Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Duke 2.0]

Could we have a fat one in a suit named the Penguin as well? How about a legendary comedian with no real combat skills as "The Joker"?

He'd have to have some alchemy skills for that poison the Joker uses.

And some good social skills.

 I mean, where the heck does he get all those henchmen?

[Draco18s]

I dunno, I prefer the Riddler myself. I mean, Penguin was/is just some short fat guy in a suit whats he even do?

He commanded an army of flightless birds!
Oh, and machine gun umbrella.

[Joseph Miles]

Well, alchemy doesn't do anything but make soap as is. And Comedian is a social skill.

Still, don't see the attraction to someone who controls penguins. Nothing so great about them.

[Skizelo]

OK fine, the deal with the Penguin is that it allows a little of that Godfather chic into Gotham, who would otherwise has a criminal class composed entirely of garishly coloured and impossibly successful loons.
Well, that and he one time rode a pterodactyl to do battle against the batman.
Thank god for frequent ret-cons.

[Techhead]

Well, alchemy doesn't do anything but make soap as is. And Comedian is a social skill.

Still, don't see the attraction to someone who controls penguins. Nothing so great about them.

Alchemy skill doesn't even make soap.
Soap making skill makes soap, but in an Alchemist's workshop.
Alchemy skill doesn't make anything but diddly squat.

[Erk]

A whole page of batman, and now we're on to soap making. Nice.

Anyone got more thoughts about how dwarves could think about goals? How would one go about making this raw-encodable? That part has been puzzling me a bit

[Faces of Mu]

Love this idea!

/signed

The idea of individual goals (and hence, satisfaction with life?) would be great if they interacted with loved-ones' grief reactions when they die. That way a dwarf's life satisfaction would interact with how his/her loved-ones' adjust/react as well as what they think of how that life was lived (taking similar and dissimilar goals and values into account).

I agree that generally most dwarves should be able to cope with not fulfilling their dreams most of the time, as usually only those who are in the extreme come to the attention of the leaders of the community. Goals probably come down to a needs hierarchy, and a mix between personality, needs, and social expectations as to how dwarves react to events and decide what to do.
It would also be great if you were able to set the universal values and beliefs for the fortress so that your leaders would need to put their social skills to work trying to change and maintain the values and beliefs of each dwarf to that of the norm. If there were too many incompatibilities in values mixed with stubborn/strong-willed personalities there would be friction and revolts. Too many incompatibilities mixed with complacency/unassertiveness would lead to mental and physical illnesses.

But none of this probably wouldn't come about until the political and religious arcs are handled.

[LumenPlacidum]

Have the dwarves act normally while they're on-the-job.  When they go "On Break" then the ones who are very motivated will seek out a venue by which they can approach their goals.  The aspiring armorsmith takes a forge with no tasks assigned to it and uses some materials (that the DWARF pays for!) to make some helmets.  The noble mandates to not sell items of material X could actually be USEFUL, since they'd prevent the dwarves from acquiring important materials to fulfill the noble demands.  Besides, it makes good sense.

Urist McHopeful wanders to the bar stockpile and approaches a fine pewter bar.
Stokod McBookkeeper says, "Sorry Urist, the Baron has appropriated all fine pewter bars because he likes them and he owns this place."
Urist McHopeful makes something out of a different kind of metal.

[korora]

It's pretty amazing how quickly and thoroughly this thread was derailed.  I see two main possible treatments for dwarven ambition:

1) Dwarves are non-autonomous but their goals are shown on their profile screen.  ("Urist McLegendaryArmorsmith has always, deep down, wanted to be a Cheesemaker.")  The dwarves get happy thoughts for working toward their goals and the player acts accordingly if they care enough.

2) Dwarven goals are not displayed but (some?) dwarves are (sometimes?) autonomous.  Autonomous dwarves seek to maximize happiness; if their desire to take up a new profession is stronger than their desire to get paid at whatever they currently do, they'll go for it. (This includes Lumen's suggestion, which I like; dwarves would be autonomous on break.)

These goals wouldn't necessarily need to change the dwarf's job, either; we could have Urist McMayor who just loves to fish on the weekends.

Another thought: dwarves could have anti-goals, things they hate to do.  If they have a bad experience while doing something (again, particularly as a child) they could have a smaller bad thought associated with that task later on in life.

[Mephansteras]

Hmmm...good thought with the anti-goals. Although we may have a problem getting Masons later in the game, as children seem to get caught in building collapses more often then anyone else. Probably because they don't have anything better to do then rip up floors.

"Urist SmallDwarf dislikes masonry work, due to a childhood accident"

[Joseph Miles]

Children rip up floors? Since when? I've never had that problem.

[ShadeJS]

I don't think immigrants should have goals that significantly deviate from their professions.  Presumably they have had the time to settle down and figure out what it is they can be successful and happy doing (with the possible exceptions of a few random ones plus some peasants). Children, on the other hand, should be strongly influenced by their goals and even start in on them before they reach adulthood and you can control them.  Maybe they could have an "Apprentice" task where they can stand in a workshop while a skilled dwarf works and gain experience for it.

Agree about the immigrant part...

BUT FOR THE CHILDREN:
How about children are more likely to have their parent's goals, or be biased to have goals based on their parents skills. This shouldn't be a 100% thing... But a bias toward their parents goals, followed by skills, followed by random.

[Joseph Miles]

I agree with the above, to a degree. What about those dysfunctional families, though? It shouldn't be so easy as "They're my parents, I love them, I want to be like them." There should be some percentage, probably a small percentage, of  children should end up opposing their parents and have completely contradictory goals.

[Draco18s]

Children rip up floors? Since when? I've never had that problem.

Deconstructing walls and floors requires no particular profession, so nobles and children will happily do it.

[Willfor]

And then once they get influenced by some Elven country, and nature loving suddenly explodes within the youth community, the number of rebellious children will skyrocket. Soon they will start listening to quiet music, and refuse to drink themselves into a stupor, making their blood-alchohol level dangerously low.

Then comes guards giving children breathalisers (smelling their breath) on the roads, because they are walking sober. Walking sober. Gah!