I'm no stranger to modding the classic game, at least to a low-level extent (I've never created new creatures or materials or workshops for example, but Ive modded civilizations and existing creatures and such), and Ive be doing my best to follow some of the steam DF modding info in the various threads, but of course I do have some more specific questions.
First off, a problem I ran into that I don't understand why it happened. I'll go over what I did step by step so as to hopefully avoid any sort of confusion on what I changed, didnt change, and so on.
1> Made a copy of vanilla_materials to /dwarf fortress/mods, then renamed it to alycraft_materials
2> edited the info.txt
3> in the /mods/alycraft_materials/objects directory I opened up inorganic_stone_gem.txt and removed some of the gem types, then saved.
4> in the /mods/alycraft_materials/objects directory I opened up inorganic_stone_soil.txt (I think it was this file) and removed all incidence of [aquifer].
both of these things I've done in classic many times without issues. what comes next is where the problem crops up
5> went into DF, hit create new world, selected detailed and selected my preferred region type (a custom medium region where I greatly increase savagery and volcanism, the number of volcanos, semi-megabeasts, caves, and so on and so forth)
6> in the Mods section, I added alycraft_materials (moving it from the left column to the right column), then moved it UP the load list until it was right below vanilla_materials.
7> I removed the vanilla_materials (moving it from the right column to the left column).
8> Hit create world. The game then proceeded to go through hundreds of rejections before eventually telling me that it cant place crops for farming civilizations. I had it ignore the rejections for awhile but eventually quit out.
I think went into create new world, selected my custom region, did not do the _materials swap, so that it was still using vanilla_materials, ran create world, and had no problems with rejections, everything worked fine.
I have no idea what I did wrong for this to mess up. Since I wasnt used to the new modding stuffs, I figured if I made a copy of A, renamed it to B, then swapped them out in the mods section of worldgen it should work? Clearly it didnt, but Im not certain why.
Second!
in the various creature RAWs, when a creature has a Giant version it has the tag [COPY_TAGS_FROM:(animal)]. Does (animal) have to be in the same file, or can it be in another file? I'd like to add Giant Turkeys and Giant Geese, and am wondering if I have to copy the base Turkey and Geese info into my mod RAW.
Thanks in advance! dumfoxisdum