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[jfs]

Necroing because item displays are needed. I want to have a real use for that artifact microcline toy forge, instead of having it just sit in a stockpile where nobody notices it.

(Just having artifact-only stockpiles isn't enough, I know that's already possible, because dwarves can't look and gain thoughts from items sitting in stockpiles. They have to be part of a building. An item display building solves that problem.)

Also, different kinds of items may need different kinds of display buildings. Like, you could convert an armor stand into an exhibit of a specific armor item.

As for this:

Another aspect of museums would be importing artifacts. It'd be interesting if your curator (or even a different kind of dwarf) would work on tracking down valuable and famous artifacts from all around the world so you can buy or rent them and place them in your museum. And of course other curators would come to your fortress to buy or rent artifacts. That way it'd even be possible to create an exhibition of the great artifacts of Urist Hammereaten, exterminator of the evil elves of the evil forrest of cuddly unicorns.

It'd be cool to be able to trade artifacts for other artifacts.
Like, a foreign trader arrives, sees your awesome toy forge on display and offers to return next year with a different artifact of similar value to exchange the two.

[Toastergargletop]

first time i have seen this and it seems like an awesome idea

[PhilbertFlange]

I have to say I'm for this. I've seen some home made museums on the forum before, and having them generate happy thoughts would be useful.

I think the construction of a display case should be like that of a pump. It should require one case/stand/pedestal, and one non constructable artifact (as opposed to an artifact floodgate which can be built). That way, you can't go about building dozens of empty cases that serve no purpose. I would consider allowing masterwork items to be put in displays as well, though they would generate significantly less happy thoughts than an artifact, but could be used in cases where the fort has produced few non constructable artifacts.

The curator/historian could be either an imported noble (could be triggered at X number of non constructable artifacts, or after a museum has been designated), or one designated like a bookkeeper. In addition to speaking with dwarves to give happy thoughts, s/he should also generate the ability to give dwarves new information.

This information could add a lot of flavour to engravings in an peaceful fort. To have your main dining room engraved with a large variety of historical engravings would be more interesting than 100x engravings of a single historical battle, or Urist McMayor founding the settlement. The info could also be used in the creation of more artifacts, or in the sewing of images onto bags.

[SirHoneyBadger]

This thread reminds me of this:

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

It's a reasonably interesting read on how museums, as we know them today, got started.

I'd very much like to have more display options. Displaying Artifacts, ornate and unusual masterworks, valuable bones/gems/specimens, etc. would be a great tool for not only constructing "museum" type rooms, but for enhancing any part of the Fortress that might seem to need it.

Dwarfs might get happy thoughts by admiring such things, particularly if the displays contained items they liked: "Urist McCurious was ecstatic lately, she visited the Great Olivinarium recently, she admired a legendary collection of olivine mugs recently, she admired a legendary collection of olivine thrones recently, she admired a legendary collection of olivine statues recently..."

Having a specificly denoted collection of rock-samples, for that matter, with olivine being one of those specimens, might be enough by itself to turn Urist on a little.

And such happy thought generators wouldn't necessarily have to be placed in the dining room, or the dwarf's personal quarters, to be useful. You might simply put them in an otherwise uninteresting hallway, or an otherwise dull storage room.

Infact, this might actually make the storage of items itself (and how dull is storage, anyway?) an exciting proposition.

Having these museums around to provide education and experience, might also possibly cause your Fortress's children to grow to adults a little faster.

[Rotten]

I like this idea, sounds fun and adds a bit more depth to the game. Something I'd like to see is a 'curator' noble, like others have suggested, but like the bookkeeper he can be appointed and helps improve the records- in his/her case, the historical records. For instance, before a curator is appointed dwarves may know a bit about history and a few dragons and that kind of stuff, but once a curator is appointed the engravings of a fortress would be more detailed, artifacts with historical images would be more detailed, dwarves would be generally happier etc. etc. Also the curator would increase the value of any museums by tidying them up and stuff. Curators might be useful for other buildings as well- libraries anyone? Curators writing historical tomes and records of the fortress sounds really cool.

As for display cases, taking one stone/stone block/log/metal bar sounds good, with the option of a glass block as well. The glass block could be used to add more happiness to dwarves seeing the artifacts (Urist McHistorian saw a well protected artifact recently), as well as deterring Kobolds. Also, instead of requiring an artifact to build I'd like to see some sort of assignment menu like with cages- with filters though, to sort through all 100,000 units of stone to find that first bit of Adamantine mined or that oaken earring. Also, like mentioned earlier, the cases should be able to be built in other areas of the fort, like the King's room or the grand dining hall, allowing all dwarves to see what happens to any dragon who braves the fort.

[SirHoneyBadger]

What I took from your last post, Rotten, is that designated museums might get cluttered. That might be a nice balance against all the happy thought generation.

As far as a curator goes, maybe you could assign one in the Nobles screen?

The curator might then give a boost to the educational merit of the displays around your Fortress, or perhaps you'd have the ability to assign certain areas of the displays as "pending", which your Curator would then fill (based on whatever randomness, hiddenness, and uncertainty might be involved in any Noble decision-making), making the items chosen to fill those areas more valuable.

All olivine blocks appear the same to us, but to the Curator, one is a perfect example of the formation of olivine crystals, or maybe it was a block originally intended to be made into a throne for King Urist ManyCandles, which you as the player decided to make from gold, instead.

Thus, you might end up with a display that might be a bit surprising, which isn't a bad thing for a museum.

[jfs]

Yeah, displays shouldn't require any kind of casing, but could have it optional. Perhaps rather than a glass block, require a glass window if you want a casing.
I can't remember if items already have sizes specified, but a display should be able to contain a number of items depending on their sizes, like: 10 earrings, or 5 goblets, or 2 large gems, or 1 material sample. (Those are just arbitrary numbers I invented now.)

Re. thieves, it could be fun if you could rig a display as a mechanical trigger like a lever. If anyone tries to remove an item without knowing how to disarm the mechanism (i.e. having some skill in mechanics), the trap triggers.
Try to remove an item and some hidden grates shut the room, and those war dogs that were also on display are released.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Concerning thieves: Thieves should be more likely to target museums than they are vaults, since museums/displays will tend to have less, and less effective, security measures (you don't want to accidentally drop all your dwarfs into the magma because they all want to admire that artifact pigtail headband), but on the other hand, displaying them should confer more benefits.

So that could be a balance, between risking thieves, and losing happy thoughts.

[bormoth]

  All mood altering rooms have side effect i.e. neeting hall place where dwarfs can meet and eat,statue garden for parties.
  So we can use museum to attract more proficient migrants(fame of your masters spread far beyound your fortress), or making master be more proud of his works(only try lose this masterpiece bolt... it's a joke ), but giving more value for this items.

[MaDeR Levap]

Currently artifacts etc in stockpiles (unused in any way) adds to fortress worth, correct? It would be nice and logical use of museum, if unused things add no value to fortress, but that artifact adamantine earring worth 1kk on pedastal IS counted as used.

[Deimos56]

Urist McUrist cancels save the fortress from starvation and wolves and caveins: admiring artifacts.      x56and a half


Honestly, that's the only thing I can see going wrong with this. Unless artifacts become magical instruments of the gods in the future. Then I can see things going wrong.
I'd like to see a place I can put my unusual collections of turtlebone earrings and other 'useless' artifacts, to be honest. That way, they'll do something other than sit in my bins and waste my space.

[snus-mumrik]

My 2 cents (if nobody wrote it before):
I think a museum/exhibition room is not an addition to statue garden, but a super-set of it. This way you can build a HUGE museum with sections for artifacts, for minerals, for statues, for pictures (maybe), taxidermy, and many more.

I really like the idea, now I usually build small artifact stockpiles with a statue garden between them.

[Uristocrat]

Would be nice indeed to have a place to dump all the junk nicely crafted artifacts.

Wouldnt mind if we were able to sell them if we wished. 

Yeah, I've often wished for a way to display artifacts.  What good is an artifact sock if no one gets to see it!?

[kaypy]

This is perhaps getting a touch spammy, but I thought I ought to put a note here, since this is where the ESV links to:

Some subset of museum functionality can be obtained through custom workshops, eg
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57243.0

(If only I could add the note without bumping the thread...)

[MrWiggles]

Yea, we could get a similar functionality from a custom workshop.

Though I think in the end a new zone or room type from a furniture item is what is needed to make the idea really work.

A custom workshop cant give us the various abilities that have been requested of the Curator noble