Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Acheron Series Fantasy Anthro Mod Maybe...  (Read 1674 times)

AceSV

  • Bay Watcher
  • [SUPER_VILLAIN]
    • View Profile
Acheron Series Fantasy Anthro Mod Maybe...
« on: July 14, 2019, 04:41:33 pm »
I used to make the Furry Fortress mod, left to play RimWorld and focus on making artwork.  Now I've got the itch to mod again, and I'd rather do it in Dwarf Fortress. 

I've been making a series of 3D models that are anthropomorphic versions of various fantasy creatures, like dragons, unicorns, gryphons, phoenixes, etc, as well as fun things like kaiju, jackalopes and space aliens.  I think it might be fun to start using them for some sort of game project that involves lore and thinking deeper about how they work, how they interact with each other, etc. 

There are currently 34 Acheron Series races, here is the full list:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is a website where you can see pictures of them and read some lore:  https://acheronseries3d.weebly.com/  (fair warning:  if you see a button that says "nude", you will see nudity if you click on it) 

Here are some graphical mock-ups I made for a RimWorld mod.  I don't know if I/we want to bother making DF sprites, but if we did, here's what it might look like: 
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If we did make DF sprites, one of the benefits of the Acheron Series models is that all the races have the same body structure and can easily share outfits.  So if we made a Carpenter outfit, we've got that done for all 34 races. 

You may have noticed by now that there are no Dwarves in the Acheron Series.  This is because for the 3D magic to work, all the races need to have the body type, and as far as I can tell, the only defining feature for Dwarves is their stature.  However, as you can see in the preview, I can use the rig to alter their body types.  So any race could have a dwarven body, elf, orc, raptor, ant, whatever.  Likewise, I can use this method to make something Ogre-like.  So there might be some races that are dwarven sized and some that are ogre sized, or there could be multiple sizes per race, whatever. 



There are a lot of design questions that I wouldn't mind some help with. 

How bonkers should these races get?  Should dragons have dragon breath?  Should gryphons have flight and super strength?  Should unicorns even have hooves and horns?  If they are playable, should balance be the main objective, or should each race have a unique play style? 

How extensive should I get with it?  If no one cares about playing as an Amphisbaena or Enfield, then I wouldn't want to bother putting them in.  I might pick a dozen or so races based on people's favorites or overall balance. 

How to handle cultures for different races?  In Furry Fortress 3, I tried to give each race a unique culture with unique weapons and clothing.  That was fun, but a pain in the ass, so I want to try some sort of compromise this time.  I've thought of a few different ways of handling it.  Most of these mythical creatures come from real-world culture, so I could do something like Greek, Medieval Europe, Japan, China, New World, and copy these to multiple races as appropriate.  Another thought is to make cultures based on Elements, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, possibly some weird ones like Venom, Wood, Metal, Sun, etc.  Each races could be matched to an appropriate element, like Drakes are Fire, Gryphons are Air, and so on, or each race could fit with each element, so in the raws, there's a Fire Drake Civ, Water Drake Civ, Air Drake Civ and Earth Drake Civ, and World Gen picks its random combination for each new world.  Last idea is the same thing, but with RPG jobs like Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Paladin, Druid, Ranger, Monk, Ninja, Pirate, etc.  Either races get paired with a likely match, or there are copies for each combination.  I kind of like this idea the best because it seems like the most sensible to think through, I know exactly what weapons and clothing a Warrior or Ranger would use, but I have no idea about what a Fire civilization would wear.



So yeah, eager to hear opinions, eager to have help if anyone is interested. 
Logged
Quote
could God in fact send a kea to steal Excalibur and thereby usurp the throne of the Britons? 
Furry Fortress 3 The third saga unfurls.  Now with Ninja Frogs and Dogfish Pirates.

AceSV

  • Bay Watcher
  • [SUPER_VILLAIN]
    • View Profile
Re: Acheron Series Fantasy Anthro Mod Maybe...
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2019, 07:00:55 pm »
Thought I'd quickly brainstorm what RPG Class Civs would look like. 

For Warriors, there could either be one type which gets all the weapons and armors, or I could split it into ethnic versions, like Samurai(katana, naginata, kanabo, etc), Warlord/Wuxia(Chinese, guandao, dadao, tiger hook, etc), Landsknecht(zweihander, pike, ahlspiess, halberd, etc), African(iklwa, shotel, hunga-munga, etc), Egyptian (khopesh, fan axe, epsilon axe, etc), Viking (sword, bearded axe, winged spear, etc), Indian (pata, gada, tulwar, etc)  Possibly, I might distribute cultural weapons in some of the other jobclasses, like Druids get African weapons and Mages get Egyptian weapons. 

All cultures get a pick and tree chopping axe, so I'm not going to list them. 

As I recall, the AI glitches out if there's more than one ammo type in your fortress, so each culture only has one ammo type, but they can have multiple ranged weapons that use the same ammo, like short bow and long bow. 

Rogue:
Dagger
Cane/Crook/Hook (Sly Cooper's weapon/tool)
Rapier
Knuckle
Zidane Blade (which would be pointless in DF, afik)
Whip (probably nerfed)
Billy Club
Hand Crossbow
Heavy Crossbow
Spiked Crossbow (better melee)

Mage:
Dagger
Sword/Magic Sword/Runed Sword
Scythe
Wand
Magic Staff (ranged, uses "charges" as ammo)
Battle Staff (ranged, but better melee, worse at shooting)

Cleric/Paladin:
(I'm going with the idea that they can only use blunt weapons, this is kind of a big drawback in DF, so need to think of a balance)
Hammer
Maul
Mace/Holy Water Sprinkler
Club/Truncheon
Quarterstaff
Sling
Great Sling (i.e. Incan)
Staff Sling

Druid
Saber
Claw
Club/Truncheon
Quarterstaff
Trunk (i.e. a tree trunk, a great big club)
(Not sure about ranged weapon; javelin, sling or bow all make sense)

Ranger
Dagger
Saber/Machete/Billhook (y'know, forestry tools)
Short Bow
Longbow
Blade Bow (better melee)

Ninja
Ninjato/Katana/Saber
Kusarigama/Kama (a Kusarigama would just have an extra blunt attack, which I think the AI wouldn't use)
Bo/Quarterstaff
Claw
Knuckle
Nunchaku
Tonfa
Kunai (replaces Pick, more like a shortsword)
Ninja Glove (shurikens as ammo, also has bladed melee attack)
Shuriken Flinger (like Rinoa's weapon, more ranged focused)

Monk
(Thought about it, but they would just use some of the Ninja weapons.  Might have "aura" as a ranged weapon, like hadouken or kamehameha, but then that would just be like Mages.)

Pirate
Dagger
Cutlass
Rapier
Trident/Boarding Pike
Chain (whip/flail)
Knuckle
Harpoon Chucker (i.e. an atlatl) 
Harpoon Gun

Cowboy/Desperado
(sort of a joke class, not sure about it.  They would be ranged based, ammo would be bullets, blunt but the guns would have a lot more velocity than other ranged weapons.  No special way to make guns, a bowyer will do it, just say that they're magic.)
Dagger
Whip
Knuckle
Pistol
Rifle (maybe slower firing, but more powerful)
Apache Revolver (better melee)
Bayonet (better melee)
(I don't think there's a way to do a shotgun, but if someone knows otherwise, let me know) 



There seems to be a distinctive lack of polearms in most of these combinations.  I don't know if that would be a problem, as they seem like an important way to deal with large creatures. 

My thought is that Mage Civs specifically get an extra workshop that allows them to transmute ammo stacks into special materials that ignite or vaporize or poison or paralyze or whatever.  I seem to recall that you can have volatile materials like that, but they only work as ammo.  But I might let all civs do that, cuz fantasy. 



Not sure yet what clothing would look like.  I'm not a big fan of DF's multiple clothing pieces, so I'd replace it with something like items like "magic robes", "stealthy tunic", etc. that just cover the whole body. 
Logged
Quote
could God in fact send a kea to steal Excalibur and thereby usurp the throne of the Britons? 
Furry Fortress 3 The third saga unfurls.  Now with Ninja Frogs and Dogfish Pirates.

AceSV

  • Bay Watcher
  • [SUPER_VILLAIN]
    • View Profile
Re: Acheron Series Fantasy Anthro Mod Maybe...
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2019, 03:59:25 am »


Alright, so I made a sprite, I made a creature file and entity file based on Vulps from FuFo and some new items for a goofy Samurai civ, but when I tested it, LNP failed to launch, and DF on its own crashed when I tried to start a new fortress.  No idea why, and this is a vivid reminder of the part of modding that I hate.  The creature and items did work perfectly in Arena mode, so that's something. 



Spoiler: Kitsune-jin Race (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Samurai Entity (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Samurai Items (click to show/hide)
Logged
Quote
could God in fact send a kea to steal Excalibur and thereby usurp the throne of the Britons? 
Furry Fortress 3 The third saga unfurls.  Now with Ninja Frogs and Dogfish Pirates.

TomiTapio

  • Bay Watcher
  • OldGenesis since 2012
    • View Profile
    • My Flickr animal photos
Re: Acheron Series Fantasy Anthro Mod Maybe...
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2019, 08:51:00 am »
Yeah the races should have acid spit, pain-causing dragonbreath, dizziness-causing dragonbreath. Sleepiness sparkle dust. Blood spills that cause panic.
Test them in the arena, 12 spitters vs 12 humans, see who survives, rebalance humans up or spitters down if necessary.

Feel free to borrow the orc-samurai armor and weapons from OldGenesis:

Code: [Select]
[ITEM_ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_LAMELLAR]
[NAME:lamellar armor:lamellar armors]
[ARMORLEVEL:2]
[UBSTEP:1]
[LBSTEP:1]
[LAYER:ARMOR]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:20]
[LAYER_PERMIT:50]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:5]
[HARD]
[METAL]
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_CHAIN_ALL]

---
[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_WAKIZASHI]
[NAME:wak-sword:wak-sword]
[SIZE:350]
[SKILL:SWORD]
[TWO_HANDED:37500]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:32500]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:2]
[ATTACK:EDGE:2750:2400:slash:slashes:NO_SUB:1350]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:2:3]
[ATTACK:EDGE:30:1250:stab:stabs:NO_SUB:1500]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:2:2]
[ATTACK:BLUNT:30:50:strike:strikes:pommel:1000]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:3:1]

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_KATANA]
[NAME:katana:katanas]
[SIZE:750]
[SKILL:SWORD]
[TWO_HANDED:62500]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:55000]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:4]
[ATTACK:EDGE:15000:3250:slash:slashes:NO_SUB:1300]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:2:3] elite
[ATTACK:EDGE:55:1300:stab:stabs:NO_SUB:1250]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:2:3] elite
---
[ITEM_ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_KIMONO]
[NAME:orb-robe:orc-robes]
[UBSTEP:1]
[LBSTEP:1]
[LAYER:OVER]
[COVERAGE:50] --nerfed
[LAYER_SIZE:30]
[LAYER_PERMIT:100]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:4]
[SOFT]
--LEATHER] --shouldn't have leather kimonos.
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD]
-----
[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_NAGINATA]
[NAME:curved pike:curved pikes] renamed
[SIZE:1250]
[SKILL:WHIP]
[TWO_HANDED:80000]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:52500]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:6]
[ATTACK:EDGE:13000:3100:slash:slashes:NO_SUB:2250]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:4:4]
[ATTACK:EDGE:50:500:stab:stabs:NO_SUB:1200]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:4:4]
[ATTACK:BLUNT:200:150:bash:bashes:shaft:2000]
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:4:4]

« Last Edit: July 17, 2019, 08:57:46 am by TomiTapio »
Logged
==OldGenesis mod== by Deon & TomiTapio. Five wood classes, four leather classes. Nine enemy civs. So much fine-tuning.
47.05e release: http://dffd.bay12games.com/who.php?id=1538
OldGenesis screenshots: https://twitter.com/hashtag/OldGenesis?src=hashtag_click&f=image
My Finnish language file: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14884