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[The-Moon]

Make it so that dwarfs can write letters to loved ones or friends in other citys and such.

In your fort you can build a post office type building where dwarfs take and pick up letters.  A Military type person would work here and have a horse. He would then deliever and pick up mail from different places if it was urgent.

Mail would likely come from the traders which come to your fort city.

I think it would be cool, getting and reciving mail would make a happy thought of course. Not being able to talk to loved ones or friends should make a mild unhappy thought.

[profit]

would a dwarf born in your city send mail to anyone in mountain home? 

Would anyone in Mountain home send them mail?

[Neonivek]

Don't forget write Poems!

It is one thing I really hope Toady decides on allowing. Right now he is kinda iffy on Poems probably because he knows that are going to be horrible and Dwarf Fortress isn't supposed to be a "In your face" funny game. (There is only one intentional stab at humor I see in Dwarf Fortress)

[Hoborobo234]

I suggested this once. Everyone thought is was bad. Why is this getting praise?

[Duke 2.0]

I suggested this once. Everyone thought is was bad. Why is this getting praise?

It is the forums time of the month.

[praguepride]

I suggested this once. Everyone thought is was bad. Why is this getting praise?

What praise? First response is pointing out the flaws in OP, second talks about how he wants poems in the game, then your response, then someone making general forum funny post. No where in this thread is there praise for the OP.

On that note, it's a terrible idea. Mail? Considering that the majority of people were illiterate and/or couldn't afford pens and paper, why would we need a post office?

[Aspgren]

It'd be pointless to have letters being sent and received if there isn't any family that can visit the dwarves now and then.

As I understand it, when I look at my dwarves in "legends" I see that most are born of "unknown parentage" which leads me to believe they're just created when they enter the world. They HAVE no relatives and it'd be weird to send letters.

Still. I think that the diplomats and merchants could make friends while they're in town and when they arrive the next time and talk to their dwarven friends it should generate happy thoughts. "Urib BeardedFlames has been extatic lately, he saw an old friend recently" ... this raises an interesting question. If they can be FRIENDS with the merchants they could also form GRUDGES and become LOVERS. This should be grounds for immigration or possibly political disputes.

oh dear god... if worst comes to worst the dwarves might actually become attached to elves!

[Fikes]

I like the idea. Unhappy thoughts wouldn't have to come from the fact that they don't get mail, but from the fact that their mail didn't get delivered or that they didn't get a response.

When the economy is corrected it would be a good system to have in place for merchants at least, checking on business ventures in distant cities.

A system like the wild west mail guys (I can't remember what they were called, and yes, I understand that was several hundered years after the DF time frame) would mean you could use troops to deliver mail and use mail delivery as a training assignment.

All and all though, not sure it is worth the man hours.

[Aspgren]

All and all though, not sure it is worth the man hours.

Truth. Unless ... unless you could click a "check mail" button in the trading depot (why not? mail should come with merchants) and read the hilarious letters, poems and other things that dwarves send and recieve.

[Foa]

Eh, if there is a Post Office, aren't there going to be Porters, and Couriers?
They need to be nimble and fast, and there need to be shortcut or augment features with it.

I'd very much like to see Dwarves running around, scaling walls, and jumping off things to get from here to there.

Think of it, a dwarf recruit is in pain, and the Porters come to pick him up, and send them to the nearest infirmary!

And they should be the main haulers, with satchels and backpacks, they can run around with bulk, and can deliver things in the nick of time, they are our bastards!

[The-Moon]

would a dwarf born in your city send mail to anyone in mountain home? 

Would anyone in Mountain home send them mail?

your not too intelligent eh?

Why the hell are people sending mail to people they dont know?

If people have family members it be a cool, non processor intessive thing to send and recive mail. If people have family back in the mountain home, thne have them send letters. The letters them selfs dont have to have anything in them of course, that would be retarded. Just something to add to the atompshere of the game.

[profit]

your not too intelligent eh?

Maybe Not...

But they remain two perfectly valid questions before we start wasting time with a mail system.. What happens when all your society's members are outside of any other society.  I mean most Americans do not correspond with Nigerians (other than for scam letters)  And if it cost the Nigerians 4,000$ to send a letter they probably wouldn't bother.  I believe that is about a period appropriate cost (inflation adjusted) for someone sending a letter from Africa to China. (America had not been known about then by people in Africa so.. it has to go to china)

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Dwarves can barely manage to remember to eat, and they use their offspring as shields.
I doubt they'd care enough to send birthday cards.

[bjlong]

If knowledge becomes more limited, a dwarf could write a famous tradesman for information about how to do X, which would be a good idea.

[Elvenshae]

As I understand it, when I look at my dwarves in "legends" I see that most are born of "unknown parentage" which leads me to believe they're just created when they enter the world. They HAVE no relatives and it'd be weird to send letters.

That just means that their parents didn't do anything interesting, and were pruned as part of the history cleaning process.
 
You can prevent that by flipping a bit in the .ini file.