quote:
Originally posted by Tamren:
<STRONG>For now lets just deal with what we can at the moment. Z-levels make tree houses and towers possible. So what would you like to see in a tree house?</STRONG>
A rope-ladder. Especially if it can be cut or retracted.
I'm not super-familiar with all the new goodies coming in the new version (the surprise will be part of the fun), but I've gotten the impression that you need a series of ramps (supported by stone wall/columns) to lead up to any above ground area. I imagine that the closest you could do to a tree-house is a couple of stone pillars holding up a wooden bridge, with a big stone ramp leading up to it. I doubt the elves are building THOSE (but I suppose we will see soon enough, since we will be able to visit their hometowns).
I'm super-excited about the new Z-axis, but I wish we had more ways to interact with it. The idea of digging a big pit is cool, but afterwards I think my miner would be trapped down there, and the only way to get him out would be to have him build a big ramp out of it. Well, then its not a very useful pit anymore, since there is a nice handy-cappable ramp leading out of it. If I fill the pit with snakes, they'll just leave. Everyone would benifit from rope-ladders, not just dwarves.
Also, since trees are only one-square objects, a treehouse would barely fit enough room for one elf (two if one ducked and the other crawled over him). I could see some sort of wooden-bridges spanning several trees, though (assuming the elves have some magic way to make wooden items without offending themselves). Or some bigger multi-tile ancient trees. It would be cool if elves could use those tree-tiles in the same way that dwarves use unworked stone tiles (to hold things up, to produce wood magically, maybe even elves could "replant" in order to build their elf-fortress however they wanted). The elven version of a miner would be able to manipulate living wood without harming it, but an elven settlement would have a very hard time digging into the earth in search of ores (necessitating trade with dwarves).
Since we'll be able to trade for wood in newer versions, elven-made wood should probably be marked as a special expensive object. And objects made from elven-wood should be okay for elves to use and wear (currently, they wield wooden weapons, right?). Dwarves could trade for elven (cruelty-free) wood, make things out of it, and sell them back to the elves, if they wanted. So long as those things arn't menacing with bone spikes or something.
The thing I would like to see most with elves is that while the dwarves generally build down, into the earth, and the humans build above ground, on the surface of the earth, the elves could build in the trees, up above the earth.
They would, however, probably starve. They only ever show up with berries, so maybe they shouldn't need to eat as much as dwarves/humans - being able to pick berries off of their plants and survive on those, but there is little chance of them farming any non-reproductive-plant-parts, or farming animals at all.
When elven merchants show up and want to give me 20 berries in exchange for a bunch of sweet stone mugs, I just feel sorry for them. I don't know what they put in those mugs, but I let them have as many as they can carry, and try not to mention that we'll be using those berries to decorate thick juicy flanks of animal corpse.
Anyways, those are my thoughts.
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Topic: Balancing up the other races, how? (Read 4910 times)