Yeah, I know there are probably lots of discussions on this topic already, but I dislike the search function here... And yeah, probably nobody wants Elf Fortress because elves suck, but whatever, it's just some random musing about possible game mechanics, I don't even know enough about modding to know if what I'm thinking of can be done.
So here's what I'm thinking: elves grow or gather plants that are processed like warlocks process souls, and used to build advanced workshops. Elves have a relationship to wild plants similar to the relationship between gnomes and animals. Gathering wild plants can give elves a quick boost, but it hurts their relationship with nature. Advanced workshops are actually trees that produce goods using only water as an input. They draw from a water supply below, like a steam engine. They also take a long time to produce things, with intermediate steps similar to pottery drying, to simulate the fact that elves make things by shaping living trees and plants.
Elves can sacrifice themselves to create elf-souls. Each caste produces a different kind of soul. And only legendaries have a 100% chance of making the reaction work. Elf souls are used to produce tree-ents, tree creatures with characteristics depending on the caste of the elf producing it. Or they can be used to create third tier advanced workshops, which require only water but either take less time or produce more advanced materials, like mithril.
Most tree-ents are large, immobile, have a strong blunt melee attack, and drop raw materials. Some can fling pine cones or needles. Some can move. Some have (or can be upgraded with) area attacks like knocking over and stunning, slowing enemies with their roots, shooting webs, dust attacks, and so forth.
Elven workshops need to be above ground and open to the air. To simulate the "it's all trees!" theme, they should have impassible squares all around, except for the entry/work tiles. Advanced workshops are all at least 5x5. Elves take water, open space and time to produce much of anything.
Elves should have good weather control, access to x-lings of all kinds (water, magma, change, blood, brood, etc.) and good herbal and alchemical production chains. Elves that leave a lot of plants and trees undisturbed can call on the forces of nature to misdirect early enemies, giving the slow-going elves time to build up. Elves can give seeds and seedlings back to nature to increase the relationship, while using active powers decreases it.
Mithril is obviously the late-stage metal of choice for elves, who should be able to grow it rather than mine it. Various bark leathers and tribal war-paints also seem appropriate.
Elven magic might be similar to warlock magic, after all, elves desecrate and eat sentient corpses. They probably look at it as returning all that meat to the plant kingdom. Darker elven magics could be fungal in nature, infecting corpses with something like cordyceps fungus and reanimating them.
Elves would favor large embarks, which shouldn't create too much lag for a mostly 2-d above ground playing area.
Anyway, just me bored and pondering possible elven game-play mechanics. Any thoughts?
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Topic: Random Musings about Elf Fortress (Read 776 times)