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[Buttery_Mess]

It'd be a very useful feature. It's hard to track individual units over natural multi-z-level terrain. It'd be useful for combat, or other situations where a dwarf is going into a dangerous area. Also, to follow mooding dwarves.

[zwei]

I would also be nice to be able to focus on foes and other units.

[knutor]

knutor, you are aware that this would be a toggleable extra rather than an alternative UI right. You can still command others by (judging by the games this feature is used in) doing basically anything while following.

Yeah, that's just what I'm worried about.  If I happen to see something fun in passing, great.  If not, oh well, then what I missed this time around, will surprise me the next.  It'll give me something to uncover and observe in the next embark.  This, as a toggle or as a feature, is unnecessary. 

Because it clarifies stressfully, what we already know.  Or what we presume to know.  Follow Dwarf should be a dev tool to resolve conflicts in pathing.  PERIOD.  Nothing like this would improve game play.  It sets up the next request, "I want to control of the Dorf's every action."  It leads right down that road.  And that is a road, best left out of Fortress mode.  There is a mode that allows for this, already, and its not Fortress mode.

Constant unraveling of games like DF, ruin them.  This is an unraveling request.  If this were added, the SCIENCE threads would leap 100 fold.  I'd only want Toady stalking Dorfs, its a god mode tool, IMO. Its bad enough we live in a Surveillance Society, please don't make the Dorfs.

What benefit does it serve the gamer?  Other than to produce more stressful observations, of course.  Sure it'd be fun to zoom in on a fitful Dorf, picking fights in the meeting areas.  But what are you going to see?  Its a graphic less game.  Think ahead on this, did you? 

We don't control them, the AI does.  We only assign them their skills and beds.  Its up to the AI to do the rest.  This would be a great tool to troubleshoot, but as far as giving to the gamer.  Nah.  It'd ruin it, some of the surprises Toady's game has to offer.  That's not to say, if it were put in, that I wouldn't use it, however.  It sure would be a handy feature, just not one that would add to replayability, and that is sorta the motto DF, isn't it?

Sincerely,
Knutor

[Armeleon]

So please correct me those of you who create visualizers and mods, but would this be only a matter of creating a mirror program? If you can read enough data from DF to create something like Stonesense, wouldn't it only be a simple matter to add a command that follows the coordinates of a single dwarf? You wouldn't be able to do any of the other commands at the same time, but you could have a second 'follow' program that you could bring up whenever you wanted to follow someone. Then pause the game when you saw something interesting.

[Jaylow]

knutor, you are aware that this would be a toggle-able extra rather than an alternative UI right. You can still command others by (judging by the games this feature is used in) doing basically anything while following.

Yeah, that's just what I'm worried about.  If I happen to see something fun in passing, great.  If not, oh well, then what I missed this time around, will surprise me the next.  It'll give me something to uncover and observe in the next embark.  This, as a toggle or as a feature, is unnecessary. 

you don't have to use the it if you don't like it

Constant unraveling of games like DF, ruin them.  This is an unraveling request.  If this were added, the SCIENCE threads would leap 100 fold.  I'd only want Toady stalking Dorfs, its a god mode tool, IMO. Its bad enough we live in a Surveillance Society, please don't make the Dworfs.

there is nothing this would unravel  that would be unravel anyway  in a few minutes.( or a bit longer )
because you can all ready follow dworf, you just need to stop the game all the time when they move a Z-lvl up/down

What benefit does it serve the gamer Other than to produce more stressful observations, of course.  Sure it'd be fun to zoom in on a fitful Dworf, picking fights in the meeting areas.  But what are you going to see?  Its a graphic less game.  Think ahead on this, did you? 

in roller coaster tycoon  the only thing you see you dude do is jump when he is happy, and if it rains he has a umbrella, ow and sometime he had a balloon, But that's not the point

its for me not the seeing part, But the more personal part of his/her live line and just feeling proud my dworf growing up
i could imagine that i would be one dwarf (give it my name) and follow me around see what i would do, it would make the imagine  part easier
and its just fun to see who he marries,  how many children he gets,

after 10 years in a fort most things work  pretty automated and i don't need to arrange so much anymore but train more soldiers and make bigger orders of  booze
maybe  kill some dwarf so something new happen and some go berserk for some fun

so my thinking ahead would be  to personalizes some, so there is more to look at and keep my head busy with

the benefits would be maybe not new game play or more crafts and what not, but a more personal felling to some of the dwarf

So please correct me those of you who create visualizers and mods, but would this be only a matter of creating a mirror program? If you can read enough data from DF to create something like Stonesense, wouldn't it only be a simple matter to add a command that follows the coordinates of a single dwarf? You wouldn't be able to do any of the other commands at the same time, but you could have a second 'follow' program that you could bring up whenever you wanted to follow someone. Then pause the game when you saw something interesting.

its good that you say this,
because i asked if there was a mod out there that did this
and i got  the answer that its was impossible to do,
maybe i should ask if a mirror program would be possible in the mod forum,  then knutor and same minded people would be happy and me to

I would also be nice to be able to focus on foes and other units.

i would not like that..  and i would agree that that would be too much a dev-tool
"we could also say lets follow 1 tree, and see when its chopped"

[Jaylow]

also take a loot at this topic,
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98901.msg2899032#msg2899032
its about agent-sims and Follow mode

only if i got to his sugenstion post i get
"An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you."

[knutor]

Isn't the Follow Dwarf "feel" Jaylow, the goal of Adventure mode?  I dunno, haven't really played much Adventure mode, since its going to be the main feature of the next patch.  I don't wanna learn something that is just going to be obsoleted in a few months/years, when Toady updates it. 

I played the Tycoon games, too.  That's a perfect example of this feature.  I really loved following my trains in Railroad Tycoon.  Seeing where the cattle got dropped off, and coal loaded at, seeing where the gradients were steep and the locomotive slowed down,  hearing it blow its whistle at X roads.  It really opened up a whole new beauty and 3D perspective of game play. 

Sure I do see where it would be fun, to have the command.  Its most likely already a tool, created by a Tarn brother, but held under lock and key, for those with an artistic license to the game, to operate.  I would hope so, anyway.  When something like this hits the market, all kinds of SCIENCE with regards to Dorf behavior studies will begin. 

Attributes will get mapped out, to the T.  Not sure I want that.  Do you?

Sincerely,
Knutor

[NobodyPro]

'_'
Yes, I would like that. It would help my modding to no end and would flesh out the wiki's personality page past Wild Mass Guessing.

[bombzero]

Knutor, im not really sure i understand WHY your so against this, i often see people arguing against a feature because either they wont use it, or they feel its cheating for some obtuse and not entirely clear reason.

you say it would help people map out attributes, test a bunch of stuff, learn everything, but theres an issue with that argument, you already can, simply by pausing game, moving Z-level, following dwarf until he hits stairs again, repeat.
and thats not even counting the Raws, where most of the info about DF resides.

so unless you actually provide a reasonable argument i just dont get what you are saying.

[knutor]

Knutor, im not really sure i understand WHY your so against this, i often see people arguing against a feature because either they wont use it, or they feel its cheating for some obtuse and not entirely clear reason.

you say it would help people map out attributes, test a bunch of stuff, learn everything, but theres an issue with that argument, you already can, simply by pausing game, moving Z-level, following dwarf until he hits stairs again, repeat.
and thats not even counting the Raws, where most of the info about DF resides.

so unless you actually provide a reasonable argument i just dont get what you are saying.

That is true.  If a person takes the time.  As you say.

This feature leads directly to the killing off of any menace-to-society before hammering, thereby nullifying the sheriff role completely, and voiding the entire section of code, as it stands now.  Is implementing code to void code a good design strategy?  Nope.  That's just one problem that the reverse mapping of AI innuendos would result in.  I'm confident if given time and energy, many other mysterious DF features, would simply get uncovered in a similar ruinous fashion.

Sincerely,
Knutor

[sobriquet]

**sighs, drinks swamp whisky**

knutor's trolling again, subtly.

not that need to point this out.

[10ebbor10]

Is he refering to vampires? Because you'll need to find them before you can follow.
Also, I like the idea.

[Tuxman]

What would be nice is if the game would automatically write everything a given dwarf does to a text file, instead of spamming you with messages, and give dates for each action. You would be able to track as many dwarves as you want. This would make community fortresses eons easier.