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[Jimlad]

I was playing fortress mode the other day, and it suddenly struck me that there's no capacity for a leader or king dwarf! Obviously the details would have to be fleshed out, but has this idea been considered before?

By having one leader, you could do all sorts of interesting things. For example, you could have it so that the character represents the player himself, and so must be protected at all costs. You could have throne rooms, royal guards, etc. You could even marry and develop a royal bloodline so that if your main character is killed, you can still play as your heir.

How exactly this character would be controlled is another interesting issue. There could be some system whereby you control the character directly, in a refined real-time version of the adventure mode. Alternatively, they could be controlled using a menu-based system, similar to other dwarves.

Eventually this system could be integrated with the adventure game, so that if you wanted to, you could send out your king (perhaps with an armed escort of elite royal guards) to build relations with other leaders, or simply go adventuring, or even to set up new colonies.

I think that an important aspect to this is that it gives the player a greater sense of being in the game. Having an avatar that represents the player in detail could give a level of involvement rarely seen in strategy games.

Obviously this idea is pretty abstract at the moment, but I think it's an exciting one that could open up a lot of possibilities that would add to the current game.

[Fenek]

The dwarf king is already in things to-do (just like diplomacy and couple of other things), although I like idea of controlling him. To be honest, fromt the moment I played DF for the first time the lack of player-customized-controlled avatar was kind of disappointing.

[Darkfall]

I thought there was a dwarf king already present as a noble.  It's in the wiki.

[Fenek]

It is? Duh. Well then I haven't reached him yet.

BTW, what does he do, besides eating, sleeping and demanding stuff?

[Jimlad]

Yeah.. that's not *really* what I'm suggesting though, is it? I'm more concerned about the new gameplay options than a new type of noble.

I agree with Fenek though, it definitely seems like something that would be natural to have in a game like this.

[Aquillion]

Let's see...  possible king abilities...  some of these might work for other nobles instead.

* Royal pardon.  Allows you to pardon criminals from the justice screen.  Will piss off the cop who was handling the case, and if the 'crime' was offending a particular noble (e.g. work order or export violations), will also piss off that noble.  Alternatively, there might only be a limited number of pardons available each year.

* Overrule noble.  The king could overrule other nobles in numerous other ways.  They could, for instance, force the end of an export ban and prevent it from being reinstated for a while...  this would piss off the noble being overruled, naturally.

* Call to arms.  The king can summon up military forces from all over the kingdom in times of need.  The number you'd get would depend on your relations with the rest of dwarfdom, though, and frequent calls would give you less.

* Expel noble.  There is absolutely no reason why the king should have to suffer due to, say, an incompetent or selfishly-demanding mayor.  The king can, with a word, strip a noble of their rank and expel them from the fortress.  Obviously, there would be consequences for doing this...  if you expelled a house noble, say, their house might get pissed...  The noble might go  berserk instead of leaving.  Stripping a high-ranking noble like a Baron of their title might even spark a civil war.

* Grant title.  What the king can taketh away, the king can giveth.  Or whatever.  By signing a few documents, the king could turn any low-ranking dwarf in your fortress into a noble to fill any open gap.  This would, naturally, make the affected dwarf ecstatic for a while.  Some nobles can't be produced this way...  house leaders are probably appointed by their house, not the king, while others might require specific skills that the king can't just grant with a piece of paper.  Also, promoting a noble from a particularly unassuming dwarf might piss your other nobles off a little...  the lower the person you're promoting, the more upset they'd be.  Making a legend into a noble is fine; making a newly-arrived unskilled peasant into a replacement Baron would be much less so.  Of course, the promoted dwarf would stop working, too...

* Levy taxes.  Just like raising armies, the king can demand regular taxes from the rest of dwarfdom.  They can also choose the form they want their taxes in:  Coins, gems, food, weapons...  whatever.  High and frequent demands would not be met well by the rest of your civilization.

[ September 06, 2006: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[Solara]

Giving this one a bump too.

Even though I don't usually fool around much with nobles myself, some of that stuff Aquillon suggested might make it worthwhile. (Especially being able to overrule or fire nobles and pardon criminals! That alone would address most of my issues with them.)

[bbb]

i suppose there could be a function to revolt and set up your own government, elevating certain dwarves (of choice) to certain stations.. with you controlling the king or what have you. i *think* as it stands, you are part of someone else's kingdom already, which is why the nobles are not controlled by you.

maybe a revolt will tear your enclave into factions (civil wars) and you'll have to endure sieges/etc...

[The Avatar]

I think maybe what Jimlad was suggesting was a playable dwarf in dwarf fortress mode.

You'd have control of the dwarf and be able to participate in task completion  like the other dwarves. Whether he winds up being the eventual king of the castle would likely depend on dealing with competition from the eventual dwarf king.

There are a lot of options, but a playable dwarf in Fortress mode is definitely to my liking. It would be even better if you had the same line of sight restrictions as in adventure mode, forcing you to actually go to an area to issue orders there. Could prove very interesting.

[Capntastic]

You bumped a two year old thread for no real strong reason.    We already have Kings.   They just don't do much useful stuff right now, same as all nobles.

[umiman]

What purpose would taxes serve? As it is, nobles don't pay for anything and the government requires no money to run.

[Mikademus]

Thread resurrection is better than unnecessarily making new ones.

quote:Originally posted by Aquillion:
<STRONG>Let's see...  possible king abilities...  some of these might work for other nobles instead.

* Royal pardon.  Allows you to pardon criminals from the justice screen.  Will piss off the cop who was handling the case, and if the 'crime' was offending a particular noble (e.g. work order or export violations), will also piss off that noble.  Alternatively, there might only be a limited number of pardons available each year.

* Overrule noble.  The king could overrule other nobles in numerous other ways.  They could, for instance, force the end of an export ban and prevent it from being reinstated for a while...  this would piss off the noble being overruled, naturally.

* Call to arms.  The king can summon up military forces from all over the kingdom in times of need.  The number you'd get would depend on your relations with the rest of dwarfdom, though, and frequent calls would give you less.

* Expel noble.  There is absolutely no reason why the king should have to suffer due to, say, an incompetent or selfishly-demanding mayor.  The king can, with a word, strip a noble of their rank and expel them from the fortress.  Obviously, there would be consequences for doing this...  if you expelled a house noble, say, their house might get pissed...  The noble might go  berserk instead of leaving.  Stripping a high-ranking noble like a Baron of their title might even spark a civil war.

* Grant title.  What the king can taketh away, the king can giveth.  Or whatever.  By signing a few documents, the king could turn any low-ranking dwarf in your fortress into a noble to fill any open gap.  This would, naturally, make the affected dwarf ecstatic for a while.  Some nobles can't be produced this way...  house leaders are probably appointed by their house, not the king, while others might require specific skills that the king can't just grant with a piece of paper.  Also, promoting a noble from a particularly unassuming dwarf might piss your other nobles off a little...  the lower the person you're promoting, the more upset they'd be.  Making a legend into a noble is fine; making a newly-arrived unskilled peasant into a replacement Baron would be much less so.  Of course, the promoted dwarf would stop working, too...

* Levy taxes.  Just like raising armies, the king can demand regular taxes from the rest of dwarfdom.  They can also choose the form they want their taxes in:  Coins, gems, food, weapons...  whatever.  High and frequent demands would not be met well by the rest of your civilization.

[ September 06, 2006: Message edited by: Aquillion ]</STRONG>

So, in the spirit of necromancy, the problem with the above quote of 2006 vintage is that it assumed that the king is controllable (i.e. micro-manageable). All the suggested stuff might very well be kingly options, but then they're his to use how and when hi wish, generally to great consternation and annoyance for the player (that is, the king is another autonomous noble). This, of course, would be very neat!