The Castles are eternal. The Castles will last forever. Such is the truth of this world. In ancient times, before the sea ate the land, there lived beings of incredible, transcendent power. The Nobility. A race of entities ascended beyond mere mortality. But such pride angered the gods (so it is said) and to smite these upstarts, a great and terrible deluge was unleashed upon the world. But the Nobility were ready. They and their mind-shackled slaves, fawning courtesans, and clanking automata had begun the construction of impossibly vast, immeasurably tall structures to ward off the surging waters. And ward it off they did. When the clouds parted and the sun shone once again, there was nothing on the planet but a singular, world-spanning sea. And the Castles. More sunken and flooded than not, these megastructures have grown stranger and less defined as time carried on, perpetually expanded and raised higher even as their crumbling foundations drag them down into the dark depths. The vaunted Nobles, rulers of all, are nowhere to be found. On the once polished floors, now overgrown with weeds and weathered by time, hidden from one another by towering walls eroded by salt and wind, various communities struggle to survive. Vermin walk on two legs and speak the common tongue, clustered together in primitive societies aping those of man. Humanity has split into multiple factions, from technological engineers to primitive head-hunters and many in-between. Stranger things still follow their own agenda, seeking to make the most of this new, bleak world. And then there are the others. The ones not spoken of but in hushed whispers. The things that squirmed and crawled out of the ocean depths in innumerable hordes, smelling blood and meat in the air and determined to finish the job started by the gods. And now they have only risen in power, a dark shadow surging up from the cold, black waters to drag everything else down with it, until there is nothing left anywhere but the waves. And the dead that lie beneath them.
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What is Rising Tide?
This mod is a setting overhaul putting the player inside a bleak and crumbling world where the only land that exists is the perpetually growing tips of gigantic megastructures that were once castles, but have grown deformed and misshapen to the point that they are barely recognized as such. It is highly recommended you use the preset worlds found in Advanced World Gen for this mod, or use their look as a base to generate one that is more suited to your liking while keeping the intended aesthetic. Isolation and surreal unreality are intended to be significant challenges to overcome. Many communities are isolated by steep wall-cliffs or areas of the Castles that have sunk into the ocean, so don't expect a lot of neighbors. That said, it also means you ought to be safe from some of the more nefarious civilizations in the game, if you are lucky. Some parts of the Castles will melt your skin off or freeze you solid if you aren't careful. Temperature doesn't follow natural laws, and later on I intend to implement strange weather types that can be equally destructive. There are also plans for various other fun features, but as of now the mod should be more or less playable in its current state, if a bit lacking in the dangerous animal department.
Special thanks to Vherid for the Sorrow color scheme.
Download Link:
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=13785==============================================================
1.4 Changes:
-Updated to 44.11
1.35 Changes:
-Some new random creatures sprinkled throughout the lands.
-Radical new title music that more accurately fits the aesthetics of the mod.
-New creature type, oozes. Oozes are little blobs slightly smaller than a human that move very slowly and also leak poisonous fluids and are ambush predators. While easy to kill, this means they can sneak into your map and spread their dangerous slime all around the map before being discovered, if you aren't careful. This makes them a passive but real danger that should be watched out for. There is also a certain new cubical type of ooze that some of you might be familiar with. It is much larger, rarer, and dangerous. Calibans, being crazy bastards, will domesticate and train oozes for battle. Playing a Caliban fort or trading with a Caliban civ should let you use oozes. They will probably be useful for traps and such but as you can imagine are very hazardous to work with.
-New megabeasts, the Gods of Thorns. About four times the size of an adult dragon, these shambling masses of vines are more equivalent to walking hurricanes than mere beasts, and routinely kill thousands of people in worldgen. In addition, they have a psychic aura around them that will slowly cause creatures to fall into suicidal depression if it isn't killed fast enough. I have no idea if they can be defeated in combat, so have fun with that.
1.3 Changes:
-Rosenvolk should only use plant creatures now.
-Two new large and powerful metal golems added to the wilderness. These will be tamed by certain human civs.
-Only human civilizations should use mechanical creatures with the exception of steam-powered horses, which are widespread enough to be used by many.
-New wizard type added, the Undying. Immortality is pretty easy to come by in the Castles, but it doesn't come cheap. Becoming an Undying seems like a good deal, but the fact is that most aren't psychologically prepared for living forever and they either break or get driven out of their communities, becoming wandering exiles with no home, friends, or family. A rare few, however, rise to become eternal warrior kings of their people. These Undying are incredibly dangerous.
-Two special wizard types added. The Castles can be seen as giant automated factories that produce valued goods. If one could tap into but a fraction of this power, they would have incredible influence. And indeed, there are those that do. Certain humans possess pure enough genes that they can hijack the power of the Castles and summon resources and soldiers to aid them. The two most prolific are the Engineer, who creates and commands mechanical golems of all kinds, and the Quartermaster, who leads hordes of mind-shackled mimics against his foes. Both arts can only be learned by humans (and one person could learn more than one of these abilities), as the Castles will reject anyone who isn't human or has strayed too far from acceptable genetic purity (ie Calibans, Foreigners, and Tieflings).
-Game should start and stay in the Age of Twilight, but if you manage to bring the amount of humans up to a certain point you should enter a Golden Age.
1.2 Changes:
-Caliban now have lifespans that differ based on caste. Some are shortlived, some can grow very old, and some seem to live forever. Its a crapshoot.
-New and fun aquatic creatures added to the oceans. Stay out of the water.
-Two new oceanic species/civilizations added. This should increase the overall amount if despair and carnage, as intended.
-New plant creatures added. Ride mushroom giants to battle, direct swarms of shrub golems to shred your enemies, and milk hedge sculptures of cows to harvest nectar.
-New relatively friendly civilization added, the Rosenvolk. This is another gimmicky race, of flower people to be precise. The way Rosenvolk work is that only the females (which are human-sized) are sentient, while the males are ten times bigger and only 10% of the population. Their presence (should) be all that is needed to pollinate the sentient females, who give spore out massive litters that grow to adults in one year. The Rosenvolk value war and romance equally and will gallantly ride off into battle for the sake of expanding their territory to make room for their ever-increasing population. The weakness of this species is the fact that killing the males would destroy their ability to reproduce, and the fact that they are just flowers shaped like people and thus can easily be killed in general. That said, they are fast and strong even if they aren't durable, so care must be taken when fighting them. Their rapid reproduction will probably become much more fun during the next update, when you can send out your excess population to take over all the sites you've been conquering. If you want to limit population growth, it might be a good idea to lock up the males somewhere safe and only expose the females to them when you intend to grow in number. This is kind of a theoretical thing so I don't know if it actually works, playtesting is appreciated. Also, they will always start out with, and exclusively use, the three plant creatures I have mentioned above. If I add more plant creatures, they will also be added to this race's portfolio.
1.1 Changes:
-Unintended error fixed, Tieflings will have more variety now.
-Two new human civilizations added. Humanity is meant to be the most populous race in this mod while other species are oddities and anomalies, and so they have the most civilized types. There are now a pair of civs that function like the "basic" human civ (so not knights, engineers, or savages) with slight differences to ensure they hate each other. The first type will steal items from other civs while pretending they are not, while the second is more open in its barbarity, enslaving people and mutilating corpses without a care in the world.
-New race and civ added, the Caliban. Inspired by the Ravenloft race of the same name, the Caliban are a conglomeration of various humanoids descended from pure-blooded humans. Their bodies are twisted and deformed in countless ways, but about a dozen categorizeable breeds have been acknowledged by science. Playing a Caliban fortress is incredibly difficult as each caste has its own unique quirks, weaknesses, strengths, and even body-sizes, requiring an intense amount of micro-management, especially when it comes to fitting armor. Recommended for experienced players only.
1.0 Changes:
-Rising Tide released.
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Topic: [44.11] Dwarf Fortress: Rising Tides 1.4 (Read 2841 times)