A score that is reported when a fort is terminated is my top wish for DF right now.
I’m sure this has been a subject of discussion already, but I can’t find mention of ‘score’ in the dev pages or this board. Apologies if I’ve missed the obvious; it’s a habit.
Anyhow, there are 10 or so ppl in a gaming group I’m in who are playing DF right now, and while sharing anecdotes is fun, being able to post our accomplishments in a codified way once a fort falls into ruin would be terrific. A simple score would be great; a little legend file saved to the directory with a score and stats would be wonderful.
The obvious thought is to keep it simple, using what the game already keeps track of: the values/wealth calculations that drive immigration; accomplishments (river, chasm, magma, adamantium); nobles attracted; named enemies killed; and so on.
The one bit of math I’d suggest is to balance a fort which accomplishes everything then falls versus a fort that stops progress of dangerous accomplishments and produces value ad infinitum. Use the Net Present Value formula to discount score gains – the further out in time the score gain, the less it will add to the final fort score. So,
1) Calculate the score gained in the previous year at each calendar flip
2) Apply the formula (this year’s score)/(1 + r)^t where r is the base growth rate a fort is expected to grow at and t is the number of years elapsed
3) Sum em all at game over
Figuring out a fair value for ‘r’ would be trial-and-error.
[ May 01, 2007: Message edited by: Andrew ]