These are several suggestions I typed out quite a while back, maybe even as far back as the last 2-D versions. I've done some intermittent editing and inserting, though. I apologize for the amount of text here, but I figured dumping it all in one place was better than making a whole bunch of small posts. I fully realize that some of this is probably already or has been mentioned. I tried to weed out the ones that didn't need to be said, but like I said, this is largely from an old list.
As a note, these are not in a particular order. The numbers are more or less just so you can easily tell where you are and which suggestion is which.
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1.Goblins, although unintelligent and warlike, should still be able to trade with fortresses, particularly when a fortress is so large and powerful that attacking them is a great risk. What's more, a powerful fortress might gain the alliance of goblins (they respect power and wealth... and shiny stuff.)
2.Maybe there should be a type of "moderate" mood, where the quality and value of the item is left to chance a bit more. For instance, a dwarf might be inspired to craft something, but not have muchskill. As a result, there could be a chance their attempt will fail (maybe causing an unhappy thought) or simply be of normal quality (except maybe with a low quality engraving or such details). On the other hand, perhaps a moody dwarf could create a shoddy item, yet because it is their own creation and they thought their idea was genius, they covet the item as if they had created a masterpiece. Once the artifact timer on the item runs out (like with masterpieces), there will be a chance that they will drop it and treat it like any other item, become obsessed with it again, or perhaps even get bad thoughts because they finally realize how ugly or badly made the item is (even seek to destroy it).
3.Destructive moods.
This might tie in with #2. Instead of being inspired to create something, they are inspired to destroy something. This would probably happen most with unhappy dwarves. Also, maybe being posessed could cause it. Here is a scenario to give an example;
Torduk had had a dream; a powerful dream that terrified him. Fer, a talented metalsmith, had
recently become inspired and produced the most finely crafted weapon any of the dwarves had seen;
A perfect and fearsome silver mace fitted with platinum spikes he had called "Ogreclobber, the
Arcing Rod of Murder". Surely this weapon would be the demise of any whom attacked the fortress, but
as Torduk had seen in his dream, it was actually the opposite that was true. It had to be destroyed,
and only he had the knowledge to understand why. He drew away from the other dwarves, keeping watch
only on Fer, who now carried the mace everywhere. When it became clear that he wouldn't leave the
object alone for even a second, Torduk became desperate and confronted Fer. "That weapon is too
dangerous. It will spell doom for our fortress if it isn't destroyed", he told Fer. "What?! Ye want
to take this perfect craft, meh soul's own work, an' melt it down?!! Bagh!!", Fer had an almost
maniacle look in his eyes at the prospect of destroying his only perfect work, his cherished work.
At that, Torduk grabbed his pick from his belt and raised it against Fer. "Then I'm afraid I'm
forced to fight you for it, old friend", said Torduk with a grieved tone. "Then so be it! I'll die
before I let meh life's work be melted down!" They fought, pick versus mastercraft. Torduk's left
arm was mangled by a heavy blow, but it left Fer open. With all of his dwarven might Torduk swung
the pick, and in a moment of almost divine luck, he drove it into Fer's head. He then took the mace
and took it to the smithing chamber, knocked the dwarf at the forge aside, and tossed the artifact
into the hungry flames.
If you looked at his thoughts, they would read something like this; 'Torduk was forced to kill a friend recently. He has carried out a task of great importance recently.' Oh, and... 'He has been imprisoned recently.'
4.Items tossed into rivers or dropped into chasms that resurface in legends. Say an artifact cup is dropped into a river when it's creator is attacked by a crocodile. Maybe it washes ashore next to the river outside the mountain, where it is found by goblins, or it is found in a lake by a human peasant. Anyway, then it would be possible to encounter the item in adventure mode and find a legend about it, or maybe it might even be traded by humans to another fortress in the future. I'm all for items with rich histories. Naturally the chances of ever discovering one of these items would be very very small, but it would still be cool if it was there. Maybe in the future, once artifacts are more "special", they will "seek" to be found, and thus be more likely to reappear.
5.How about an occasional (but rare) masterwork that the creator actually doesn't like? Even though everyone else is happy with something, doesn't necessarily mean the artist themself is. Maybe it doesn't fit the artist's original vision, despite being very well made. Thus, he(she) won't obsess over it like most dwarves do over their masterpieces.
6.Some items should stay in the river when tossed in, and not be completely lost.
7.Nonmagical healing (doctors and medicine) is something I want to see, but I'm sure others have said plenty, and I'm sure it's coming. At a doctor's office, one could get small bruises and cuts healed on the spot (grey damage). For moderately damaged or broken limbs (dark yellow and yellow), wrappings with healing herbs, splints, or casts might be applied, allowing your adventurer to heal faster. For mangled (red) body parts, surgery should be necessary, especially when involving bodily organs, and after surgery it is treated like a broken limb and put in a cast. Each of these services would cost more depending on the severity of the wound and local economy. In a fortress, a doctor could help to get your dwarves healed faster, as well as wrapping up lesser wounds so that the dwarves will still heal even though they insist on working.
8.On the topic of magical healing, I just thought I'd mention an interesting thought I had; Undead/magical prostetics. If you want it cheap you get something along the lines of a golem or even a skeleton prosthetic (which would probably cause many to dislike/fear/shun you if you didn't keep it covered up and secret), but if you want it well done, a good wizard might be able to reheal your limbs or give you well-made magical (quality) golem prosthetics.
9.As far as ideas that I've had concerning magic, I've thought about the idea of extremely powerful magic (for instance in the case of an immensely powerful mage). I keep imagining fantasy stories in which great wizards use natural disasters, weather phenomena, and other great powers to strike down powerful foes or decimate armies. Maybe a group of a counry's wizards gather to cast a powerful spell against their enemies?
10.Immediately, there are only two things I can think of to suggest concerning the current trade system. Firstly, I believe that once you have bought something, there ought to be an indication of where the item you bought is. Maybe your purchased items could flash between colors or symbols (perhaps the dollar sign?). I say this because the first time I went into a shop and bought an item, I walked out without realizing I needed to pick the item up; I was spoiled because of other games
. My second suggection is that the merchants tell the characters to pick up their money up off the back table. The same could be done with the items, I suppose, and then the items might not need to flash.
11.Whenever items are laying around in town, I've noticed that they seem to eventually make it into merchants' wares. I like that; it makes sense that a merchant would try to pawn found items. The same goes with items adventurers sell to stores. However, it would be neat if stores within a town would trade amongst themselves so that each item made its way to the appropriate store. It doesn't make sense that a butcher adds a glove to his wares simply because someone traded it to buy meat. Say you sell a suit of armor in a jewelry store. At some point the jewelry merchant could go over to the armor shop and sell the armor to the armor shop owner (for a profit?). If the armor merchant had no jewelry items to trade for it, he would trade some shop money for it, which the jewelry merchant would then add to his stash.
12.It would be neat if in the future, once towns and civilizations begin trading with one another,
adventurers can be given jobs as caravan guards or even caravan leaders once they are well known and respected. They would have to keep the cargo safe if the caravan was attacked. They would be charged the cost of any lost goods and part of the cost for damaged goods (if they were caravan leader; if they were a guard, they would be responsible for medical payments for anyone who got seriously injured), but the pay given for the job would be enough to allow for minor accidents. Some caravans might travel a long way, making multiple stops to trade goods or simply rest a day. This is one of those "might get implemented someday regardless of whether I mention it" things, but I say it anyway because it's fun to think about.
13.The ability to carry fallen or injured comrades.
14.New clothing article; coin purse. Automatically stores coins and restacks coins of the same type. Essentially just like a quiver.
15.Add the sling to the list of weapons. It could be used with stones fron the ground, and I feel it is an appropriate weapon particularly for less civilized races like kobolds and such. It would make sense.
16.Make a universal numeric size tag in addition to the current weight tags. This would probably help with balancing throwing eventually, as well as possibly helping with realism concerning backpacks and such (I vividly remember the time I stuffed a GIANT'S CORPSE into my LEATHER BACKPACK and HAULED IT INTO TOWN... unfortunately, for some reason the shopkeepers didn't want the day old, stinking corpse of the town's infamous enemy...) Also, "solid" and "soft" tags (note: I'm not a modder, I just know a few concepts and have some knowledge from being around the forums) could also help the game tell that a cloth shirt can't be thrown 20 feet (while loose, at least), while a medium sized rock might.
17.I really like the fact that the "parchment" world map you use in game only shows places that the civilizations have discovered and searched. It means that there is more out there than the civiliztions know about. Mysteries to uncover. This gives me plenty of ideas. For one thing, I think it would be interesting if each town, and civilization made their own maps. If two civilizations developed trade, then their maps would become larger as they added the other civilizations maps to their own. I personally think that making the map more unknown could be an improvement once the density of "story material" becomes greater. Once there is more to do and adventure mode becomes more detailed, it would be cool if a new character started out with knowledge only of the regions surrounding the town he/she starts out in, with a chance of knowing more (like if the character had traveled before they were taken under player control). After obtaining a little money, the player will be able to purchase maps, either from a trader, the mayor himself, or possibly a cartographer if a map-maker happens to have a shop in the town, in which case you could get exploratory quests from the cartographer. Either he might send you to explore uncharted territory in a certain direction, or he might request that you be a guard on an exploratory journey he wants to arrange. Certain towns or civilizations could disappear from maps if trade to them is lot and they are forgotten. Even entire civilizations might not show up on other civilization's maps because they are on the other sides of large obstacles such as mountainranges or oceans. As the player obtained maps they add together and the player would know more about the world. As it is, the player can't be sent on quests into uncharted territory, and I think that should change eventually.
18.Quests in which you must bring back proof of the kill. If an enemy has a scar, bringing back a scarred body part will work, but otherwise it must be the head (at least). Also, hunting missions where you must bring back skins, meat, or other materials. This type of quest would be given by merchants andor alchemists, and possibly mages later on (spell components?). Hunting would be a quest that could be done in any place or any manner you wanted as long as you brought back the correct materials from the correct type of animal. When given the quest, the adventurer would be given the location of at least one place where the animal could be found. You should be able to hunt named beasts. While you wouldn't be *expected* to find them as in a traditional quest, if you happened across them in a random encounter, taking their body or pelt back to town should have special rewards.
19.Quests to go save someone or return with their body. This makes me think of something that I know will be added to adventure mode eventually; graveyards. I hope those tombstones will have generated captions.
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I'm done now. In the future I'll try to suggest things as I think of them since dumping large amounts of text like this, particularly with the expectation of someone reading it, is uncomfortable for me and feels a bit wrong. Unless of course I'm told otherwise and it's not a problem.
Anyone who reads the whole thing has my personal gratitude and commendation for patience.
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Topic: From my list of personal suggestion notes (19 of them!) :0 (Read 1257 times)