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[Scoops Novel]

You heard me.

[PatrikLundell]

Very poorly, currently, as elves aren't really a playable race. This means they won't have mining or smithing, and won't do logging, and their tree enslavement magic isn't implemented, nor is tree house building. I don't think auto animal taming exists either (I'd expect them not to be attacked by wild animals, but that doesn't make them tame).

[Egan_BW]

Elves live in retreats, not villages. And ask the Tarns, since playing other site types is in the plans.

[FantasticDorf]

If anything like the modding-subforum pages would suggest through mods like all races playable mod that a elf forest retreat would be very much like...

- A very herbalism and agrarian vegetarian society, elves commonly have to harvest a lot (its no issue to them, they have excellent memories for remembering where plants were and virtually never fail at collecting plants in surplus when skilled) and farm to make some substantial progress in their production chains. Meat is rare, usually coming from fallen invaders or unnatural animals slain in self defence.
- Cage traps are usually relaxedly placed around, due to natural wildlife being very little hassle other than the stealing kind or unnatural monsters, maybe amongst the roots of a large tree for storage as bait. Not even elves are safe from giant keas and have great difficulty against the undead.
- Usually cheat out wood in some way, elves are relatively traumatized at the thought of felling a tree with bad thoughts when they're given a alternative tool to a axe and a woodcut labor. Sometimes they have special metals or psuedo-wood, and are quite comfortable living upon trees of even heights (though dfhack can't at the moment generate tree templates of even height for building, or just trunks to put constructions ontop)
- Elves tend to styme out attacks by allowing masses of captured wild animals to do the work then gently collect them up afterwards, and according to some modifications, a host of much physically stronger tree-people and dryads suppliment their military, which often consists of super-graceful wrestlers, archers and warriors clad in psuedowood/stealth stolen weapons/special elf metals.

[Bumber]

Everything would constantly be on fire, thanks to the Dwarves' FTW device.

[Thisfox]

Once we can make trees and other plants into "grown" items, I expect it would be quite a fun race to play.

I am curious about how long it would take to grow a chair or table (or a gamelan) though, and I'm hoping there would be variation in recipes etc. Would one need a linen sock farm, a hemp rope farm, and a coffin-growing tree? I would like it to not just be a clone of dwarf society but in a forest.

We've always wished we could play on the same map and send trade caravans to each other. Wouldn't it be cool to be the dorfs supplier of war elephants?

[PatrikLundell]

I'd expect the growth of a chair etc. to take about a year, and each tree to be capable of growing only one furniture size item at a time, and that would be at the expense of fruit. Basically, the resources put into producing fruit would be diverted into slave labor instead.

Usually elves are depicted as having a society with few material goods that would produce items only for their own use (i.e. not export). If that's the case, it doesn't matter that the production rate is low.

However, it might be a bit boring to play a site that doesn't do much beyond partying.

[klefenz]

Can trees be modded so that the "fruits" they produce are chairs or swords?

[Ziusudra]

I haven't tried it out but there's a mod that claims that:

Grow furniture straight from the ground

www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=178582.0

[FantasticDorf]

Once we can make trees and other plants into "grown" items, I expect it would be quite a fun race to play.

I am curious about how long it would take to grow a chair or table (or a gamelan) though, and I'm hoping there would be variation in recipes etc. Would one need a linen sock farm, a hemp rope farm, and a coffin-growing tree? I would like it to not just be a clone of dwarf society but in a forest.

We've always wished we could play on the same map and send trade caravans to each other. Wouldn't it be cool to be the dorfs supplier of war elephants?

Grown object scripts have been around a long time because in code its a boolean so it can just be turned on and off, they are quite reaction-code intensive though if you make grown products rather than take the smart approach to produce 'grown' logs first then turn that flag enabled object into other things.
If dwarves or any race could simply supply animals to other civs, i think regular DF players might have some ideas on what to do with the menageries that fill up their cavern cage traps, the world would be awash with the new dwarven craze of housepet crundles, crundle pies, crundle eggs, crundle drink flagons & crundle totem collectibles sold from the nearest dwarf fort gift shop and importantly crundle kibble-chow to stop them nibbling the arms off old-ladies they've been gifted to for companionship by becoming untrained.

On the topic of underground creatures, the underground is a very dangerous enviroment for elves, because very few creatures actually respect the vows to nature they've made not least difficult enough for dwarves forgotten beasts. I can probably only really imagine them scaling the depths in search of fine gems and maybe some alchemical ingredients, perhaps hiding from some foe or pilgrimage to the source of the mountain's rivers which they worship.

[Thisfox]

I'd expect the growth of a chair etc. to take about a year, and each tree to be capable of growing only one furniture size item at a time, and that would be at the expense of fruit. Basically, the resources put into producing fruit would be diverted into slave labor instead.

Not only do you get more than one fruit per tree, but dorfs take less than a year to make a piece of furniture. Or a pair of linen socks. I would expect it to take less time than a year?

[PatrikLundell]

I'd expect the growth of a chair etc. to take about a year, and each tree to be capable of growing only one furniture size item at a time, and that would be at the expense of fruit. Basically, the resources put into producing fruit would be diverted into slave labor instead.

Not only do you get more than one fruit per tree, but dorfs take less than a year to make a piece of furniture. Or a pair of linen socks. I would expect it to take less time than a year?

As far as I know trees move considerably slower than dwarven carpenters, and the latter don't actually grow the logs, they just process logs that grown over several prior years, so I don't think that's a fair comparison.

There are few trees that produce fruit the size of cabinets, and I'd expect the volume of the fruit "converted" into furniture to be at least equal to the one of the furniture, and probably double that (squishy fruit vs lignine/cellulose dense furniture). Some especially bountiful trees might be pushed to produce two cabinets per fruiting season (i.e. once per year), and you could probably get several wooden swords out of a normal tree, or quite a few wooden mugs.

Flax isn't a tree, and a sock typically requires the thread harvested from a lot of flax plants, so I don't have much of an idea of how you'd grow "shrub" based items. Maybe the equivalent of a farming tile (which I assume elves don't use) might somehow grow together to form one sock, or even a pair of them. The growing time for grown "shrub" based items would probably the the normal growth time until harvest for that plant, and ought to follow the seasonal growth pattern of surface crops that DF doesn't implement currently (with current DF surface shrub growth times you'd probably get about two harvests per season). I've got trouble seeing how to grown "shrub" based items without harming the plant, but maybe annual plants flower and disperse their seeds while tangled up as a sock, dies, and the sock can then be picked up from the dead tangle of the plants. If so, it would require a full growth cycle, not shortened somewhat by harvest.

[kevinfragger2427]

I'd see this as being heavily dependent on whatever Toady puts into the Magic release, whenever it finally hits. Last time I read up on anything magic for Dwarf Fortress was like four years ago, though. I remember the popular suggestion back then being "Contract Magic" where magic is not an innate ability (but CAN become one?) but rather through pacts you make with divine beings. Elves, being immortal, would likely also fall under this blanket and have some "light" ability that is passed down from generation to generation, ala the "tree-enslaving" ability.

[Serentty]

Elves live in retreats, not villages. And ask the Tarns, since playing other site types is in the plans.

Is it really? Do you have a link for this? That's pretty exciting.

[PatrikLundell]

Elves live in retreats, not villages. And ask the Tarns, since playing other site types is in the plans.

Is it really? Do you have a link for this? That's pretty exciting.

I don't have any links, but it's been mentioned in various forms that the plans for the Myth & Magic arc contains playing procedurally generated races, which implies generating sites appropriate for them. This, in turn, implies supporting humans, as that's what you end up with when a fully mundane world is generated ("sliders" for wackiness, magic strength, how common magic is, etc. have been mentioned). I'm not aware that playing any races apart from the "chosen" generated one has been discussed explicitly, but it would be a natural extension once race<->site generation is robust enough. That might not happen in the first Myth & Magic arc, though.