch the battle it'll be even better. That and watching other sites in real time, laughing as elves and gobbos run about on fire after I drop a meteor on them. It'll be a nice change from all these years of watching my own dorfs faff about dying ridiculously.

[KittyTac]

Yay for the lack of invincible forts (digging invaders)!

[Egan_BW]

hype, i guess

Mostly just waiting for the point where I can mess with procgen magic systems, in a few years time. Villains are pretty nice, but honestly I'm mostly invested in DF for the devlogs at this point.

[Rowanas]

I'm keen for the inevitable error where the threshold for villainy is too low, and everyone has plots against everyone. Urist McBeekeeper laughs darkly...

[KittyTac]

hype, i guess

Mostly just waiting for the point where I can mess with procgen magic systems, in a few years time. Villains are pretty nice, but honestly I'm mostly invested in DF for the devlogs at this point.

Yeah, I'm more hyped for magic. We'll throw a big party once it comes out.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Magic will be such a game-changer. I can't decide between excitement and dread. I sort of like "mundane, except elves and evil rain and magic mushrooms and magma monsters and adamantine and gods and demons."

But that would be the Magic hype thread. I don't think it exists yet. Would it be too early?

[KittyTac]

Magic will be such a game-changer. I can't decide between excitement and dread. I sort of like "mundane, except elves and evil rain and magic mushrooms and magma monsters and adamantine and gods and demons."

But that would be the Magic hype thread. I don't think it exists yet. Would it be too early?

Yeah, too early. It's coming in 2 years.

[FantasticDorf]

any group of units (including an individual unit) marching across the map is an army, and these small groups make armies, so it seems pretty army to me; the only real distinction is that every member of your own army is a hist fig, so you don't have hordes of abstract numbers following you

Possibly subject to future change, also reactionary counter-raid sieges draw from usually 1 site so they bring the faceless along anyway, marking out some errors in your statement. I personally use the kills screen as opposed to anything else to determine who was actually histfig rather than non-fig with a name also that only existed for the purpose of a siege this moment.

A evil emperor sends out their histfig champions, leaders and generals and a faceless horde of nonfig grunts after executing a number of evil plots to consolidate power by assassinating their political rivals for leadership to enact his revenge against the enemy civilisation that exiled him.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Putnam didn't say that non-histfig abstract army members didn't exist, they said that players cannot send non-histfig abstract armies, since they can only send fortress members and all fortress members are histfigs. They can certainly receive them.

[Fleeting Frames]

Well, I know the pets aren't by default. (Though they can become, in which case you can have, for example, turkeys get married in retired forts after defending it from elven attack.)

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Hmm... they're not historical figures, but they're not entirely abstracted, right? (Stats and skills and scars persist afterward. But do they play a role in the battles? Will a Legendary Biter dog help more than a weak skillless dog?)

Pets would seem to be halfway between histfig and abstract army, then.

[KittyTac]

Hmm... they're not historical figures, but they're not entirely abstracted, right? (Stats and skills and scars persist afterward. But do they play a role in the battles? Will a Legendary Biter dog help more than a weak skillless dog?)

Pets would seem to be halfway between histfig and abstract army, then.

If they get into combat with a histfig and gain skills from it, they become a histfig and are tracked.

[Fleeting Frames]

Obtaining a name through killing a historical figure counts - like the practice to name trolls by having them slaughter migrant pet before they topple a statue in temple.

Even just talking may count; (it supposedly does in adv.). At the very least I've watched visiting swarms of animal people go from 'sterile' to 'fertile' icon with relations-indicator, meaning they have become historical from interrupting my dwarves, even without killing anybody. That was in 43.03, though, so may not work so much anymore now that Toady reduced fort-mode talking.

Though bringing this back to villain arc, this means you could potentially have your last fortress's milita captain's pet dog be the villain plotting to end your current fort.