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[Faces of Mu]

Though this may make the game too similar to Civilisation and others, I would love to see an intellectual/scientific side to the dwarven life. It seems strange that a bunch of pilgrims with (depending on how you set it up) no knowledge of siege weaponry and mechanics can, in the space of two years, learn how to design, build and maintain a ballista. I would love to see a research element added to the game someday so that dwarves can only produce things that have been researched and learned about. Hence dwarven skills would be proportional to this research level, and skill couldn't exceed skill understanding -too greatly- (it still COULD, but there would need to be a soft cap on it, as a new skill/product/service often needs the masterful people for it to be used properly).

On the other side of this would be a new Training skill so that legendary dwarves could train newbies. Hence being legendary doesn't make them a good trainer and vice versa, but a good trainer can more efficiently transfer research knowledge to those who are using the skills.

Of course, my ideal fortress has libraries and research labs!(which adds the whole element of stone tablet/paper & ink production!). Then knowledge could be the new tradable commodity!

People have also talked about Nobles adding some sort of skill management/training function. This would work in beautifully, and, with enough research done and the arrival of the new scientist-education specialist, would justify the unlocked access to such a screen.

[ June 17, 2007: Message edited by: Faces of Mu ]

[Entropy]

Scientific research and new inventions happen on a very long scale - civilization has tech because you are going over thousands of years.  Now I know some people play a fortress for a couple hundred years (though I usually get bored after 80 or so) but not enough where researching tech is really that practical.

This is an outpost of a developed civilization - as such they know of catapults and such already and do not suddenly acquire the knowledge a couple years in.

The training suggestion is one that comes up now and then - a legendary dwarf taking an apprentice would be fantastic.  

Recipes are apparently going to be a tradeable thing - a good cook will come up with stuff and you can trade with caravans (which is implied when the human noble asks for requests from the caravan).

[hactar1]

There already is a sort of research requirement for certain advanced buildings.  A lot of things are built smoothly into the game design without an explicit "research X" option somewhere.  For example, to make magma forges/furnaces, you first must make steel, which is a difficult process that involves lots of resources.  And an alchemist's laboratory takes 3 clear glass vials to build, which requires a wood furnace, ashery, kiln, and glass furnace to produce the various intermediate products.  Alchemy doesn't really do anything now, but it will and it's supposed to be advanced.

The dwarf skill system also provides a little bit of this; unskilled dwarves are slow and produce poor work.  One interesting idea might be that unskilled (dabbling or below) dwarves could have a chance at completely failing a job and destroying the materials.  This might, however, cause them to gain novice skill right away so it could only happen once per dwarf.

[DR]

quote:Originally posted by Faces of Mu:
[QB]It seems strange that a bunch of pilgrims with (depending on how you set it up) no knowledge of siege weaponry and mechanics can, in the space of two years, learn how to design, build and maintain a ballista.

I'd be more surprised if a bunch of skilled craftsmen who have a vague idea of what a ballista is and does couldn't build one in two years with a bit of trial and error. They're not actually hugely complicated devices.

I could see them failing to produce a good ballista, but then that's where the seige engineering skill comes in.

[schnobs]

quote:Originally posted by DR:
<STRONG>

I'd be more surprised if a bunch of skilled craftsmen who have a vague idea of what a ballista is and does couldn't build one in two years with a bit of trial and error. They're not actually hugely complicated devices.

I could see them failing to produce a good ballista, but then that's where the seige engineering skill comes in.</STRONG>

qft.