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[Fieari]

As the Army Arc moves on, I'm pretty sure the "one [travel event] per season" thing is getting gutted, to be replaced by actual merchants and armies moving about on the world map, who will arrive at your local map when they get there.

[Pilsu]

As the Army Arc moves on, I'm pretty sure the "one [travel event] per season" thing is getting gutted, to be replaced by actual merchants and armies moving about on the world map, who will arrive at your local map when they get there.

Which probably means forts that aren't next to each other probably get a caravan every 3 years

[Granite26]

Which seems more reasonable.  Fewer Caravans, but significantly bigger.

[dizzyelk]

As the Army Arc moves on, I'm pretty sure the "one [travel event] per season" thing is getting gutted, to be replaced by actual merchants and armies moving about on the world map, who will arrive at your local map when they get there.

Which probably means forts that aren't next to each other probably get a caravan every 3 years

But if you could send out a caravan, then it wouldn't matter if it took awhile. "Urist and Cog, grab a wagon and an axe squad. Go see what those humans'll give us for this load of stone crap we don't need. Try for metal items, we can always melt 'em down."

[Mikademus]

I don't think DF is meant to be an RTS game

Sure looks like an RTS game to me. It's a strategy game that runs in real time.

Don't worry, you're not the only one confused about this. RTS games is a genre, thus not all games of a strategic nature played in real-time are "RTS" games. Though having military dwarves, DF in fact fulfils almost none of the common RTS criteria and is actually more of a City-building or God game.

Had RTS been named better we would have a lot less terminological and meaningless confusion and in today's computer game theory debates.

[Granite26]

Part of the problem is the fact that most artistic genres are really just arbitrary circles drawn in space.  What should be a vast and varied ecosystem is instead reduced to corn, wheat, rice and potatoes by radio station formats, blockbuster's store layouts, Amazon's search structure, etc...

Another part is that once Wolfenstein proves something is cool, and HalfLife and Halo write it large, the control scheme and expectations are there to be filled.

My two cents anyway...

Back on topic:  How do you manage a bustling stream of independant traders from all over the world with the occasional evil army rampaging the countryside and sieging your fortress?

[Tormy]

I don't think DF is meant to be an RTS game

Sure looks like an RTS game to me. It's a strategy game that runs in real time.

Don't worry, you're not the only one confused about this. RTS games is a genre, thus not all games of a strategic nature played in real-time are "RTS" games. Though having military dwarves, DF in fact fulfils almost none of the common RTS criteria and is actually more of a City-building or God game.

Had RTS been named better we would have a lot less terminological and meaningless confusion and in today's computer game theory debates.

DF gameplay is quite unique. Fortress mode is definitely close to the RTS genre itself. Army + resource management, real time gameplay. So basically it is a combined rts/city builder.

[Jurph]

Had RTS been named better we would have a lot less terminological and meaningless confusion and in today's computer game theory debates.

I think most "RTS" games would be better named "small army tactics" or "regional resource and combat" games.  Nobody would actually use those names, but the problem is that very few RTS games involve anything as grand as strategy, and you rarely command more than a hundred military units.

Zerging is a tactic.  Turtling is a tactic with some strategic elements.  Economic boom with a future plan for a crippling blitzkrieg is somewhat strategic, but relies on good tactics to work.   Choosing to establish a trap-laden fortress of cave-dwelling dragon-slaying luchadores in the one mountain pass that connects your civilization to the goblin civilization is the cornerstone of a (very defensive) strategy.  It's like the Maginot Line, only finely decorated with cat leather and hanging rings of goblin bone.

Call it what you want, Dwarf Fortress is a fantastic game because it's not just you and Player 2 on the terrain... it's you vs. the mountain, and the magma, and the carp, and the elves, and the gobbos, and the HFS, and the Hammerer, and the Dwarven Society that keeps sending nobles and soapmakers...

[Granite26]

Choosing to establish a trap-laden fortress of cave-dwelling dragon-slaying luchadores in the one mountain pass that connects your civilization to the goblin civilization is the cornerstone of a (very defensive) strategy.  It's like the Maginot Line, only finely decorated with cat leather and hanging rings of goblin bone.

Hillarious....

[Mikademus]

DF gameplay is quite unique. Fortress mode is definitely close to the RTS genre itself. Army + resource management, real time gameplay. So basically it is a combined rts/city builder.

Agree with most of what you say. If we were to try to define it, DF shares some overlap with the conventional RTS form, though neither resources, production facilities nor troops really adhere to that template. It also has elements of economic simulator, city builder and god game. So DF is absolutely unique in that it is an almost-hybrid of these types that is less than and more than all of these at the same type. So yeah, DF is unique and we can't really subsume it under any existing mould.

Had RTS been named better we would have a lot less terminological and meaningless confusion and in today's computer game theory debates.

I think most "RTS" games would be better named "small army tactics" or "regional resource and combat" games.  Nobody would actually use those names, but the problem is that very few RTS games involve anything as grand as strategy, and you rarely command more than a hundred military units.

Zerging is a tactic.  Turtling is a tactic with some strategic elements.  Economic boom with a future plan for a crippling blitzkrieg is somewhat strategic, but relies on good tactics to work.   Choosing to establish a trap-laden fortress of cave-dwelling dragon-slaying luchadores in the one mountain pass that connects your civilization to the goblin civilization is the cornerstone of a (very defensive) strategy.  It's like the Maginot Line, only finely decorated with cat leather and hanging rings of goblin bone.

Extra pudding for +Maginot Line+ menacing with spiked of kitten leather

You're bringing up the second of the two huge confusions surrounding "RTS" games: the meaning of "strategy" and "tactics". The problem is that when classifying strategy wargames (the super-genre that include real-time and turn-based strategy- and tactical games [RTS, RTT, TBS, TBT]) these terms are used differently from in dictionary. Whereas military definitions (correctly) refers to long (war) term vs. immediate (battle) term methods, games rather mean strategy as managing economy and production (the focus of typical traditional RTS games like Dune II, Warcraft and Starcraft) and tactics as battlefield manoeuvres (formations, controlling heights, etc; RTT games such as Close Combat, Gettysburg!, Warhammer: Dark Omen, and the battle sequences of Total War).

So yeah, using "correct" dictionary terminology Zerging would be a tactic you can use while the order you build your buildings would be relatively more strategic choices (in context), but Starcraft is still a RTS (strategy) game while Myth II: Soulblighter is a RTT (tactics) game with the more limited game genre usage of "strategic" and "tactical". Rather silly and poorly named, yeah, but something we have to live with.

[Pilsu]

But if you could send out a caravan, then it wouldn't matter if it took awhile. "Urist and Cog, grab a wagon and an axe squad. Go see what those humans'll give us for this load of stone crap we don't need. Try for metal items, we can always melt 'em down."

High appraiser skill could give you more of the stuff you ordered too

Good idea as long as the merchants themselves always return. Preferably with the equipment and body of any bodyguard casualties. You know the worldgen combat would cause your champion dwarves to bite it when fighting groundhogs or some crap and losing armor to that would get frustrating fast. And if the merchants themselves could be lost, their skills would be about as useful as hunters are now


I suppose it'd boil down to players mass producing clothing and glass to supply the caravans since other materials run out