Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sky-Streamer]

This is an idea that stems off of the idea that Magic will be tied to Spheres.

If this is the case, unique plants could be generated that correspond to some of the spheres. These plants would be able to be manifested via people who concentrate magic into a small enough area, and allow that magic to be concentrated in a stable way. However, only 5 to 30 Magic Plants will be generated per world, some having the potential to have the same base sphere.

Each Magic Plant would have a few basic stats.

Allied Color: These are the colors more likely to be chosen for the plant.
Warring Color: These are the colors less likely to be chosen for the plant.
Allied Structure: These are the structures more likely to be chosen for the plant.
Special Affects: Each type of plant has a certain affect. A sphere has two to four unique abilities that could potentially show themselves inside the plant, but all magic based plants have the ability to boost its corresponding magic's affects when eaten.

Here are a list of possible structures, with examples in the real world of them:

List of Plant Structures:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Root: Radish, Carrot
Tree: Oak, Apple Tree
Flower: Rose
Grass: Do I really need to say what this is? It's just grass.
Stalk: Sugar Cane, Green Bean
Shroom: Mushroom
Vine: Grape Vine
Cactus: Once again. Do I really need to say what I'm talking about?
Carnivorous Plants: Rarest type. Venus Fly Trap.
Algae: Moss, Algae

And here are some examples of how some spheres could be classified.

Fire:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Colors are Red, Yellow, Orange, and Gray.
Warring Colors are Cyan and Blue.
Allied Structures are Flower and Stalk.
Special Abilities include being a gunpowder substitute when grounded up, or excreting a fluid that heals and lessens the pain of burns, similar to the gel of the Aloe Vera in our world.

Blight:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Color is Green.
Warring Colors are Pink, Yellow and Blue.
Allied Structures are Algae and Shroom.
Special Abilities include inducing slight Necrosis when eaten or held, Rendering the ground it is planted on barren for one to three seasons, and chemically breaking down bones upon contact.

Metals:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Colors are Gray, Black and Orange.
No Warring Colors.
Allied Structures are Roots.
Special Abilities include the plant being able to be used as a substitute for coal or flux stones.

Nightmares:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Colors are Red and Black.
Warring Color is White.
Allied Structures are Carnivorous Plants.
Special Abilities include the plant causing insomnia and stress.

Theft:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No Allied or Warring Colors.
Allied Structures are Vines and Algae.
Special Abilities include granting those who consume it a greater amount of stamina, and greater perception of their enviroment.

Writing:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Color is Tan.
Warring Color is Black.
Allied Structure is Stalk.
Special Abilities include greater learning, writing, and/or teaching skills.

Please, critique or add onto the idea as you all see fit.

[Maximum Spin]

Special Affects: Each type of plant has a certain affect.

I want a plant with a flat affect like me.

[Nordlicht]

I really like the idea, but I think it should mainly occur "naturally " in lands with high-sphere magic concentration. And I want them to be more alien in appearance, like some of the divine materials. Nightmare plants could change depending on the one looking at them or something like that. Fire plants are made out of flames. I have no imagination though, so maybe someone can go more haywire.

The effect types somehow remind me of the TES Alchemy system. If the effects are procedural generated, people during / after worldgen could research them, maybe something like combined effects of multiple plants are possible.

Maybe some of the plants need to be harvested at certain times, under certain circumstances or with certain materials. Loose their power when in contact with xy.

[Lidku]

This idea would really fit well with the development of the Mushroom Kingdoms Mod.

[Azerty]

Longevity:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Allied Color: Bright ones
Warring Color: Dark ones
Allied Structure: Roots, trees
Special Affects: When eaten, can give long life to the eater

[Eric Blank]

This is a good idea for something to be added during the myth/magic arc.

It's easy to do simple "potions" with effects now by brewing or extracting to vials and such, but more complex things like combining multiple ingredients without the need to procedurally generated reactions would require a new raw token type like [reaction_alchemy_product:(output object)][reaction_alchemy_ingredient:(ingredient object)] so a single pre-defined alchemy "conduct alchemy" reaction can be used with any material that has this token, and automatically uses the material where this is called for plus every ingredient listed after it, and produces the defined object. + Optional [mundane_research_necessary] token telling the game the alchemist/your fort/your civ needs to research and have written down somewhere this reaction before you can use it. So it would look something like this:

...within local plant structural material...
[Reaction_alchemy_product:drink:none:local_plant_mat:potion]
[reaction_alchemy_ingredient:bar:none:ash:none]
[mundane_research_necessary]

Right now for each alchemy reaction I want to make I need a new reaction, and reactions have to be added to entities' raws before world generation, so researching new reactions isn't really possible. With the above though, both procedurally generated and raw-defined plant or animal materials with those tokens would be useable with a single reaction similar to the tan hides reaction we have now, and every entity that has that reaction can begin to perform alchemical reactions from plants and animals they have access to. A chemist or naturalist scholar could begin to research specific materials that have the [mundane_research_necessary] token and eventually discover the formula, write it down and distribute it, and your dwarves can obtain those books and having read them perform the reaction using that formula. The craziness of procedurally generated formulas would then become something Toady needs to think about, like, is it okay for some formulas to require a nickel scepter and a horse leather bracelet, or should procedural formulas be restricted to basic item types like tanned hides, body parts, meat, bars, blocks etc, not finished items like craft goods or weapons or clothing?

As for other sphere effect ideas, not necessarily for plant effects but also secrets/other powers I've used or imagined;

Lust; like a love potion, changes personality traits so those affected are more likely to form romantic relationships with people they meet (lovers barb and lovers barb alcohol do this as of the next release of Spellcrafts)

Birth/pregnancy; causes women (or men, for equality of horror) to become pregnant and quickly give birth. (I've used a summoning interaction to summon a creepy little child creature, there's no proper "make this creature pregnant with a legit child of their own" syndrome effect)

Darkness; blindness, of self or others or target of poison application

Caverns: ability to see in darkness, or a cdi that targets cavern fauna/flora to weaken them and resistance to their syndromes, or maybe the opposite, you become vulnerable to cavern fauna/flora and their syndromes.

Creation: can spontaneously generate items, summon animals etc

Animals: become or summon or be friends with animals

Plants; as above, for plants and plant creatures (I've added a bunch of creatures made of plant and mushroom materials to my mod for this purpose.)

Blight; cause crops to fail, kills surrounding vegetation, kill plant and mushroom based creatures (another reason I added many of them)

Disease; causes random diseases that can be spread to others

Depravity; causes vampirism, can permit cannibalism

Nature; become friendly towards all natural life

Earth; see into and move surrounding stone, dig your own path into/out of caverns with magic when building camps. Dwarves no longer need a pickaxe to mine and produce boulders more reliably. Can reveal composition of surrounding stone tiles but empty spaces remain blank.

Thralldom; make people/animals obey your commands

Knowledge; scholars make discoveries more quickly

Strength; huge strength boost?

Courage; lose sense of fear/terror, make others feel the same.

[A_Curious_Cat]

Oh, you mean like the Hulk has?

Yeah, I guess you could add them in, but I don’t see the need for it given how little detailed dwarven bodies are...

Perhaps you could add some magic skirts for the womenfolk, too!

[Azerty]

Could we see alchemic recipes being procedurally generated, like in Nethack?

[Iä! RIAKTOR!]

Roses? Cactus? DF already have sphere plants that looks much more interesting. Wormy tendrils. Staring eyeballs. Downy grass. Feather trees.

[Sky-Streamer]

Yeah, but those were mainly used for examples.

[IndigoFenix]

Good ideas all around.

I would say that for BIRTH and PREGNANCY sphere related effects, there has to be more variation on the fertility of a creature for them to make sense.  Many people throughout history who had difficulty producing children would turn to drugs, prayer and rituals, but since in DF everyone can give birth instantly with no difficulty these spheres are kind of useless except for freakish effects like magically producing a child with no parent.

[Azerty]

I would say that for BIRTH and PREGNANCY sphere related effects, there has to be more variation on the fertility of a creature for them to make sense.  Many people throughout history who had difficulty producing children would turn to drugs, prayer and rituals, but since in DF everyone can give birth instantly with no difficulty these spheres are kind of useless except for freakish effects like magically producing a child with no parent.

Maybe when fertility will be made more realistic to include stuff like sterility.