I can't decide on a trigger for giving the cultists [CRAZED]. I know the game keeps track of how much death a creature has witnessed. The only problem is I can't figure out how to link COMBATHARDNESS as a trigger to giving a race a syndrome (it probably requires DFhack) and that invaders don't seem to be on the map long enough to accumulate significant points towards COMBATHARDNESS.
Any suggestions as to how to make this happen? Should I even bother to do this berserk thing?
Anyway, some details on the next update. First off, loads of new weapons. Some will just be for variety and won't affect gameplay much (just being foreign equipment functionally equivalent to stuff you can already make) and some will require balancing. Armor and shields, however, will be getting a large functional overhaul. In addition to there being more types of each, the more protection you get the more weight an armor/shield will have, meaning that you'll have to start making decisions about whether you want light or heavy infantry. Pro tip: Light infantry who survive for long enough to be decently trained should probably be transferred to heavy infantry.
Anyway, I've also been doing a lot of thinking about new features to add to the mod alongside or after the lore. Alongside the lore, we can make new dialogue options for adventure mode (not that we're playtesting adventure mode, so enjoy that imbalance, probably) new engravings and whatnot.
After the lore's done, I'm thinking of adding new creatures/megabeasts. I've already added a a few non-sentient creatures (they're snails) and I will probably continue to do so. The idea would be not to add redundant creatures - all new creatures added should be useful to domesticate, challenging to kill, or both. Megabeasts I think will all get breeding ability to make them show up more and a few new types, along with a small nerf to compensate if necessary.
Anyway, enough musing. I want to know what you guys think! Next release might be a while coming - I bet you're tired of releases being frequent, but inadequately bug-tested and not adding enough new features. It's also just a fairly busy time of year for me, so there's that.