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[SQman]

First of all, I'm new to modding, so bear with me guys. Even if the answer to this question is really obvious to most, it's not obvious to me.

Basically, I'm planning on making a mod that adds a couple of creatures to the caverns, and some of these are supposed to be aquatic. The problem is that I've never seen a fully aquatic non-vermin underground creature in any mod, so I'm not sure if it would work. Would they be able to spawn and then leave the map correctly? If so, if I gave some of them [BEACH_FREQUENCY], would they beach like "aboveground" whales do?

The mod is still in early planning, so I'd appreciate if someone who's ever tried this told me if I should even bother with making those creatures.

[smakemupagus]

Never tried it explicitly, but [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_WATER] should work, no? 
(ref: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Biome_token)

[Eric Blank]

That'd give them a biome yeah, but then he wants to know if they can be fully aquatic.

I'm fairly certain the answer is yes, and they should be able to spawn just like amphibious critters do even though they won't get out of the water. If there is no submerged path to a map edge then no they wont be able to leave the map (and theyd only be there because they spawned there when you embarked), but as long as they have a path they should. Whether or not they would beach themselves like whales do I dunno. You can try it first by making them extremely common, embarking on a spot where theyre available, and play for a few years. See if any of them beach themselves. You'll have to run that experiment yourself I guess.

[SQman]

Thanks for the quick response, guys.

As for now the plan looks like this: I'll remove all underground creatures, and simply add whales to the caverns. Then I'll send seven best dwarven scientists to research the mysterious beaching behaviour of underground whales.
If I get positive results, I can start with my mod. If not, back to the drawing board.

[SQman]

Small update.

Take #1
Added [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_WATER] to whales, removed most of cavern creatures. Dug down to the caverns. Trolls still exist. Oops.

Take #2
Removed trolls. Dug down to the caverns. No whales.

Take #3
Added underground elephant seals. Got DFhack. local-pops show-all. No whales or seals. Started to realize what was wrong.

Take #4
Removed seals. Defined cavern layers for whales. Local-pops show-all. Thousands of whales in the caverns! reveal. One pod in 1st layer, one in 2nd layer. A moment later:



Whales on the cavern floor, whales on trees, whales everywhere.

Great success.

[smakemupagus]

Whales on the cavern floor, whales on trees, whales everywhere.

Great success.

LOL.  thanks for the update

[TheBiggerFish]

WHAAAAAAALES
(PTW)