Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Meph]

Have you ever considered the possibility of cross-race secret reactions?

That is, a race that is able to make use of a workshop that they cannot build themselves.  Only reclaim forts could use them.  You could simply copy/paste the reactions from one race to another... or even make special reactions that could ONLY be used by a cross-race reclaim.
I can't imagine spending too much time on them, but they could be nice as an easter egg.  I was just thinking that dwarves should probably be able to make some use of all these workshops - even the Corrupted Forge...
And what would Necromancers do if they took over a fortress that had Altars of Armok waiting there?  Would they use them for their own rituals?  Or would they desecrate the altar, bringing curses down upon themselves?
Could be fun. 

 

Ehm. Well. That certainly wouldnt add a new layer of work to everything. ^^ Its a very nice idea, and now that I have it, I can certainly do a few easter eggs, but somehow I doubt it that many people will find them. I already have several easter eggs in the mod, that no one ever reported finding.

That is an amazing idea for succession forts though. Especially once the next official DF update is released.

[Meph]

Dev Log - Day 3

Today I made new building designs, for upcoming workshops, as well as some old conversions like th Sawmill. A darker design. I wrote 4 basic workshops, the Shredders, which were a lot more work than they look. I created custom materials for each product, you have wood splinterz, shredded plants and gem dust materials for every tree, plant and gem in the game. The ore shredder uses the original inorganics, just in dust form.

These four workshops, Wood-Shredder, Ore-Shredder, Plant-Shredder and Gem-Shredder can destroy these items, creating splinterz/shreds/dust, which is stored in jugs. These things will be reagents for alchemy, chemistry and rituals. I know the manual page on them looks a bit empty, but using them is as simple as it gets. The wood shredder can also destroy furnture and make sawdust/plywood from it, just like the sawmill in dwarf mode.

In the end I want to have alchemy reactions that look like this: "Take a spoonfull of ruby dust, 3 ounce of netherwood splinterz, a handfull of bone bush shreds and some shredded plump helmets" I like the idea that Warlocks dont give a damn about ores and metals, wood and nature, shiny gems... no, they throw it all into the shredder, keeping only little jugs full of that stuff on their shelves.

I also finished two unique buildings: The Blood Winery and the Graveyard. The winery can extract blood and make bloodwine, way more efficient then the dwarven kitchen/brewery. The bloodwine removed the BLOODSUCKER from your vampires, so it makes sense to have them drink it. That way they dont eat your citizens.

The Graveyard is a cheap, but large building that allows slow, but free/cheap reactions. Similar to the Shrine of Armok, where you pray 20-30 times for an item, here you scour the graveyard or try to attract scavengers. You can look for corpses, souls, zombies and ghouls. All info in the manual screen below. You can also nick the tombstones and coffins, but thats more of an easter egg.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing all the items and writing the manual for them.

[Gamerlord]

I think splinterz should be splinters...

[shadowclasper]

More Warlocks: 2 migrant waves, thats it. You cant get more. But I want to do it that you can resurrect each one unlimited times, if you have the materials and the corpse hasnt been destroyed or animated by accident. Skeletons you can construct, ghouls you can make from captured invaders. But Warlocks are rare and you have to take good care of the ones you have.

I see a problem with this.

If you embark on an evil biom... well, then your warlock's corpse is going to resurrect right away. I might suggest that you create some kind of 'phylactery' reaction to preserve warlocks by sacrificing something else (several skeletons, a couple of ghouls, the body of a captured humanoid?) even if you lose the original body.

Also, thought. Shouldn't warlocks have a special building for 'taming' wild undead? Turning them into pets or something in the same way you tame animals? No where near as reliable as your normal skeletons obviously, but perhaps the first step in turning them into proper skeletons and such? You take a tame'd undead, and then it breaks down into various 'parts' in a special building. Fleshy bits are used for crafting new bodies or 'frankens' or something. Boney bits are used to create new skeletons from scratch.

A special type of butcher I guess.

edit: I imagine this could be applied to pretty much everything.

Rather than just 'transforming' skeletons into their base profession. What if bodies were disassembled and reassembled? This would be an activity done by either warlocks, acolytes, ghouls, or skeletons of the right profession.

You disassemble bodies into Bone Kits, Flesh Kits, Organ Kits, which can be used to craft varying types of things.

Also, just a thought? What if we -didn't- normally have skill growth in skeletons of any type? Not military, not crafting, nothing. Instead, you have to convert the kits into a special kind of kit (which would be absurdly expensive) and then when THOSE are assembled into a skeleton or flesh hulk/zombie/frankenstein monster, or used to summon a demon, or WHATEVER. You get a 'Legendary' skill level creature. Any non-warlock can be broken down into these.

You'd have 4 grades of assembly.

Grade 1: Normal skill level for whatever they're made to do.
Grade 2: Expert Skill level for whatever they're made to do.
Grade 3: Legendary Skill level for whatever they're made to do.
Grade 4: Used for building a new body for a warlock.

edit2: Also, showing different skeletons wouldn't be an issue except MAYBE for military skeletons, in which case you have the normal skill skeleton military on the one hand, and the legendary skill military on the other and have done with it. Alternatively, is it REALLY that difficult to have recolors? I remember you saying that different icons is really hard to mod in and the more you have, the worse it gets, but this wouldn't be so bad right?

(Normal Skill Skelies/Flesh Beasts: White/Green)
(Expert Skill Skelies/Flesh Beasts: Grey(Or bronze?)/Yellow)
(Legendary Skill Skelies/Flesh Beasts: Red/Purple)

[Meph]

shadowclasper: Unfortunately, most things you suggested cant be quite done with modding.

You cant make colors based on skill. You cant use randomly running around undeads in reactions. (excpet with AoE effect when their are in the area by chance) Warlocks wont animate in evil biomes. (I gave them NOT_LIVING, they are no valid targets for animation) Making kits from creatures is impossible, because I cant use specific corpses in reactions, which is the reason there were such problems with biology and itemcorpses, and the reason for the soul system I added. Butchering creatures is hardcoded and always yield their bodyparts/tissues. Transforming a creature does not change their skills. Spawning a creature will always spawn a creature without skills, even if the creature has natural skills declared.

What if we -didn't- normally have skill growth in skeletons of any type?

Thats the way they are designed already. They only have 50% skill learn rate on military skills, but nothing on labors.

[jaxy15]

This is looking pretty sweet, Meph. Can't wait for the release.

[Meph]

I think I will 2-3 release in between, just for people to playtest a bit, and suggest changes on balance. Writing all this is easy, in comparing to making the balance later... after all, they should be fun to play.

Items are done for now btw. Making progress.

[Meph]

Dev Log - Day 4.

Slow day today. Forum support took about 2 hours away, but I finished the manual about all items, added a skeleton structure to all the building info on the manual (icons, tables, names, dimensions and the like), and wrote the Ethereal Gate, a simple workshop. Tomorrow I will try my hands on something more complex.

[DoX]

This is great Meph. I love checking in on this forum daily for new updates on the Warlock Fortress. Honestly, hats off. I can't wait!

So far really liking what I see. I only take issue with the Ethereal Portal. Sure, summoning basic materials should be simple for a race who play fast and loose with the primal forces of the universe, but on a technical level it seems too simple. I'd say use late-game material cost to build the workshop/items, but that negates it's use.

I'd like if it had some really minimal fuel cost. Like, one soul powers the portal for 20 uses, be it block or furniture.

[razorback]

I guess thats again some unmoddable idea from me...

but what if all furniture and constructions made from the ethereal portal would just vanish (or combust - for even more fun) when the warlock that created it dies 
like if it was just his willpower that kept them in this reality

i could imagine that would be really nice if you made your tower from just that blocks^^

[Gamerlord]

Impossible.

[IndigoFenix]

It is, however, possible to make furniture that fades away after a few months.  Give it a heatdam or colddam point equal to its fixed temperature.  Doesn't work with constructions, but it does for everything else.  Beware of ephemeral cages or mechanisms though

[Meph]

Fading away furniture

Thats what I was trying to do at first, but I couldnt get it to wither/rot.

I'd like if it had some really minimal fuel cost. Like, one soul powers the portal for 20 uses, be it block or furniture.

I can make the build-mat for the ethereal portal a soul. This means you can use the portal for 1 month, then it self-deconstructs. Temporary buildings are possible.

It is, however, possible to make furniture that fades away after a few months.  Give it a heatdam or colddam point equal to its fixed temperature.  Doesn't work with constructions, but it does for everything else.  Beware of ephemeral cages or mechanisms though

This is.... interesting. 9 months I assume, the same as coal that is burning away? I will do testing right away, I did not know about this. Are ephemeral weapons/metals possible as well? I would assume so.

Damn it. Now I went from: "No idea how to make it temporary", to "Make portal time limited" or "Make items time limited". I think the second one is better for some... or I make different tiers. Its certainly fine by me if constructions are possible, but the rest withers away.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was going for something like this:

[IndigoFenix]

The time varies from item to item (bigger items last longer than small ones) but it's less than 9 months... more like 3-5 months.  You can't make the time longer, but you can make it shorter by making the difference between the fixed temperature and the damage point greater.  Weapons of any strength are possible (you can easily make an ultimate weapon that disappears after a week.  Fortresses that can produce unlimited temporary furniture makes for an interesting mechanic.  Just be careful of producing temporary cages; they'll wind up getting used in cage traps, with predictably fun results...

[IndigoFenix]

Oh, and while we're on the topic, it is possible to make cold, eternally burning objects by setting their ignite point below their fixed temperature.  These will function just like regular items but will produce smoke.  Useless, but good for atmosphere.  Incense pans.  Flaming cloaks.  Something.