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[Amalgam]

First and foremost: dwarves who are soapmakers by trade that immigrate to your fortress only to get stuck hauling corpses out of your deathtraps and hacking out tunnels should not be happy. I think it would warrant an unhappy thought even. Furthermore, these types of immigrants are useless to the player and only the most desperate dwarves should immigrate to a fort where their trade skills aren't needed. Dwarves should have some idea of what kind of work your fort needs done and seize these opportunities when possible so they don't get stuck scraping goblins off the underside of your bridges. More on that in a bit.

How would this work? Well, one of the game's quirks that makes this difficult is that forts are somewhat isolationist, so it's hard to spread word about anything. The only people that come to the fort are immigrants and merchants representing entire civilizations. Two things would help to make the fort seem a little less isolated: visitors and independent merchants. Visitors would mostly be friends or relatives of your working dwarves and would be more or less inclined to come to your fort depending on the distance to your fort and how dangerous the journey (and their stay) would be. They mostly wouldn't do much and there would never be many of them in the fort at a time (possible init option?). Before the economy has kicked in, they could meet with an immigration officer and pay your fort in coins or anything else of value (perhaps they could also work as peasantry for part of their stay?) to pay for expenses like food, booze, and hospitality. They could be ordered to stay within a certain burrow (in the next version of course) and would explore wherever they're allowed to go and perhaps gawk at a few engravings. If they have any friends or relatives in the fort, they could meet with them in the meeting hall when they're not working, and if the dwarf is on break they could chat it up in the dwarf's quarters. Visitors could give your dwarves happy thoughts, or unhappy ones if they don't have enough time to talk with them. They might stay for a month or so.

Another type of visitor would be the independent merchant. These merchants would not represent a civilization but would work independently. They would not have a liason and they wouldn't carry as much as the civ merchants, but they would be more numerous. There could be any number of them at your trade depot and you could meet with them at any time. These people probably wouldn't do much more than ordinary traders would. Both types of visitors would probably be spreading word of mouth and delivering messages (that's what they did back then, isn't it?).

...But what this is all leading up to is the immigration officer. The immigration officer would be a noble and would allow you to control whether your fort needs immigrants or allows visitors, and would also allow you to control what kinds of immigrants you get. Basically, he would welcome any visitors by conducting meetings with them, providing any information about their stay and answering any questions they might have, acting as a sort of information vendor. He would deal with all the fort's immigration and tourist issues. At any time on the noble's settings screen you could adjust how badly different skills are needed, similar to how you can adjust how much of a particular good you want the caravans to bring. Through word of mouth surrounding settlements will have an idea of what kinds of job opportunities there are at your fort and immigrate based on this. There might be shortages of available nearby workers for a job you need to fill in and peasantry or dwarves with unneeded skills could still come - you don't have absolute control over it all, but you can get word out what kind of workers are needed. I think this would add to the game and might be a little more realistic as well, people go wherever there are opportunities.

Thoughts/comments?

[Foa]

I'll say yes to the immigration officer.
Yes to the visitors ( if they give you a good mark there civ will give you a larger caravan in the trading season ) .
Yes to the indie merchants ( hey, being at war with all civ-able entities you still need to put your excess somewhere, for things you actually need ) .

[Euld]

Absolutely love these ideas, it's always annoying to sort out all those lye makers, potash makers, wood burners and so on.

One thing I would add would be a different Trade Depot for independent merchants, that way if a caravan shows up when you have independent merchants around, then they won't clog up the depot.  Maybe call the new depot a Bazaar?

[Hortun]

One thing I would add would be a different Trade Depot for independent merchants, that way if a caravan shows up when you have independent merchants around, then they won't clog up the depot.  Maybe call the new depot a Bazaar?

Alternatively, empty shops could be constructed and designated for use only be traveling traders. This way instead of lots of travelers congregating in one depot, the player can create an entire trade district for dwarves to navigate. Additionally, dwarves will be able to spend their currency not only at the dwarven shops, but they can go to the local bazaar to purchase imported trinkets and food.

[Amalgam]

One thing I would add would be a different Trade Depot for independent merchants, that way if a caravan shows up when you have independent merchants around, then they won't clog up the depot.  Maybe call the new depot a Bazaar?

Alternatively, empty shops could be constructed and designated for use only be traveling traders. This way instead of lots of travelers congregating in one depot, the player can create an entire trade district for dwarves to navigate. Additionally, dwarves will be able to spend their currency not only at the dwarven shops, but they can go to the local bazaar to purchase imported trinkets and food.

Yeah, I was thinking something similar but my post was already getting a little too long to read, so I just said "Screw it."

[Owlbread]

What a fantastic set of ideas. I wholeheartedly support this in every way.

[Safe-Keeper]

...But what this is all leading up to is the immigration officer. The immigration officer would be a noble and would allow you to control whether your fort needs immigrants or allows visitors, and would also allow you to control what kinds of immigrants you get.

Being able to control immigration would be very welcome. Not necessarily 100%, you'd still get people you didn't want, or with unwanted professions, but barring immigration when you barely have enough food and bedding for your 12 dwarves would be very, very good to have. No more flocks of immigrants sending your population soaring from 12 to 40 in ten seconds.

[Rowanas]

The idea of an immigration control has been suggested a thousand times. The much more elegant solution is merely to have your mayor deal with the liason as a second part of the trade agreement (I can't remember who suggested this). This cuts out the need for more stupid nobles with little purpose and still adds the functionality that you're looking for.

[Owlbread]

The idea of an immigration control has been suggested a thousand times. The much more elegant solution is merely to have your mayor deal with the liason as a second part of the trade agreement (I can't remember who suggested this). This cuts out the need for more stupid nobles with little purpose and still adds the functionality that you're looking for.

Forgive me, but am I the only one here who actually likes the idea of having nobles that have purposes? I mean, people like the baron can be irritating at times or even the mayor, but an immigration officer actually sounds fun to me, and not the Dwarfish kind.

I rather like the idea of "Kogsak Nethdastot, Immigration Officer" being emblazoned upon a little bronze sign on a dwarf's tower cap desk, the robed dwarf sitting behind it with an air of useful smugness.

[Amalgam]

The idea of an immigration control has been suggested a thousand times. The much more elegant solution is merely to have your mayor deal with the liason as a second part of the trade agreement (I can't remember who suggested this). This cuts out the need for more stupid nobles with little purpose and still adds the functionality that you're looking for.

That's what I originally thought, but it seemed like a good way to add a new noble, and a useful one at that. Either way all this fits in somewhat with the traveling stuff Toady is doing and some way to control immigration is needed.

[Impaler[WrG]]

I think I once suggested that each migration wave should talk with the mayor and present some 'credentials' which would generate a pop up for the player ware they can review all the relevant info on the migrants and assign them jobs, rooms or even reject them to sending them back ware they came (if that's allowed).  An immigration officer sounds like an even more appropriate position to handle this from.  If leaving the fort is ever allowed dwarves would probably register their intent to leave with this fellow as well.

[Safe-Keeper]

Forgive me, but am I the only one here who actually likes the idea of having nobles that have purposes? I mean, people like the baron can be irritating at times or even the mayor, but an immigration officer actually sounds fun to me, and not the Dwarfish kind.

Like the Broker, Book Keeper and Dungeon Master - they're useful because they actually do stuff that no one else can.

[silhouette]

Bazaars/trading centers a  yes.

Definitly immigration officers, who doesnt like nobles that actually DO things?

Visitars not so much.

[darkflagrance]

I'd say make immigration officer an appointable position akin to broker, manager, and clerk - one could have one dwarf do all of them, or delegate them as necessary.

In the middle of a tantrum spiral, you probably want your mayor consoling, not sitting at his desk confirming immigration papers.

[JohnLukeG]

I'd love to be able to designate a room as a hotel, and have visiting allies pay to stay in the fortress and buy food, and other merchandise. 

I would also like to be able to order specific items with coin that traders will deliver to your fortress after a while. 

Relevant Scenario:  A human and his family arrive in your fortress.  You decide not to flood the entrance airlock with magma, and allow them to enter.  They rent a room, buy some food, and walk around the fortress and public attractions like statue gardens and meeting halls.  They buy all of this with coins, which you deposit in your treasury.  (These coins are owned by the fortress as a whole, and should not be claimed by dwarves) 

You open the civilizations screen and order an iron anvil and a copper bar.  After a while, a trader from that civilization shows up with your goods, depositing them at the trade depot and retrieving his payment from the treasury.  (Bartering with items is not realistic as one-way messages, so coins received from visitors are used.)  In my mind, home-minted coins are used only for transactions between your permanent residents, and aren't legal tender in the world, because modeling inflation would be difficult. 

So yeah, it would open up an entire new option of turning your fortress into an attractive tourist destination.  A perfect option for people who are opposed to mass elf graves and fountains of blood adorning the fortress. 

Perhaps if a visit spends enough time in the fortress without deciding to leave, they can apply for citizenship.  It would mix things up a bit if humans and elves could join you.