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[Armeleon]

I don't know HOW many fellow story-gamers play DF, but I am a nut for catching the details that make it interesting.  As it stands, however, it takes a little bit too much micromanagement to keep track of everything. I sometimes try and go back into the announcement history and find something I've missed, but if I wait too long its gone.  Add this too the fact that the board is continually spammed with dozens of irrelevant (but still very important) messages that make finding the timeline for a specific dwarf frustrating.

So I have an idea. On the view creature list you already have several different stats you can view about your dwarves. Health, Kills, Relationships, etc. If we could add a category which acts as a mini dwarven journal that would make dwarf fortress infinitely more narrative.  It wouldn't have to be more complicated than setting up a link every time the dwarf has an announcement pop up and put them all into a list.  I would love to be able to open up a screen which lists all the major events in a dwarfs life over the past year.

For example. If Urist marries, kills four goblins, starts having a grudge, creates a special artifact, and creates a masterpiece armor breastplate one year, you have the option of viewing these as a list off the view creature page.  We can even see how close these events fall to his birthday, or anniversary. Would this be too much information to hold in the system? Or can the data just be stored externally to be accessed when we want to view the screen?

(And I really don't mean to repeat an earlier suggestion. I tried finding one and failed)

[zwei]

This is nice idea.

Also, I think it is important thet this biography would persit past death (because currently there is next to nothing you can do to learn more about deceased dwarf)

[Loud Whispers]

I support this idea, chronicles of a fortress indeed.

[Armeleon]

I'm glad there are some supporters out there! Like I said, I don't know the source code, but I think it would only take a genius like Toady maybe half a day at the longest to code it in.  It's not a MAJOR change. Just a minor change to the already existing interface.

And I think it would be a good idea to have them persist after death. When you view a dwarf corpse, you can have the option of viewing how he or she died, and the event leading up to their death.

[peskyninja]

I suppor it too, maybe Toady will do this when we arrive at the music/culture/poems things.

[King DZA]

Definite support. I would finally be able to know just how many masterwork rock pots a dwarf made over the course of a lifetime.

[nomad_delta]

I concur, I really like this idea a lot!

[Canalan]

Adding my voice to the supporters of this idea.

[peskyninja]

Maybe it could have some kind of "Hyperlink" when a conflict/duel or somehting important happens.
In 159 Urist McSoldier fought in the rape of wars.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

It'd be useful, this.

I had to write down the important events of a kobold who happened to had made an artifact steel sword that saw service in 15 sieges, and 4 FB attacks, married, saw his wife die to an FB, killed the FB himself with a pick, formed a grudge against the mayor, and was beaten to death by the hammerer. I like to think he was falsely accused.

[Doomshifter]

I heartily support this. I really like this because I tend to get particularly attached to certain characters, for whatever reason. I remember having this one dwarf who got a mood as a mason and made an artifact, before going particularly loopy. He'd occasionally go down to the mason's workshop, when he felt like it (it was his own personal shop, too) and then pump out twenty, thirty, fourty masterpiece items of furniture. Then he'd go on break for a season. When a siege came and laid waste to the fort, he was still churning out amazing pieces of furniture. In fact, I'm fairly certain he killed the last goblin on his way to finishing a new chair. When he was in the mood, he wasn't going to let anyone stop him.

[MonkeyHead]

This is one of those rare things - a good, original idea that would actually make a positive change in the game, and it is actually feasable to see it implemented. Nice one.

[Owlbread]

Perhaps this could be the dwarf's "memory". If the player is indeed Armok, you could be looking inside the dwarf's memories to see his life as he remembers it. I don't know if you fellows would like this, but maybe his memories could become distorted through magic, age or madness for example he might remember his father as a jackal and having spoken to a god.

To make this biography continue after death, you could assign a literate dwarf to write down his biography so you can read it.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Actually, the distortion of memories is also a brilliant idea.

Lets say two dwarves are caught in the same situation, stuck in a cavern with an FB. One gets infected, the other doesn't.
The healthy dwarf rememembers it clearly.
The sick dwarf hallucinates things under the malady of fever, and so imagines things that are not there for the healthy dwarf.

[Owlbread]

Actually, the distortion of memories is also a brilliant idea.

Lets say two dwarves are caught in the same situation, stuck in a cavern with an FB. One gets infected, the other doesn't.
The healthy dwarf rememembers it clearly.
The sick dwarf hallucinates things under the malady of fever, and so imagines things that are not there for the healthy dwarf.

It could mean that depending on the dwarves who were at an event, a "legend" becomes more and more distorted. Say a dwarf kills 10 goblins. Due him being boastful, he will later claim that it was 20. As more dwarves respond to this positively and he is seen as a hero, others claim that he killed 30 through exaggeration. Eventually, the legend as we know it and as it is told by father to son is that the great Hammerdwarf Onul Rithdastot killed 50 goblins single-handedly.

Really, if Toady sets down the right personality traits and the effects that they can have (exaggerating stories and boasting and such, dwarves who have only heard the exaggerated story only know the exaggerated story etc), DF can do all the hard work for him.