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[bartle]

And other dinosaurs. Semi-Megabeast Tyrannosaurus Magus Rex, magical lizard tyrant powers GO! Taking down two squads for breakfast before going to gargle with magma to get the cloth out from between it's teeth.

Dinosaur Warlock, baby.

Edit: Sorry for being off-topic. I am brimming with shame.

[G-Flex]

I'm picturing "Lost World" type areas, hidden deep underground (under plains, mountains, wherever really), consisting of huge open caves full of weird grasses, trees, and dinosaurs and crap.

Granted, I have no idea how you'd make this make sense. After all, this is coming from someone who thinks dwarves being able to grow wheat underground is silly as hell (it kind of is, really).

[Sprout]

I'm picturing "Lost World" type areas, hidden deep underground (under plains, mountains, wherever really), consisting of huge open caves full of weird grasses, trees, and dinosaurs and carp.

Fixed.

[Othob Rithol]

10/15/2008: All right, sorting out the underground revisions... we'd like to get a framework in place that can recapture some of the better properties of the 2D version without conceding any ground. The general idea is to set up a few world gen params that will allow you to control the frequency and nature of underground features that you might encounter, especially as you mine in dwarf mode.

If many features are requested, they'd need to be arranged in such a way their discovery is inevitable while at the same time providing some breathing room for a fortress. So the first issue is that some (not most, fortunately) of the code still more or less has the map features stored as 2D rather than 3D objects, so that I can't currently layer features over each other. Once features can be placed over each other in 3D, we can have entire layers devoted to this and that, boxed in by this and that on their sides, twisted around with this, with that over there. So you'd hit something. I'm also planning to push more of it into the existing system (used for HFS) that creates units, items, fluids etc. as they are discovered to avoid FPS hits from the increased feature density.

Another issue present in 2D that is largely absent now are some interesting and long-lasting challenges from map features after (or before) they are discovered. Previously, you'd be attacked or otherwise perturbed by ambushing critters of various sorts. So we'll have that, at least what we had before. The gremlin needs to be your buddy again. And new buddies. It's no fun to spoil the specifics though.

There will have to be a lot of specific remodeling to facilitate this process. Chasms for example don't support creatures moving around as they stand -- a lot of the silliness like critters sitting on bizarre ledges for no reason will have to be changed. Features can't support populations versus your fortress properly if they don't have off-map access points (without something strange like monster generators), so more features will be large enough to make more sense that way.

Practically speaking, I'm going to start with the 2D -> 3D conversion and clean up some other code that'll allow me to add things easily and to add them over larger patches of the map than the single world map squares that are used right now. After that, I'd like to get it up to around the point of interest and excitement from the 2D version for thems that wants it, though as I mentioned previously, I'm only going to be working on this for long enough to get a framework established, then I'm going to go back and do the remaining work on this release in its proper order.

posted here for anyone that hasn't read them yet.

Adding a few things (like a lost world cavern entry that will incorporate some other mentions)

Edit 1:
Lost worlds will not likely get the Toad Stamp of Approval^TM in my opinion, since it requires the generation/coding of unique plants/animals/monsters for a rather rare event. Once "random creatures" is added, it might squeeze in. Just an opinion.

Now we have two explicit mentions of dinosaurs in the list (thus proving I don't edit out the ideas I don't like personally), so let's not bring that one up again, shall we?

The heavens/mood caverns etc were added in, even though they cross the stated intention line a bit IMHO. They have clear ties to other items in the dev notes, which is something I try (unsuccessfully) to avoid. Frankly I want to try to stay away from such additions because they are not clearly UD. If we walk down that road, we could add any and all suggestions to this list by just appending "in a cave" to the suggestion.

Edit 2:

Fair warning to all those voting for UD. Since Toady is clearly implementing features from this list, the votes will be reset (after duly recorded on the OP for bragging rights). I encourage you to vote for UD again to keep it a priority issue, but also keep in mind that we need to try out all the new additions to the game, re-evaluate the non-implemented items, and get some new content before we rocket this back up the flagpole. Otherwise the whining will not end.

Anything implemented will be removed from the list, and stored in spoiler tags in the OP.

And I want to mention just how F-ing thrilled I am that Toady opted to restore the 2D feel of the mountain before adding new content. We had to take a step back to get 3D (which was worth it), but hopefully the mountain will regain its vicious demeanor.

[G-Flex]

Lost worlds will not likely get the Toad Stamp of Approval^TM in my opinion, since it requires the generation/coding of unique plants/animals/monsters for a rather rare event. Once "random creatures" is added, it might squeeze in. Just an opinion.

Other underground features get their own, interesting creatures and map features already. This wouldn't be any different, except for maybe the plants, which I admit would be a bit of a challenge. But as far as animals go, hell, you could be saying that about chasms, or underground rivers. HFS is even worse in that regard.

[LumenPlacidum]

I don't know that it's really a question of having to generate entirely new creatures for such lost worlds.  Does every creature in the raws end up in every world?  Maybe.  Would that be true if we had much more extensive raws with many hundreds of creatures?  I don't know.  It boils down to how the generation system populates the regions.  If you can encounter ANY savage, evil forest creature in any savage evil forest, then I think that you're right.  However, I think the way this is done is that the game selects certain creatures to inhabit certain areas (just like how in adventure mode, sometimes you'll find forests where instead of being attacked by wolves every three steps you're attacked by grizzly bears, or giant lions).

If the latter is the case, then the game could simply look for creatures that do not have representation in the biomes on the surface, and they could be "preserved" in a unique cave ecosystem that can be found by digging dwarfs.  I don't think it has to include dinosaurs, but then again I don't think that dinosaurs should be automatically assumed to be extinct when a world is generated.  They were obviously plausible creatures since they existed, and since I think the world generator is robust enough to generate a world in which being a dinosaur would be an advantage, I think the generator should be robust enough to populate a world with dinosaurs (just as an example, not that they should be exclusive) as typical animals.  In such a world, the "lost world cave" might contain animals that WE are familiar with but that might not be otherwise represented in the world, like horses, or dogs, even.

Similarly, the fossilized remains suggestion would be representative of the bones of creatures that may not exist in the ecosystem of the world as it is when you start playing.

[Mephansteras]

I added quite a few new creatures to my mod (including dinosaurs), and from my experience just about anything that CAN show up on a map will at some point or another. Still, that's an interesting thought about how things should work, perhaps.

Perhaps a tag could be added to the raws of a creature to designate that is shows up in certain Features? That would work well for a lot of the suggestions in this list, like the creatures trapped in stone, or ancient temples. Golem guardians, perhaps, that only appear in ancient ruins?

[Othob Rithol]

Was just expressing my opinion on the subject.

Then again, it doesn't even need to be an unique or globally under represented species. Like my entry in the OP (and several posts here) point out, anything out of the ordinary might fit. An icy cavern populated by polar bears under a tropical forest, a subterranean sea of carp under a desert, or buried swamp deep beneath a craggy mountain all fit.

BTW, did anyone else see the new issue of NatGeo? Page 64: Cavern of Crystal Giants. Adding a link to the NatGeo site to the list.

[Foa]

Was just expressing my opinion on the subject.

Then again, it doesn't even need to be an unique or globally under represented species. Like my entry in the OP (and several posts here) point out, anything out of the ordinary might fit. An icy cavern populated by polar bears under a tropical forest, a subterranean sea of carp under a desert, or buried swamp deep beneath a craggy mountain all fit.

BTW, did anyone else see the new issue of NatGeo? Page 64: Cavern of Crystal Giants. Adding a link to the NatGeo site to the list.

I was watching it's related channels, so yeah I did, me want.

The Miner have gone down a Z-Region, call them back, you aren't ready!
You have struck warm, and damp rocks.
Your Miner Urist McUrist drowned/died of the heat. x #
Your Miners found a cavern filled of towering amounts of ruby.
Your Miners have struck star ruby. x SPAM SPAM SPAM

[Dari]

• Truly Subterranean Dwarves: With all the possibilities of underground connections, it could be possible for dwarven civilizations to not be connected with the surface world directly. Their caravans would travel underground, their outposts settled in caverns and chasms, and trade links to surface races non-existant or extremely limited. It could be possible, for example, to begin play at the bottom of a deep chasm connected via tunnel to the mountainhomes, with the intent of mining up to open trade with the surface races.
  

I think it would be cool if the probability of this semi-zenophobic behaviour was civ specific rather then being the norm for all of dwarven civilizations: The Somthing of Something Ridiculous refuses to create any aboveground settlements, or structures, whereas The Strong Oars of Trade have already sent Liason Officers to meet with whoever happens to be sitting on the surface directly above them. Could be based on civ-specific culture, and the ruling bodies social influence i.e. Don't trust those humans, they'd just as soon skin you and sell in a shop.

[BradB]

The topic of Antmen burrow entrances was up much earlier in the thread, Perhaps Antmen could enter and exit through "A colony of ants", and it only discovered the big burrow when you dug stairs or a channel on it.

Naturally not every "colony of ants" would be a big antman nest. There would still be some nomal ones. Perhaps if an Antman nest was in the biome, there would be a significantly larger amount of normal ant colonies as a kind of indicator?
Sounds like a cool hidden entrance to me.

[Hoborobo234]

I'd like to think of the idea of a dwarf city hangign off the side of a huge Chasm

[thobal]

And when a goblin finally sets foot into the grand coin chamber he steps on a pressure plate and send the whole thing falling into the void...

[Foa]

You have have found the lost Grand Kingdom of Terrantalus!!!
Your Kingdom is under attack!
It seems like the Dwarves were corrupted by the Cornilio the Cave Spider King!
It seems like the Dwarves were corrupted by the [Name] the Cave Spider King!
Your Kingdom has fallen...
The Streets Shall Flow With The Blood Of The Non-Believers!!

[GlyphGryph]

I just wanted to say I thought the previously mentioned "rumblecap" idea was amazing, and is the thing mentioned in this thread I'd most like to see.

Tunneling mushrooms? That can invade your fort? THAT is awesome.

Since they dig fairly slowly, and wouldn't start digging until after you entered the map, they wouldn't exactly be overpowered either... but it would be really fun I think. Especially if cave ins are reintroduced, it means they're underground digging might occasionally cause sections of your fort to collapse mysteriously, and you'd have to dig to find out why.