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[Foamybeard]

I'd be willing to Bugtest as well, Eoty. I LOVE DINOS.

[IndigoFenix]

Actually, if we're going to make a whole project of this, the best idea would probably be to use creature templates for basic groups (ceratopsians, sauropods, raptors, etc.)  Then we could easily create variations with different sizes, colors, etc.

[Eotyrannus]

Yeah, sounds good.

We'll probably need to figure out which species were lost. I know Chirostenotes was lost, so we need to make the world's greatest annoyance walk again. Also alongside Tyrannosaurus is the newly-described Acheroraptor, which to Velociraptor is basically what Tyrannosaurus is to Tarbosaurus. And Deinocheirus probably should be edited, as it's a very robust creature with a hump now that we've found new skeletons.

[IndigoFenix]

Yeah, I'm trying to put together some extra creature variations to deal with all those dinos that mostly fall into one of the standard body plans, but with an extra bit tagged on.  Let's see, so far I've got neck frills, dermal armor, 1-3 sets of facial horns, tail clubs, dorsal sails, semibipedal stance (essentially moves on four legs but can also grasp with its front feet), super-long necks, and of course, the thagomizer.  Humps are a new one, though.  Am I missing anything?

[Eotyrannus]

We might need a frill of horns, dental batteries (for hadrosaurs, as they have absurd numbers of teeth), crests and helmets (for stuff like Parasaurolophus and Lambeosaurus), head crests, killing claws, arm stubs (since abelisaurs like Carnotaurus don't really have enough arms to be worth calling an arm, and alvarezsaurids basically have an arm stub with a claw) and head crests (like on Dilophosaurus) and lumps (Monolophosaurus, Einosaurus). Neck frills probably won't be needed, depending on what you're thinking of. If you're thinking about the frills on Jurassic Park spitting midget dilophosaurs, then that won't work, as they didn't have that. There was a sail of tissue on the neck of Amargosaurus, though. Plates and spikes (for stegosaurs) would also be nice. Hind wings for Microraptor and friends might be nice. A whip tail could also be a useful feature, for Diplodocus and friends.

Yeah, humps are found on numerous dinosaurs, mostly the spinosaurs. Spinosaurus probably had a hump at the sail's base, Acrocanthosaurus had a hump, Deinocheirus had one, Ouranosaurus... It's quite a long list.

[20firebird]

Anyone mind if I hop on board?

[Eotyrannus]

I am content with anyone helping out with the mod, as long as it is dinosaurs and it is science

[20firebird]

M'kay. I already have a few dinosaur raws sitting around; Acrocanthosaurus, Albertosaurus, Alamosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Camarasaurus, complete with rare albino variants. I'd like to donate some more.
Also; prehistoric birds, anyone? They're dinosaurs too.

[Eotyrannus]

Saur Fortress is just general prehistoric beasts and critters. I've even got tiny land crocodiles.

[20firebird]

Alright; I suppose I can leave the rest in too. Getting to work on the body parts; I'll post them here once I'm done.
And I'm pretty sure Indigo's neck frills are for ceratopsians.

[IndigoFenix]

Updated: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8191

It's not a complete list of all the things we'll need, but since everyone seems so eager to start...
I've included templates for ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, sauropods, ornithopods, pachycephalosaurs, hadrosaurs, and four variations of theropod, depending on whether or not they were feathered and whether or not their arms could be used for combat.

The templates are not, strictly speaking, an accurate scientific classification system, they are just a convenient way of classifying body plans as far as DF is concerned.

There are also a bunch of 'extra' parts used in creature variations, for those individual species that break the mold (and some that are close enough to something else to not need a whole new template - for example, add a terrible claw to a feathered theropod and you have your raptor).  I've included general descriptions of each one and a few examples (the dinosaurs themselves should be added in creature_dinosaur_examples).  Basically the templates handles the materials and overall body plan so the individual dinosaurs only need the tags relating to names, descriptions, body sizes, behavior, things like that.

It's good modding practice to end all modded objects with a suffix, so they can be easily added into other mods without worrying about duplicates.  I chose _SAWR.

I'd like to suggest, for gameplay purposes, that the creature tiles used for individual dinosaurs be based on their associated 'group' rather than always being the first letter of the species name... it might not matter much in-game what kind of hadrosaur herd is wandering onto your map, but you wouldn't want to mistake a benign targia for a tyrannosaur, would you?

And yes, the frills are ceratopsian bone frills... they partially block attacks to the neck.  I don't know of any non-ceratopsian species that has them, but I figured it would be best to keep it as an option just in case.

[20firebird]

Nice. Dinosplosions for all!

[Eotyrannus]

When I get a good chance to get on here, I'll put up the ideas for my next ecosystem, and we can choose which biome and who does what.

[Putnam]

I missed this. I'm posting here.

[IndigoFenix]

I was thinking it might be a good idea to make each biome more or less correspond to a time period... like Jurassic dinos could live in the temperate regions and tropical regions could represent the Cretaceous, which was warmer overall... maybe Triassic creatures could live in deserts and certain swamps (there are many types of swamp biomes to work with).  This could help with avoiding the prehistoric combo platter typical of less scientifically accurate works.