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[Lexyvil]

Throughout my time playing the game in the last 13 years, the difficulty of the game was always based on where you were in the world. For instance, if you wanted a peaceful playthrough, you would settle in a calm area without hostiles. For challenging times, you would settle down in a haunting or terrifying biome near a necromancer tower. It makes sense right?

The way the difficulty setting used to work was more attuned to the realism of world, because the environment could explain why things were happening.

But it doesn't anymore with the Enemies "Off"/"Normal"/"Hard" switch that you see when embarking. The game doesn't put as much emphasis on world interaction now that you can be in the worst evil biome there is, and have nothing bad ever happen at your location for simply having the option to turn the enemies "Off" for that run. You're not supposed to have any direct control over an already established world and the enemies that live in it, yet that one new button does. It's not a parley, nor asking for war or peace with creatures--it's a 4th wall button.

That makes it so that evil creatures are forced to play out of character, especially necromancers, they would all refuse to pay heed on a settlement that was established near them. Maybe they will still try, but the fort would be considered invisible (?) to them. Not sure what the dwarves would make of that odd behaviour.

Between the time a fort that's invisible to the outside world starts existing, and the time it becomes visible as soon as it is abandoned (or retired), a hypothetical perfect Legends mode would have trouble figuring out what the hell just happened there.

It's the environment that should always have a say in how it wants to be encountered as per the laws of the world works. It's why I would like to request for the difficulty setting to go back to how it used to be--being purely based on where you are in the world. Some places are just more dangerous than others, and for a reason.

[delphonso]

All of this could be toggled on and off in the init files as far back as I can remember. This is how the game used to be, now there's an interface for it.

[Lexyvil]

Interesting. The fact that such an option is no longer an external file to edit but instead an embark option probably indicates that it's no longer the player that changes the rule on how the game works, but instead a god (The player being Armok?) briefly pondering how he wishes to toy with the settlers, by changing the world's laws a little. He'd bless the embark region to be very lucky, so much so that no evil creatures are interested in approaching the place. Legends absolutely needs to accommodate those special playthroughs if the difficulty switch is used. You know, to give reasons why things happen in the world for a time, instead of "Just because".

Even some entry such as "Strangely, the Fortress X was never under threat due to some strange powerful forces." would make me tolerate the option to change the enemy/economy difficulty options. It would make for a good codex in consecutive forts.

[delphonso]

I do like the idea of that being recorded to Legends.

Likely there'd be some issue with readability, though, as the options can be turned on and off at will (if it's the same function as was in the init). There's also multiple ways to the same end. You can modify invader group size maximums (for FPS reasons as well as difficulty) all the way down to 0, meaning sieges de facto don't happen.

[Salmeuk]

You're not supposed to have any direct control over an already established world and the enemies that live in it, yet that one new button does.

you know, I kind of agree with your general sentiment that the world itself should dictate the difficulty of any given embark. this is a pleasing solution that hands the power to the players.

however, i believe the new difficulty settings are an accessibility thing. new players who are afraid to lose progress etc. that itself may go against the hardcore mythology of this game, but honestly, who cares?

luckily we can just ignore it, or turn it up to max...

you can no longer criticize DF in terms of an idealized simulation without acknowledging the development has shifted towards playability and gameification. At least in the temporary moment.  That this shift will continue to dictate options / settings / "4th wall buttons" that might contradict historical understandings of what this game is meant to be.

so yeah, while I agree these settings sort of ruin the mood, and that in-universe explanations (the gods have gone crazy! the gods are asleep! the gods look fondly upon your settlement!) might be a good addition, in the end there will be more and more settings like this, so its best to either ignore them, or learn how to develop meta-narratives that override your soured impression of a holistic fantasy universe. aka roleplay

[Kiloku]

Why would you want less options?

You can just not use the option you want to not affect your gameplay.