Anyone have a general idea as to when the kingdom, army and monarchy related stuffs will come into play? I would really like to see the things discussed in Core 27, 30, 33, 35, 46, 60, and the other things like offering to your king.
This seems to me, as one of the most interesting future aspects.
Something I would like to add to it is what perspective the player is allowed to take during the game. Becuase currently you play as some kind of unrecognized god controlling things from the shadows. I would like to see that when you get a king you control the fortress through the king's perspective, instead of just gaining a expensive and bossy noble.
The problem here is that the king isn't you. He's a specific dwarf, with a specific history and personality, and this will only matter more in the future when these effects are more fleshed-out.
Eventually Toady is going to have to get more specific with what role the player plays in Dwarf Fortress mode. I recall that there are plans to allow multiple sites to be founded from your fortress, standing armies to be sent out, etc, once your fortress gets a certain status (e.g. count(ess) -> county or king -> mountainhome). At that point, when we have a high-ranking noble who should really be making these decisions for themselves, we will need to rethink how the player manages to make the decisions.
How does the player manage to tell a dwarf on the outskirts of the fort that he has just been drafted into the army? How do they communicate to the manager that they want 30 beds crafted? How do they flag a lever to be pulled by a specific dwarf who has lived in isolation since becoming a child? All these things are possible currently and in the foreseeable future, but with no apparent mechanism and little consistency between different areas. Eventually we're going to need to know exactly how the player does all these things.
Of course, take it too far and it could ruin all the fun and Fun entirely. I doubt anybody wants to play a version of DF where they have to wait for the expedition leader to tell the miners where to dig, and communicate the layout properly. It would take a year to get the first dining room dug out. But some things are bizarre in the current situation. We can order a statue to be made from a specific metal, but we can't specify whether we want our dwarves to make a ring or a crown.