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[Luke_Prowler]

This is the best Topic i have ever read. while I'm here, i might as well make a suggestion: Putting more creatures into caverns has been said already, but what about some flying ones? your miners breach a wall and BAM attacked by a deep crow.

also, has anyone mentioned Radioactive Minerals?

[Sunday]

Yes, but it probably can't be mentioned enough.

Mutant giant cave spiders FTW!

[LegacyCWAL]

I don't think radiation-radioactive would come up that much in "dwarf-real life", and if it did, I'd assume that dwarves would know how to handle it.

Now, magical radiation, on the other hand...

[Plank of Wood]

Urist Freeman, Scientist has cancelled cross radioactive waste - Logic Puzzle.

[Hoborobo234]

Urist Freeman, Scientist has cancelled cross radioactive waste - Logic Puzzle.

would make excellent new zombies

[Skynet 2.0]

(First post in the forums, BTW. Been lurking forever, and this thread finally convinced me to join.)

I was thinking of something like Tiberium from the Command & Conquer universe. A type of rare, valuable crystal that would be found in small (3-4 tile radius) sealed-off geodes. If you found one, it would give you a warning, and the interior of the geode would be revealed without actually mining it. If you decided to continue, you could harvest all of it for a quick profit with little risk, or let it 'grow' on neighboring rock, and keep on making money off of it, albeit at a slower pace. It would be very hazardous to harvest, as it would form on whatever was nearby, including your Dwarves, if one of them fell asleep on some crystals or something. Also, if you weren't careful or didn't pay attention, it could spread to your fortress and make it uninhabitable. Although if that did happen, you could send in a reclaim party made up of 60 miners and 10 growers/brewers/cooks, and harvest all of it in a few days for massive profit.

It could be limited by only growing on certain kinds of rock, like only the metamorphic stone that made up the bottom four layers of your fortress or so. Or it would only be found far deep down, and not be able to grow up stairways (only up ramps), so there would be ways to keep it contained. Also, it would grow slowly, so you would be able to notice the bright green crystals creeping up your shafts long before they reached any of your Dwarves. To store it safely, you would have to place it on solid metal floors, and not have any stone walls nearby, otherwise it would start to grow on the floors and walls after not being moved for awhile. The crystal itself would be in a shell of very hard unique stone, which would take 5x as long to mine through, so you would have enough time to stop even a legendary miner if you accidentally designated it to be mined.

It would be a very rare occurrence, maybe only 2 or 3 of these geodes per region tile, and it wouldn't show up on the embark screen. If you did find one of the geodes, it would present an interesting decision. You could leave it alone, and avoid mining in the area. You could send in all your legendary miners, and mine it all at once, without much danger. Or you could set up a 'farm' that would slowly continue to generate crystals.

You could build an extensive containment structure around it, with several airlock doors, so it would be safe to harvest. Then, once it was all prepared, you would have mined out a large square around the geode without breaching it, except for one support at the bottom. To breach it, you would then pull the lever, and the geode would fall down and smash open, scattering green crystals everywhere, which would soon start to grow into more Tiberium.

I like the idea of the game being more similar to the 2D version, knowing that you would get plenty of interesting features, but I also like not knowing exactly how your fortress will turn out. Putting in features that you had no way of knowing if they were there would be a good compromise between the two. You could plan out your fortress, and make it precisely how you wanted, but then find a Tiberium geode, and a large pert of your fort would shift downward, and be centered on the Tiberium, and the containment 'airlocks' you built around the designated area. It would help keep the forts away from the rigorous structure of the 2D version, where you had, very little variation in your fort, but still have plenty of interesting features.

[Osmosis Jones]

Already in, albeit without it specifically being a gem.

From the first page,

Living Rock: (I) A true endolith, perhaps a "breed" of rock exists that repopulates itself using a system similar to Conway's Life algorithm. Providing an endless amount of stone, it could be a rather large nuisance: blocking tunnels, filling rooms, and potentially encasing sleeping dwarves.

[Skynet 2.0]

Already in, albeit without it specifically being a gem.

From the first page,

Living Rock: (I) A true endolith, perhaps a "breed" of rock exists that repopulates itself using a system similar to Conway's Life algorithm. Providing an endless amount of stone, it could be a rather large nuisance: blocking tunnels, filling rooms, and potentially encasing sleeping dwarves.

Yes, it builds on the Living Rock idea, but this would be much more rare and valuable, and could pose a serious threat to your Dwarves if you weren't careful with it, rather than just being a nuisance. Falling asleep in it would quickly be fatal, and dwarves working near it might suffer gradual lung damage. Also, it wouldn't grow by itself, it would need a host material to grow over. Otherwise, they are similar, and could use a similar algorithm, although Tiberium would start with one or two tiles, and spread outward from there, rather Conway's Life's system.

[Foa]

Already in, albeit without it specifically being a gem.

From the first page,

Living Rock: (I) A true endolith, perhaps a "breed" of rock exists that repopulates itself using a system similar to Conway's Life algorithm. Providing an endless amount of stone, it could be a rather large nuisance: blocking tunnels, filling rooms, and potentially encasing sleeping dwarves.

Yes, it builds on the Living Rock idea, but this would be much more rare and valuable, and could pose a serious threat to your Dwarves if you weren't careful with it, rather than just being a nuisance. Falling asleep in it would quickly be fatal, and dwarves working near it might suffer gradual lung damage. Also, it wouldn't grow by itself, it would need a host material to grow over. Otherwise, they are similar, and could use a similar algorithm, although Tiberium would start with one or two tiles, and spread outward from there, rather Conway's Life's system.

How about a "Living Rock" farm, completely isolated, and the walls/floors/etc are " Living Rock"-Proof, except
the entrance, which can be sealed ( "Door" has been sealed by the "Living Rock" ) so you keep hacking at it.

So a construction command like, Place "Living Rock" seeds ( term taken from modern day crystal cultivators ) .

[Skynet 2.0]

How about a "Living Rock" farm, completely isolated, and the walls/floors/etc are " Living Rock"-Proof, except
the entrance, which can be sealed ( "Door" has been sealed by the "Living Rock" ) so you keep hacking at it.

So a construction command like, Place "Living Rock" seeds ( term taken from modern day crystal cultivators ) .

And the rock itself would have to be kept in bins, otherwise, unless the stockpile was over soil or sand, the rock would start turning the surrounding area into more Living Rock soon after you set it down. Also, if Dwarfs near the crystal did take lung damage over time, you would have to closely monitor the mining operations at all times, and make sure any Dwarf who got too damaged was removed from the area immediately, before their lungs got to mangled and ensured they would never work again. You would also want to make sure that none of your legendary miners were harvesting crystals, and would want to send down only the soapers who barely knew how to hold a pick. That way, it could also serve as a training area for miners. If they survived long enough to become skilled in mining or better, they were clearly capable and hardy miners, and would be transferred to real mining work.

[Othob Rithol]

I actually like where this is headed. I also combines elements of cave kudzu from the plants section.

My spin on the idea:

The crystals are just that : crystals. They can be cut and encrusted or they can be used (in place of rock crystal) to make crystal glass. That more than qualifies for creating motivation to find some.

when I have more than a few minutes, I'll add the entry. If you can, try to post a blurb of 1-3 sentences that summarizes the idea (saves me from doing it)

[Skynet 2.0]

If you can, try to post a blurb of 1-3 sentences that summarizes the idea (saves me from doing it)

Certain types of crystals should slowly grow on the surrounding rock.

[Silverionmox]

Are stalactites and stalagmites already mentioned? They grown more slowly, so they would only come into play in world generation and possible in areas that have irregular time flow for some reason.

[zagibu]

I really like the Tiberium suggestion. It should of course not be called Tiberium, but the idea of a valuable crystal rapidly growing over everything but metal sounds cool.

[LegacyCWAL]

Heh, unlike an "obsidian farm", you really would be able to farm that stuff