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Author Topic: Craft skills  (Read 147 times)

Urist Mchateselves

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Craft skills
« on: September 02, 2024, 12:48:48 pm »

I don't know if this would really work (and it would definitely break save compatibility), but what if instead of having super specific craft skills for each material and type of craft, there would be a skill for working with each type of material and another set of skills for crafting different items. A "how do I make this item" skill and a "how do I make it out of <material>" skill.

So instead of having blacksmith for making metal furniture,  metal crafter for making metal crafts, armorsmith for making metal armor and weaponsmith for making metal weapons, there would be a blacksmith skill for working with metal, and a furniture maker skill for making furniture, a craftsdwarf skill for making crafts, a weapon crafter skill for making weapons, and an armor maker skill for making armor. This way making an armor piece out of steel would require both the blacksmith skill and the armor maker skill, as opposed to just the armorsmith skill, and making an armor out of bone would require both the bone carver skill and the armor maker skill, as opposed to just the bone carver skill, and so on. Making a building out of wood would require both the architect skill and the carpenter skill, making it out of clay would instead require the potter skill and the architect skill, etc.

For "how do I make this item" skills, there could be:
Furniture maker
Craftsdwarf
Mechanic
Weapon crafter
Armor crafter
Bowyer
Fletcher
Clothesmaker
Architect and so on

For "how do I make it out of <material>" skills there could be:
Carpenter (wood)
Stone carver (stone)
Blacksmith (metal)
Bone carver (Bone, shell, ivory, etc)
Potter (clay)
Glassmaker (glass)
Leatherworker (leather)
Cloth worker (silk, yarn and plant cloth)
Wax worker (wax) and so on, you get the idea
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If you're so sure that you're gonna end up killing all of dwarven civilization, why not make a statue depicting 2147483647 dead dwarves, all of which are burning? Name it something good, like Deaddead the Dead Dead Dead-Dead of Dying. Just put it in the main hall or something, as a grim reminder that they're all gonna die.

Azerty

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Re: Craft skills
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2024, 04:14:54 pm »

Splitting the skills related to manipulating a material (metalworking, leatherworking) from the skills needed to manipulating an object (jewelry, clothes) might help to prevent a too great proliferation of skills by allowing consolidation. It might also make fortress management easier, especially in the first years.

However, juggling between two skills might present some challenge, such as having to train someone both in architecture and woodworking. And sometimes, delimiting the material and the item might be difficult.
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"Just tell me about the bits with the forest-defending part, the sociopath part is pretty normal dwarf behavior."

Egan_BW

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Re: Craft skills
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2024, 02:08:38 am »

Maybe multiple dwarves should be able to put their heads together to make something unusual, like if you want a glass sword or something then then the weaponcrafter can grab the glassblower and they make a glass sword together, even though the weaponcrafter doesn't know how to use glass and the glassblower doesn't know how to make a sword.
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