Topic: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures (Read 24722 times)

BlackFlyme · « **Reply #15 on:** December 15, 2013, 12:15:58 pm »

Quote from: darkpaladin109 on December 15, 2013, 11:22:27 am

Where do I place the interactions?

Just copy the interactions into the interaction_standard.txt file in your raws.

Undeadlord · « **Reply #16 on:** December 17, 2013, 11:55:05 am »

If I had any more than a basic understanding of the raws and programming I would write an application that loaded the raws and made a simple interface for loading new creatures in.

Import creatures into the application and check-box them into DF. Bestiary would even be a good name for the software.

Meph · « **Reply #17 on:** December 17, 2013, 11:58:12 am »

Quote from: Undeadlord on December 17, 2013, 11:55:05 am

If I had any more than a basic understanding of the raws and programming I would write an application that loaded the raws and made a simple interface for loading new creatures in.

Import creatures into the application and check-box them into DF. Bestiary would even be a good name for the software.

I have a python script flying around somewhere that does exactly this... but you need python installed to run it I think. (or was it perl, I cant remember)

Mallos · « **Reply #18 on:** December 23, 2013, 01:08:15 pm »

I'm currently working on a creature now that I've learned a bit about modding.
I'll have it up sometime today. You Cataclysm:DDA fans will love it,but that's all I'm going to say because patience is a virtue.

4maskwolf · « **Reply #19 on:** December 23, 2013, 04:46:03 pm »

As soon as I bugcheck some things, I'll have at least one creature up later today.

Gentlefish · « **Reply #20 on:** December 25, 2013, 04:41:30 am »

PTW and claim a spot if I ever get around to creature-making

Blastbeard · « **Reply #21 on:** January 18, 2014, 04:43:45 pm »

Blastbeard has been content lately. He was able to help a thread to bed recently.
I like the idea of a one-stop creature depository, and can't let this die.
So, I present this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is a Drachnid, an intelligent non-venomous arachnid. Think of them as a stunted giant cave spider with weaker webs and manipulator digits on their forelimbs. I created them to test a couple of ideas, such as if the web of an intelligent creature is a usable and tradeable material.
As a normal entity, they sometimes have trouble surviving world gen when placed close to humans. For some reason the humans just can't get along with a race of oversized spiders. However, they thrived and proved to be a dangerous foe during their stint as a babysnatcher civ.

I've scaled down the size several times for a number of reasons. They've gone from three times larger than a human, to the same size as a human, to the size of a dwarf, and now to the size of a kobold. They're also hella OP despite their size, all it takes is one web spray and a bonk on the head to take down things much, much larger than them. I don't have a way to reduce the radius of the web spray at the moment, so it's just something I deal with. Usually through killing them at range and/or omitting ranged weapons from their entity raw.
Oh, and if you put [UNDEAD_CANDIDATE] in their entity file? It makes raids on necromancer towers a lot more entertaining when a spider zombie sprays web and traps the other zombies, the necromancers, and you in a big cluster of silky fail.

More to come, probably, eventually.

Nico2167 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 20, 2014, 02:43:02 am »

Quote from: Blastbeard on January 18, 2014, 04:43:45 pm

Drachnids...

Ive been testing a bit with your beautifull creature, is there a way to make it so you can be a Drachnid adventurer?
And a side question: any way to make any arachnid friendly to the Drachnids unless provoked?

darkpaladin109 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 20, 2014, 10:31:27 am »

Quote from: Nico2167 on January 20, 2014, 02:43:02 am

Ive been testing a bit with your beautifull creature, is there a way to make it so you can be a Drachnid adventurer?

Just add [INDIV_CONTROLLABLE] if you only want to play that race as an adventurer or [CIV_CONTROLLABLE] if you want to play that race in fortress mode.

Greiger · « **Reply #24 on:** January 31, 2014, 03:09:04 pm »

A mini necro but this is the kind of thread I always figured this forum needed.

How bout some standard fantasy fare?

Spoiler: Griffon Creature Raws (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Griffon b_detail_plan (click to show/hide)

Bugs: None known
Comments: Your standard half bird half cat of typical fantasy fare. DF actually does have a griffon entry in the vanilla raws, but they are one of the creatures made in a way so that they show up in engravings but don't actually exist. These ones do exist. I originally decided to make them when I wanted to learn how body detail plans worked, and thanks to that they actually do have both hair and feathers in the proper locations.

==============================================================

Spoiler: Wyvern Creature Raws (click to show/hide)

Bugs: None known
Comments: Just when you thought you were safe behind your walls here comes a giant winged lizard with a poison spear attached to it's ass! I've seen goblins use them as war mounts before, and as long as the goblin doesn't get some kind of flying pathfinding bug, they do a wonderful job of delivering FUN even to the highest walled fortress.

Blastbeard · « **Reply #25 on:** February 01, 2014, 06:57:34 pm »

Quote from: Nico2167 on January 20, 2014, 02:43:02 am

Ive been testing a bit with your beautifull creature, is there a way to make it so you can be a Drachnid adventurer?
And a side question: any way to make any arachnid friendly to the Drachnids unless provoked?

Glad you like them. Lately I've been using them as a playable race in fort mode and I'm quite impressed with their performance. Try [AT_PEACE_WITH_WILDLIFE] to get friendly spiders, but you'll have to deal with other friendly wildlife and a reluctance to attack such. I wanted to make it so they only take spiders as domestic animals at one point too, but that's just right out.

Here, have another sapient. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the creature but it's perfectly functional.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is a Catus. That's latin for cat and more or less what you're getting here, it's just an obligatory cat person. I removed the head-bump ability but they can and do still clean themselves. They weren't intended to be much more than a variety factor, but during testing I noticed two things.
First, these guys breed as fast as normal cats and spread out during world gen at a similar rate. Even after adding [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE], 3+ children is a norm in catus families. I solved this by restricting their entity to forest biomes. It actually works out nicely because they're constantly fighting with the elves, keeping both populations in check.
Second, they have a tendency to die horrendously excruciating deaths, even by DF standards. Catus have the highest number of executions by other races in all of the test worlds I observed. The worst was an entire family murdered by a goblin general, who killed the father in battle, burned three of the kids to death, fed the fourth to wild animals, and dismembered the wife. I was actually so offended I had to hunt the son of a bitch down and do some torturing of my own before I could move on. The entire species seems cursed to die young and in agony.

The creature design is unchanged since creation. I've been meaning to add descriptive feature and make the fur color uniform, but never got around to it.
Bugs: They breed and spread unusually well during world gen, but nothing else I'm aware of.
Notes: At first I forgot to give them the ability to open doors. I visited a hamlet of cat people scratching at the doors of their own homes, desperately begging to be let inside.

I don't have much else worth presenting that isn't buggy as hell, overpowered, or just plain boring. I'm currently working on custom body parts so I can make some truly freaky creatures, but that's still a ways off.

Nico2167 · « **Reply #26 on:** February 02, 2014, 01:10:30 am »

Quote from: Blastbeard on February 01, 2014, 06:57:34 pm

I don't have much else worth presenting that isn't buggy as hell, overpowered, or just plain boring. I'm currently working on custom body parts so I can make some truly freaky creatures, but that's still a ways off.

I'd like to know what is considered "overpowered" by DF standards. Also, I dont think people will mind "boring" creatures, anything that is not already in the game is an innovation, and I'd like to know what vile fiends people's minds have created.

MDFification · « **Reply #27 on:** February 02, 2014, 01:02:42 pm »

I might post some centaur raws and a template later. They'll need to be tested first - idk how a creature handles being moved from modest mod back to vanilla.

Blastbeard · « **Reply #28 on:** February 02, 2014, 06:56:38 pm »

Quote from: Nico2167 on February 02, 2014, 01:10:30 am

I'd like to know what is considered "overpowered" by DF standards. Also, I dont think people will mind "boring" creatures, anything that is not already in the game is an innovation, and I'd like to know what vile fiends people's minds have created.

Not overpowered or boring by DF's standards, rather my own.
If I've neglected to build in an exploitable weakness more practical than freezing, obsidian casting, or drawbrige smashing, I deem the creation OP as fuck and put it to the forge again. If you create something without giving yourself a way to destroy it, you're just going to end up screwing yourself.
I've got a few final-boss type critters going right, and they won't see the light of day till I've shoehorned in some manner of weak point to hit for massive damage.

As for boring, it's just that I like to go for the most unusual and least expected result I can, and don't want to bother with anything less. I don't want to share something someone's already done, either.
Take dragon men, for instance. I've got dragon men. So do others, and they made theirs way before I did. We've probably gone about it differently and more works has probably been put into theirs, but in the end they're both scaly guys with wings who may or may not breath fire. Sharing something that already exists doesn't seem to accomplish much to me. If you don't mind that, here.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As I said, it's nothing to write home about, just a scaly winged humanoid that spits fire. Dragon people have been worked on and redone by a couple of people since 40d, and I didn't even know about till after the fact when I did my homework.
I can't guarantee much apart from they won't crash the game by just existing. They've got the same problems all fort-mode flyers have,and you may want to consider removing that and the fireball attack to keep them from accidentally burning the fort down(circumvented that with fireproof clothing and furniture, but you're on your own).
They've ~~always~~ had this odd grammatical error for the longest time, but I fixed it by replacing a missing tlcm noun tag.

Greiger · « **Reply #29 on:** February 02, 2014, 09:26:44 pm »

Quote from: Blastbeard on February 02, 2014, 06:56:38 pm

Take dragon men, for instance. I've got dragon men. So do others, and they made theirs way before I did. We've probably gone about it differently and more works has probably been put into theirs, ...

I've had dragon men since 23a thank you very much. And if you think I put more work into them than others just because I've had them so long you don't know me very well

. My policy is that if it works I don't mess with it, so I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people with better dragonmen than I have.

I do find it interesting seeing the different ways people have gone about doing the same thing. For example I wasn't aware you could define interactions so early in the raw on your dragonmen, I thought it had to be after the materiel definitions. And I'm sure other people have worked out different ways to do the griffon I posted above too, probably without needing the extra file. Everybody writes their raws differently, some stuff may be done in the most basic way, but there might be some hidden tricks in even the most mundane looking raw file.

Besides, it helps newbie modders add stuff to their game when they know just enough to be able to plug something into their game but not enough to build from scratch yet. Some folks may be worried that putting stuff too 'out there' in their games, may ruin the game's mood, and just want some standard stuff.

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Author Topic: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures (Read 24722 times)

BlackFlyme

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Undeadlord

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Meph

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Mallos

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

4maskwolf

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Gentlefish

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Blastbeard

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Nico2167

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

darkpaladin109

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Greiger

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Blastbeard

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Nico2167

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

MDFification

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Blastbeard

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures

Greiger

Re: The Bestiary, a repository of user created creatures