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Author Topic: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)  (Read 935 times)

Avelon

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Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« on: February 01, 2013, 07:25:03 am »

Okay, so basically I have 5 modding ambitions, some loftier than others, and I was wondering if there was some sort of reference guide to answer my questions or, failing that, if there was a Proficient+ Modder who could just answer these questions of a Dabbling Modder:
(if answered I will post the answer and pink out the question for future generations to view)

1.) I'm unclear on whether or not a new world needs to be generated to add reactions. I'd like to be able to do some minor crafting, i.e. the oft-modded in 'create a backpack' for Outsiders. Does this need a new world?
You must generate a new world if you affect entities. It is possible to make very minor adjustments to an already generated world, but DF has a finicky nature and the results will not necessarily be what you would get with the exact same code in a newly generated world.

2.) Is it within the limitations/scope of a mod to add a new Skill to the game? If so, can it be defined as clearly as the existing skills, i.e. with attribute associations and scaled output for items and effects utilizing it?
You can't add new skills to the game via mods; that would require editing the game code from source. However, you CAN rename existing skills and use them as the basis for crafting skills to create -quality- items!

3.) Failing that, would it be possible to 'import' a Fortress Mode skill into Adventure Mode? If so, can that skill be modified/renamed?
Skills can be renamed and reactions used to reference those skills, so Cheesemaking on a dedicated Adventuring installation could become Fletching. You can call upon Armorsmithing to craft your own customized armor based on skill level, et cetera!

4.) If I create a custom race with appropriate tags, will it be used in world generation and create civilizations alongside the other races? For instance, if I add, say, 'Draconians' and for ease of implementation make them identical to humans, will I encounter Draconian towns?
So long as the custom race has its own non-duplicate ENTITY tags, and a corresponding creature type defined in creature_standard, if it is set to be city-building as with humans it will do so. It can also construct other site types if instructed to do so.

5.) Are shop lists available to be modified in the raws?
Not directly. You can affect what items a civilization has access to, and what materials they are allowed to use, in their respective entities entries. This may or may not show a significant impact on the civilization's shops however.

6.) How about civilization material uses? I do know that if that's available I could create various new pieces of equipment out of various materials to assign to them so...
Indeed! The items will be added to the list of items available to the civilization, created from the materials that civilization can choose from.

7.) Lastly, can I create a custom race which will NOT be available in world-gen but will be available as a playable race sharing the characteristics of the Human Outsider?
INDIV_CONTROLLABLE controls whether or not you can use it as an 'Outsider'.


Thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: February 04, 2013, 02:36:31 pm by Avelon »
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Ultimuh

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2013, 07:57:48 am »

1.) I'm unclear on whether or not a new world needs to be generated to add reactions. I'd like to be able to do some minor crafting, i.e. the oft-modded in 'create a backpack' for Outsiders. Does this need a new world?

Yes I think it requires that since you have to change the entity file.
Now I could be wrong tough.
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Avelon

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2013, 08:55:50 am »

Looks like it! I've been doing some more research/digging, no !!SCIENCE!! yet, but that will be happening soon. One of my goals is to make something akin to the Wanderer's Mod (and looking at the mods that are out has answered a couple of my questions), but geared toward more advanced crafting.

I'm still unclear on whether Fortress Mode skills will actually advance in Adventure Mode...it's looking like that one will require science.

Thanks for the reply!
« Last Edit: February 04, 2013, 02:21:47 pm by Avelon »
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Grimlocke

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2013, 11:22:57 am »

A few answer/additions:

1: Adding fortress mode reactions to existing worlds is impossible, you can however modify them. Its recommended to add a few blank reactions before generating a world, so you can still make additions during play. Im not actualy sure about adventurer reactions, these are not bound to any specific entity so it might actualy work to add new ones.

2: Good news! Some of the stuff you thought impossible is actualy possible. No you cant add professions, but you can rename them, the same way 'crossbowman' turns into 'marksdwarf' you can for instance use the alchemy skill and rename that to knitting, or something. Tag example: [PROFESSION_NAME:CROSSBOWMAN:marksdwarf:marksdwarves] or CASTE_PROFESSION_NAME if you only want it on a specific caste. Reaction made items have a quality, depending on the level of the associated skill (I dont know if all skills work with this). There are still a few limitations, decorations dont get a quality and its impossible to make functioning gloves/gauntets but generaly adventurer reactions let you do quite a lot.

3: Never tried moving a fortress reaction to an adventurer reaction, all other modifications work though. Only entity behaviour doesnt take it into account (replacing the iron reaction product with cheese does not make all the goblins show up with cheese armor and swords. pity).

4: Custom civs (refered by the game as entity) are supported, though limited to the things the stock civs can do (you can a make cannibal, glacier dwelling giant civ, but no underwater civ that reproduces asexualy). Just copypaste an entry from entity_default, put your custom creature in the CREATURE tag and work from there.

5: Not sure what you mean by this one. If you mean the adventurer mode shops, then not directely no. The civs get their material choice from ores and reactions, and weapon and armor choice from the list of tags like [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_AXE_BATTLE]. Note that the current shops are kinda stupid about stocking only cheap materials, whereas the forts store the classier stuff.

6: see #5.
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smakemupagus

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2013, 12:04:00 pm »

#2)  I am not sure I understand what you mean by "Additionally, reaction-made items have no quality level. Since all mod crafting is done via reactions, this means the Adventurer cannot make quality equipment."  I don't know much about Adv mode but when you make items from a custom reaction in Fortress mode, they can certainly have quality levels.  Do you mean "interaction" rather than "reaction"?

#6)  Yes, you can give an entity access to a material by giving them any reaction that produces the material (like a smelting reaction).  For a non-playable civ the reaction can be very crude and not have proper reagents or anything.

[REACTION:HUMAN_ORCFORT_TRADEGOODS]
[PRODUCT:100:4:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:INORGANIC:STEEL][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:150]
[PRODUCT:100:4:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:INORGANIC:BRONZE][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:150]

i2amroy

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2013, 01:01:10 pm »

3)You can have custom reactions use whatever skill you want. These skills will show up in adventure mode and are handled identical to any other skill. Note that doing this will make no difference upon any adventure mode reactions, they will still be handled identical to any other adventure mode reaction.

4)Assuming that you change the [CREATURE:HUMAN] line (which is required or you get a "duplicate raws" bug, which causes all sorts of craziness), then they will not be used by default. All of the entities in the game contain a [CREATURE:XXXX] token(s) that determine what creature(s) they utilize. So by default no, your new creature would not appear. If you created an entity that had [CREATURE:DRACONIAN] then it would spawn draconian towns in your worlds (or mountain homes, or forest retreats, or towers, or whatever type of site you gave them).

5)No. You can modify the amount of currency/value of currency that the shops use with the [CURRENCY:*material*:*value*], and Merchants will always keep an amount in their safe equal to the value of the currency multiplied by 1000 IIRC, but you can't actually modify what they sell other then by altering what is available for the entity to have access to as a whole.

6)As smakmupagus stated, you can use material creating reactions to allow civilizations access to various metals.
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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2013, 01:39:53 pm »

Quote
Additionally, reaction-made items have no quality level
That is wrong. A skill level of an operator affects the quality of the item.

7) Just make an entity with just a creature definition and [INDIV_CONTROLLABLE].



And you can rename professions within creatures, as it has been mentioned, so if you rename a single profession within all creatures who can learn, you basically get a new skill.
It works best with combat skills, because jobs still retain their original names and it will look weird in fortress mode if you rename "woodcutter" to "fistpumper", because the labor will still be named "wood cutting".
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Avelon

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Re: Modding Limitations by Urist McModder (Dabbling)
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2013, 02:34:00 pm »

Thanks to all of you for your patient answers! I had figured out a couple of these but the shops/available materials still had me mystified and the corrections are greatly appreciated! I've changed the first post to account for those corrections so that it isn't misleading to someone else who might find this thread.
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Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - Epicurus