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[Abyssal Squid]

Instead of just flying or not-flying, range from not-flying, fluttering, weak flying, strong flying.

Fluttering is just a glorified jump, giving air control for 3-4 steps before tiring.  Chickens and grasshoppers can flutter.

Weak flying allows you to fly a fair distance before resting, about 20 steps, or less if they try to hover or fight.  Most birds and most flying humanoids are weak fliers.

Strong fliers can stay in the air indefinitely, but hovering tires them quickly, so to fight they must either land or fly by.  Eagles, swallows, and dragons are strong fliers.

Hoverers can stay in the air indefinitely, even without moving or while fighting.  Angels, ghosts, and wyverns can hover.

[zagibu]

Most birds are weak fliers? You do realize that a great number of birds travel from europe to africa and back every year? Some even do it without stops.

[tychoruniko]

hhhmmm... perhaps the strength of flying would better be used to tell how easy the thing is to knock out of the air with an attack? You can swat a butterfly or bat, but swatting at a huge, fire-wreathed wyvern would probably turn you into dwarf-kibble.

[Abyssal Squid]

Migrations aren't exactly the kind of flight you normally see in DF, because it takes half a year to store up enough fat for the trip one way, and because it's got lots of other weirdness (sleeping while in flight, for example).  Eagles are generally able to fly longer at a stretch than, say, sparrows, and the vast majority of birds are perched or swimming or on the ground 95% of the time.

Point taken about the names, though.  It would be less misleading and more flexible if there was just a [FLIGHTCOST:X] tag, where X is the number of weariness points a single turn of flight costs, with fighting/hovering costing a fixed amount cumulative with flying.  Hovering could have a separate tag, so you could have critters that could fight while flying, without being able to fly indefinitely.

[Abyssal Squid]

quote:Originally posted by tychoruniko:
<STRONG>hhhmmm... perhaps the strength of flying would better be used to tell how easy the thing is to knock out of the air with an attack? You can swat a butterfly or bat, but swatting at a huge, fire-wreathed wyvern would probably turn you into dwarf-kibble.</STRONG>

Bats and butterflies are extremely strong fliers though, they're just small.  There's already a size tag that does pretty much what you're suggesting.

[Hague]

Bird migrations sounds like an interesting idea. You generalize it with all animals. Imagine it with vermin migrations as well. Might be neat to get attacked by an FPS killing vermin storm that eats all your crops. A plague of locusts. Maybe give a creatures [MIGRATOR] and [SWARM] tokens so they move about the map as independent plagues or blessings. They could even generate legends: "In 1056, Bluebarrows was struck by a plague of venomous lung-carp."

You could even do some silly things like making a migratory flock of winged gold-bars that drop gold bar corpses.

"Thank Bog Silveredglittered! This year's migration of gold-bar sprites has arrived at last!"

"It's beautiful how they glitter the sunset!"

[Draco18s]

quote:Originally posted by Hague:
<STRONG>You could even do some silly things like making a migratory flock of winged gold-bars that drop gold bar corpses.

"Thank Bog Silveredglittered! This year's migration of gold-bar sprites has arrived at last!"

"It's beautiful how they glitter the sunset!"</STRONG>

Quick!  Get the marksdwarves and shoot them down!  Send the corpses to the craftesr!  We'll make a killing on them!

[Align]

Yeah, I can't see that species lasting very long in a world with dwarves...

[Belteshazzar]

You see the problem it that  these so called 'Gold Eagles' explode upon impact with the ground. Tis a matter of defense really. When they impact (generally after a suicidal dive from great heights against foes of the flock) they spread razor sharp feathers of gold everywhere. Their bones are of steel and silver and the joints and eyes of gemstones, so the body is good looting indeed but when you anger the flock you better hope you got more men than birds lest their be no left to bury the dead and take the gold. But if you should ever find their nesting grounds ohhh the treasures to see all the good metals there for the taken and the eggs the eggs they glistens and gleam like no other metal I ever seen like silver but stronger than steel. But you dwarves 'ould no more bout such things an I.

[Helmaroc]

Interesting idea.

[Othob Rithol]

To jump into the OT insanity: The longevity of said species is guaranteed against dwarves by a cunning evolutionary advantage; they fly outside under the cursed Sun.