Future Development
We won't be here for a while. All of the Version 1 arcs will be completed first.
You can also check out the future pages from the original Armok to see some other ideas we'll be drawing from.
- HIGH LEVEL PLOTS AND DIPLOMACY: Various intrigue and interesting not-necessarily-violent conflict between entities and individuals. Once you place the actors in place, they should act according to their wants and the wants of their associated entities based on the strength of those ties. Both adventurers and dwarf fortresses can become immersed in the push and pull which arises from the AI. This is already true to some extent (the current quests are all created from the surroundings and entity ties), but these effects can be made pervasive. Since armies and invasions will be done before we get here, there will already be some of this AI in place to work with. Related to Core30, Core33, Req131, PowerGoal18, PowerGoal47, PowerGoal57, PowerGoal65, PowerGoal95 and PowerGoal124.
- LATE GAME: As you kill the large creatures, the world becomes more... boring. The game can be prepared for this kind of change and move over into a sort of fairy-tale/Beowulf/Robert E Howard type of hybrid with human civs and occasional monsters so that things continue to be interesting. This already happens naturally in a way, but the dialogue and reactions of people to these changes should be there to fully adjust to the new setting. Related to Bloat149.
- EARLY GAME: The Age of Myth in world generation should be playable. Related to Bloat148.
- HUMAN TOWN: You should be able to control a human town, as you control a dwarf fortress, but with changes appropriate to the new setting. Related to Req469 and Bloat146.
- GOBLIN/KOBOLD/CAVER: Controlling the bad guys is an obvious extension, and you've got the whole friendly happy world waiting for your raiding parties.
- ELF FOREST RETREAT: Yes, elves for the elf people -- but thinking more general, as we list all these racial civilizations, we should think in broad terms and use the civilization definitions to allow any type of civilization to be played. Elves will provide some necessary extra elements for this process. Mixing the cliff dwelling, wilderness dwelling, town building, ethics/sphere-aligned/religious tendencies into a robust interface for civilization building is a long-term goal. Related to Bloat25.
- MONSTER: Playing the dragons and other large beasts seems like another good (and fairly easy) extension. You'd have to be careful, since there aren't very many large beasts in the world and you don't want to just possess them and have them all burn out in a blaze of glory. Or maybe you do... or it could just give you new ones. You could also just occasionally have fun going out on an excursion and retiring, then play an adventurer and take a quest from a town to go and dispatch your old self. Related to PowerGoal60.
- MERCHANT: With the Caravan Arc, we have traders moving around the world, but I said over there that I didn't want to mess around too much with having a real economy, or it would surely fall apart and all the towns would starve. Once I get up the nerve to tackle these problems, it would be a lot of fun to play a merchant or guild yourself. You could even retire and be visited by yourself in a subsequent dwarf game. Related to PowerGoal62.
- MAGIC: There are no specific decisions nailed down yet, although we've thought about it a lot. It's probably best to go for a very general system here, as in the first Armok attempt. Then the world generator and entities can decide what they want to use from what's available. Early efforts might be to make dwarven artifacts more interesting and to increase the power and variability of enemy leaders, rather than focusing on traditional spell-casting adventurers. Related to Bloat134, PowerGoal58, PowerGoal68, PowerGoal84, PowerGoal92, PowerGoal97, PowerGoal108, PowerGoal122 and PowerGoal128.
- CONTROL A WIZARD ENTITY: Not just one of those guys that backs up the team and shoots fireballs, but run something more like a dwarven outpost and construct your own multilevel tower or other such dwelling. This could include adventure style elements where your wizard is engaged in various activities, as well as larger scale army battles and so on. Randomized creatures could also be introduced as you create your minions, and they should be able to breed and expand outward, perhaps becoming a playable race in either adventure or civilization modes. Related to Bloat134, Bloat147, PowerGoal58 and PowerGoal60.
- DEITY: Have religions in the game correspond to forces or deities and let you play one and do whatever you like, possibly restricted by your defining characteristics and geography. Related to Bloat344, Bloat376, Bloat377, Bloat382, PowerGoal64, PowerGoal75, PowerGoal82, PowerGoal86, PowerGoal90, PowerGoal105, PowerGoal109, PowerGoal113, PowerGoal118, PowerGoal122, PowerGoal125, PowerGoal135, PowerGoal139, PowerGoal141 and PowerGoal146.
- WORLD GENERATION PARAMETERS: Allow some degree of control over the world and the more sweeping aspects of play. Possibilities include control over terrain, magic, religions, random vs. stock creatures, fantasy vs. a more 'historical' (ie human) feeling. Ideally, the variability would allow you to move between standard fantasy, fairy tales, mythic fantasy and gothic fantasy, for example. If there are concepts like planes or dimensions implemented, you'd have control over that as well. You could also set the mood -- there's no reason the game needs to be violent at all, for example, assuming the rest of the game can carry it at that point. The world could be generated completely underwater or with no water at all. You could be the first or last sentient creature. There are lots of ways this could go. Related to Bloat150, Bloat217 and PowerGoal125.
- TERRAIN/WEATHER/SWIMMING/FLYING/BOATS: Boats of some kind might go in early to make different regions more accessible, but you won't be able to be a pirate or an undersea civ for quite a while. Rivers freeze with daily temperatures instead of seasonal temperatures. Realize river and ocean squares when you visit them (forcing town layouts to adapt). Realize interesting canyons and so on in such areas. Track hurricanes and other major storm/disasters, in-game and during world gen. Thunderstorms with lightning strikes (with corresponding lighting effects) and hail. Levels of rainfall. Eating snow, making snowballs and picking up hail during and after hail storms. Tornados with wind flows that push items, projectiles and creatures. Proper eclipse modeling. Tides, deep oceans and pearl-diving, etc. More intricate interplay between cliff faces, inner rivers and outer rivers, using Z coord and waterfalls.
- PLANES: Once it's all established, you can make regions arbitrarily strange, and you make a lot of them. The real chore here is allowing multiple world maps to be active in one way or another and to allow game elements to move between them. It would be a headache to program, but it would add a lot to the game. Related to PowerGoal81.
- EDITORS: Draw your own region maps, create your own towns, creatures, items, start situations, etc. For example, you could create Earth at various time periods (or an amalgamation of various time periods).
- AND MORE, AND WORSE: I'm still too embarrassed to share every idea we had... The Keep and Event Horizon came up. You don't want to know.
CORE COMPONENTS:
1-20,
21-40,
41-60,
61-80,
81-100
REQUIRED THINGS, OLD BUGS AND PRIORITY REQUESTS:
1-50,
51-100,
101-150,
151-200,
201-250,
251-300,
301-350,
351-400,
401-450,
451-500,
501-550,
551-600
BLOATS:
1-50,
51-100,
101-150,
151-200,
201-250,
251-300,
301-350,
351-400
POWER GOALS:
1-50,
51-100,
101-150,
151-200