Topic: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed] (Read 1288 times)

Robocorn · « **on:** May 30, 2010, 07:04:52 pm »

Mind Flayers (as I'm sure many people are familiar) are evil, humanoid, subterranean, psychic slavedrivers who eat brains.
Ever since the caverns opened up a couple of months ago I planned on modding them in because their unbalancedness would make the game considerably more Fun.

While the easy part was setting their height and appearance modifiers and getting them underground, the nuances of their official description were a bit more confusing to hammer out. I've found it comparably easier to jury rig a psionic mind blast than it was to attach tentacles to their faces.

what I've been able to come up with through creature stats is here

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've had a little bit of trouble with hammering in any standards for the entity file though the ethics will be like the goblins only more lax (as mind flayers actually support slavery and the use of sentient creatures as food and decoration)

As I am relatively new to modding dwarf fortress in the means of making intelligent humanoids with civilizations from scratch. I've provided a short list so that any veteran modders can bestow any tiny modicum of wisdom they find in their hearts upon my inexperienced being

I've produced the four size 200 tentacles that are to be attached to the face in the body_rcb file but they do not appear on the mind flayer in arena mode, preventing the blood sucking attack from working. How can I remove the nose and replace it with the tentacles?
Will a central Illithid religion prevent the mind flayers form worshiping each other due to their [POWER] tags?
Will it be possible for mind flayers to seige and trade if they are [LAYER_LINKED]?
Mind flayers reproduce asexually (parasitically actually but it would take some serious modding of the hardcode to get that in) would the sexes need to be removed in order to account for asexual reproduction, or is some form of sexuality needed for all reproducing creatures?
If asexual reproduction is feasible, would it be possible to apply the reproductive abilities to the Elder Brain class in much the same way as an antman queen while stilll ensuring that the elder brain s are in control of the society?

Any help would be appreciated.

darkflagrance · « **Reply #1 on:** May 30, 2010, 08:40:41 pm »

1. Too tired to figure this out in depth, but delete the nose, and make sure that there is an entry in the BODYPART file that tells where the tentacles attach to the body.
EDIT: bodypart_rcb is for templates like animalmen I believe.

2. Power doesn't cause civ creatures to worship each other. It causes worship of demons. The religion would prevent that.

3. No.

4. Sexuality is necessary. Furthermore, civ mode requires marriage before babies.

5. I don't think it is possible to force only certain castes to hold noble positions. The tags exist that suggest it, but they are broken.

Deon · « **Reply #2 on:** May 30, 2010, 08:40:51 pm »

1) Do not use body_rcb, if you check it, it has a wrong header. Use body_default.txt
2) I am not sure if entity of POWER creatures will work as supposed... Never tried it.
3) No.
4) If you remove MALE and FEMALE the creatures will die of old age. So... drat.
5) As I said they have to form traditional pairs. The only restrictions you can make on positions are MALE/FEMALE.

Also do not forget NOSKULL

.

P.S. Ninjad by DF

D_E · « **Reply #3 on:** May 30, 2010, 08:51:57 pm »

Hello,

1) From the creature file it looks OK, which means there's probably something wrong with the bodyparts. Could you post the FACE_TENTACLES bodypart so we can look at it?

2) Yes. Also, I believe if you don't add a religion you'll find they often worship demons instead of themselves (You should still test it, though). You might be able to do what you want using entity positions.

3) I don't know, but I think that underground civs don't trade or siege in this version. I'm also working on an Illithid mod, my solution was to make both an underground and an above-ground civilization for the 'flayers.

4) I believe reproduction is only possible between MALE and FEMALE castes in this version. So you can't have asexual reproduction. In my mod, I made 'flayers genderless, but included dwarves/humans/etc as castes in the mindflayer species, to simulate the 'flayer's parasitic reproduction.

5) Yes, I think so? You could make all 'flayers MALE and make the elder brain FEMALE, for example. Control of society is determined by the entity positions, so you could easily make it so the FEMALE elder brains were in control.

Deon · « **Reply #4 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:02:11 pm »

As I said, 1st issue is because of the body_rcp file.

Robocorn · « **Reply #5 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:09:45 pm »

Thanks for the help, The attacks seem to be working fine for the tentacles though they don't seem to be showing up in the list of visible bodyparts (Though the nose the tentacles replaced didn't either) the attacks seem to go through fine.

I'll see if the [POWER] tag works to make mind flayers godlike, but I have my doubts. I might have to make them hide in caves to be exposed to the outside world. (If they can't get exposed to outside [BABYSNATCHER] wouldn't get them any thralls)

I guess I'll keep sexes even though they don't reproduce conventionally they retain the sexes of the bodies they parasitically took over (In any source material anyway I've heard them have gender based pronouns though I don't know whether they retain any outward characteristics or just the gender identities of their host bodies.)

~~Elder Brain will have to be a noble position, It will probably be a clone of the elve's druid position but with more power and less being elected (mind flayers never struck me as democratic).~~

I won't forget [NOSKULL]

EDIT:I made FACE_TENTACLES out of the large mandibles bodypart so it may have some issues with functionality in the nose position but I assumed it could make grab attacks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Brilliant way of setting up the Elder Brain. I'll have to try that out D_E Don't the elves have some silly cast things that make all non elected rulers female?

EDIT2: DEERP, I'm an idiot, I kept the tentacles in RCP mode I'll have to make new ones from the tentacle category limbs >.<

EDIT3:Yep, new face tentacles look like this

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

works like a charm

Deon · « **Reply #6 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:43:37 pm »

To make smaller bodyparts to be not shown if not damaged you use the [SMALL] token, without it you see the bodypart every time.

Robocorn · « **Reply #7 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:56:43 pm »

They're visible like I want them but now I have the arduous task of actually getting the mind flayers to make blood sucking grab attacks (I toyed with the idea of having the tentacle mucus be a toxin that causes rapid brain rot but that wouldn't seem right if the mind flayers were eating brainless kills.

D_E · « **Reply #8 on:** May 31, 2010, 11:11:27 am »

It's not hard, just add [ATTACK_FLAG_CANLATCH] and [SPECIALATTACK_SUCK_BLOOD::] to the illithids' tentacle ATTACK declaration. [SPECIALATTACK_SUCK_BLOOD::] takes two numbers, I believe [SPECIALATTACK_SUCK_BLOOD:50:100] is usual, but you might want to check the raws for examples.

EDIT: Wait, didn't you already do that? You may have a mistake in your ATTACK declaration, try [ATTACK:STRIKE:CHILD_BODYPART_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:HEAD:BY_CATEGORY:TENTACLE]

It's usual for the BY_CATEGORY to be the declared category in the bodypart file, in your case [CATEGORY:TENTACLE].

Code: [Select]

[BODY:FACE_TENTACLES]
   [BP:1_TENT:first tentacle:STP][CONTYPE:HEAD][CATEGORY:TENTACLE]
      [DEFAULT_RELSIZE:100]
      ....

Code: [Select]

   [ATTACK:STRIKE:CHILD_BODYPART_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:HEAD:BY_CATEGORY:TENTACLE]
      [ATTACK_SKILL:WRESTLING]
      [ATTACK_VERB:face grapple:face grapples]
      ....

Robocorn · « **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2010, 11:36:31 am »

Thanks, works like a charm now, I'll have to rename it because now I get messages that mind flayers are "face grappling" arms, but now they're formidable enough to toke down minotaurs and yetis single handedly while unarmed.

Mind flayers are currently as strong as most forgotten beasts. I think I'll start up a succession fort later to test them in combat against dwarves.

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Author Topic: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed] (Read 1288 times)

Robocorn

Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

darkflagrance

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Deon

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

D_E

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Deon

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Robocorn

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Deon

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Robocorn

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

D_E

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]

Robocorn

Re: Mind Flayers [some assistance needed]