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[Heron TSG]

Woohoo! Now we have a topic all about adding in new land formations, crazy features, and anything else having to do with the open land, the sky, or in the shallow hovels some creatures take refuge in.

This is a brainstorming thread about features, creatures and events aboveground. Please feel free to contribute your ideas, point out flaws, or provide useful images, links or source materials.

Note: this is not about anything in space, just on the surface, within the atmosphere, and one or two z-levels below, hiding in the soil.
This is not a discussion about game mechanics, balance issues, bugs or anything else not related to features, races, plants or animals above the surface.
UNDER NO CONDITION is this thread meant to be the end all, be all absolute PROPER place to post a AG related suggestion. DO NOT go around berating others for not posting here. Instead invite them here, or link their suggestion into this thread.

General Suggestions:
Things that do not fit into another category, this section is the catch-all for your funky new ideas.

• Lightning - It's probably already in, but specifically, I want it to be possible for lightning to strike trees, occasionally strike aboveground buildings (doing damage, and setting wooden buildings on fire), and also strike the occasional critter.
  
  
• Wind - in addition to powering mills at different levels, really strong wind could push items around and cause them to smack into objects. (such as dwarves and sand, as stated in the sand section below.)
  
  
• Snowball Fights - Children (and recruits?) in snow have snowballs appear in their hands, and begin to throw. Children do little damage, but a recruit with an ice ball could hurt someone bad.
  
  
• Squatters - Like immigrants, groups of half-starved crazy people might show up on your property and start fortifying and farming. On your land! it'd then be up to you to decide whether or not to beat the tar out of them and send them crying back to an angry parent civilization.
  
  
• Only YOU don't have a chance! - Trees and bushes in scorching and warm climates randomly burst into flames!
  
  
• Tar Pits - Pits of syrupy liquid that can be easily lit on fire. Difficult to pressurize.
  
  

Lava Features:
!!molten rock!! Magma seems to be one of the most sought after of resources. (barring land, of course) It has many uses from free fuel to population control. Here are a few more uses/suggestions for surface lava:

• Volcanic Necks - Volcanic tubes inside a mountain harden after time, and the soft surface erodes away, leaving vertical pillars of igneous extrusive rock.
  
  
• On the bright side - After lava flows from a volcano enter the game, we could see the vast plain of obsidian that encases your grand citiy decay into incredibly rich soil that allows for extremely fast growing seasons.
  
  

Ruins and Structures:
In the long history of the world it is more than possible that a fortress or adventurer might find an ancient ruin made by a previous group. Also, this area is for building ideas.

• Wow! It's Perfectly Preserved! - Constructed rough rock walls should decay over time at a somewhat rapid rate after abandonment. Block walls, on the other hand, might get covered in moss and the like(n). (haha, made a lichen joke!)
  
  
• Hmm, I didn't know swords were tubers! - Farmers (on soil layers) might dig up various artifacts while farming, such as flint arrowheads, stone(?) axes, bronze coins, or even a primitive statue.
  
  
• Guard Posts - The civs that built the road should maintain it! possibly receiving occasional reinforcements if they fall below an X amount of guards.
  
  
• Shrines - Nothing too fancy, they would range from a tiny 3x3 box with an altar to a 25x25 temple to Armok.
  
  
• Rope Bridges - with one rope for every 2 tiles, (you can only make either a 1x# or #x1 bridge) you could create a biped-only bridge.
  
  
• Fencing - Walls that prevent non-giant animals from pathing through them.
  
  
• Ranching - The game needs stiles that allow dwarven movement, but not the movement of animals. Also, we could have cattle grids (floor bars over a channel) to prevent animal movement. Whether or not they can or will cross either of these would probably depend on a tag or two.
  
  
• Mastodons, Smilodons and giant Bears! oh my! - Undead prehistoric creatures may roam the land.
  
  
• Earthworks - Piles of ground with no slopes, good for a basic defense.
  
  
• Ancient Battlefields - Depending on who was fighting, the terrain of an area could have some odd features explainable only by Legends mode. (dwarves making sinkholes to trap humans, etc.)
  
  

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Geological Features:
Anything having to do with rock formations.

• Craters - kind of like reverse mountains, caused by anything from a blob of space-adamantine to a bronze colossus plowing into the ground after tripping.
  
  
• Comet Residue - Random ores in giant chunks, most likely in craters.
  
  
• Overhangs- Erosion and odd rock formations could make overhangs, which may provide shelter for beasts and for dwarves.
  
  
• Sea of Silt - A "desert" where the sand is so fine that it would basically function as quicksand, and may have tides, which might just make you want to watch where you step.
  
  
• Fulgerites - A gem created whenever lightning meets sand.
  
  
• Exposed Fossils - Occasionally existing as features of the landscape. Like, you could find fossilized shells in one geological formation, while another involves a dinosaur skeleton stuck into the side of a cliff.
  
  
• Silver Lining - Being able to mine the silver out of certain varieties of clouds.
  
  
• Sinkholes - giant pits (1-16 Z-level) in sedimentary rock (such as limestone) topped by a thin layer of land. dwarves might not trgger this, but constructed buildings most likely would.
  
  
• Glacial Deposits - masses of jumbled stone being pushed forward incrementally in front of glaciers, and when the glacier melts, it leaves behind a "devil's garden" of debris, or a moraine.
  
  
• Dunes - Currently sand acts like any other soil, when it should be able to make some pretty neat looking formations and squiggles, as in large quantities it acts like a pressureless liquid. Depending on the wind direction and strength, the sand could allow for a height differential between tiles of 1/7 for barely any wind, 2/7 for medium wind, and 3/7 for strong winds. During a storm, sand could even generate dust clouds which harm the lungs and cause unhappy thoughts in your dwarves. The main difference between sand and any other liquids though, is that you can walk on sand until it reaches a certain depth. (2 z-levels?) Flows could be measured at 1% the rate of water checks to reduce lag. [init toggleable]
  
  
• Placer Deposits - Deposits of various minerals and gems along rivers, these would be small (like aluminum clusters) and the most common forms would be Gold, Platinum, Tin, Diamonds, and in rare cases, Thorium. Some of these deposits would lead upstream to their source vein in a cliff or into a mountain.
  
  
• Gold Dust! - Three bags of gold dust harvested from a placer deposit (there would need to be a limited amount) could be smelted together to form one gold bar.
  
  
• Black Sand - Digging through a tile of black sand could result in a 'pile of sand' item being generated, and that item could be baggable. two to four bags of the stuff and you've got yourself an iron bar! This could be expanded to more ore types, as well.
  
  
• Back in The Quake of 205... - A chasm was formed! Yup, diverging tectonic plates (or the DF equivalent of) can form a huge crack in the world (Chasm) that may or may not act as a magma spout.
  
  
• Inselbergs - Large buttes or mountains jutting up in the middle of nowhere, due to eroding slower than the land surrounding it.
  
  
• Mesas - Huge, tall, and flat. Mostly sheer sides with a few paths to the summit.
  
  

Water Features
Moved to Watery Diversity


Sursumterranean Creatures:
Any suggestion for improving or adding to the existing above ground creatures.

• Boneyards- Random areas (like pits) where a mass of animals died, causing a pseudo-permanent bone pile. (only permanent until you turn it into knickknacks!)
  
  
• Silkworms - There are varieties that live above ground, and they make some mighty fine silk! Due to the harmless (and tiny) nature of silkworms however, you get less silk at less risk. Still, woe to the dwarf who tries to collect the silk of the mighty !!Giant Silkworm!!
  
  
• Bees, Ants, and Termites! oh my! - Hives of these critters could occasionally spawn a type of vermin named something like "cloud of bees" or "swarm of ants", and would be able to attack and maim dwarves and animals alike.
  
  
• Predators Vs. Prey - It'd be nice if wolves and other carnivores would hunt down other animals, and prey would run away.
  
  
• Oh no! Zasit's been Herd! - Large wild animals in herds of dozens (or even hundreds) would really put the hurt on any little flesh-creatures in the way!
  
  
• Birds! - Have YOU ever seen a finch or a crow ingame?
  
  

Above Ground Flora:
Anything about above ground plant life

• Wood Products - I'd like to see maple trees be tap-able, and bark as a harvestable item (cinnamon, willow bark for medicine, papery bark for writing, even pine bark-under the bark is an edible layer). This could work like plant gathering but with multiple uses of the tree before the tree dies.
  
  
• Petrified Forests - Forests where all the trees are made of stone would be nice for areas with aquifers.
  
  
• Tree Strength - Currently all wood is EXACTLY THE SAME! Some woods are near iron in quality and some are soft enough to be cork. More variance would be nice.
  
  
• Peat Bogs - Large areas of land with interspersed water and much peat. If a bog area lasts for a long enough time, small nodules of "Bog Iron" may form, and bodies dropped in the bog will be preserved almost eternally. (no rotting)
  
  
• Decorative Plants - More Plants that aren't useful for wood OR food would be nice. Ferns, Flowers, and bushes are all nice, and may give happy thoughts.
  
  
• Long Grass - Bonus to the ambusher skill, and creatures could hide in it.
  
  
• Prickly! - Some kinds of plants may have brambles and thorns, causing minor cuts and slowing movement. this would be remedied by a high-traffic zone being set upon the plant.
  
  
• Important Herbs - Add some tuber varieties and more berries that cannot be farmed, only gathered.
  
  
• Water Flora - underwater plants, or plants that require at least 2/7 water to grow.
  
  
• Fungal Growth - Dead trees can have fungus grow on them, which is harvestable for food and for brewing. some varieties could be poisonous in future versions.
  
  
• Bloodvine - Another type of plant that slowly spawns another segment next to itself (as it grows) in a fractal or geometric pattern. Anything stepping on a fully grown bloodvine will be wounded or possibly strangled.
  
  
• Bauxwood - A variety of the Boxwood tree that is resistant to magma.
  
  
• Fruit Trees - With herbalism, a dwarf could gather food from a tree once or twice per year, depending of the plant. Also, the plant should be transplantable. The wood of a fruit tree would be more expensive than more common woods, and be used for luxury -Beds- and -other various furniture-
  
  
• Beerfruit - Fruit fallen from a tree could ferment and be used as either a food or a drink. [Kitchen Tab toggleable]
  
  
• World Tree(s) - Ginormous trees with odd and (possibly) vicious creatures inside, such as giant termites, giant BEES, elves, and more!
  
  
• Invasive Species - Like sieges, a fast-growing plant species could enter your lands, destroying all other life in its path and harming your dwarves. (if it's prickly.) A Bloodvine invasion would be a 10 on the 1-10 difficulty. They could be repulsed and destroyed by woodcutters and digging ditches. Also, you could pave over the sky and kill them off. [init toggleable]
  
  
• Desert Blooms - After a rainstorm, the deserts EXPLODE with plant life for a short amount of time.
  Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  
  
  
• Exploding Trees - Trees may explode when extremely cold or struck by lightning.
  
  

Meta-game Modifications:
Some aspects of the game may have to be augmented to integrate the above suggestions.

• Clouds - Currently, rain falls from space. Besides, Megabeasts need homes too! (it'd also add a nice visual effect when you have a massive spire poking through the cloud layer)
  
  
• Breakable Land - Thin layers of rock or soil might break when something too heavy is on them.
  
  
• Tundra Enhancement - Currently Tundra is a giant snowy wasteland, when it should in fact be fairly grassy during summer. The melting of the snows may cause flooding.
  
  
• Swampland Enhancement - Currently the game does forests and swamps very similarly, when swamps should be full of random 2/7 bogs of water, quicksand, possibly more than one stream, and an aquifer in the top few soil layers.
  
  
• Dynamic Environments - Trees and Animals should check the temperature and amount of water, and possibly migrate in and out of your region as they please. (example: Toads leaving the desert, Polar bears heading to colder climes)
  
  
• Heat Exhaustion - Particularly in scorching climates, dwarves and animals would need to find shade or shelter from the sun or risk one of three things-
         1) Going Loopy
         2) Death
         3) Slower movement
  
  
• Dynamic Clothing - Dwarves would also check the temperature, so that you don't have your dwarves die of heat exhaustion by wearing coats in a desert.
  
  
• Wind direction - To help with dunes and placement of windmills.
  
  
• Through sheer force of will - Move glacier, move!
  
  
• Orion says... - Sentient constellations based off of or forming legends.
  
  
• Snow -
  Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  In reality, freshly fallen snow is extremely powdery and can't be formed into anything, nor will it carry much weight. You'll sink a bit into it even with skis on. If lots of snow falls at the same time, this layer of powdery snow goes pretty deep. Either way, as it remains on the ground, it hardens and can be walked upon with much greater ease, and be formed into snowballs and whatnot and have tunnels dug through it. If there's lots of snow and really cold weather you end up with a crust atop the powdery snow. If a thin layer of snow melts and re-freezes, you get a sheet of ice covering the ground.
  
  I think a good way to simplify snow would be to have it build up as a "solid liquid", as has been suggested by many, and then let the snow at the highest z-level have a powdery state, while snow that has snow on the z-level above it automatically turns solid (perhaps with a delay), like so:
  
  
  (this pic has a crust over powdery snow, but you could just as well make it the other way around)
  
  Moving across, and digging through the top layer would be very different from going through the lower layers - powdery snow would incur a stricter movement penalty than solid snow, but this penalty would be reduced by a smaller size, more legs, or gear such as snow shoes or skis. Powdery snow, when dug into, would act like a slow magma-like liquid and "run" into adjacent tiles, or cave-in if there was nothing in the z-level below it. Solid snow would be, well, solid, and you'd be able to dig through it just fine.
  
  The real-life "system" for what snow becomes powdery and what snow becomes solid is fairly complicated, and I admit that I don't understand it fully, but something rudimentary like this would probably work just fine.
  
  
  

Formatting inspired by Othob Rithol's Underground Diversity Thread
Also, we now have an Eternal Voting Suggestion option. VOTE HERE!

[Silverionmox]

Non-mountainous / Above-ground features

[SirHoneyBadger]

I will patronage this fine establishment.

(Sorry, but the title's nicer than the other thread.)

One thing I definitely want-speaking of *above* ground-is moon(s, as in 13). I also want constellations to have souls, and maybe actual intelligence, since they're-mythologically speaking-beings who have been set into the sky.

For the sake of pure, chocolate, self-indulgency, I'd really like to see a Sea of Silt--ala a "desert" where the sand is so fine that it would basically function as quicksand, but that could actually be sailed upon, with the proper equipment.

There could be occasional oases that would cause the silt to turn to mud, and rare rainstorms would do the same, in which case you'd either be stuck in this completely inhospitable place, until the "sea" dried out again, or you'd have to sail around more permanent wet areas.

All manner of bizarre critters could live within the silt, filtering it for nutrients. Just to make it interesting, maybe the silt is highly fertile, but only a few plants can actually grow in it, and most of them are single-celled (perhaps the silt has an equivalent of tides, and is constantly moving).

Maybe the silt sea exists on one of the moons?

Even more indulgent, and even less realistic, I'd love if there were a sea of black wine (as in actual wine), that, if drank, made you lose your memories.

In the center of the sea could be the entrance to the underworld, in the form of a vast whirlpool.

Actually, I'm fond of the whole "7 seas" idea.
For that matter, along with all the realistic suggestions I'm sure will come through, I really want to see some fantastic geological elements.

Nothing too impossibly overblown and out there, but a nice variety of things that can't (and never could) be found on Earth, except maybe in our myths.

On the mythical side, a migrating forest/jungle would be nice to see.

Since it looks like someday we might get randomly defined critters, how about an actual Ends of the Earth, where if you travel too far from the known world, you start reaching the edges of Chaos (Moorcock style), where reality starts breaking down, and entirely new types of creatures start showing up. As the world becomes more and more explored, Chaos could gradually be pushed back further and further.

Along with floating rocks, how about the occasional floating island? As in, an island in the air, that drifts on the wind (bonus points if there's a windmill).

For that matter, if you should find a way to get up there, I want clouds to be mineable somehow, for silver.

Cloud castles, with titans living in them.

And I want lightning. It's probably already in, but specifically, I want it to be possible for lightning to strike trees, occasionally strike aboveground buildings (doing damage, and setting wooden buildings on fire), and also strike the occasional critter. It would be great if this were tied to religion, like for instance, if your temple of the sky god was immune to lightning.

I'd also like to see vast herds of animals, like buffalo for example. It would be great if an enormous herd of animals could be led by animal-men, and maybe even have the ability to generate a collective "spirit of the herd".

When chopping down trees, I'd like it if you didn't just get "the log", but also got smaller pieces of wood (which could be used as a fuel source, sawdust, and for small projects), and maybe even a unit of leaves if you cut the tree down in summer.

I'd also like to see maple trees be tap-able, and bark as a harvestable item (cinnamon, willow bark for medicine, papery bark for writing, even pine bark-under the bark is an edible layer). Nothing that would kill the tree, unless you intentionally removed enough bark to, well, kill the tree.

I know it's been suggested before, but I think having a set of different shapes you could choose for the world would be a fun feature. Probably be a pain to code for, though.

I want meerschaum, and hunks of ambergris, to be  found floating in the ocean.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerschaum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

Elementals/Jinn/Kami that actually live in the land itself, as well as specific places having their own spirits/gods could be a lot of fun too.

Oh, and I want fossils to occasionally exist as features of the landscape. Like, you could find fossilized shells in one geological formation, while another involves a dinosaur skeleton stuck into the side of a cliff.

Actually, I had a story idea that didn't pan out, about a city that was built inside of the fossilized skeleton of a goddess (one of the gigantic, multi limbed/headed varieties), and trapped inside of her was her unborn son, an enormous Lovecraftian monster who couldn't leave his prison, except by possessing a part of the city, itself.

There was a sect in the city that was engraving on her bones the history of the city, but it wasn't complete (even though they were in the process of engraving it, themselves) because some of the bones had gone missing/been destroyed over the years, and they couldn't write the parts that had been meant for those specific bones.

I'd like to see something like that.

I also want the Plain of Jars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars
and I'll second any other suggestions of ancient monolithic structures/statues/menhirs/henges/the like.

[Duke 2.0]

For that matter, if you should find a way to get up there, I want clouds to be mineable somehow, for silver.

Cloud castles, with titans living in them.

GOD YES.

 Except mining lightning instead of silver. Because our titans need weapons made from solid lightning.

[LegoLord]

I know I'm probably going to get slammed for this, but;

What does this "lovecraftian" refer to?

[Silverionmox]

Some question are better not asked. However, Legolord can not resist clicking the link, leering at him with indifferent defiance. What secrets does it hide? What phantoms better left unbidden lurk behind the black void? He should not click. HE SHOULD NOT CLICK IT.

[Heron TSG]

mining lightning instead of silver. Because our titans need weapons made from solid lightning.

mining lightning instead of silver.

mining lightning

Hmm... petrified lightning from Lightning striking sand and forming a gem?

[Granite26]

Barbarosa... If you're going to do this, take a page from Othob.  His OP is truly beautiful

[Heron TSG]

good Idea! I'll be editing my first post here now...

[Neonivek]

Well at LEAST this is Geological. Makes it a lot easier to put in suggestions then if you meant "Anything above ground"

So let me see (Originality not guarenteed)

-Different Colored Glaciers: Glaciers often take in microscopic creatures of the sea and thus color themselves often making Green or Red lines on them. Add in Red, Orange, and Green Ice.
-Petrified Forests: Forests where all the trees are made of stone is nice.
-Glass Lands: Areas where Volcanos have spewed Lava often leave huge areas made of glass / Obsideon. These areas are dangerous to be in as the ground can crumble under you
-Sink Holes / Quick Sand / Tar Pool: While Quicksand is harmless if you can swim. Sink holes in mud is a serious hazard and have been known to kill people in Marshes and Swamps.
-Poisonous Swamps: Areas where the Water in a Swamp has been made toxic (possibly due to Chemicals) would be great. Exposed limbs can lead to death and any creature that lives there would have to be capable of surviving this harsh environment.
-Strong and weak trees: Currently all wood is EXACTLY THE SAME! Some woods are near iron in quality and some are soft enough to be cork. More varience would be nice.
-Decorative Plants: More Plants that arn't useful for wood OR food would be nice. Ferns, Flowers, and bushes are all nice.
-Bamboo: Come on!
-Megabeast Burial Sites: Megabeasts don't die lightly. If a dragon has died in a grove it should be noticable. Perhaps all the grass where it blood fell should die and never regrow. Perhaps the trees should turn to Chalk.

That is all for now I guess.

[Heron TSG]

It took a while, but we now have a crazy awesome OP.

just a reminder- not every submission will be added, but most will. Seas of silt, maybe, but not seas of wine. (sorry honey badger)

[Silverionmox]

It took a while, but we now have a crazy awesome OP.

Great. Are you putting in the suggestions of the other thread as well?

just a reminder- not every submission will be added, but most will. Seas of silt, maybe, but not seas of wine. (sorry honey badger)

If I'm not mistaken, the possibility of rivers of blood was mentioned in the devs or by Toady, so you might as well put it in as "watery features with other liquids" or somesuch.

[Heron TSG]

from UD? I might troll through that for nice tidbits, but mostly just from this topic.

[Silverionmox]

from UD? I might troll through that for nice tidbits, but mostly just from this topic.

No, this one: Non-mountainous / Above-ground features

[Heron TSG]

okey dokey, just did that.