I'll add new suggestions to the bottom of the original list (in fact I've already done so) as I think of them.
I'm not sure if I agree with the insanity thing. However, it should make it more likely for the deceased to come back as ghosts.
Yeah, ghosts were actually my first thought, but I didn't want to mention them because I hate spoilers. Insanity (a byproduct of the unhappy thoughts of the near-cannibalism) was a good runner-up.
Agreed on the going insane from eating pigs who ate dwarves. Is this supposed to be related to the supposed method of transferring Mad Cow disease?
Yes. Wikipedia "prion." Technically, I believe prions can enter the body through
any direct contact with cut skin, mucus membranes, or similar tissue, but ingestion has been the primary vector for Mad Cow because of the very large amount of material entering the body. Now back to the good part.
>If a dwarf can fail to dig out a usable stone because he's not a good enough Miner, then obviously he can also choose not to produce such a stone because he knows it won't be wanted.
This doesn't make sense either, how are they vanishing a block's worth of stone? Perhaps miners should instead produce stone of varying quality or mass. A legendary miner can produce almost a whole block's worth in one piece, most others produce smaller chunks.
I pictured the Miner simply reducing the stone to rubble/gravel, after which nobody cares about it. Hey, it makes more sense than having stone Drawbridges.
But yes, the ideal system would make every "tile" of rock and treat it as 100% RockUnit; the skill of the Miner determines what percentage is left as the size of the largest resulting chunk. If there's not enough left to make a Table, there's probably still enough for a Mug. Ideally, the game would be able to keep track of
multiple chunks dug from the same tile, as well of multiple minerals: An unmined tile could be 6% Native Gold, 81% Phyllite and 13% Satinspar . . . and though you probably broke the Phyllite into pretty small chunks to get at the Gold, you'd still have some left.
Tailings could be used to fill the insides of thicker stone Walls (which might become a factor once Sieges start using actual Siege
Weapons, capable of bringing down Walls), and to fill unwanted Murky Pools.
All suggestions are for Fortress Mode only.
Stuff that affects one mode (should) affect the other.
As far as game-physics and other mechanics, yes. But when I'm only interested in Fortress mode, I quickly got tired of seeing page after page of Adventurer plans with only the odd Fortress-applicable one sprinkled in here & there.
Inside Dark Underground, etc.
Not a bad idea, but A. planned and B. if dwarves can't do ANYTHING without light, that kinda requires you to make most of your fortress aboveground for the first ~year, or else to immediately start a new required industry.
Not necessarily; all fire-related workshops obviously generate their own light, and could therefore be used to light ones nearby. For all we know, the underground crops might be phosphescent, making Farms self-illuminated as well. You also don't need vision at all to operate a Quern, Pump, or Loom. Of course, Toady might be operating on the assumption rule, that we're to assume the (plentiful) existence of candles/torches/Infravision, just as we're to assume that building a Kitchen or Carpenter's Shop also creates metal pots/knives/saws, even in a settlement that doesn't have any access to metal yet.
* All Wooden items should be able to be burned for fuel.
Maybe not "all"...an earring shouldn't be able to power a forge.
It should if it were combined with enough [/i]other[/i] small wood items to total at least 100% WoodUnit.
* Redesigned Embark: Instead of 7 dwarves, you should get a large pool of candidates . . .
Not a terrible idea, I guess...I just don't see a "why."
Far more realistic. If you're leading an expedition somewhere and you put out advertisements saying that you're looking for able pioneers, you don't just limit yourself to the first 7 people who respond. You collect a pool of applicants and pick out the ones that seem best able to carry their weight and form a cohesive whole with the rest of the team.
* New fluid resource: Oil.
Animal-fat oil or petroleum oil? The former is fine, the latter violates the 1400s tech limit.
I was thinking both; Lamp Oil generated from tallow, followed by Kerosene and the like later on. I wasn't aware of any tech limit; the idea of a stone mechanism that can instantly and completely enclose an enemy in a Lead Cage may have misled me.
What we need is either A. a way to armor war dogs, B. a way to add metal thingies to help the bite (like plastic vampire fangs, except nor plastic, made for dogs, and made for combat), or ideally C. both.
I'd support that only for War
Elephants, AFAIK the only real-world beasts to be so armed and armored . . . and of course, even
they only got those goodies after their highly skilled Animal Trainer had raised them up a few levels.
* Party Animals: Dwarves who attend Parties will gain ranks in the Kegstander skill.
What would that do? Give other dwarves happy thoughts when he's partying?
...Actually, that makes sense.
Optional skill title: Table-Dancer. May cause
unhappy thoughts in dwarves who dislike immodesty.
"Where do all these plump helmets, quarry bushes, rope reeds, kobold bulbs, and pig tails come from?" The same place as the giant spiders, dragons . . . giant caves, and DWARVES come from. It's in the name! "Dwarf Fortress!"
Hey! You forgot olms, drunians, and pond grabbers!
* And Oh Yeah, The Friggin' Obvious
. . . let's tackle the stupider sources of dwarven death first, like NOT NOTICING THAT THEY ARE ON FIRE.
. . . okay, you win.
Moods automatically kicking a dwarf up to Legendary is way too much.
NO!! The POINT of an artifact is that it's a PERFECT item! They're LEGENDARY artifacts for a reason! An dwarf who creates an artifact and remembers it deserves the title "Legendary!"
If they're so perfect, why are some of them so much less perfect than others? It makes no sense that a Dabbling Miner could make something that far exceeds the quality of anything a highly experienced Grand Master Mason could produce. I'm sure I'm not the first to promte the idea that the Moods should be turned
way the hell down.
Different types of Moods should have quite different effects--most importantly, being Possessed should give the highest chance to make an artifact well beyond the craftsdwarf's normal level of skill, but at the same time, it would confer only a small fraction of the potential EXP gain (because it wasn't actually the
dwarf that made the item). Secretive dwarves should have the lowest chance of making an absurdly-good item (because they can't get help/advice from anyone else), but stand to gain the most EXP for it (because they did it entirely on their own).
At best, the Standing Orders screen will offer a sub-menu that lists which types of stone/ore are to be destroyed at will, and which are to be carefully saved (possibly giving each material its own rating for the skill level of Miner permitted to attempt to harvest it).
Not sure if this is needed.
True, it's hardly very important, but I find it preferable to watching an ongoing dig and un-designating any gold or gems that crop up until my better Miners return from their nap. The game isn't called Dwarf Babysitting.