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Author Topic: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?  (Read 3151 times)

El Cabra

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2011, 02:42:41 pm »

I've already described mine short vision of NPC's controll. I haven't heard anything supporting it or any arguments against it yet. Also I have'nt heard any additional, detailed information on this topic. Think somebody should give out some ideas first, before I continue mine?

I may write 3 pages long post about how I think something should be developed, but I will not do it for a number of reasons:

1. It would be completely pointless. We all have our points of views and stating CLEARLY one of them will cause others to automatically reject it. This is how community is built, this is how human brain works. This is what my gaming experience shows.

2. If I was down to post everything I think it would automatically cause hundreds of people to post links to their threads where 'these ideas' have already been discussed. This is why I've stated fairly rough idea of a huge concept to hear what other people think, to know what EXACTLY is being discussed which is close to what I suggested so I can built my personal, more detailed view on this.

Instead of posting the whole idea, I made a small post about what I would personally like to see in this great game. What I have is people discussing it. There are currently one problem regarding my idea being discussed in THIS thread and I have gave out my opinion on how this sytem should work. Again, I've only gave out a small concept of what I feel should be the main priority in this part of the game. Further, when this will be deeply discussed I will give more ideas and eventually, this thread will be filled (hopefully) with detailed ideas rather than general information.

BTW, NW_Kohaku and others, who have answered here. Thanks for your participation in this thread. Turns into great discussion. :)
« Last Edit: February 24, 2011, 02:50:16 pm by El Cabra »
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NW_Kohaku

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2011, 03:22:50 pm »

I may write 3 pages long post about how I think something should be developed, but I will not do it for a number of reasons:

1. It would be completely pointless. We all have our points of views and stating CLEARLY one of them will cause others to automatically reject it. This is how community is built, this is how human brain works. This is what my gaming experience shows.

Take a glance at my largest thread so far.  It's not done yet.  It's close, though.  52 pages in Word so far, by the way.  For the proposal section, not counting the comments and the entire 719 post thread it was built off of. 

Yes, people will reject things on face value, but if their only response is "You're stupid because I hate you," then they aren't worth attempting to cater to, anyway.  If their response is "I don't like this because X and Y," then trying to cater to the demands of X and Y while still keeping what you want intact is what turns something from a mere "hey wouldn't it be cool if" to a real proposed course of action that can actually help Toady develop a better game.  An idea that really stands out is one that can make a counter-argument to the detractors.  If it can't make a counter-argument, then change the idea until it does.

2. If I was down to post everything I think it would automatically cause hundreds of people to post links to their threads where 'these ideas' have already been discussed. This is why I've stated fairly rough idea of a huge concept to hear what other people think, to know what EXACTLY is being discussed which is close to what I suggested so I can built my personal, more detailed view on this.

Kind of the opposite is the case.  Generally, it's perfectly fine to "borrow" some ideas (it's appreciated when you mention you're borrowing them, though), but the point is that you should be adding on to ideas.  If your idea makes the original idea a much different idea, then people will post references back for reference, but that's just reference.



Anyway, if you aren't going to drop the other shoe without some prodding, I guess I can just critique this...

What I mean, is one HUGE world (well, you could still customize the size when creating a new one) with all the possibilities the game provides. You are making a character, who has little skills, no title, homeless, almost broke and get him to the top!

Like in the DF mode you could still build underground fortresses (if playing a dwarf, for example), or castles (more likely if you're playing a human). Or you could simply get rich by becoming a good merchant and have some workshops in a town or in several towns. Endless possibilities :)

Would be nice if you could get/recruit/ your companions to start building your empire, rather than getting free 7 dwarves. Then you could get richer and  richer, recruit a lot of workers, make services for random citizens who are in need for help (for money or for free, getting friends this way) etc.

Here's why we're saying that something like the ability to build a fortress in adventurer mode is already planned, and generally leaving it at that: We already agree that these things will make the game better, we are just waiting for them to come into the game.  There's nothing to discuss, everyone already agrees, at least in abstract principle.

If you want a discussion to get going, you need to talk about how this gets put into the game, and how the limited interface can work with a very complex system. 

What I am basically dreaming about is a gameplay where you WON'T be able to scroll the entire map and only see your character and the space around him (just like in Adventure mode) and you will only be able to give orders 'face-to-face'. For example, if you wan't to mine down a fortress you have to 'Talk' to one of your miners, or a bunch at once and select 'Orders' or something like that then choose 'Mining' (the same 'to do' menu as in the DF mode) and then the map changes somehow so you can actually scroll it and choose the location to mine.

Might be pretty difficult since you will have to give orders to several workers, not just one. To solve this why not add special organizer where you can organise everything what belongs to you? For example, you can grant a skilled miner to be a 'Miner commander' so once you give a task to him he will then go find other mining dwarves and tell them what to do? Same goes to any profession. Other dwarves hapiness will also depend on how they treat the commander as well as work etc.

Here's where you can start getting some substance to work with. 

OK, so let's say you talk to your "miner commander" face-to-face... how do you tell him to dig out a 5x5 area in the cave shaft eight z-levels down at some random spot in the walls of one of a dozen mining shafts without actually being able to pull up a map and designate that area?  That's a pretty tall order for a completely text-based menu to have to name every exploratory shaft and room you carve out of the rock and find it in the menu to reference by name, rather than by map location.

Granite26 said that just having some sort of command desk that will throw you into fortress mode temporarily is a solution to being able to actually designate mining, since you pretty much have to be able to tell the miners where, exactly, you want them mining on the map. 
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El Cabra

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2011, 03:49:54 pm »

Well, I get the point of temporary fortress mod when giving out orders, but this is not exactly what I would like. I mean, if there is no other solution, then why not, but, personally, I would not take this kind of solution into perspective.

I think that already generated world and a single mode would be much better. When I was talking about my view of giving orders I was thinking about a fortress menu, where you could select any fortress mode action, but in the 'Talk' option now. However, I think that it should be one mode rather than temporarily enabled fortress mode and then back to advneture mode etc, because I feel like it will take a while to switch modes plus I am not counting the ammout of lags it may cause and/or crashes.

Also NW_Kohaku,

I realise that decisions people make in the suggestion forums are often based on personal attitude to the poster, however, I can't see any unfair arguments or posts, based on the personal position to the poster right now (at least in this thread). What I see is a an attempt to discuss X's and Y's of the problem and come to the sollution.

I am sure by the time development will reach its stage where they will work on possible unification of the two mods, there will be enough information for developers to use and they will make their own decesion and how everything should work (they might have already done it). As I can see, there's a lot of development discussions going on on these boards and a lot specifically on this subject, so just another thread will not interfere this discussions, but will IMO complement what we currently have.
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NW_Kohaku

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2011, 05:12:58 pm »

Well, I get the point of temporary fortress mod when giving out orders, but this is not exactly what I would like. I mean, if there is no other solution, then why not, but, personally, I would not take this kind of solution into perspective.

I think that already generated world and a single mode would be much better. When I was talking about my view of giving orders I was thinking about a fortress menu, where you could select any fortress mode action, but in the 'Talk' option now. However, I think that it should be one mode rather than temporarily enabled fortress mode and then back to advneture mode etc, because I feel like it will take a while to switch modes plus I am not counting the ammout of lags it may cause and/or crashes.

Play with Arena mode a little.  That toggles between a sort of stripped-down mockup of fortress and adventurer modes already.  The two modes are just two different interfaces running functionally the same system with a few minor tweaks to things like timescale.  The switch isn't a giant game-breaking deal.  It's the ability to present the player with an interface that gives the player a meaningful way to interact with the different components.

Now then, it shouldn't be impossible to put something slightly similar to what you were talking about with having you talk to the mining foreman and give him an order - you could have a talk with someone open up a fortress-mode-like menu where all you can do is designate mining projects... but that still requires having a fortress-mode-like interface for that one temporary shift.

I realise that decisions people make in the suggestion forums are often based on personal attitude to the poster, however, I can't see any unfair arguments or posts, based on the personal position to the poster right now (at least in this thread). What I see is a an attempt to discuss X's and Y's of the problem and come to the sollution.

That's my point: People aren't just shouting insults without meaning, here, so there isn't a reason to say that you can't post your idea without having people shout out insults without meaning.

I am sure by the time development will reach its stage where they will work on possible unification of the two mods, there will be enough information for developers to use and they will make their own decesion and how everything should work (they might have already done it). As I can see, there's a lot of development discussions going on on these boards and a lot specifically on this subject, so just another thread will not interfere this discussions, but will IMO complement what we currently have.

Well, if you're talking about a "unification" of adventure mode and fortress mode as in "we will eliminate fortress mode, and you will have to play adventure mode only", then you're probably not going to get what you want. 

I, for one, am not particularly interested in playing fortress mode on the adventurer mode scale.  It's 72 times slower, for starters. 

If what you want is an experience where you can choose one of three modes, and potentially shift between them, then you are much more likely to get what you want.  Thing is, Dwarf Fortress is a game that is broad enough in scope that it can appeal to people of vastly different playstyles.  The thing about "eliminate fortress mode" is that you're going to be forcing your particular playstyle onto the people who want to play the game in a different way.  Some people prefer to just be the beurocracy of the fortress surveying the fortress from the void, giving managerial direction to dwarves without being any dwarf in particular.

If you want to be an adventurer who can replicate almost anything you find in fortress mode without actually eliminating fortress mode, however, you're not taking anything away from the other players who have their own preferred playstyle, while adding to your own.  That's the sort of thing you want to be going for.
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Granite26

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #19 on: February 24, 2011, 08:46:36 pm »

Long term, aren't we expecting the time scales to gel up again?

NW_Kohaku

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #20 on: February 24, 2011, 09:31:54 pm »

Long term, aren't we expecting the time scales to gel up again?

I've never seen anything to that effect.  Post a link to whatever you saw about that?
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El Cabra

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2011, 03:12:22 am »

Quote
Well, if you're talking about a "unification" of adventure mode and fortress mode as in "we will eliminate fortress mode, and you will have to play adventure mode only", then you're probably not going to get what you want. 

I, for one, am not particularly interested in playing fortress mode on the adventurer mode scale.  It's 72 times slower, for starters. 

If what you want is an experience where you can choose one of three modes, and potentially shift between them, then you are much more likely to get what you want.  Thing is, Dwarf Fortress is a game that is broad enough in scope that it can appeal to people of vastly different playstyles.  The thing about "eliminate fortress mode" is that you're going to be forcing your particular playstyle onto the people who want to play the game in a different way.  Some people prefer to just be the beurocracy of the fortress surveying the fortress from the void, giving managerial direction to dwarves without being any dwarf in particular.

If you want to be an adventurer who can replicate almost anything you find in fortress mode without actually eliminating fortress mode, however, you're not taking anything away from the other players who have their own preferred playstyle, while adding to your own.  That's the sort of thing you want to be going for.

I didn't say I want to eliminate fortress mode or any other mode. What I want is just another mode, so we could have 3 official gamestyles available. We could still play a pure Adventurer mode, Fortress mode, but there would be one more mode, for RPG/STRATEGY-style players. In this 'mix of modes' a player would start his destiny from scratch and EVERYTHING this game provides will be possible in this mode. For example, you could go begging, but you could also become a king. Or you could become a vassal of the king, get an army and go siege a fortress. And this would be only like 0.5 % of all possibilities. Politics is not everything you could do. You could become a rich merchant, or a shopkeeper, innkeeper etc. Some guy would be a competitor to you (next door tavern in the city) so you cold actually sabotage it or hire an assassin :) Just some thoughts.

I agree, it will be pain to get used to (for newbies), but there will still be available two other modes. where you could learn the game basics and have some 'limited' fun. However, I am more than sure that 'mixed' mode would give incredible fun to both new players and vets and players would have to play one world for months to get the highest positions.

'Two modes' separately are too limited for myself. This game has so much possibilities, but I can't even imagine how much fun would it bring if we could enjoy one more mode, where possibilities are endless, fun is unlimited and death is even closer.
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Kogut

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2011, 03:39:46 am »

Quote
you could go begging, but you could also become a king. Or you could become a vassal of the king, get an army and go siege a fortress.
I think that it is what is supposed to happen with adventure mod (probably around 2020).
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El Cabra

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2011, 05:37:49 am »

The key is that it IS going to happen  :)
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Granite26

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2011, 09:23:21 am »

Long term, aren't we expecting the time scales to gel up again?
I've never seen anything to that effect.  Post a link to whatever you saw about that?

Nothing specific, just... trade, etc with offsite entities will need to behave similarly between adv and dwf modes, plus the various goals calling out adv/fort interaction

NW_Kohaku

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Re: Possible unification of Dwarf Fortress and the Adventurer modes?
« Reply #25 on: February 25, 2011, 02:29:49 pm »

I didn't say I want to eliminate fortress mode or any other mode. What I want is just another mode, so we could have 3 official gamestyles available. We could still play a pure Adventurer mode, Fortress mode, but there would be one more mode, for RPG/STRATEGY-style players. In this 'mix of modes' a player would start his destiny from scratch and EVERYTHING this game provides will be possible in this mode. For example, you could go begging, but you could also become a king. Or you could become a vassal of the king, get an army and go siege a fortress. And this would be only like 0.5 % of all possibilities. Politics is not everything you could do. You could become a rich merchant, or a shopkeeper, innkeeper etc. Some guy would be a competitor to you (next door tavern in the city) so you cold actually sabotage it or hire an assassin :) Just some thoughts.

I agree, it will be pain to get used to (for newbies), but there will still be available two other modes. where you could learn the game basics and have some 'limited' fun. However, I am more than sure that 'mixed' mode would give incredible fun to both new players and vets and players would have to play one world for months to get the highest positions.

'Two modes' separately are too limited for myself. This game has so much possibilities, but I can't even imagine how much fun would it bring if we could enjoy one more mode, where possibilities are endless, fun is unlimited and death is even closer.

Maybe you should look over adventurer mode a little more, because that sort of sounds like just building up adventurer mode to have functionality that replicates everything in fortress mode.

If you are doing all this from first person perspective (or third person top-down where you only control one character, at least), then why not do all this stuff in adventurer mode?  You can just choose not to use the complex stuff while playing adventurer mode if you don't want to.

All of the stuff from trading to begging to becoming a king were all part of the original design goals of adventurer mode. Just scroll down to the Power Goals section on this page
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