When I first started playing dwarf fortress, I made some small changes to my game for the purpose of cheating, allowing my masons to make adamantine bars out of potatoes and giving all my dwarves superdwarven stats from the start. That was yonks ago, though, back in 2012, and I'd like to get back into modding for a different purpose: worldbuilding.
Before I start though, I'd like to ask a few questions so I know what to expect as I learn.
Concerning Civilizations- What happens if I add another civilization by simply copy/pasting and editing an entity to the file so it matches up with a newly made intelligent race? Will it replace another race entirely, bug out and fill in the same areas, or simply exist in a similar state? Does it need the plains or tree or mountain tags that humans, elves, and dwarves have? Is it possible to make a civ with variable, procedurally generated ethics, or are they locked in? I know civs sometimes adopt refugees, prisoners, or in the case of goblins, snatched babies from other civs, does this mean if I made multiple races with their own civs, they might exist in multicultural 'metropolitan' areas? Is it possible to make places civs might meet up peacefully, like neutral areas or trade cities? Can you make a civ influence the appearance or clothing choices of a race? Answered by Putnam!
Concerning Castes- Can you add castes besides gender, like, say, a random chance that a human born might be of a caste with a natural proclivity towards a certain skill, or would that require making multiple human races with different base skills? Can you make a castes genetically weighted like appearance, so that they might be passed on? Can you add interactions to specific castes, so that only certain members of a race are capable of them? Answered by Putnam! Would extra castes interfere with the male/female castes, or are there layers of castes?
Concerning Intelligent Races- How does one add multiple descriptors to a race, so that they are varied like humans and dwarves, instead of all the same like animal men? Can you add non-genetic things or temporary things, like facepaint, tattoos, or hairstyles? Is it possible to make a race created by a interaction or reaction, either crafted like a golem instead of reproducing, or converting others like night trolls do? Answered by Putnam! Is it possible to make a race that isn't targeted by the undead, but not automatically hated by the living? Can you make two specific races have an undying hatred for only each other? Answered by Putnam!
Concerning Interactions- I know I can add 'spells' and 'alchemy', interactions requiring someone give up an item to get an effect like dragonfire. What are other effects I can get from this? If I add an interaction, will NPCs actually use it? What if the interaction requires nothing, can I add a cooldown or make it tire the user to ensure it isn't spammed? Can I make it something that needs to be learned, like necromancy? Is there a way to know what dwarves would know what interactions in Fortress Mode, so that you can recognize which dwarves know how to shoot kickass fireballs from their hands and assign them to the military? If I made an interaction that created an iron spike via a 'spell', could it then project the iron spike towards a chosen tile as if thrown with great speed and skill? Putnam explained Interaction/Reaction difference, I will do more research on that.
Concerning Syndromes- How do you ensure a syndrome is not transmissible? Can you make beneficiary syndromes, or temporary ones, like a few minutes of strength increase? Can you add a downtime afterwards, such as being slowed and tired once the bonus is gone? Can you make specific items transfer it, such as brewing a drink from a specific plant to make a potion of might? Could I add an interaction to poison weapons with available syndrome material, so that I can coat a spear in cobra venom instead of using dfhack or leaving weapons in risky piles of forgotten beast goo? Can I make a material transmit a syndrome on its own, like a caustic metal? If I did so, would weapons made of it be dangerous to even hold, or only to be attacked by? If they are dangerous to hold, would gloves ensure safety? Answered by Putnam!
Concerning Gods- Can I add gods to a world after it is generated? Can I add spheres and associated metals and fabrics? Can I make certain divine materials have certain effects? Can I make gods take up physical, killable form in the world? Can I make praying to gods do something, like ask for guidance or give a temporary buff? Can I make it so that you sacrifice items to gods to increase the chance of prayer working? Is it possible to ensure certain gods generate within a world? Can I make gods prefer a specific metal instead of divine ones? Can I make only certain gods do dickish stuff like vaults, demon helping, curses, and secrets? Can I make certain gods or spheres only give out certain secrets? Can I add more curses or further specify curses, to do things like change the cursed into weak animals or night trolls or other horrid beasts, or even make specific vampire 'clans'? Can I add other secrets beyond life and death, like crazy magic spells or things that automatically make the user go insane or cause artifact moods? Will NPCs or fortress mode dwarfs also undergo these banes and boons? Can I make angels come into the world for other reasons than vaults, and possibly be friendly? Answered by Putnam!
Concerning Materials- Is it possible to make a lightweight material that doesn't suck as chain mail or a blunt weapon? Can the hide or bones of a specific animal be made to be really effective, such as changing dragons to provide top-notch materials? Is there a reaction or interaction already in use to make elf-grown wood items or do they just generate it, meaning I'll need to add it myself for druids/elf players? If I add a metal, how do I put its ore into the earth for worldgen without completely mangling the existing geology? How can I ensure a material is never used unless made by a specific reaction or interaction? How do I ensure only a certain civ uses a material? Can I make a civ or race use materials and items that aren't normally accessible, like an evil race generating structures made with walls of human flesh? Would said flesh walls rot? Would that be metal as fuck or what? Answered by Putnam!
Concerning Generated Structures- Is it possible to add structure shapes, like humans making more coherent/better decorated mead halls and castles? Can I ensure certain structures are only made with certain materials? This isn't too big an issue, I'm probably going to start, build, and then retire a lot of sites before offloading the save. Answered by Putnam!
I may have missed a few questions, I will come back with them later if they come to mind. My endgame goal is to generate and sculpt an exciting and fun to explore world and offload the file for others to adventure in. I find having something that generates random bits to fill in the holes or add points to work off of while still leaving a lot of open stuff (like DF worldgen does) is great for fun little thought exercises.
If there's any really cool, unexpected stuff you can do with modding that I might miss, or weird !!SCIENCE!!y stuff that has happened and might be fun to play with, please let me know! It's often great inspiration. Thank you all in advance, and whether this topic is helpful to you or I or not, have a good day.
EDIT: Changed wording on reactions/interactions to better fit Putnam's information.
New questions!
Concerning The Ocean- If I make a civ with an amphibious or aquatic race, will they inhabit beach, ocean, and lake tiles? Would they build on or underneath the surface? Would they be able to send caravans to isolated islands? If I made them playable in Fortress Mode, would they be able to build underwater then?
Concerning Sites/Buildings- Can I control which structures a civ does make, like humans making towns, hamlets, and meadhalls, as opposed to fortresses, mountain halls, and hillocks? Can I mix and match those, so that a civ might make hamlets and dark fortresses, or forest retreats and pits?
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Topic: Capabilities of Modding? (Read 752 times)