Righty! Bug update time. Going to list off all the bugs/issues I've encountered in 3.c to date. Some are likely reported, yes, but I prefer to make a full, tidy list to make it easier instead of pick it apart.
Tileset: Matrix
Version: 3.c
No extra mods or modifications to raw. Clean Install.
Temperature is OFF due to the HUGE fps difference it gives (upwards of 200+ fps...)
~*~ Bugs ~*~
~ turning off grazing in the menu does NOT work. ON or OFF does not change it - all animals who require grazing, always will. (sure this is reported).
~ Gnomes are said to not siege, but as discussed prior, they will siege if their diplomat and/or traders die once or twice. They seem extremely aggressive in this aspect. (though I can't deny, it's hilarious seeing midgets riding war tigers with guns into battle
).
~ Automatons seem to be semi-broken. They ambush correct, and shoot - but soon as they run out of bullets, they simply stand there. They dont come after any target that's viable if not in direct aggro range (say 10-12 blocks), nor do they retreat even if they lost half their 'group' - they just wait, and stand there.
~ This is a hard one to explain, but basically if you have say a straight wall with a unit around the corner of it, siegers will 'flee' from it when they come around and see it. Scarecrows used to spot ambushes for example, I had a beak wolf siege of 100+ fleeing back and forth from a scarecrow (used many creatures to make sure it wasn't just scarecrows) directly around a bend. Almost all races do this that i've seen, beyond the ambushing sieges which seems to ignore this. Only normal sieges seem to cause this. I can setup an example in game, and upload the fort to show it properly if requested.
~ The 'tanner' shop requires diplomacy to setup. To 'tan' skins, it requires leatherworking skill. I can't recall if this was a 'vanilla issue he couldn't change', but thought i'd mention it.
~ The function 'No corpses' in the start menu, does NOT work. It seems to disable itself each reboot as well.
~ The 'War Beasts' button as well, seems broken (I remember reading he was altering dragons and such for them - so I assume he's removing them/redoing them, but again, thought I'd note this).
~ transform msg in the start menu - set to NO does not seem to work. NO or YES I get pop ups in game that for me to relocate to it, and hit enter to close it. The game does not pause either way.
~ Archeologist 'excavate stones' generates relics, chests, and other items that are unopenable or usable in any form.
~ 'Less Solid Stone' option in the start menu causes chalk, a valuable flux, to turn into smoke making it impossible to use as a flux.
~ 'Harder Mining' states in tool tip, it only adds warpstone/dust. I've seen it also adds the hidden monsters like balrogs as well, which I had read was removed a while ago. It's quite misleading and terrifying to new players who encounter such 'FUN!' unexpectedly.
~ 'Gold bag of loot' seem to unopenable by the reaction in the researchers building as reported by others. As well, it seems only goblin or kobold thieves drop bags - not other races. (not sure if it matters, but yes).
~ Marbles value in game, shows as 3 - the price of normal stones, instead of 6, like flux stones are supposed to be.
~ 'Sacrifice a life to armok' does not seem to actually kill the dwarf, and can be spammed like crazy for infinite weapons.
~*~ Issues ~*~
~ Glass forges reaction to create 'blocks' only generates 1 block per glass. If you take the glass, and cut it in a jewelcrafters shop, then a gem workshop, you get 4 per glass, and doesn't cost fuel or such resources to do - making the block creation reaction for glass furnaces, useless. (need to confirm this, but 99% certain from my limited testing this is true).
~ The priority for your leader/mayor/etc, to conduct a meeting with diplomats is... just silly. He prioritizes CLEANING over talking to a diplomat. I know they're unbearable, but this makes trying to get a liason dealt with before they leave unhappy, quite a pain in the backside unless you make your mayor/leader just sit in his office, doing nothing, ever. (even then, 90% of the time he's drinking ,eating, on break, or sleeping like a lazy bugger
). If it's possible, please for the love of all that is holy, up the 'priority' of meetings >.<
~ Is there perhaps a way to disable combat logs showing people 'puking'? It really serves no purpose, and when an enemy is hit in the stomach, or for my example, evil rain causes nausea, it literally spams the combat log non-stop wiping out my combat logs and non-combat messages (they seem to share a cap, like 300 message before it deletes old ones) making it a nightmare to keep track of actual worrying combat and important events going on, due to the spam of them puking 200+ times.
~*~ imbalances ~*~
~ Warlocks (as likely has been discussed) need their new 'decay' spell drastically altered. I've had events where warlocks are still hidden and 30+ blocks away (according to the map showing where the spell was cast vs where my dwarf was), casting decay on dozens of my guys without any clue they were even there. This pretty much caused my fort to collapse, and the ambush never did reveal itself. By the time I had my military in action, they were rotting apart. The spell needs to be changed, or drastically limited in range it can cast (and reveals the warlocks if they cast it).
~ Brass Golems, are still INCREDIBLY over powered. I activated 8 sword variations earlier I acquired from merchants, and they have wiped out entire sieges of 100+ with just them. Each has around 90 kills, even though they're basically destroyed (everything is broken almost). They are incredibly hard to kill as well. Only Mega beasts have a real chance to slay them, and even then, they've taken down 4 frost wyrms single handed without even being touched. I play with 'Invader mat boost' - YES, so the enemies are coming in steel or similar armor, and still, these guys win. They took on a full blown frost GIANT ambush of 20+, while red and broken, and killed 18 of the frost giants before the last 2 fled! The strongest enemy in game for sieges, and 6 (at that point) crippled golems took them out...
What I find puzzling here, even steel weaponry has trouble vs frost giants and harming them, yet their brass sword arms, are cutting through them with ease (lobbing limbs off and such). I wonder if a variable for their weapons isn't being called right?
As well, they seem to lack a real 'fatal' spot. Only time I see them killed, is when something literally hacks their head off, and due to their bulk, that's really only frost giants, or when they have 40+ siegers with steel items on them, and they're all alone. I know, don't use them then! I don't intend to after this fort. But I thought I would point this out.
~ Nymphs, Lepracauns, Gnolls, and such creatures. Yes, I've whined about this prior. And I shall continue to do so! Guard animals, turrets, and other defenses DO NOT attack many of these thieving creatures. They WILL attack dwarves, run past guard animals, grab artifacts, and run away with it. They are impossible to catch, and the only counter I've found that works in any form (assuming they don't just dodge it >.>...) is weapon traps. It's such a great joy when you embark, and see 12 units, all 12 being nymphs or Kea's or such, who then steal all your tools while your 20+ mastiffs do nothing but sit there and watch.
~ Siegers. One major flaw I've encountered with siegers, is their inability to use armor that covers their entire body. You may argue 'that's fine, it protects everything vital!' - yet if you cut off their arm or leg, they will bleed out quite quickly and die from this. Example, I setup a bunch of green glass serrated disc traps (green glass costs nothing with magma - and is infinite with sand) with +invader material boost. A legion of ferric elves arrived in bronze-to-steel tier armor. The discs hit their armor, and didn't do a damn thing... but it did hit their hands, shins, feet, and slice them clean off - promptly killing the siegers. I killed 4 full squads (40 or so) of them, with just a bunch of cheap glass discs, while they were in steel tier armor. Just weapon traps, nothing special. There's a similar issue with arrows like broadhead bolts, they're amazing vs flesh - total ass vs armor. But all you need is a few shots and you'll take their hands and/or legs off, and kill them by bleeding (or effectively... dis-arm them? ;P). No need to make armor-piercing arrows or anything. 5 dwarves with a good stockpile of these, even just iron material, will decimate practically anything in the game bar frost giants from my experience. I know it would 'increase their difficulty' - but the only arguement other wise, is not to not use special arrows, not use traps, not use this, not use that... just seems kind of silly to remove so many parts of the game, just to have a challenge, rather then force you to think outside the box to survive and win.
~ Harder Farming and Food in general. While this is a nifty addition to add challenge, as I've stated before - above surface crops seem to grow each season, rather then every two season. As well, without a way to limit the amount of plots a person can grow - they can negate the challenge of this by mass producing farm plots. You can argue 'don't do that then!' - sure. Which brings me to my point. The ease of food in general.
Hunting. This is probably the most dangerous/inviable method for food gathering, due to volatile animals like drakes, or evil maps with all their FUN like Nightwings, Giant gargoyles, and such creatures your huntards go after like typical Urists.
Breeding. Arguably the easiest way to get food in the game. Mass breed some useless, fast breeding animal like moleweasels, dogs, etc, and you have literally infinite food, leather, and bones. No need to farm at all. I have this often as a side effect of using some mastiffs for early 'protection' in evil biomes, trying to just catch up to the bloody swarm of puppies they pop 2-3 times a year >.<
Farming. It's more intense for time, but again, you can setup infinite fields underground safely away from any threat, even if it takes a year to mature - if you get 2000-3000 plants (dramatic number), it negates the difficulty of food, and harder farming, entirely. Yes, I know you'll argue (like many points) - don't do it then!
Fishing. Fishing is actually pretty balanced. It's not 'very fast' to use, and has additional steps to clean them and make them edible. As well, fishers are generally exposed to dangers (as naturally, you need to fish above ground, or in caverns), and the speed of food is very tame - viable, but far from unbalanced. Fish farms offer protection from the outside, but are slower and more consuming for materials (for nets and such). I feel fishing is arguably the most balanced of all the food systems at current.
Herbalism. Many say it's a useless skill, but from clearing a 3x3 map with 3-4 herbalists, I can gather around 150-500 plants (depending on the map 'density' of plants) in one sweep, and by the time I finish (usually a season and a bit with 10+ skill), they're already regrowing so it's an infinite food source. You will argue sieges, and such are the counter to it - definitely!... Until you dig out a dirt layer and accidentally break into a cavern. The first caverns 'plants' are full of plump helms and useful plants, even trees, making the need to cut wood or gather above ground, totally moot. You can argue again, not to do this - but inevitably you will dig into the caverns and trigger this to some extent.
I know saying 'remove all these and make them super duper hard!' is silly. What I propose though, since Meph has been leaning to adding more danger internally, is add in various 'fun events'. Herbalism underground plants, having rare chances to have 'bad' plants grow spawning evil mushroom men from plump helms, or Being pricked by some kind of deadly plant that puts a dwarf into a multi-year slumber, or similar kinds of events. Of course, I would argue if something like that is done, it should be optional like the wraiths and such for harder mining. This would help counter balance farming and herbalism. Fishing is balanced (imo), Hunting I'd argue needs a buff due to the dangers of it (generally, some biomes are great for it).
Breeding is a real pickle to tackle. The only thing I can imagine is making it so each animal can breed only once in its life (once it gives birth, trigger the 'sterilization' syndrome on it), with litters how they are now (1-4 usually for most animals, meaning they can still be useful for a meat industry and such quite easily). This would keep meat viable - but balance out the insane amount some animals can produce.
~ Undead. While I know undead only occur dangerously so in evil biomes, evil biomes are the 'end game' of the game. The issue is, undead are simply too strong. Not in their raw abilities, but in the simple fact - you can't stop them. beat one down, it reanimates before someone can haul it and dump or burn it, and then kills that dwarf hauling it. I've had feet reanimate, and one shot dwarves, even skin for crying outloud. Disposing of them isn't really a 'challenge' as much as it is silly and unbalanced with the only viable solution is atom smashing them - which is in itself, a bug.
Mithril runes on weapons/traps/etc CAN indeed kill them, but mithril is extremely rare on most maps and hard to mass produce for runes. Ordering it is difficult as well, especially as you'll likely need a good hundred or two hundred bars to properly defend all the possible avenues undead may approach you from (inside and out), and this isn't counting the horror when you kill a 90+ man siege, and all of those buggers resurrect!
So I propose, for the 'undead killing' recipe - make it use silver instead. It fits into classical anti-undead lore, silver is fairly rare, but common enough to be used in larger scale events to handle them - while still leaving the danger of undead. One death in your fort could be your end, and even a dozen traps can't stop a revived 'siege' from trashing you. This just makes it more viable to deal with them. Undead are, and will continue to be, a terrifying threat with their insane strength and other factors, I feel this change would make it 'just right' for challenge vs nuisance.
And I think I'll stop here. I'll continue to update this post (Erasing my old one) and keep all information up to date here. Yes yes, I know a lot of what I said/mentioned has been reported and discussed, or that many people will say 'don't use it then' - but I doubt that's very helpful if we want to see Masterwork become more balanced and feature rich for ALL walks of players and skill.