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[forsaken1111]

So the little text brief that pops up when you start a fortress says that its been a long, hard journey and that supplies are almost gone, blah blah.

Why can't we play that part? I want a Dwarven Trail style section, where its a challenge to even reach the fortress site. I want the possibility of a giant caveswallowman attack overturning my wagon while we ford the river Barbs of Zeal, and in the chaos we lose our best miner and three barrels of turtle meat. I want human bandits to attack and force us to defend our supplies, or forcing us to deal with the loss of critical supplies and hold out for the first dwarven caravan.

I want to stop off at a human settlement along the way because my dwarven tradesman developed a bad case of gout and we need an apothecary.

I WANT DWARVEN TRAIL!

please

[Chthonic]

It could be complicated, but maybe base it off of adventure mode and be turn-based?  We would need to be able to bring along spare dwarves, though . . . that cholera is a vicious beast.

[forsaken1111]

I'm not sure if it should just be its own game mode, really. If it was tied to fortress mode, it would certainly change embark strategies. You couldn't count on having your perfect predetermined set of supplies and dwarves each game.

[Neonivek]

Toady wants to include something like that for the game and included it in Armok 1 for Adventurers.

However unlike Oregan Trail it can be possitive or negative. Perhaps after being attacked by the Batmen they stumble upon a pile of gold... go to the city and hire on a few extra dwarves.

Maybe they fish in the river a bit before arriving.

I have no idea when Toady is going to attempt this. Go ahead and write ideas for it! Expanding upon an idea is just another form of suggestion.

[Footkerchief]

I think it could work as kind of a mix between Adventure Mode and Fortress Mode:

1. You move the wagon and dwarves around by (T)raveling on the world map.  Perhaps before embarking, you could mark possible settlement areas on the maps available to your civ, which would then show up as "quest" waypoints on the world map.

2. You drop back into "regular gameplay" (not the travel map) if you get ambushed, or if you need to scout the area or forage for provisions.  You could set up a temporary camp along the way, including mines and workshops.  Deconstructing the wagon would turn a temporary camp into your real settlement, but as long as you have a wagon, you can still pack up and travel again.  This would require a trade-depot-style interface for getting stuff back into the wagon.

3. Even if you haven't started your fortress yet, any "regular gameplay" (as above, not on the travel map) should take place in real-time, just like Fortress Mode.  Turn-based is kind of pointless when you're not directly controlling anyone.  You'd still be able to pause, of course.  The Adv. Mode LOS stuff probably isn't practical either.

So you could leave the mountainhomes and be happily moving along the travel map until you take a detour through The Foulness of Glooms and get ambushed by a pack of zombie wolves.  Back into regular gameplay -- your wagon is in the center of the screen with the dwarves clustered around it, and ringing them are the wolves.  The game starts auto-paused.  The axedwarf (whom you wisely chose to bring along) fights off the wolves, but not before the farmer gets a chunk of his leg torn away.  Should you set up a temporary camp in the evil forest so the farmer can heal, or should you press grimly on toward death and glory?  THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

Yeah, this could go places.

[Haven]

Not to mention, you'd need spare wagons to carry extra weight, and the animals to haul them. But I do like this idea. Maybe you'd need to designate your site as a settlement somehow before you got migrants and whatnot. Not to mention the possibilities of raising a city up, then building a nice wagon and taking an embark crew hand-picked from your city to found yet another spot.

Gotta love this idea.

[Footkerchief]

Not to mention the possibilities of raising a city up, then building a nice wagon and taking an embark crew hand-picked from your city to found yet another spot.

Yeah, that's a natural extension.  Ideally this would all blend kind of seamlessly with the Army and Caravan Arc stuff so that you could send out groups for various reasons (or various combinations of reasons, like a heavily armed caravan/patrol) and either control them yourself or leave them to their own devices.  Embarking would just be a special case in which you only have one controllable group.

[Hectonkhyres]

Note: I originally read this as 'Organ Trail'. Something DF quite often gives us: trails strewn with organs. I might have to mod organs into something smeltable into bars. I want a booze storehouse made entirely out of dwarf livers: The only substance in the universe that can survive prolonged exposure to dwarven booze.

This... I really like. I really like.
It would give me something to look forward to once I have a fully developed fortress on my hands besides slow rot and despair. I could mount a grand expedition into the dangerous wilds to start things over again only, this time, with something to show for myself. Artifact weapons on my guards, legendary craftsmen, etc.

And, once we don't have to worry about starting with only seven dwarves and some petty starting resources, we could think about embarking on some really dangerous locations. Places that make armies of skeletal whales look pleasant. I could decide on making a beachhead for my invasion of hell itself!

[Mephansteras]

I really like this idea. Goes along well with the whole 'expedition' stuff toady was talking about in one of the answer threads.

Hmm...I'd like to have to option of telling the game to pause when valuable resources are spotted while I'm in Travel mode. Or maybe just a 'resources available at this spot' sort of thing. That way you could pause and mine out some limestone for flux on your way to the volcano, or dig up those exposed sapphires you just passed. And if you found a really great spot on your way, you could just decide to stop and set up your fortress there.

That would probably help make up for the dangers of traveling. After all, there should be some reward for all that risk.

[Footkerchief]

Hmm...I'd like to have to option of telling the game to pause when valuable resources are spotted while I'm in Travel mode. Or maybe just a 'resources available at this spot' sort of thing. That way you could pause and mine out some limestone for flux on your way to the volcano, or dig up those exposed sapphires you just passed. And if you found a really great spot on your way, you could just decide to stop and set up your fortress there.

That would probably help make up for the dangers of traveling. After all, there should be some reward for all that risk.

Maybe an expedition could have a variable chance of spotting exposed minerals or other valuables depending on how many travelers there are and their skills/attributes (and I guess the time of day as well).

And yeah, there's lots of potential reward here.  Just being able to scout out an area before committing to settling there would be pretty great by itself.

[Granite26]

seeing as how it's been mentioned in the future of the fortress thread...

Anyway:
I'm a big fan of adventurers scouting out locations for forts and then 'settling of Texas' style going back and drumming up settlers (the initial 7).

How will we deal with people who ONLY want to play in Fortress mode?

NPCs scouting out cities, with NPCs settling them could make a good process in world gen for forming new cities.  At any given point though, NPC adventurers should have scouted out a few bonus locations that a player could jump to.

This creates an advantage to scouting out your own location (you know what you're getting and you can prep the area with monster removal).  The problem is, it's a step back from the existing fortress mode (fewer options).

Would we be willing to sacrifice the current games 'start anywhere' philosophy to allow an advantage for the scouting and Oregon Trail style play? 

Perhaps you can start anywhere, but get a cash bonus for selecting pre-scouted locations.  (Better description means more people will fund it)  Also, currently 1000 value doesn't cost for distance or whatnot.  Maybe managing the trip is a good way to start with more?  Or it's the only way to start a fort outside the borders of the kingdom!?

[Vattic]

I've got to say I'm in full support of this idea but more specifically how Footkerchief describes it.

Then again I like the idea of travelling the map as a Dwarven caravan and being nomadic, moving from place to place never really settling for any length of time, trading with other civs etc.

[Mephansteras]

Would we be willing to sacrifice the current games 'start anywhere' philosophy to allow an advantage for the scouting and Oregon Trail style play? 

I was going to say make it an init option, but I don't really want to add more of those unless its necessary. How about giving us options at embark? A 'simple start' mode and an 'expedition' mode. The simple start is as it is now, no advantages, no disadvantages. The expedition mode adds in all these variables about what's known, what's not, where your adventurers have been, and so on.

[Granite26]

I have no problems with toning down the early game power level to give something to build on in the meta game....  It's just right now, it's hard to justify with new releases coming so fast.

[Mephansteras]

Well, like all suggestions nothing says this has to happen any time soon. Long range suggestions are just as valid as short term ones.