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[callisto8413]

PTW

Wondering how far you have thought on weapons?  I was thinking of suggesting a simple air-powered rifle.  They are not hard to make, can be made from different material, and can be lethal.  I knew about some used in the 18th century but what I didn't know was they are even older than that.  Rain and wet weather does not affect them and there is no muzzle flash or smoke.  And they're not as loud as other types of weapons.  Good hunting and lightly armed foes.  I'll link the wiki article.

Spoiler: Air Guns Wiki (click to show/hide)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun

[Lurksquatch]

PTW

Wondering how far you have thought on weapons?  I was thinking of suggesting a simple air-powered rifle.  They are not hard to make, can be made from different material, and can be lethal.  I knew about some used in the 18th century but what I didn't know was they are even older than that.  Rain and wet weather does not affect them and there is no muzzle flash or smoke.  And they're not as loud as other types of weapons.  Good hunting and lightly armed foes.  I'll link the wiki article.

Spoiler: Air Guns Wiki (click to show/hide)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun

I'll check out that link later today, but I'm actually thinking of more modern weaponry. I didn't want to deal with players having to make gunpoweder, and it's not very "sci-fi" anyway, so I did some digging and found out about caseless rounds. They don't really work well irl, but I figured with advancements in technology and infrastructure, they could probably do ok. They're made out of weapon's grade metal (such as aluminum, titanium, tungsten, etc.) and propellant, which is a possible end result of your fossil fuel industry. These rounds are made in batches of 500, and are used as ammo for most types of rifle and pistol. There are also railguns, which require special penetrator rounds which are fired at extremely high velocities. There will also be survival knives, axes, and other tools your settlers can use as weapons in a pinch. I'm thinking about adding in rockets and/or flamethrowers, but I'm not sure how they'd work, or if they'ed even be possible.

I had already thought of making a "dart rifle" for hunting, but I'll check out the air guns later, and I might use those instead. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Emperor Sheev]

If you're adding nuclear reactors, it would be cool if you could occasionally get indium and cadmium from sphalerite, just so sphalerite wouldn't become useless with the new metals.

[Lurksquatch]

If you're adding nuclear reactors, it would be cool if you could occasionally get indium and cadmium from sphalerite, just so sphalerite wouldn't become useless with the new metals.

I actually was going to include cadmium and/or indium at first for use in control rods. I decided against it, just because I think nuclear power is already going to be hard enough to manage, what with the rarity of uraninite and the process required to make fuel rods, and having to mine/purchase two other metals and combine them with silver to make control rods seemed a bit...excessive. That being said, I might add them back in, especially if nuclear power turns out to be easier to manage than I anticipate. I might look into making nuclear reactors require a certain amount of control rods to be built, in addition to regular building materials. You won't need to keep making them, like you would fuel, but it be an extra step you would have to take. If reactors seem OP, I'll probably add control rods to balance them.

Thanks for the suggestion! Keep 'em coming!!

[Lurksquatch]

UPDATE: 12/07/2019

All metals and ores are in the mod. I haven't tested them yet, but all of the metals appear in the arena, so I think they should work fine.

I tried to stay accurate to real life with where the ores are located, but I also tried to make sure the things you would need more of aren't to hard to find. Many of the ores actually already existed in Vanilla, they just didn't do anything. Things like bauxite for aluminum, rutile and illmenite for titanium, pitchblende (ye olde name for uraninite) for uranium, etc. I really only had to add in a handful of ores, which was nice. Next up is human settlement stuff.

In working on these metals and ores, I realized that I don't have anything in particular for the natives to use as weapons. While I do plan on them being significantly larger and stronger than humans, the use of weapons and tools is a key trait in intelligent beings, so it makes sense they would make weapons out of something. I thought it would be interesting to have them cut native metals (copper, silver, gold and palladium) to make weapons out of. Will they stand up to the modern weapons the humans use? No, I don't think so. But, they should do nicely against each other and most smaller vermin, and the aliens are going to significantly outnumber the humans, so I think it'll all work out. But, does anyone else have any thoughts?

[callisto8413]

UPDATE: 12/07/2019

Will they stand up to the modern weapons the humans use? No, I don't think so. But, they should do nicely against each other and most smaller vermin, and the aliens are going to significantly outnumber the humans, so I think it'll all work out. But, does anyone else have any thoughts?

Can the player trade with them and GIVE them weapons?  Remember, during Custer's Last Stand, the Native Americans mostly had weapons better to, or equal to, what the cavalry had.  I would prefer to ally myself with the Natives then fight with them. 

[Lurksquatch]

Can the player trade with them and GIVE them weapons?  Remember, during Custer's Last Stand, the Native Americans mostly had weapons better to, or equal to, what the cavalry had.  I would prefer to ally myself with the Natives then fight with them. 

I hadn't thought of that, but I don't see why not  . It would make sense for the natives, at least some of them, to be interested in acquiring better weapons from the settlers. Though, they wouldn't be able to make more of them, or more ammo, just because they don't have the technological base or infrastructure to do so, meaning they'd have to continue buying them from you. Considering how expensive some weapons grade alloys are, this could end up being a very lucrative business proposition lol.

To address your other statement, it is totally possible to be friends with the natives and trade with them. They're going to be more akin to the humans or elves in Vanilla, in that they're friendly until you provoke them. That being said, these are aliens we're talking about, and while they do have some things in common with us humans, their thought processes and culture are very differant from ours, meaning it's difficult to say what might upset them, so you might want to think twice before giving them heavy ordinance.

I appreciate the suggestion. As always, keep 'em coming! Expect another update by the end of the week-ish!

[callisto8413]

A suggestion - Caravans.  I was thinking that native tribes could continue to use wagons and pack-animals, like vanilla DF, but traders from other colonies might use air-tight transports.  In other words armored trucks filled with canned food, extra equipment, and finished goods.  Maybe with guards riding in small troop carriers?

To suggest that they had to cross harsh environments and deal with hostile creatures to get to you.  Not sure how a liaison would get to you....armored car?

[scourge728]

The problem with that is that the tag that makes wagons 3x3 also makes them need to be pulled by something else or they just break if you're okay with it being a single tile it'll work just fine though, as the carrying capacity is not related to that tag

[callisto8413]

The problem with that is that the tag that makes wagons 3x3 also makes them need to be pulled by something else or they just break if you're okay with it being a single tile it'll work just fine though, as the carrying capacity is not related to that tag

Would it work if the colonists used wagons but they were more like trailers which were pulled by ATVs?  Or maybe imported horses?  Great, now I am thinking Firefly.

[Lurksquatch]

A suggestion - Caravans.  I was thinking that native tribes could continue to use wagons and pack-animals, like vanilla DF, but traders from other colonies might use air-tight transports.  In other words armored trucks filled with canned food, extra equipment, and finished goods.  Maybe with guards riding in small troop carriers?

To suggest that they had to cross harsh environments and deal with hostile creatures to get to you.  Not sure how a liaison would get to you....armored car?

The problem with that is that the tag that makes wagons 3x3 also makes them need to be pulled by something else or they just break if you're okay with it being a single tile it'll work just fine though, as the carrying capacity is not related to that tag

Would it work if the colonists used wagons but they were more like trailers which were pulled by ATVs?  Or maybe imported horses?  Great, now I am thinking Firefly.

These are actually good points. I had envisioned the colonists using a large transport of some kind for trade, but I honestly haven't put that much thought into it. If 3X3 wagons require something to pull them, I'll probably just have a single tile transport instead. I was already planning on the colonists having a variety of robotic "animals" to help them with various things, so a cargo-hauler robot wouldn't be unusual. As I understand it, I can set the carrying capacity of animals to whatever I want, so I'll probably just give cargo-haulers a capacity similar to, or maybe greater than, Vanilla wagons.

I like the idea of an armored car for the liaison to travel in. I don't know if it's possible to make vehicles like that in DF, so it might just be a transport bot, or something else that he "rides". As for guards, I already have a Sentry Bot planned, which can equip very heavy armor and can duel-wield auto-cannons and/or railguns. That should handle most security needs lol.

On that note, here's the promised update
12/15/2019: Electricity added to the game. At the moment, "electricity" is actually an inorganic substance that is produced in the various power-plant workshops. It's usually a liquid, with a freezing point of 0 (which I understand to be considerably colder than absolute zero, so there's really no reason it should ever be a solid), and a boiling point of 10,015, or the average temperature underground. The goal is to have power plants put the electricity into "batteries", which in game terms are just buckets with very specific crafting requirements. Since it is a liquid, and I don't know of a way to make a container that can't be dropped or spilled, the boiling point is rather mundane to allow for the electricity to evaporate so you don't have puddles of electricity lying around. Electricity has 0 density, 0 molar mass, and 0 for all of it's material properties (shear yield, shear fracture, etc.), to reflect the fact that it's not actually something you can touch or hold. My hope is that electricity will exist while it's in a battery, but if the battery is "spilled", the electricity will evaporate and essentially vanish. I don't have the nessesary buildings and items in game to test this yet, so I don't know if it actually works yet.

I had considered giving electricity a more realistic temperature, but I found that it would be over 60,000 in game units (based on the temperature of a lightning bolt), considerably hotter than dragon-fire. I'm not sure what trying to transport that would do to people with the way the game works, so for now it's not realistic. Shocking, I know lol.

Progress is probably going to be slow for a while, but it will occur. I work at a highschool, and this coming week is semester finals week, so it's going to be a bit hectic. After that I'll be on break, so I should be able to get some more done then.

As always, I love the suggestions and continued interest! I honestly didn't think anyone would be interested in this, so I greatly appreciate the suggestions and discussions. Keep 'em coming!!

[callisto8413]

Robotic horses are not an uncommon idea.  Galaxy Rangers and Vampire Hunter D both had them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Lurksquatch]

Robotic horses are not an uncommon idea.  Galaxy Rangers and Vampire Hunter D both had them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I like the idea, but I'm thinking more modern type vehicles. When I said "ride" earlier, I just meant that's what the game will probably interpret it as. Lore wise, they would be inside the vehicle/robot/whatever it ends up being. Still, there will most likely be native fauna that your settlers could tame if you want.

I occurs to me that dwarves in Vanilla don't have mounts...I'll have to look into if it's possible to make a player civ to ride things at all. This might be a pointless conversation lmao.

No updates today. As I said before, I've been busy with IRL stuff, but I have more free time now. Expect an update by the end of the week-ish. Keep the suggestions coming! If anyone was starting thing this thing's dead, it's not!! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

[Lurksquatch]

I don't know how many people are still interested in this mod, but I'm going to have to put it on hold for a while. I've got a lot of stuff going on IRL right now, in terms of work, family issues and personal health stuff. None of it is insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination, but it's going to take a lot of time and energy, and I have to prioritize.

I will come back to this when I have time, but for now, it's going on the back burner. Sorry, folks.