Demon Fortress 1.1.3b
♥Make Love Not War♥
In a time before time...When the world was young and the mortal races were only just beginning to form primitive societies, demons and deities conspired to bring great evil into the world. But some lesser demons sought a greater existence than that of constant war and suffering and desired to live in the mortal world in relative harmony with the other races. Thus was a new civilization born, the emancipated demons, who came into this world from the very deepest reaches of the earth.
The Dwarves were the first to encounter the Free Demons and influenced their culture, fostering a love for family, friends and drink. In awe of their great warriors, Free Demons too began to practice the martial crafts and train themselves. But their nature was constantly looming over them and despite their efforts to escape their origins, their society was still plagued with the evil that created them. Before long, the Free Demons set out from their mountainhomes and began to settle new lands. This is where you come in. Will you lead your clan to a peaceful existence? Will you take all that you want by force? Or will you walk the shifting line between war and harmony? A new chapter of demonic history begins with you.
Strike the earth!
Demon Fortress is my first foray into major modding of Dwarf Fortress. Featuring a new civilization with unique ethics and values and comprised of multiple races, you will play as the Free Demons in the world of Armok.
More detailed notes can be found in the Changelog file in the Demon Fortress folder of the download.
1.0b - INITIAL RELEASE: FREEDOM FOREVER
1.0.1b - Fixed Gargoyle alcohol dependancy, updated some descriptions in the thread.
1.1b - MAKE LOVE NOT WAR - Discovered that DF has an error log, tons of fixes. Added Succubi/Incubi, added detailed appearance modifiers for each race including specific colors, tail lengths whether/when the race begins to wrinkle and gray, racial personality values, racial skill gain rates and more. Fixed Trolls being available as pets on embark. Fixed Demon civ having no pack animals and being unable to trade. (Oops!) Fixed geldables on male demons. Removed horns from Imps. Lots of other additions that I can't all quite recall.
1.1.1b - Lowered the civ's power and romance values while jacking up craftsdemonship to Dwarven levels. Hopefully this means demons will be less prolific in generated worlds and should also give more masterwork/skill related dreams with less rule the world/warrior dreams. Also adjusted pop_ratios for all demons while I was at it.
1.1.2b - Removed tombs and related entities as symbolism for the civ so that demons will have names other than momuz, rakust or mondul. Fixed beards for male demons. Fixed Beak Dogs (again...) so that they can be properly trained. Fixed bad color tokens for tissue appearances. Probably some other minor stuff that I forgot about.
1.1.3b - Overhaul of Imp personalities and Gargoyle tissues. Gargoyles now have proper stone skin. Imps should be more prolific. Civ should overall have a lower population than other civs now, at least compared to earlier versions.
Emancipated demonkind first entered the world in the deepest reaches of the earth. It should be no surprise, then, that Dwarves were the first to encounter them. Dwarven culture and civilization helped shape the Free Demons at their infancy, and they share many similarities, including language and a similar noble structure. However, their origins are inherently evil, and thus do they also share similarities with the other civilization with demonic influences: Goblinkind. Still, the Free Demons seem to genuinely want a new and hopefully better life for themselves, so they do not often find themselves at war with the other civilized races, such as Humans, Elves and Dwarves. The archdemons that lead the Goblins, however, would love to re-subjugate the Free Demons.
As mentioned before, Free Demons share many similarities with the Dwarves. This includes livestock, farming practices, some elements of craftsdemon/dwarfship and some values/ethics. Notable differences include the use, taming and training of Beak Dogs, the use of long swords and two handed swords, the use of "evil" flora and fauna, and an equal preference for dry biomes to mountain biomes. However, as Free Demons originate from deep in the earth and find the surface through Dwarves, most of their sites will be located around mountains.
By default, only Free Demons are playable at embark. However, should you change Dwarves (or any other race) to also be available, then Free Demon trade caravans will arrive in winter, as they are less likely to draw attention to themselves. (And because the cold weather helps mitigate some of the... fiery personalities of the Free Demons when trading with civilizations in forests, which they try to avoid.) Like Goblins, however, they will ambush and siege you should you go to war. They refrain from theft or babysnatching, however, refusing to stoop to that level. (Enslavement of conquered peoples sometimes happens as well, but this is a topic of hot debate among top demon philosophers.)
Currently, Demon Fortress has three races within the demonic civilizations: Imps, Gargoyles and Succubi/Incubi. I plan to add more races later.
Imps are humanoid demons the size of Dwarves with forked tongues, fangs, tails and a fiery nature. They are the more demonic variant of the Fire Imps of the magma seas. However, most of demonkind considers them to be a bit of a failure, as they are not particularly strong and their small statures work against them. Their lifespans are short, usually going no longer than 65-70 years, and are the most common species of the Free Demons.
Current Features: Imps have the innate ability to hurl fire from their hands. They are also immune to burning and melting, except for at extreme temperatures, such as those created by dragonfire or creatures composed entirely of flame. However, they are considerably weak and have low social sklls and patience. They are quite fast for their size, however! Everything considered, Imps make excellent soldiers against unarmored enemies, such as wildlife and the occasional Forgotten Beast, but are miserable combatants when matched with civilized races. (As their fireballs mostly warm up armor rather than melt or ignite it, effectively turning them into weaker and slightly slower Elves.) They are able to detect smells better than Dwarves but not as well as Elves. Like Dwarves, Imps are alcohol dependent, but they are unable to become inebriated. This is because alcohol is more or less used as an internal combustion reagent to maintain their fiery natures. (They will slow down without alcohol but will not experience euphoria or any negative effects due to inebriation.) Since their emacipation, many Imps have discovered a passion for most forms of engineering and scholarly pursuits. They also tend to learn fire-related skills, such as cooking, brewing and smelting, faster than other creatures. Imps also are natural alchemists, but the secrets of demonic alchemy have been lost since their arrival on the surface...
Gargoyles are the brutes of the Free Demons, with tusks, skins of stone and wings on their backs. They were designed to be the disposable muscle of the demon hordes and excel at being exactly that: muscle. Not thinkers, not sprinters, but muscle. They don't particularly excel at anything outside of fighting. Since exploring other facets of life outside of fighting, however, many Gargoyles have found that their long lives, good memory and hidden creativity make them decent artists. They, above all the other races of the Free Demons, were influenced most by the dwarves. The average Gargoyle lifespan is around 350 years. They are 33% larger than the average Dwarf.
Current Features: Gargoyles have wings and thus can fly! (Be aware that flight in Fortress Mode is currently poorly implemented: basically, a citizen will not fly somewhere unless they have a ground path as well. This can cause problems and I will likely create a patch to optionally disable their flight.) They have stone skin which gives them more meatier punches and a tougher exterior, able to deflect punches and most low-grade weapon strikes. Their skin does heal exceptionally slow however: Gargoyles were never intended to be long-term soldiers. They gain combat skills faster than most creatures with the cost of being quite a bit slower and having slower gain of most social skills as well as Ambusher. They have innate skill in Fighter and Striker. Overall, Gargoyles make great frontline soldiers, able to take more punishment than the average dwarf and well equipped to deal with threats using their fists. Their stone skin has similar properties to metal but is still defined as a stone, enabling it for crafting should someone somehow acquire the skin of a Gargoyle. They have a very poor sense of smell. Gargoyles do not require alcohol but will drink it and can easily become drunk. Beware of any Gargoyles you may have with low self-control! A drunken brawl between a Gargoyle and an Imp near your alcohol stockpile is best avoided at all costs. Gargoyles can enter martial trances, similar to Dwarves. They cannot swim nor learn to swim due to their incredible weight. Due to Dwarven influences, Gargoyles have taken well to many crafts and can learn them faster. Being creatures of earth, they also learn to mine considerably faster.
Succubi/Incubi are alluring humanoid demons roughly the size of humans but with goat legs and curved goat horns. Their purpose in the demon hordes was to infiltrate mortal society and use their considerable talents to influence them from the shadows. It should come as no surprise then that Succubi/Incubi are natural conversationalists. Since earning their freedom, they've tried to distance themselves from their previous lives with some success, finding work within Free Demon society as diplomats and traders. Since they quickly learn social skills, it's not uncommon to see them in the roles of leader within Free Demon society. Many have also begun practicing performing arts with great success.
Current Features: Succubi/Incubi learn most social skills twice as fast as mortal races and they're more likely to have high empathy, linguistic skill and social awareness than the mortal races. However, they're not very tough and learn weapon skills at half the rate as the mortal races. With the exception of the whip, which all Succubi/Incubi have some natural skill at for particular reasons. Being hooved creatures with powerful legs, they are able to move quickly, although still slower than imps. Their hooves can work against them, however, as hooves mean lower skill gain rates for Ambusher as well as slower speeds for any type of movement that doesn't involve using only their legs. They live from between the ages of 80-120 if they stay in good health. Speaking of health, the rather tiring former lifestyle of the Succubi/Incubi gives them higher Endurance as well as Recuperation and Disease Resistance. Overall, Succubi/Incubi fill the role of brokers, managers and entertainers within Free Demon society. Of course, there's nothing holding them back from becoming fine craftsdemons as well, especially due to their artistic and creative natures.Dwarf Fortress currently has rather poor pathing for flying citizens in Fortress mode. Basically, a citizen who can fly will not fly to their destination unless a ground path already exists. This means that Gargoyles will not cross the river in the middle of your map unless you've already built a bridge or some other method of walking over/around it. Once that path does exist, however, they will happily soar across said river without walking to the bridge to cross it.
This can create some problems with Gargoyles getting themselves stuck in trees, as they will fly regardless of path when in combat/sparring and when fleeing. Personally, I find that most citizens will stick themselves in trees when fleeing regardless of being able to fly or not, but if you find that you're constantly having trouble with your Gargoyles then there is a very simple fix.
First, navigate to raw/objects/creature_demon.txt in your Demon Fortress folder. Once opened, press CTRL-F to open the find window and search for [FLIER]. It should bring you to a line below [PREFSTRING:earthen body] and above [TRANCES]. Just delete the entire [FLIER] line and save your document. Done!
Note that this change will stop Gargoyles from flying period, in Fortress, Adventure and Arena. This change will also not take effect until you generate a new world after removing the [FLIER] token!
Upcoming updates will likely focus on tweaks, fixes and other minor changes. The next major update will include the removal of steel as a reaction for Free Demons. Taking it's place will be a new, unique metal which will require iron, pig iron, flux and an additional material. The resulting metal will be more valuable than steel with either slightly stronger properties compared to steel or a unique syndrome attached to weapons made of this metal, if possible. I will also be including a custom workshop to facilitate this new reaction and future reactions.
In the future, I plan to rewrite the RAW for the demons, as it's a bit of a mess right now. That won't really change anything in game but it will hopefully make navigating the file easier for me and for those that want to tweak it in their own way. I also want to work on tileset support for Phoebus but as I'm not terribly artisticly inclined, I will likely just assign Dwarf tiles to them, which shouldn't be too much of an issue since Dwarves aren't playable in Fortress by default. Appending race names before each profession is a goal as well, so that an Imp fisherman will be called Rakust Momuzmondul, Imp Fisherdemon and a Succubus fisherman will be called Rakust Momuzmondul, Succubus Fisherdemon.
I'd like to also change around some of the announcements/messages if possible to better suit the style of the mod/civ. I'll be working some more on Free Demon culture as well. In particular, hair length, as female demons seem to have clean shaven heads more often than the males, which doesn't make sense for some races such as Succubi, who were created with the intent of being attractive/alluring to the majority of males.
Design Goals: Optimally, I want to strike a balance between gameplay and flavor/style with this mod. The mod should be fun to play and offer it's own challenges and benefits! I don't want it to be all fantasy and no fun after all. (For instance, I originally was planning for Gargoyles to be
completely made of stone and unable to heal, but that would of been a bit too extreme in my opinion, both in terms of advantages and disadvantages.)
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Topic: [42.06] Demon Fortress ♥Make Love Not War♥ 1.1.3b (04/13/16) (Read 7609 times)