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[Sagus]

Ok, so during the discussions on this thread, I described a potential idea for a "good" race that whose main gimmick was that they are complete pacifists. No weapons, weak armor, very very frail, etc.

I liked the basic concept, and I'm thinking on trying my hand at building this race. I'd need some help with dfhack scripts, so any tutorials or just tips on how to mess with them would be appreciated, and with sprites (although I can do them mysef if no one volunteers).

So, here's a bullet list with the main ideas I've been playing with:

• These creatures are small, egg laying, fast growing and very physically frail; even an unarmed kobold would defeat them in combat;
• Main themes for them would be gems and light;
• They have NO weapons OR armor; their "axe" and "picks" would be something made from "hard light" (the only new material I really wanna add), which I'd give negligible damage capabilities (or none at all if possible);
• They are in fact so adverse to violence that seeing it gives them severe bad thoughts, but instead of tantruming they just become really really depressed and don't do anything (is this possible at all to do?);
• Their only personal defense is a sleeping gas that they can spit, which will make enemies sleep for a little while;
• To defend their fortress, they would have magic spells to remove enemies from the map, turning them friendly or simply making them vanish (presumably teleporting them back to their homes);
• Magic will be powered by precious gems;
• Since they suck at digging (think kobold shovels, which I wish to emulate), gems are created in special workshops that convert certain plants into gems;
• Farming will be all about raising these plants so you can make more gems to cast your spells;
• Since they are very very peaceful, they are at peace with wildlife and will have NOEAT, so they don't need to hunt and kill animals;
• I've been thinking on making them alcohol dependant, so the player will have to also use farm plots to cultivate booze making plants, but I'm not sure how to fit this thematically yet;
• Other buildings would be a workshop to create the "hard light" picks and axes, pylons that would disperse a gas that would put enemies to sleep, and a very late game temple that could permanently turn invasions on and off;
• Pets will be all about milking and shearing. No egg laying animals, so you don't have to worry about using the nesting boxes for anything other than putting your civ's eggs.

I'm kinda devoid of more ideas currently; I'm creating the topic to see if people can provide some more, specially for buildings and castes, and if the ideas I currently have are at all feasible. I'd also like to know if there's any interest in this, of course. I think that playing Dwarf Fortress as a pacifist would be a really interesting challenge, specially when violence is not an option at all. It could provide some great sources of !!FUN!!. Any help and comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

[slay_mithos]

It's not exactly the way I thought about it, mostly because weak creatures have a really hard time surviving world gen.

Among the ideas that were evoked, the one I liked the most was having a relatively strong creature, perfectly capable of combat, if its life depends on it, but getting major bad thoughts from combat, squad-related things, and death.

If you are going the way of gems, why not make them based on this material?
I mean, it could made creatures that don't breed or age, and relatively resistant to non blunt damage, but also somewhat heavy and slow.

Thematically, it would fit nicely with the magical ways (many gems are associated to magic, spirits and energies), and their relatively low numbers (due to rarity) would push them into conservationist ways, and developing peaceful ways to survive, as they can't be fixed easily either.

I don't know how it sounds, but if you mix with it various "good" and "mental" magical ways, it seems to make for a consistent race thematically (I mean, there are metal colosus, why not gem golems).

[94dima94]

Sounds interesting, except for the "no dig" part. I think that proper gems should absolutely be obtainable and usable; maybe "grown" gems could give access to weaker abilities, to start up a settlement, then the proper equipment can give the chance to move into the mid - late game.

Other than that, reading this makes me think about a group of "mutated" leprechauns: attracted by precious gems instead of gold, too small to actually hurt anyone, capable of using their magic abilities to avoid battles... Maybe some leprechaun-like civ, willing to gather all the gems they can find. It also fits with the "alcohol dependant" theme.

Other than magic, they could have an ability to "bribe" invaders to make them leave or even stay as guards, for the right price...