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[Combatjuan]

As I was reading the Silmarillion I kept thinking of it in terms of the World Generation now being worked on for DF.  I have to imagine that these two suggestions have been made before, but I couldn't find them in the search so forgive me.  Both relate to Fey moods (which occurred relatively often in the Silmarillion (and yes, I know Universe_of_DF != Universe_of_Tolkien)).

1.) Military dwarves/creatures should go fey.  They should get a temporary insane bonus to agility and strength and whatnot and be able to accomplish incredible feats, like the single handed slaying of a dragon or laying waste to an overwhelming goblin invasion.  Naturally this should not happen often.  If the dwarf survives, he/she should then become a legendary warrior of his/her weapon of choice.  Perhaps this is in and I've never seen it, but I've played a lot of DF.

2.) Fey moods should happen as historic events.  Combat fey moods should allow even a weak civilization to conquer huge chunks of territory.  Object creation fey moods should create incredibly valuable artifacts (e.g. the Ring of Power, or the Silmarils) which should add bonuses to the holding civilization (faster reproduction, more resources, etc..., or to the entity holding them like unnaturally long life, hit point bonuses, etc...) but also be a cause for jealousy and dissention.  They should be capturable or giftable and even tradable, but should be few in number and eventually end up (in year 1051 or whatever) at a particular place and be accessible to the adventurer or to capture via armies in fortress mode.

I have no doubt that Toady has thought of these things, and little doubt that others have posted about them, but I was so excited that I just had to.  

Cheers!  May your losses be incredibly fun!

[Capntastic]

There's already berserk and martial trances.   Not quite the same thing, but a similar effect.  They'll be fleshed out in the future I'm sure.

[Tahin]

A champion going beserk and killing half my dwarves because I don't have any megabeasts for him to slay? Sounds dangerous.

[ January 12, 2008: Message edited by: Tahin ]

[Granite26]

Actually, fey moods in history sounds pretty cool, esp if you treat the artifacts as 'characters' in the legends.  Would be awesome to kill the dragon and get the artifact sword he's been hording for 3 centuries. 

Especially if you later got stories about it in different places.

[Skizelo]

I would like to see artifacts made in world-gen. They could gravitate to temples or a mayor's house or... somewhere in a dwarf fortress (I don't explore them much).
That would flood the world though, unless the rate of production is reduced and only dwarves can make them.

[Baneslave]

A champion going beserk and killing half my dwarves because I don't have any megabeasts for him to slay? Sounds dangerous.<p>[ January 12, 2008: Message edited by: Tahin ]

Sounds like Dwarf Fortress. 

[Moron]

Maybe artifacts should be divided into 2 categories, 'normal' artifacts, that are like the ones you get now, and legendary artifacts that are much rarer - maybe only 1 mood in 50 or fewer would produce one, so many fortresses would never get them.

These artifacts would be the causes of wars, quests etc as suggested by the original poster, but would also grant powers to the owner.

[Skizelo]

I like that idea; they could use as many as possible materials or have a lower limit of materials value, or is waging wars over a plain bone ring awesome?
Anyway, as for boons, how about a randomized effect such as it pushing up the productivity of farms or upping the experience gained per action or a buff to armour and attack (this would, of course, effect what word-pool the RNG draws from), and you'd immediately get bigger and scarier sieges. And any civilization which is neutral would convert to hostile and try and take it... I'm drifting.

Magic under any other name would be as sweet.

[Granite26]

iirc, Artifacts with powers are part of the magic arc.

I'd just like to see them treated like characters in the histories, with a history of their own.

One thing you'll find in myths is artifacts wanting stuff.  Wanting to be found, wanting a new owner, wanting a certain type of owner.  This isn't just the ring of power, it's other stuff too.

You also see them abandoning wielders.

All this means that modeling the artifacts as characters with goals kind of works.

Sure, once you flip over from historical time to real time, their sentience kind of goes away, but it ensures that at the end of the histories, each artifact has a story and is in a reasonable place (not laying in the woods somewhere).  Quests would naturally attach to them.  Rather than the simple go kill this, you'd get a 'go get this back' quest.

Imagine starting the game in a town, talking to people, and finding out that 300 years ago some badass warrior killed 3 dragons with Ul Argathin.  'Interesting' you say, I'd like to get that sword!  So you go traipsing around the world, tracking down the warrior.  Until you find he was killed by the goblin invasion of 452. 

You proceed to the goblin civ, where you sneak in, killing a few goblins, and reading the crude legends painted on the wall.  Finding one of Kabdash the Great carying the glowing firebrand and being struck down by a GCS sends you off towards the cave where he fell.  Unfortunately the only way to the cave is to fight through 3 miles of monster infested tunnels. 

Deciding you need some help, you retire the adventurer and build a dwarven fortress near the cave.  Sure the monsters make the fortress a nightmare, but you build up a decent military force and retire the fortress.

Reactivating the hero and using the fortress guard as backup(recruiting, or just straight up MMO pulling) you fight your way through the cave into the inner sanctum of the GCS.  Where it promptly rips you into six thousand pieces before you even lay hands on the sword.

Long story short, items in the history would be cool, especially if they are artifact level and give your adventure characters something to do

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Rather than creating a separate category of artifacts, you could just say that the impact an artifact has on history is based on its value and type. A hatch cover worth 50,000 monies or an axe worth 3000 monies would both have very minor impacts.

[Soadreqm]

Worldgen artifacts would be part of the caravan arc, I think. Either way, they do sound nice. I'm not quite as sure about fey military dwarves.

[Granite26]

Is there anything in Dev about putting items (artifacts) in the legends?

[Skizelo]

Don't engravings about "on the item is an image of a[material] [object]" or "The dwarf is lifting the [material] [object] above his head" mean they're in the legends?
I could swear I see them in the legends screen, but I don't really browse that often. So many goblins, it's depressing.

[Granite26]

Don't engravings about "on the item is an image of a[material] [object]" or "The dwarf is lifting the [material] [object] above his head" mean they're in the legends?
I could swear I see them in the legends screen, but I don't really browse that often. So many goblins, it's depressing.

Well, the creation event is.  but, 1: objects don't get created in worldgen (to the best of my knowlege) and 2: it'd be hellah cool to get 'artifact killed dragon' entries as well.

AKA : There's a picture of  a dwarf, he is holding a sword.  He is surrounded  by goblins.  The goblins are dead.

You've seen the dev notes on the histories of hunters, right?  Imagine seeing the same thing for, say, the One Ring.

in 100, the One Ring was created by Sauron(Demon)
in 150, Isildur(Human) struck down Sauron(Demon) and claimed the ring
in 151, Bobo the goblin struck down Isildur, but failed to claim the ring.
in 151, the ring was lost in the Dark River.
in 300, the One Ring was found and claimed by Whatshisname(ProtoHobbit)
in 300, Whatshisname was struck down by Smeagle
in 300, Smeagle claimed the One Ring.

etc, etc...

This would look even more awesome for a sword, where it was killing things left and right...

Edit-->Spelling

[Soadreqm]

You've seen the dev notes on the histories of hunters, right?  Imagine seeing the same thing for, say, the One Ring.

in 100, the One Ring was created by Sauron(Demon)
in 150, Isildur(Human) struck down Sauron(Demon) and claimed the ring
in 151, Bobo the goblin struck down Isildur, but failed to claim the ring.
in 151, the ring was lost in the Dark River.
in 300, the One Ring was found and claimed by Whatshisname(ProtoHobbit)
in 300, Whatshisname was struck down by Smeagle
in 300, Smeagle claimed the One Ring.

etc, etc...

This would look even more awesom for a sword, where it was killing things left and right...

Yeah, this sounds awesome. How about the Silmarils? Somewhere near the beginning, a god went fay, and created two mysterious magical trees that functioned as light sources. Fëanor the elf went fay, and created three gemstones out of the fruits of the trees. Morgoth, the evil dark god destroyed the trees and seized the gems, which he fashioned into a crown. The elves went to war with him, and eventually got the stones back. Two elves went crazy and jumped into the ocean and magma taking two gems with them. Eärendil the half-elf took the third stone, and sailed to the west to the land of the gods to ask for help in the battle against Morgoth. He was given a flying boat to sail the night sky as a star, with the gemstone with him. A few millenia later, Galadriel the elf distilled some of the starlight into a bottle, which Samwais the hobbit used in a fight against Shelob the giant cave spider.