I just came up with a brilliant idea!!!!
REEEEAALLY time consuming but carping worth it.
Taking advantage of mechanisms, drawbridges of various sorts and etc. ...
...wait for it...
Animating murals.
As far as I can think, it may only be (mono/di)chromatic (dunno which would be more appropriate). Unless you can pile bridges on top of each other, or have different retractable bridges occupying the same spaces (ones that disappear, and others that become walls), you can get some pretty interesting and complex animations done.
So... anybody up for the challenge?
EDIT:
One idea already comes to mind. Make a skull mural or something, and place a pressure switch at the bottom of an execution pit. Upon impact, the skull smiles.
Yessss!!!! :taps fingers together menacingly:
EDIT 2:
Of course, the above is a conditional frame change. Simple for trying out things, or making identifying complex systems as on/off or something; but what I primarily had in mind was something more like... well, looping animations of dwarves killing elves or a looping animation of the history of the fort. Something.
My advice, you'll need tons and tons of mechanisms the more complex it gets. Depending on the size, even a simple 2-frame animation or conditional change can cost quite a bit (both time and resources).
Oh, and I got another idea, linked to a single lever (setting a dwarf to repeated triggering), make a game being played (like Pong or Galaga or something). Pong sounds simple, and having two dwarves flipping at the same time could make it even funnier.
Gamer dwarves!!!
EDIT 3:
Sorry, one more idea came to mind. Epilepsy Hall. Link a high traffic pressure switch to 2-frame scenes that are eye jarring, especially to the dwarves (or Armok). Cave adaptation really wouldn't help here. It would, in fact, make it worse.
(I'm going to try this out. I apologize in advance to those who do have epilepsy who may view it.)I forgot, the timings and effort are way too much for me to fully try out. Plus, I didn't get the desired effect.