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Author Topic: Make "giants" more interesting  (Read 1507 times)

PatrikLundell

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Make "giants" more interesting
« on: March 10, 2016, 02:22:47 pm »

Currently the semi mega beasts are made up of various naked unarmored giants who are rather underwhelming. What if these giants could be "culturally" diverse?
1. An easy one is to allow them to be armed and armored.
1.1. Savage ones might use a maul (or tree) and be clad in hide armor (would probably be leather if using the current set). The cyclops should probably throw boulders (but current mechanics might make that problematic).
1.2. More advanced giants would use more advanced weapons and armor, especially if backed by an entity/civ or sire.
2. (Some) giants could literally be semi divine and either act as they like, or be some kind of champion of their deity (possibly depending on if their creation was intentional or just the side effect of a fire-and-forget affair with a mortal).
3. Giants could be allowed to take over communities and/or allow/foster cults around themselves. This could naturally lead to a "giant" invasion where the invader is actually just the leader of a band of invaders. They might actually form new civilization entities from conquered or abandoned (by other civs, but not the inhabitants) sites allowing for the generation of new civs, not just the destruction of a world generation time produced set.
4. Giants could be allowed to be civilized, and visit your fortress as scholars (looking for the location of a mate in your archives?), or possibly even join the fortress (would probably require that the issue with "wild" animal people etc. to be solved first, though).
5. Magic wielding giants could be truly terrifying...
6. If the semi mega beast set was modified in this kind of way, not all of them need to be giants, but could be formidable intelligent humanoid creatures of other kinds (semi divine, again, might allow for some rather formidable creatures that aren't huge).
7. Many/most giants might be dim witted, but some fully intelligent ones would be nice, and might make some of the above easier.
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mirrizin

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2016, 03:21:44 pm »

Not sure about the specifics, but I think giants (and other non-titan megabeasts) could use some improvement.
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Lidku

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2016, 10:52:54 pm »

I agree with this. Dwarf Fortress should also receive improvements for Minotaurs and Ettins( Two-Headed Creature. Had many nostalgic times with them.) Some Semi-Megabeasts should be allowed to be played as in Adventure Mode, but a limited extent. It would spoil the fun to discover them yourself!
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2016, 03:08:56 am »

"giants" was intended to cover the whole lot of these creatures, and hence should include minotaurs and ettins. If it's fun and/or makes sense the different types can (typically) have different behaviors or behavior pattern weights.
The problem with adventure mode creature locking is that DF isn't a game where you "unlock" contents through play (something I find annoying anyway). A kind of compromise might be to have adventure mode race selection have an option of selecting  "spolierish race", "are you really sure?", to get to the exotic kinds.
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perspectivedesigns

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2016, 11:04:46 pm »

I think the giants should be extremely peaceful, mostly sitting around smoking uprooted trees. When you wander upon one in the wild, they'll share spiritual advice.
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IndigoFenix

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2016, 12:19:21 am »

"giants" was intended to cover the whole lot of these creatures, and hence should include minotaurs and ettins. If it's fun and/or makes sense the different types can (typically) have different behaviors or behavior pattern weights.
The problem with adventure mode creature locking is that DF isn't a game where you "unlock" contents through play (something I find annoying anyway). A kind of compromise might be to have adventure mode race selection have an option of selecting  "spolierish race", "are you really sure?", to get to the exotic kinds.

You actually can mod in 'spoiler' races, and giants would make a great candidate.  Make them cave dwellers, like kobolds.  If they have aggressive values, they will conquer any normal villages that settle near their cave, but will remain hidden otherwise.

Purdurabo

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2016, 04:21:45 am »

I think the giants should be extremely peaceful, mostly sitting around smoking uprooted trees. When you wander upon one in the wild, they'll share spiritual advice.
With the twist that their language consists of bashing each other over the head with rocks.
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Azerty

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2016, 01:03:37 pm »

Could some cyclops raise sheep and other do metalworking?
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AceSV

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2016, 09:00:45 am »

Yeah, it sounds like a bunch of these ideas could be modded in now by making Giant civs.  I'm not sure how you would tweak it so that you don't get besieged by 80 giants at the same time. 
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Make "giants" more interesting
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2016, 10:42:12 am »

An 80 giant siege might provide a very modest satisfaction for those who think invasions are underpowered...

However, that's one of the problems with modding giants in as civs. If they instead appears as few in numbers as they are now, they'd have to get down to some serious breeding to build up significant numbers for a siege (still, if they'd be capable of looking for a mate they might actually generate clans).
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