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[Mr Crabman]

So apparently "moving fortresses" are planned already, but based on the wording used I assume this just means that parts of a fortress will be able to move around within a given embark zone, and things like having multitile moving boats and being able to send them sailing off the map to other places (and being the same when they return to your embark zone).

This idea is to also make it so you can literally move your fort away from your original embark site. Like, your whole fortress being a boat and sailing across the world, landing on beaches for example, or a giant flying castle. As you move to the right, the left side of your embark area would be unloaded from the game memory (obviously), and replaced with the generated on the right, and vice versa and so on.

In principle, the same mechanics of fortress mode loading and unloading pieces of the world map into the "detailed embark region" could also be used for an experience like migrating your fort's population to a new place after being ransacked by goblins or something, and being with them/watching over the whole journey.

Naturally, other civs in the world could do the same sort of thing, for example, some elves "gigantic slug beast with a city on its back" could be used to attack you after you offended them or something (and each other, though obviously the game wouldn't simulate that in as much detail).

[Bumber]

I'm pretty sure there are major hurdles with unloading embark tiles. IIRC, all changes made to the terrain are stored in the site data, so everything would revert to pre-embark if you revisited it. Also, you wouldn't be loading up other sites you come across, since you can only be in one at a time. You'd just see a bunch of trees where a town should be. (Based on what I remember of Rumrusher's experiments with relocating camp sites, the people might still be there. That was done in adventure mode, though.)

[Mr Crabman]

This idea would be coming after the planned total rewrite of the map systems (the big wait before the magic update is for this), so those issues could potentially be fixed, especially if Toady decides he wants to support this before he starts work on the rewrite, so he can code it with this in mind.

[DwarfStar]

The game engine can smoothly transition across embark tiles while in adventure mode, so it seems technically feasible. Of course, whatever you left behind (including citizens) would have to be "retired" and put under control of the world-gen game mechanics, unless you could simulate two completely disconnected sites at once.

Hearing Tarn talk about it, it seemed like he really wants to implement some kind of physical movement of multi-tile boats. But I think it would be just fine if boats could be built like map sections, but then could only travel along limited paths to and from fixed locations...docks instead of trade depots. Maritime combat could be resolved "off-screen" like world mission results do now, except raids coming in via boat should be possible, so beach landings will also be needed.

I also hope the idea of "moving fortress sections" includes land-based vehicles, both for trade and for war. It would be awesome if you knew a fortress had a 3-z high wall, if you could build some 3-z high moving stairs bring them with you into battle. Of course it would be grand for both boats and wheeled vehicles to renovate the siege engines. We could add a new workshop called a Garage that would function similarly to a trade depot, but the vehicles would just disappear into it when "parked". Later, maybe we would add a new zone type for parking garages, allowing the vehicles to actually be displayed, which would look cool and present a new vulnerability.

[Bumber]

The game engine can smoothly transition across embark tiles while in adventure mode, so it seems technically feasible.

An adventurer can approach a site and load its (entire) contents. That's a bit different from moving and resizing the site itself.

Consider, for instance, that your dead units list is part of your fort data, while your memorial slabs are located on tiles. There's a problem that needs to be addressed as soon as a tile is unloaded. The solution involves a rewrite of how dead units are handled.

There are more issues for everything that involves a tile. Jobs, rooms, zones, etc. What happens when half of a drawbridge is unloaded? What happens when you unload a waterwheel or pull a lever?