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[Trithemius]

I was thinking that perhaps it might be interesting to have small "pockets" of ruins occur semi-randomly inside the mountain. When a miner encounters a dressed stone wall the game pauses and zooms to the location, giving the player a choice about whether to breach the wall and explore the ruin or carefully avoid it.

Inside these ruins miners could find items (to be reclaimed) and mysterious objects and indecipherable tablets - or nasty monstrous guardians or angry ghosts.

These relics would have a curiousity value - until a suitably skilled dwarf takes up residence at the fortress (the Philosopher perhaps? or maybe a Scholar who arrives once enough relics have been recovered?). This dwarf, if provided with a workshop (a scriptorium or library or something?), can work these relics as resources and uncover their powers! The relics could either be worthless trinkets (no change in value) or artifacts of varying worth (adding to the fortress' wealth - or having other effects once these are added to the game) or perhaps historically significant records that bring prestige to the fortress that maintains them (in the library perhaps) and making the occupants proud of their home (happiness bonus).

This idea offers an alternative track for artifact  creation, thereby encouraging continued exploration (albeit with some cautions needed). It also would permit some random history stuff (events from the mythic age or legendary age?) to turn up as flavour text.

[flap]

Good idea.

Mixed with the legend mode, that would be a good way to find some of the old legends.

[Mechanoid]

I agree, it's a great idea!

Like the adamantium and the game-ending demon, except less devistating (unless you find some giant steel golem or something) with more of a lasting effect.

[Eiba]

Not quite what's being asked for, but worth a mention I think:

quote:Toady One:

Additionally, a moving start site was also complicated by the fact that there are hidden, multilevel caves. Allowing you to pick your own start site gives away their locations, because you couldn't choose those points.

...

Since I have to Z it up when I fix flows, I think the ultimate fix will be to just not tell you there's a dragon cave there and let you have a lil adventure. Like Snow White with more fire.

The idea of caves already in the mountain is there, making them deeper and more hidden shouldn't be too much of a stretch. I like this idea.

[ February 16, 2007: Message edited by: Eiba ]

[Abyssal Squid]

He's talking about the "hidden sites" that adventurers can discover, which are all open to the surface.  Running into a kobold cave would be hilarious, but it's not the same as finding a truly hidden cavern.

[TakiJap]

That's a great idea and it would be really intresting to search these ruins, but there are few questions needing answers. As far as I understand, in this game, everything happens for a reason. So, someone must have had a reason to build them and those reasons must be sensible considering worlds history...

Who would build these?

Why would somebody build these?

How could somebody build these deep inside a mountain without digging a tunnel there?
(Re-walling perhaps?)

[JT]

Presumably they'd be buried in rock the same way that people find Mayan cities buried in Peru -- time just causes cave-ins and eventually all but the most stable chambers are compressed back into solid rock.

That said, I think it's stretching realism a bit too...

[Lord Blue]

Maybe they were made by magic? It's just too cool a feature to strike down (correlation intended) because of non-realisticosity.

[Rakoth]

Entirely subterranean cultures and civilizations could easily have crafted such things, thus meaning no passageways to the external world.

Chasm critters, as a for-instance.

[Psitticine]

Some might have been been sealed off, via the "lost art" of rewalling or cave-ins, to seal in something somebody didn't want to escape.  Others could just have been lost to time via cave-ins.  You'd never know which until you explored and found either a bunch of rotting shoes . . . or a berserk golem looking for something new to pound.

[Trithemius]

quote:Originally posted by JT:
<STRONG>Presumably they'd be buried in rock the same way that people find Mayan cities buried in Peru -- time just causes cave-ins and eventually all but the most stable chambers are compressed back into solid rock.

That said, I think it's stretching realism a bit too...</STRONG>

Just to summarise some of the suggestions so far, and perhaps to add or expand a bit:

They could have been places of secrecy where important things (useful or baneful) were hidden in earlier ages and deliberately hidden?

They could have been fallen settlements that were destroyed in cataclysms in earlier ages (failed magma channeling projects perhaps!? terrible magical weaponry?).

They could have been outlying settlements of hitherto unknown subterranean creatures?

There could have been major magical or natural changes in the geography (or geology) since earlier ages, resulting in the abandonment of some older settlements (I don't know what kind of timescale is involved, but in a magical world things could  change radically compared to the real world)?

[Trithemius]

Another thought!

Some of these relics might be requested by civilisations (e.g. the Human Emissary requests that you give over the Platinum Crown of Mozantor, or, the Goblin Ambassador covets the Enormous Golden Amulet of Shrieking) or represent some shame or threat and need to be destroyed (e.g. the Elvish Messenger beseeches you to destroy the Dread Sword of Horrific Cursed Tin, or, the Dwarf Consul demands you destroy the Scroll of Bad King Logem Ironsocks Many Humourous Follies).

[Asehujiko]

or maybe you create a new fortress near an old one that dug too deep, and if you dig arround enough you will eventualy find several rooms of your old fortress, of which about 50% has collapsed, large 1 square wide 5 square deep cracks in walls, small chasms in weird locations(moria style, right through the (ex) legandary dining hall), and generaly alot of ruins, with the deepest part completely sealed off(behind pits) so you dont dig too deep by accident

[Tapper12]

This could work. But you have to consider that things like these could totally ruin your plans for your fortress. Accidentally running into a ruin at the center of your main road or housing area could mean you're forced to do workarounds and making your fortress really badly designed.

[Chthon]

Better yet, some of the relics are cursed, and the dwarf who found it refuses to give it over, going mad if any attempts are made to destroy it.  Or the curse has other effects on the dwarf and cannot be gotten rid of without magical aid