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Author Topic: A compromise for the undead  (Read 6576 times)

Splint

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2012, 01:14:51 am »

Entirely possible, though I still want to make a serrated disk cannon.

Mr Frog

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #16 on: February 16, 2012, 01:22:08 am »

I guess it'd be cool for the zombie attacks to be linked to lunar phases. It'd be an elegant way to let the player know when an attack is imminent.

I'd rather not have werewolf AND zombie attacks happening at the same time, however, for many reasons. I'd say make it Full Moon = Werebeasts, New Moon = Zombies.

You could actually probably easily implement lunar-tied zombies with a bit of modding.

@Draignean:
I wouldn't recommend it. As someone much wittier than me (Footkerchief, I think) once said, editing the raws of an existing world is the DF equivalent of voiding the warranty. Don't do it.

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« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 01:24:14 am by Mr Frog »
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Draignean

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #17 on: February 16, 2012, 01:46:58 am »

@Draignean:
I wouldn't recommend it. As someone much wittier than me (Footkerchief, I think) once said, editing the raws of an existing world is the DF equivalent of voiding the warranty. Don't do it.

EDIT: Misspelled Draig's handle

Nah, vet modder from different games. (Near complete noob to DF modding though) I know to back everything up in triplicate before I stick my hands into the reactor of Fun.

Anyway, dug through the world a little and it appears that the frequency for spontaneous reanimation is [IE_INTERMITTENT:WEEKLY]. The interaction also lacks the [IT_REQUIRES:FIT_FOR_ANIMATION] tag, so it revives anything classed as a corpse.

Hmm... Definitely going to have to stop by the modding board tomorrow.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 01:49:15 am by Draignean »
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Mr Frog

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #18 on: February 16, 2012, 02:05:36 am »

@Draignean:
I wouldn't recommend it. As someone much wittier than me (Footkerchief, I think) once said, editing the raws of an existing world is the DF equivalent of voiding the warranty. Don't do it.

EDIT: Misspelled Draig's handle

Nah, vet modder from different games. (Near complete noob to DF modding though) I know to back everything up in triplicate before I stick my hands into the reactor of Fun.

Anyway, dug through the world a little and it appears that the frequency for spontaneous reanimation is [IE_INTERMITTENT:WEEKLY]. The interaction also lacks the [IT_REQUIRES:FIT_FOR_ANIMATION] tag, so it revives anything classed as a corpse.

Hmm... Definitely going to have to stop by the modding board tomorrow.

O_O

Holy crap, that's actually pretty huge. Have you filed a bug report? I really don't think that's intentional.

Also, holy crap I have now spent more time discussing the new version than actually playing it.
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I so want your spawn babies

Splint

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #19 on: February 16, 2012, 02:08:30 am »

@Draignean:
I wouldn't recommend it. As someone much wittier than me (Footkerchief, I think) once said, editing the raws of an existing world is the DF equivalent of voiding the warranty. Don't do it.

EDIT: Misspelled Draig's handle

Nah, vet modder from different games. (Near complete noob to DF modding though) I know to back everything up in triplicate before I stick my hands into the reactor of Fun.

Anyway, dug through the world a little and it appears that the frequency for spontaneous reanimation is [IE_INTERMITTENT:WEEKLY]. The interaction also lacks the [IT_REQUIRES:FIT_FOR_ANIMATION] tag, so it revives anything classed as a corpse.

Hmm... Definitely going to have to stop by the modding board tomorrow.

O_O

Holy crap, that's actually pretty huge. Have you filed a bug report? I really don't think that's intentional.

Also, holy crap I have now spent more time discussing the new version than actually playing it.

You sir are not alone. Doing some prep work for something, and would like to know if you'd like to join PM me if I've piqued your curiousity.

Sirus

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #20 on: February 16, 2012, 02:19:44 am »

I had the idea that perhaps undead revivals could be linked to seasons. In summer, undead would take longer to revive, and there'd be a decent chance of them staying dead for good. In winter, on the other hand, the undead would be reviving far more frequently (perhaps even more frequently than they do now) and there'd be almost no chance for them to not "wake up". Spring and fall, of course, would be a middle ground. This way, players would be able to prepare a place to "hole up" and survive the undead apocalypse that would erupt every winter, and have a chance to clean up the inevitable messes every summer.
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Niccolo

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #21 on: February 16, 2012, 02:28:52 am »

I had the idea that perhaps undead revivals could be linked to seasons. In summer, undead would take longer to revive, and there'd be a decent chance of them staying dead for good. In winter, on the other hand, the undead would be reviving far more frequently (perhaps even more frequently than they do now) and there'd be almost no chance for them to not "wake up". Spring and fall, of course, would be a middle ground. This way, players would be able to prepare a place to "hole up" and survive the undead apocalypse that would erupt every winter, and have a chance to clean up the inevitable messes every summer.

This idea could be further extended, too - Like you said, when they're killed there could be a chance of them reviving depending on the season... Potentially the method of killing should matter too?

IE: Death by artifact weapon could potentially keep 'em dead, death by drowning/freezing virtually guarantees they come back pissed off and something like the only surefire way to kill them is to burn them.

I've never met a zombie that liked fire.
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Sirus

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #22 on: February 16, 2012, 02:35:00 am »

I had the idea that perhaps undead revivals could be linked to seasons. In summer, undead would take longer to revive, and there'd be a decent chance of them staying dead for good. In winter, on the other hand, the undead would be reviving far more frequently (perhaps even more frequently than they do now) and there'd be almost no chance for them to not "wake up". Spring and fall, of course, would be a middle ground. This way, players would be able to prepare a place to "hole up" and survive the undead apocalypse that would erupt every winter, and have a chance to clean up the inevitable messes every summer.

This idea could be further extended, too - Like you said, when they're killed there could be a chance of them reviving depending on the season... Potentially the method of killing should matter too?

IE: Death by artifact weapon could potentially keep 'em dead, death by drowning/freezing virtually guarantees they come back pissed off and something like the only surefire way to kill them is to burn them.

I've never met a zombie that liked fire.
I don't think the undead can drown, and I haven't yet been able to use fire as a weapon outside of adventurer mode. Magma of course simply melts everything.
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Graebeard

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #23 on: February 16, 2012, 03:21:19 am »

Having unlimited respawning undead is cool honestly. 

However, it tends to get a little more than ridiculous when hair and skin are somehow managing to become undead and travel around. 

As some people have said, it should be limited to at most to bodyparts (hands, feet, etc), while things such as hair and skin should (in the case of skin) automatically rot and spread miasma (either instantaneously or very quickly), and in the case of both become useless to tan/spin into cloth.

Don't underestimate how cool reanimated empty husks of skin are.  Are you familiar with The Hollow?
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nukularpower

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #24 on: February 16, 2012, 03:33:26 am »

I feel the need to point out that someone not prepared to deal with constant zombies could just not embark in an evil area....

In response I have to ask how the update would be an improvement with that attitude, given that it basically would just remove evil biomes from the game entirely for that person, when they were at least somewhat manageable before.

Fully support the full moon thing, hopefully that gets back to Toady  ^^
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Zared

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #25 on: February 16, 2012, 10:26:15 am »

Well, in the mean time you can do it yourself.  Not editing world.sav, that's very not recommended.  Plus I'm not sure it would work.  But, if you set the number of regional interactions that are generated to 0, you won't get any random ones.  Then you can roll your own, by making a bunch of variations of Toady's example.
Then you can have it raise them on a new moon, or even less often, if there is such a parameter.

But you don't want to lose the random rains and fogs?  Well, I didn't say to set those to 0.  But they're only assigned by regional interactions?  So make some. 

Code: [Select]
[OBJECT:INTERACTION]
[INTERACTION:EXAMPLE EVIL RAIN REGION]
[I_SOURCE:REGION]
[IS_REGION:EVIL_ONLY]
[IS_REGION:SAVAGE_ALLOWED]
[IS_REGION:ANY_TERRAIN]
[IS_FREQUENCY:100]
[I_TARGET:C:MATERIAL]
[IT_MATERIAL:MATERIAL:INORGANIC:EVIL_RAIN_1:WEATHER_FALLING_MATERIAL]
[I_EFFECT:MATERIAL_EMISSION]
[IE_TARGET:C]
[IE_INTERMITTENT:WEEKLY]

Yup, that actually works.  You can have your hard-coded raw reference generated raws.  Rains are EVIL_RAIN_#, and fogs are EVIL_CLOUD_#.  Just make sure you don't create raws for more rains/clouds than your worldgen parameters make, or, unpredictable madness may ensue?

This will complain about missing materials every time you gen a world, load a save from that world, etc.  But it works.
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Mickey Blue

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #26 on: February 16, 2012, 10:33:25 am »

I feel the need to point out that someone not prepared to deal with constant zombies could just not embark in an evil area....

that said, this does seem like a good compromise, tying it to the moon cycle can make a clear visual indicator for the player too.

True, but for many of us (me at least) its not so much about challenge as it is about frustration.  For example one map I got crushed by swarms of giant mosquitoes and (FPS aside..) it was awesome.  Having dead dwarves rise up again to attack their former brethren is also cool.

What isn't cool, or challenging, and certainly not fun (for me at least) is having to bludgeon the same weasel (or worse, bird) again and again because it keeps popping back up.

I love challenge, even when they cannot be overcome, but I cannot say I'm too fond of having to kill trash animals over and over again. 
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Cobbler89

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #27 on: February 16, 2012, 10:39:31 am »

My opinion is the opposite: the undead should continue to multiply as you chop off more parts, but any given part should be able to be put beyond reanimation (I mean, if I turn your hand into a splat of goo, how is even a ghostly life force going to use that goo? barring said life force being Jenova cells, of course!)... this would leave challenge (you still gotta beat them up bad) and potential for zombie spirals (if the rate of their kills exceeds the rate of your putting undead out of commission) but would give you more options than total corpse quarantine and magma treatment. Plus, it fits with classical lore: there's usually some special way to "kill" the "immortal" undead, rather than their being truly immortal.

If, however, we get unendingly resurrecting dead without the phenomenon applying to skin or hair (skin maybe makes sense, as Toady pointed out, comparing it to the oddness of bare skeletons; hair, not so much) or maybe even only if it has all its fingers or something... Well, I'll accept that; but it's not what I'd prefer. I'd prefer a race to turn the things to pulp despite the challenge of them reproducing via my own breaking them up and before they can reproduce by killing off more of my guys. It's only if that race is unwinnable by definition that I think it's pointless.
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Dawnofdarkness

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #28 on: February 16, 2012, 11:29:42 am »

Here is my view on the situation.

WE need more time to prepare between assaults *in most cases* but we don't have the time.... i think we should get just one or two random assaults a season or have it so the longer the time between assaults the more powerful the assault.
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Psieye

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Re: A compromise for the undead
« Reply #29 on: February 16, 2012, 11:31:30 am »

Why not just have a cremator added in? Kill undead, shove into cremator, get out ash (without having to use fuel). In fact, I'm pretty sure such a custom building and custom reaction were successfully modded last year or before.

Ah here it is: Crematorium Workshop. Would need to be adapted to accept more relevant things (hair, maybe skin) for cremation and you'd need to edit your ethics so you wouldn't shy away from butchering sentient undead.
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