Ok, some of this has already been said, no doubt, but:
NAME GENERATOR
=Each word should have some tags. Out of tag generation should be possible, but I want to see a hammer called "The Golden Fist of Forging" because it is [violent][metal][tool], and not "The Whore of Pregnancy", more often than not. This should help the problem with silly names immensely.
TREES
=Eventually, trees would be multi-tile. I remember Toady saying this, but if not then it's a suggestion. Cutting down a tree should be either an "all tiles" or none thing. Large trees should produce more wood, especially with Z-axis (see next one, and also "finer grained resources")
=Trees shouldn't have only 1 Z-Axis, they should extend up. Loggers should have to cut them down and use real methods to get it to fall in a safe direction.
=Two people or more cutting down a tree with a two-man saw or something should be easier than a single man with a battleaxe.
=A poorly skilled wood cutter or even an unlucky one might collapse a tree on someone's head, severely injuring or killing them according to the mass of the tree.
=Clear-cutting should not be healthy for a forest, and trees shouldn't always grow back if you obliterate them all. Ecological sensitivity such as strip-cutting or selecting only the biggest trees to cut should improve logging, and also pacify elves... slightly.
=There might be erosion problems with less trees, choking sea life with silt and producing other problems we see from overlogging? It should be comparatively difficult to cut down a forest with only manpower instead of machines, but it can be done.
THROWING (naturally, this has to have been said) and ADVENTURE MODE
=The mass of objects needs to play more of a detail in how much damage it does instead of throwing velocity. For instance, throwing a masterwork statue and hitting someone with it does not appear to do significant damage compared to a coin, unless the weight of the object impeding throwing has been factored in.
=Adventurers need to be limited in what they can pick up and carry, especially in one hand, but also need to be able to push and pull things and otherwise interact with the environment.
=Slings. Instead of the current throwing bonanza, slings should be a viable weapon that is produced from a piece of cloth and throws rocks (perhaps smaller than the rock chunks we use now, thus: )
=Going up stairs and hills should be more tiring than walking level or downhill, and thus not preferred by dwarves compared to a normal route. Carrying things should exacerbate it. Work, arguments, and other draining activities should produce fatigue, so tired dwarves should take a rest or even go take a nap more often than someone doing nothing.
=Rock Chunks and Single Gold Bars- The current chunks of rock and ore are massive things which weigh almost as much as a dwarf and can produce an entire table or statue as much as a flute. There should be numerical quanitification for items, which already exists in a workaround method like 3 flasks being made from a single vial. This will probably need to wait until after restacking.
=Civil Service Bureaucracy- There needs to be more officials. Not per capita, but absolute terms. Most of these don't need to be nobles but rather are civilians who have jobs that aren't artisanry or farming.
==Scribe: A scribe probably is not a real nobleman, but is used for writing history and chronicles, an essential part of any civilization. Hereditary Nobles should be very fond of these, especially vain ones or ones that did important things. Histories, Illuminated Manuscripts, etc. are essentially multiply-engraved stacks of paper created via ink. [there needs to be some method of getting ink, whether it is extracting from cuttlefish and animals, crushing up dyes, crushing up other materials, or all 3. Each should have advantages and disadvantages, even if the only real one is the fact that the paper says "This exceptional History of Akilbesmar is written in Giant Squid Ink. The first chapter deals with...". Chronicles should probably be organized chronologically. Historically, the advantages of ink are with either permanence or lack of running or the like, which may be a bit too detailed. Illustrations should be present in some (but not all), which ideally should be judged differently for chronicles from manuals (see below), since one is about beauty and the other about practicality.
==Libraries should be constructable out of book-cases (glass shelves), shelves, etc. and books and manuals and so forth and serve as stockpiles for knowledge, requested structures by nobles, and so forth. Need to know how to make a suit of armour and your metalsmith just died? Send a peasant to grab the Silver Hammers of Forging from the library and see if he can learn better that way. King is sick? Look for tracts by any reputable scholar on problems with Qi flow. See later on with manuals and scholarly essays for this.
==Vermin- Bookworms and the like can destroy books. Method to counteract?
==Historians (a new Scholar-type noble?), Record-Keepers, and a few other nobles and functionaries should be able to get performance improvement at jobs with proper documentation as to what they're doing or need to be doing.
==Teacher: Instruction of children of nobles by a good teacher should be a job that is necessary both to socialize and instruct them in many things they need. This should use a variety of materials for the best effect but can also be done extemporaneously. Fortresses should be able to have education for all middle class or even every child (historically plausable, the Aztec Empire had mandatory schooling for every shild).
==More types of 'useless' philosopher nobles, but they should occasionally making discoveries. I can already think of one: Mathematician. Historically, kingdoms have loved being able to credit a court mathematician with discovering some interesting theorem or method. Perhaps a slight boost to some category of glory or prestige when relationships between kingdoms come into play?
==Theologician- another Philosopher/Mathematician.
==Philosopher-type nobles should probably write academic papers or theories in the same way as chronicles, of varying worth and prestige depending upon how good they are. Skill at their trade should not guarantee success or correctness (look at Einstein's later years and his refusal to accept Quantum Mechanics for a highly skilled Physicist who fails to produce anything and is completely wrong in his assumptions). Descriptions may have to not exist until the random naming/descriptor engine is a bit better at not being silly. Theorems should be named after the discoverer, though, and should show up occasionally in later calculations and computations and dissertations of civilizations which have heard it.
A mathematical random generator could be things like "This is a method to" "the [name] constant" "[math verb]" ". It is technically unproven if nearly sure to be true" (see Fermat's Last Theorem). But maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. ^_^;
==A good name for philosopher type nobles is "Scholars".
==Royal (or Ducal etc.) Viziers/Advisors should be appointable (in theory- Evil Vizier bloats/power goals in mind) and should influence the skill and competence of the ruler, especially moreso as the realm grows larger.
==Some positions in the nobility and bureaucracy should be for life, but be appointable at death.
=HIGH SOCIETY
==A bevy of Eunuchs, Courtiers, Jesters, appointable and non- (Jester would need a high comedian skill or risk displeasure and would cause positive thoughts occasionally (or negative, less often) in nobles nearby) should collect around royalty like dust bunnies, and are probably equally as useful at all except for social politics and events (usually negative ones, at that, like offending somebody).
==Instead of legendaryness being the only factor, Knighthoods and other commendations for military commanders should enable them semi-noble privelidges, depending upon what type they are. The Knighthood Orders could even be named, for charming things like "Dok Angingish, Knight of the Order of the Pregnant Stabber of Naughtiness" from our favorite RNG. ^_^
==Politics should play an equal measure as military performance with some awards.
==More social hierarchy instead of a simple noble/peasant divide. There should be a middle class of wealth and social structure that separates a hauler from a blacksmith, and a blacksmith from a puissant king (which already exists). Romance from far across social lines should be not unheard of but of interest to some people, potentially causing dislike among jealous (peasant) or scandalized (noble) peers.
==Social Events should be more than just meetings or parties. There should be balls (and the lower class equivalent of dances, which would be shameful or daring for a noble to attend), including masquerades (perfect time for a murder?), and a few other things I can't think of now.
==Alchemy: I definitely want to see Aqua Regia, composed of a mix of 3 parts Muriatic (Hydrochloric) and 1 part Nitric Acid, just for the coolness of the idea of hiding your gold and platinum items inside it during a sack of your town and processing it out. Processing it out might be historically inaccurate, I don't particularly know if medieval chemists knew how to remove the gold. If Three-Toe hasn't used this idea in a story yet, it's probably because he didn't know you could do that with the power of SCIENCE. 
==There's several other interesting things one can do with things, for instance, Oil of Vitriol (Sulphuric Acid) is explosive if mixed with certain chemicals and also burns, which makes it an insane trapmaker's dream. ^_^.
==Using the old names, like Oil of Vitriol, is of course a necessity for awesome.
ALCHEMICAL and ORGANIC MEDICINE
==Medicine should be creatable, with random quality. It should not be apparant immediately if a medicine is worthwhile or not, since many 'cures' and misconceptions endure right to the modern day. However, it should generally be worthwhile to try to treat a disease if you have the resources. There should be a list of cures you've already assembled that you can draw on or you can get the Alchemist to start trying things again to theorize what will work.
==Scholar-produced theories of medicine and physiology and so forth should play into your overall competence at medicine.
==Farmers' Workshops should be able to do the same thing with plants.
==Farming should be quicker to plant but take more space- right now a 5x5 plot can feed 7 people for a year and have a ton left over, in my experience.
==More crop diversity, especially lentils and other crops for when soil diversity is implemented.
==Fruit-bearing trees should be renewable each year but space-intensive and produce less.
==[stolen from a mod, IIRC Teldin's]- Corn, as another staple crop like wheat, is needed. Cave Corn should be white coloured (then again, most everything in caves should be)
==Invasive Species, perhaps? If you journey a long way or into a new biome and bring with you old plants, some of them might flourish in a bad way and outcompete. Witness Ku{dz OR d OR z}u, originally planted to stop erosion of soil in the United States of America's South. This might be too uncommon and irritating to utilize.
==Professionals like Artisans should be able to produce manuals as to how to do something, which should be both useful for teaching and following. It should take longer to follow directions as an unskilled worker, but should produce a higher average quality (less exceptionals, and less failures).
==Literacy should be necessary to fully utilize manuals, histories, etcetera. It should be learnable primarily from schooling, but also can be taught by a literate parent if the child has spare time from working. (Children need to help out more instead of just wandering around, as children in a preindustrialized society were an important labour source).
==Speaking of schooling, Artisans should be able to tutor people, especially their children, in their craft. This shouldn't raise, for children, their skills too much, but should make it marginally more attractive to make the child of a carpenter a carpenter instead of a mason or farmer.
That's about all of my thoughts. Sorry for most of them being irrelated, very complex, or out of order. Or perhaps already stated. Of them all, I think I'm fondest of the Scholar-type nobles and other merit-based and/or minor nobles.
Edit x14!
[ December 18, 2007: Message edited by: RubberDuckofDoom ]
Author
Topic: Logging, Alchemy/Chemistry, Civil Service/minor 'nobles (Read 1064 times)