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[TerryDactyl]

How do we feel about anachronism?

That is, the application of modern ideas to dwarf fortress in such a way to make it fit the theme.

You know... like power plants. Dwarven computers. Clocks.

There's other things about this game that I really enjoy. Unintentional features like stripping prisoners of their weapons and armour. Cruelty as demonstrated to elven caravans, where players exploit various aspects of the simulation to do things which are not strictly 'permitted' by Toady.

I get the sense that if these things are made simpler/official, players will doubtlessly find ways to raise the bar, leading to more fun features, however distant they may be on the horizon.

[Girlinhat]

Within reason, perhaps...  Computers, not likely.  Clocks, easier.

Although I would point out that these practically are features, not really "quasi-features".  DF is made to be a sandbox game.  There is no "intended way" and if your method of play is to torture elven caravans, that's just as valid as one who makes armies and lays waste to incoming sieges.  There are no "rules" to playing, there are only "parameters".

[TerryDactyl]

...simple computers...

I guess they work more like electronics. Anyway, you get it. Blasted game is a lot of fun.

...more rewards for simple goals might attract players towards more advanced challenges (ie. megaprojects), in the way that we are assigned nobles for reaching certain populations, and the way beasts are sent when we reach a certain wealth.

"You have laid the groundwork for X industry!" "Have a cookie!"

[NW_Kohaku]

People have already made a water clock.  "Dwarfputer" is just a term for replicating logic functions using gears and axles, and has produced megaprojects like the four-function calculator in the image of that wiki page. 

Any further actual mechanisms to make this sort of thing happen falls under the purview of Additional Mechanisms, which is a fairly long-running and detailed thread filled with plenty of ideas for mechanism component pieces that could potentially be used to create massively more complex machinery than anyone is probably capable of envisioning right now.  Additional Mechanisms is a winner of the Eternal Suggestion Voting system, and is slated to go into the game somewhere down the road, although Caravan and Army arc stuff are coming first. 

[Girlinhat]

Only if the reward actually matters.  There's a few threads about player rewards.  What is all comes down to is: Are you rewarding the player, or the dwarves?  If you build a magma forge and you get a useless statue that you can toss somewhere, it doesn't matter.  If you get a new noble to come, the Metalworks Guild Master who allows you to streamline, optimize, and better perform your metalworks, then that would be better.  Remember that DF has very very little, if any, of the meta-game.  That is, everything that happens in the game is in the game.  None of it translates into the real world or even to the player.  It's ALL about the dwarves.

As for computers, we already have pressure plates and floodgates.  Water logic is a powerful thing that can be applied to endless things.  If you're referring to some type of computer item that does something specific, then I'm not sure what it could be used for.

[TerryDactyl]

Nono, water logic and dwarfputer is precisely what I'm referring to here. It's fascinating to my limited understanding of the concepts involved in making it work. But it also requires a great deal of research ~ forum threads and wiki articles. I'm not so sure these ideas existed in the dark ages... so we apply modern concepts to this fantasy setting blah blah blah. And something magical happens: fun. Which seems to be pretty dangerous. When it works... hoo boy.

[Girlinhat]

Perhaps the wiki should be updated to include some more detail on water logic.  Last I remember, the wiki said "It's possible".

[Bohandas]

I really like anachronism if its done well, like in "Adventure Time", or "Epic Battle Fantasy".

[NW_Kohaku]

I'm not so sure these ideas existed in the dark ages... so we apply modern concepts to this fantasy setting blah blah blah.

There were ancient water clocks in the Greek, Roman, and Arab world.  I remember watching a few History Channel documetaries on it - they had things like silver bird statuetes that were attached to whistles that would be mechanically blown when water levels were dropped from one lever to another on a metered time release system.  So as long as water was pumped up to the resevoir, it would make the birds pnuematically flap their wings, turn their heads, and "chirp" while a fountain poured water. 

Obviously, this wasn't the sort of thing that went into mass production, however.  Much like how they work in DF, they were just massively expensive vanity projects. 

[Girlinhat]

People don't give the old-world enough credit.  There were some pretty amazing things, and people dedicated their entire lives to balancing this one copper weight against this one water droplet to get it timed perfectly.  Take a look at the inside of a mechanical wristwatch sometime.  Not one of those run off a motor, but the kind with tiny nearly-perpetual-motion machines that wind the clock as your wrist moves.

[Bdthemag]

Dwarven Computer= Glass with a picture behind it, computer technician dwarves change the picture.

[TerryDactyl]

People don't give the old-world enough credit.  There were some pretty amazing things, and people dedicated their entire lives to balancing this one copper weight against this one water droplet to get it timed perfectly.  Take a look at the inside of a mechanical wristwatch sometime.  Not one of those run off a motor, but the kind with tiny nearly-perpetual-motion machines that wind the clock as your wrist moves.

I thought all that stuff in The Princess Bride was just fantasy. The more you know.

[Girlinhat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_watch

[Bohandas]

I'm not so sure these ideas existed in the dark ages... so we apply modern concepts to this fantasy setting blah blah blah.

There were ancient water clocks in the Greek, Roman, and Arab world.  I remember watching a few History Channel documetaries on it - they had things like silver bird statuetes that were attached to whistles that would be mechanically blown when water levels were dropped from one lever to another on a metered time release system.  So as long as water was pumped up to the resevoir, it would make the birds pnuematically flap their wings, turn their heads, and "chirp" while a fountain poured water. 

People don't give the old-world enough credit.  There were some pretty amazing things, and people dedicated their entire lives to balancing this one copper weight against this one water droplet to get it timed perfectly.  Take a look at the inside of a mechanical wristwatch sometime.  Not one of those run off a motor, but the kind with tiny nearly-perpetual-motion machines that wind the clock as your wrist moves.

Don't forget the Antikethra Mechanism

And also the various devices created by Archimedes, especially those that he designed to defend the city of Syracuse, including a [urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_of_Archimedes]giant crane[/url] designed to immobilize and capsize incoming enemy war ships, and possibly also a system of sun-focusing mirrors that was designed either to set fire to the sails of incoming ships, or, more likely (based on the findings of the Mythbusters), to blind their crews and thus render them unable to navigate or attack with ranged weapons.

Furthermore, the Chinese have had gunpowder since the 9th century, grenades since the 12th century, and handheld rifles since the 14th century

[Bohandas]

ALSO, the goals of ancient alchemists were not as unrealistic as we are generally led to believe:

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/aa050601a.htm 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_T._Seaborg#Return_to_California 
http://prc.aps.org/abstract/PRC/v23/i3/p1044_1
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/crabb/modern.html