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[Footkerchief]

e: not relevant

[Tormy]

The latest update made me go "wow". These upcoming military/squad changes are really fantastic. 
I especially like this part [since this is a quite original & new idea]:

"Finally, the notion of any dwarf gaining a legendary skill becoming a "champion" is going to be replaced by the notion of a single champion that can be appointed/crowned/whatever by the baron/count/duke (one reason to have/keep one). There are various options for what the champion might do, but at the very least, traditional-minded dwarven soldiers (a personality facet) would be bolstered by the presence of the champion."

----

i wonder if we will ever get dwarves with personalities that affect gameplay.

say, Urist McOne dosent like doing things from the north-west corner, and does it in a spiraly pattern instead, or Bromek mcTwo likes gouging out goblins' eyes rather than breaking their necks.

Discuss.

I am 100% sure that personalities will affect gameplay in the future. It's not even a question. 

[Dakk]

I understand both point of views here, and i agree Brendan in that major features are more important than cosmetic ones, but that doesn't make said features useless, far from it. Major features such as a complex squad system and a magic system are great to have and are the bricks that make up the game, but without the cosmetic details, its just it, a big and ugly wall, impressive, but ugly.
The cosmetic features give true life to the game, they help to create a link between the gamer's imagination and the game features, making the experience far more enjoyable and deep. And i believe that one of the main things that captured DF's players attention is its depth. You can have a great game with all those major features, but without those tiny details, it gets boring and grindy fast.

I agree that the major features should have a higher priority, but i support the idea of adding the cosmetic part in-between them to keep the development a fun and fresh experience, aswell as the gameplay. I personaly like to know my dwarf likes to braid his beard and enjoys the jewels encrusted in his axe, it gives each dwarf a personality of their own, without these features, DF wouldn't have held my attention for so long.

[Jakkarra]

i really like that new champion implementation, i don't usually bother that much with militaries myself at the moment (goblins seem to hate where i live) but this does seem like a nice addition, as does all the other new things toady is doing, he has replaced valvE as my favourite and most respected games developer.

i wonder, are there any other things that may be added that we do not already know about? (not to say that what toady has done is enough, im just idly speculating)



Also: to Tormy's edit directed to me,
HUZZAH!

[Footkerchief]

i wonder, are there any other things that may be added that we do not already know about? (not to say that what toady has done is enough, im just idly speculating)

Yes.  There always are, partly because Toady purposely keeps some stuff (like new HFS) secret, and partially because there are always more small changes than he has time to write about.

Also, personalities already affect gameplay in subtle ways.  It's nowhere near its full potential yet though.

[Jakkarra]

this year is shaping up to be an incredibly awesome experience.

[LumenPlacidum]

I am 100% sure that personalities will affect gameplay in the future. It's not even a question. 

I'm 100% sure that personalities affect gameplay NOW.  Butchers that like cats.  Two soldiers in the same squad going grudge instead of friends because their personalities are diametric opposites, leading to one of them.  Nobles making ridiculous demands.  Dwarves spending their off-time in their rooms rather than in the dining room.

All these things have definite game effects, and they frequently are inexplicable until someone stumbles upon the descriptive element in the game.  I think of these things as definite valuable features of the game because it gives a very satisfied and amused feeling realizing that your dwarves are blood-enemies because of the way they feel about jam.  Gives a little glimpse into the sandbox-y depth of the game.

  I love DF!

[Random832]

it should be possible to add (some sort of) menu to the game that lets you switch grid size/tilesets at runtime, through using the same mechanism that works when switching between fullscreen/windowed mode.

Besides that, it should be relatively simple to simplify the init.txt setup - give a tileset size and resolution, let it figure out the grid size on its own.

Continuing that line of thought, given the fact that the grid size can differ between fullscreen and normal, how about dynamic resizing? Not via a menu, but rather just let the user grab the corner of the window like any other application. You could even have the user pick (via init.txt) whether this changes the tileset size or the grid size (or maybe it changes one until it reaches some limit, then switches to the other - e.g. obviously any size that would bring the grid under 80x25 has to be either prevented or changed to a tileset resize)

[Baughn]

Eh. Yeah, that's how I'd do it, assuming it's doable at all. I did say I hadn't given it much thought.

We'll find out in 40d12, I guess - the shared library stuff in there will make this sort of thing much easier.

[Evil One]

I understand both point of views here, and i agree Brendan in that major features are more important than cosmetic ones, but that doesn't make said features useless, far from it. Major features such as a complex squad system and a magic system are great to have and are the bricks that make up the game, but without the cosmetic details, its just it, a big and ugly wall, impressive, but ugly.

My point was that it's perhaps a better idea to build/carve the wall BEFORE you start 'engraving' it.

[Ampersand]

This update is going to be epic and everyone who thinks otherwise should be sacrificed to Armok.

Also, Baughn, can't the grid sizes be deduced by taking the X and Y dimensions of the provided tileset file and dividing them by sixteen? More than simple.

It's just that, since resizing the main window to anything other than 80x25 is something relatively new, these considerations were never strictly important until now. Dynamic resizing would be grand. Some launcher UI to make these considerations more accessible than editing the init.txt would probably be the best option for setting everything up.

If you input the tileset you want, the dimensions of an individual tile should be extracted, then, using a slider one should be able to adjust the grid size for both dimensions. Beside both sliders would be the calculated window size. Between these two things, a ratio lock button that can be toggled, just in case you want to, for one reason or another, not have the grid size match the window size.

[Baughn]

Yep, calculating the appropriate grid size is really, really simple.

What might not be simple, or even possible, is dynamic resizing. Time will tell on that one.

[Brendan]

It's perhaps a better idea to build/carve the wall BEFORE you start 'engraving' it.

I'm in total agreement with this. I'm not against cosmetic features, I'd just prefer the game to be made first.

[Baughn]

I'd agree, if that was how it worked.

It isn't. Chances are good that, by Toady considering these "engravings" now instead of later, he'll avoid having to tear down half the wall later to retrofit them.

So even if I was against this sort of stuff (I'm not, but that's a different matter), there are good reasons to do it now, if we want it at all.

[Mel_Vixen]

And please remember that DF isnt only the Fort-mode. Personalities appereances and all that fluff in Fort-mode are rather essential for the experience in the Adventure mode.