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Author Topic: Vampire/Werebeast/Necromancer Morals/Intelligence in Fortress Mode  (Read 1208 times)

mosshadow

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I did some searching and I could not find any information on this topic in recent threads.

So I would like to suggest that in Fortress mode there should be some behavior changes for Dwarfs and other members of the fort who are infected with vampirism or lycanthropy or are a necromancer. I was thinking that it would make sense if these dwarves were a bit less destructive by their own volition? As (For a werebeast) in based on their personalities they could discover that they are infected and lock themselves up each month or create someone sort of public announcement instead of just ignoring the issue, if they are moral/sane dwarfs. Likewise some vampires would feed less on your dwarves so they don't die of blood loss and instead of getting death announcements you just notice lots of weak dwarfs. For necromancers, since they are generally reading and learning necromancy in public from books you have raided from a necromancer's tower the zombies they raise should be helpful instead of attacking non-necromancer dwarfs.


Of course this should have the same problems that come with normal dwarfs, if the necromancer goes berserk all his minions would attack normally friendly dwarves. 

I kind of feel that right now dwarfs are too selfish once they get one of the three infections while at the same time if they get caught other dwarfs treat it rather casually.
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Blastbeard

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Re: Vampire/Werebeast/Necromancer Morals/Intelligence in Fortress Mode
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2019, 04:49:07 am »

It's usually obvious when you've got a werebeast on your hands, but having some feedback on the ground would be nice too. Unless the werecurse causes them to black out and forget what happened, I agree that dwarves should attempt to isolate themselves when they suspect their time of the month is at hand. It may prove ineffective when the werebeast starts busting down doors and hunting people down, but acting repsonsibly counts for something. However, straight up telling everyone you're a monster sounds like a good way to get lynched, and is perhaps left to overwhelmingly honest or lawful dwarves to decide to come forward and face the consequences.

Vampires can already feed without killing the victim, it's just a rare occurence in fortress mode. It seems like vampires wait until they need to drink enough blood to kill someone before they go looking to get their succ on, but there could be more going on. Reducing the amount of blood they need from each feeding, and possibly increasing the frequency of their feeding sessions might make them more manageable. Another solution would be to let vampires target pets and livestock, although this would require either making animals actually sleep, or allowing vampires to feed on conscious victims.

Necromancers and undead in general look like they're about receive some major upgrades in the next release. One thing mentioned was intelligent undead, which may just be what your looking for. Of course, whether 'intelligent undead' means 'intelligent enough to not attack non-hostile mortals' or 'intelligent enough to speak while attacking every mortal creature in sight' remains to be seen. There's also the problem of what kind of undead fotress necromancers would be raising and whether or not players can influence that.
Personally, I feel slabs and books should give an option to gain the power of necromancy rather than forcing it on the reader as soon as you open the book. In fortress mode, this reduce the chances of an unexpected zombie apocalypse because your bookworms just don't feel like learning necromancy, and in adventure mode, this would ease my rampart paranoia about opening a book and suddenly having powers I didn't really want at the time.
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I don't know how it all works, I just throw molten science at the wall and see what ignites.

GoblinCookie

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Re: Vampire/Werebeast/Necromancer Morals/Intelligence in Fortress Mode
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2019, 09:18:32 am »

If the society figures out how to deal humanely with werebeasts, it sort of upsets the whole point of the divine curse.  The gods would presumably be angry if you do not treat your werebeasts inhumanely enough. 
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Blastbeard

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Re: Vampire/Werebeast/Necromancer Morals/Intelligence in Fortress Mode
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2019, 12:09:23 pm »

The gods would presumably be angry if you do not treat your werebeasts inhumanely enough.

I believe deities are slated for an update as well, one change being you can only be cursed by acting against a deity you actually worship, or something like that.
Also, why would dwarves care about enforcing the punishment of some foreign god, and more importantly, how would they know the source of a curse is divine in the first place? Dwarves barely know what goes on in the hillocks next door, expecting them to clonclude that a pale dwarf drinks blood because he toppled a statue in a temple somewhere far away is a bit of a stretch.
Also also, screw dwarf fortress gods. They offer nothing useful and their habit of creating antagonistic elements actively endangers the world. That's our job. Either offer some boons to your worshippers and provide an afterlife or GTFO.
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I don't know how it all works, I just throw molten science at the wall and see what ignites.