Radiation storms are definitely a crapshoot. Some dwarves ooze blood all over your fortress in little smears, which can be somewhat
aesthetic pleasing horrific at times... others just have their extremities fall off at random. It isn't pretty. Miasma is commonplace in these forts. However, interestingly enough, due to the nature of randomness in general, there is a greater chance that your military will be stronger for it, rather than weaker. HOWEVER. This is assuming you don't build a hospital. If you do, up to 75% of your dwarves will march over to it in a huge disorganized mob. And some of them actually go into permanent comas from it.
Interestingly, when a god turns someone into a mutant, there's a much greater chance that they'll become ruler of a civ, in much the same way as vampires do.
Re:Railguns: There's a minor issue with weaponry mods. No matter what you do, it's always possible to build said weapon at a forge. I don't care how many reactions you put into it - you can build it at a forge with nothing but metal bars. Not only that, with railguns, you can build them at BOWYER'S WORKSHOPS with nothing but wood, and a single piece, at that. That's just ridiculous, right? So I modded out the ability to make ranged weaponry out of wood and bone. :\ I know, it doesn't seem fair to poor bowyers... but it's the only way to have any semblance of balance to the gameplay. In exchange for this, railguns take large amounts of materials to manufacture (four times as much as a regular crossbow). It's not
quite the same as having tons of steps, but it's the best I can do. Maybe there's a way around it... but I'm not a good enough modder to find it.
Talvi... you... did you...
CROSSBREED DWARVES AND ELVES?
Yeah, I did. Bad idea? I could easily take them out, if the general consensus on it is a no-go.
YOU ARE AMAZING, YOU KNOW THAT?
XD Thanks, Reudh.
If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I tried to come up with something Reudh-related for SBII, but couldn't think of anything specific, but if you have any ideas...
SOULSLICERJAMES:
1. Yes. I actually added manamaids. And why? I'm a cruel, sick, twisted bastard that loathes dwarves and wants to see them writhes. *nods* (sounds like a good explanation, doesn't it?) More seriously, they're referred to several times in canon, and it just seems justified, even if marginally so.
2. Yeah, no. They're 1333 times the size of dwarves. You guys wanted mega, so you guys get mega. They're a royal pain to kill, AND they can infect dwarves... but it just might be worth it for a little !!FUN!!.
3. Vampiric silver combines the qualities of steel and silver. It's heavy like silver, but sharp like steel. Carbon fiber is practically impenetrable, but can't hold an edge, and is light as a feather. It makes excellent cheap armor for dwarves, really, if you have some graphite lying around.
4. Radiation only affects living creatures, so there won't be mutant zombies, unfortunately. However, any non-undead creatures would turn into mutants - AND - mutants can turn into zombies. You could potentially have an angry zombie mutant giant mosquito rampaging through your fort, with likes_fighting tags and a 2x chance to hit, with a body size twice as big as a normal giant mosquito. That's a freaking big mosquito.
5. Ferric elves, apparently, come from a different mod. I didn't know. I made them from scratch. They have the ethics of regular elves, but have better weaponry so they put up more of a fight.
6. You can never have enough chainweapons. No, actually, we may have gone slightly overboard on the chainweapons. As to buzzhammers, I envisioned them as having a spinning saw blade at the top of the shaft, so you could do a quick whack-grind combo. It seems as though you strongly disapprove, though - perfect grounds for a debate.
Lolfail - I actually gave Ferric elves all metals, just for kicks. It's easily changed, though.
Splint: I used idea #2. I can't see how I could implement idea #1, anyway.
Reudh, Tahu: epic. XD Ferric elves could be very interesting indeed.
Zacen: I would very definitely do both forms, if I could figure out how. XD I think we're kind of turning this into some bizarre form of steampunk/scifi/fantasy/horror universe with all the spinning saw blades and gears and so forth. Tons of brass, anyone?
random:
Spawn heads never stop burning. I had an interesting time of it with my first test fortress. I was besieged by holistic spawn and then a FREAKING DRAGON decides to come along right in the middle of it. It set fire to everything (and everyone) before one of my marksdwarves got off a lucky shot and a group of holistic spawn finished it off. Another one of my marksdwarves shot one of the burning spawn with a serrated disc launcher (adamantine serrated discs and legendary skill for the win) and decapitated it. The head rolled down the hill and set every layer on fire... And then burned for the next two years, throwing a huge plume of smoke into the sky. It was WELCOME TO FUCKING TESTFORT. HOPE YOU LIKE SUFFOCATION BY SMOKE INHALATION, more or less.
Ninja'd by Lolfail. Heyaa. (: