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[Meph]

Test Release of Humans, get it here: DOWNLOAD HUMAN FORTRESS v.1

All daily dev logs: Day 0 (this post) - Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 - Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 - Day 13 - Day 14 - Day 15 - Have way there, yeah - Day 16 - Day 17 - Day 18 - Day 19 - Day 20 - Day 21 - Day 22 - Day 23 - Day 24 - Day 25 - Day 26 - Day 27 - Day 28 - Day 29 - Day 30

Current test version of MDF: https://github.com/Meph248/MDF-Dev-Version
Human fortress succession game: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=139947.msg5440347#msg5440347

Hello everyone. 1,5 months ago I opened a thread about a fundraiser, collecting money to pay for a full month of modding. I planned to start in two weeks, but since it is looking pretty positive, I want to start a bit early, just like last time. Tomorrow I will start with a daily devlog.

Donations: Finished 5th July, 1086/750.

Projects: I offered a poll that allowed players to vote for the parts I should work most on. This is the result so far:

Spoiler: Old thread info (click to show/hide)

The proposed projects:
 - Merging all Raw-sets into one.
 - The mod has 15 tilesets and raw sets. It makes it larger, the launcher slower and invites bugs, due to some sets being edited and the others not. Merging them will allow a smaller filesize, several hundret files less for the GUI to search through and less bug, as well as an easier way to install new tilesets.

 - Cleanup of Raws.
 - Urist McTeellox has a nice script that finds unused entries, and Splinterz altered the GUI in a way that allows more freedom in naming schemes and raw order. With more and more other modders, like Boltgun and IndigoFenix, modding plugins for MDF, it is almost a necessity to remove modding leftovers from the last 2,5 years and experiments, as well as sort and properly name the rest. It will reduce the chance for bugs, makes the game slightly faster, stockpile lists shorter and eases the way for other modders to contribute. (Putnam for example had to abandon  the playable Drow plugin, because of the chaos in the current raws.)

 - Multi-ethical playable Human Civ
 - A new playable race aimed at newer players. Warlocks and Gnomes are interesting, but so alien to normal DF that they are hard to learn and master. For the humans I plan an easier approach with well known features, lots of trading and a basis that lies in RL cultures. The forum discussion is ongoing about it, but my current idea are 4 sub-groups: Northerners (Celtic/Vikings), Easterners (Arabic/Ottoman Empire), Southerners (Greek/Roman Legion) and Westerners (Medieval Knights/Castles, Frech/Briton/German style). All four civs would use the same basis, and only one will be active by default, but people could play as whichever they like best. More details about this can be found in the other forum threads about the idea.

 - A large Warlock Update
 - Warlocks have seen the most player feedback of all races lately, and many suggestions have been collected. Dozens of new castes, features and possibly workshops are planned, as well as rebalancing existing features based on player feedback. Not as large as the other projects, but more complex.

 - Manual Improvements
 - Always high on the wanted-lists by the community, the current manual is yet again partly outdated and needs more love. While I personally see this more as a chore than anything else, if you think this warrants more attention than other points, vote for it and I will work on it. Community feedback is extremely important on this topic, as I often misjudge what should warrant an entry in the manual and which parts are obvious.

 - Online Presentation
 - Yes, this takes work as well. The sub-forum is quite full, the release post outdated, the content repository needs more links to fitting threads, there is no clear rule on Community forts (they are randimly posted in the MDF board and/or the CommunityFort board, and the Gnomes certainly should get more attention than they currently have. The same is true for the Succubi, which are awaiting the officisl transition into the mod... which requires new threads, logos, html-manual. All in all not as large a project as others, but several days of work for sure.

 - Overhaul of MDF races
 - Similar to the Fortress Defence races, I would like to add more MDF races. 6 groups with 3 civs each are planned. Civilized (Dwarves, Elves, Humans), Warmongers (Goblins, Orcs, Drow), Wild (Centauren, Naga, Werewolves), Evil (Automatons, Frost Giants, Succubi), Caverns (Xelics/Insectrace, Blind Troglodytes, Elementalmen), and Skulking (Kobolds, Shades, Nightcreatures). Gnomes and Warlocks stand outside these groups as they are inactive and only interact with other races by choice. For example Dwarves will never get a Gnome caravan, except if the specifically call for one.

I want to note that this will be less work than it might seem, as the proposed races are non-playable. Only graphics, creatures and entity file needs to be done, similar to how Fortress Defense works. (Evil twins, Chaos dwarves, Ashlander elves, deep drow and human bandits would be removed. We wouldnt need cheap copies if we replace them with more unique civs.

A bit more info on the new races:
- Naga are early-level siegers Snakemen, with natural scale-armor and poisonous bite.
- Centaures are grazing mid-level siegers, fast but only use wooden weapons.
- Werewolves are late-level ambushers/siegers, with natural claws and healing through transformation. They are weak against silver.
- Blind Trogs are early-level cavern ambushers, with rusty metal gear. With no eyesight they allow dwarves to sneak by.
- Elementalmen are mid-level cavern siegers with natural armor and a few combat interactions. :-
- Xelics are a late-level cavern sieger with natural chitin armor and many different insect types as castes. Essentially an upgrade to Antmen, that allows more different insects in one civ.
- Shades are late-level thieves like kobolds (only arrive one at a time), but either insta-kill units and disappear, or possess units. The friendly possessed unit would summon a larger shade army inside your fort at a later time, if not stopped. (for example by high-priests or shamans)
- Nightcreatures are mid-level thieves like kobolds (only arrive one at a time), but would be strong fighters and represent all kinds of monsters. The current fort mode never shows any Nightcreatures, so I would use this way to get them into fort mode. Night hags and Shade trolls could finally arrive at the fort and steal, kill or kidnap children.

Top3:
Raw Clean-Up
Merging of Raw Sets
Overhaul of MDF Races

Now I am happy to say that I almost finished all of these already!

Raw Clean-Up: Sorted all items (over 1000), removed over 200 inorganics, deleted unused reactions, merged workshops, sorted all entities, sorted pets specific to civs, and will continue with buildings and creatures next.

Merging of Raw Sets: All files merged, except plants/trees. Not sure if I want to even do these, as they are files I do not work with often. Over 75% of them are disabled in the default settings anyway, and trees give the same type of wood. I might do this at some point, but all other files are already merged. This is pretty much finished.

Overhaul of MDF races: I have a working version of a 5x4 "team" system. What do I mean by that? We have five teams that are allied within the team, but hostile to all others.

The cavern races:


And the surface races:


As you see, a few things changed and a several new options have been added. The changes are simple: A few new civs, Gnomes are now active in Winter, and Drow are now allies of Succubi, Orcs and Goblins.

The new additions are options for:

• Skulking - allows to make a civ like kobolds, which sends thieves/snatcher only, and sends ambushes/sieges only after they stole/snatched enough.
• Seasons - sets the active season on a civ, for example you can make elves trade 4 times a year, or humans not at all... or get 4 times the amount of sieges. Or set all invaders to winter, which means all year is peaceful, and when Winter is coming you have a hard time.
• Guards - adds bodyguards to the caravans, perfect for some more subtle balancing.
• AI - AI is very interesting, it determines if the invaders arrive like a normal siege, hidden in several ambushing squads, or camp out and wait for you to come out. Or both at the same time. It essentially allows to chose "open attack vs hidden attack" and "path to fortress vs stay out of crossbow reach" AI.

This should make for some more interesting options.

The new entities you see are:

• Naga - Unarmed, Unarmored - Poison Bite - Magical Abilities - Amphibious
• Werewolves - No Armor - No Weapons - Natural Fighting Skills - Can only be killed with Silver
• Centauren - Wooden Bows and Arrows - Wooden Armor - Good - Fast - Ranged Only
• Banshees - Skulking like Kobolds - Insta-kill on Touch (70%) - Insta-kill on Map (10%) - Every 8000 ticks - No Armor
• Blind Cave Ogres - Rusty Iron Sledgehammers/Breastplates - Blind - Large
• Elementalmen - 18 types, 6 metal, 6 stone, 6 gem - Leave valuable corpses - Natural Armor - No Weapons - Slow
• Spawn of Holistic - No Armor - No Weapons - Natural Fighting Skills - Very Aggresive

They add different challenges to the game. Invaders that use your wells against you, banshees that require you to go out and hunt them, blind ogres you can avoid, elementalmen you can hunt for resources, werewolves that require a specialised squad to kill them... I am currently playtesting and balancing them. Especially the Werewolves and Banshees.

I plan to do a release with these within the week. I do have to change Kobold Mode content a lot for this, as their tech dependet on stolen items from other races. But with all the races changed, I have to rewrite a lot of the kobold reactions.

Whats next after that? The next Top 3 are this:
Manual Improvements
Playable Human Civ
Playable Insect Civ

I will focus on the manual improvements first. With all the V.5x updates it has become severely outdated again, especially concerning the items. I will go through all manuals and see what can be fixed. After that I will focus on the playable human civ. I have following plans for them:

A heavily trade-based neutral civ, using vanilla DF nobles. They can spawn caravans of all races, trading for buildmats that unlock both race-specific merchants, as well as race-specific workshops. A dwarven trader might sell landmines or golems, while the resident dwarven smith will smelt metals for you. A succubus merchant might sell you tame Orthi (tame, two-headed demon dogs), while a Warlock necromancer might raise your refuse stockpile to unlife, if you pay him for it.

Human tech itself will be based on real-life historical techniques. There will be lots of guilds, a basic caste system that splits between workers (Guild members) and fighters (Knights). Humans will be a aboveground-focused race, and get slow under the earth, as well as get attacked by boogyemen if they stay too long underground. This means an open strip-mine is the best way to dig for rock/ore.

I want to write four entity files with slight differences: The Northerners based on Vikings/Celtics, the Easterners based on Arabs/Ottomans, the Southerners based on Greeks/Romans and the Westerners based on Britons/French. Each one will get unique graphics, noble naming scheme, weapons/armor/clothing, language and a few speciality workshop/effects. They will still play similar, but offer more roleplaying/succession fort capabilities.

I hope to finish all this within the 30 days. Please do not get mad if I dont, but this is the plan:
 - First release with MDF Race Overhaul. Probably in the first week.
 - Second release with Manuals. Most likely early in the second week.
 - Third release with Playable Humans. I get as much done as possible, release on day 30.

If I find some extra time/motivation, I will try to get a Warlock Update into this as well. They are the most popular non-dwarf race, and deserve some attention.

Thanks for listening and the support,
Meph

[Arcvasti]

PTW, sounds amazing thus far.

[palu]

PTW

[Fairin]

filthy humans, play one in rl why play one in game.. >:}

next they'll want elves!.. watch!

*grabs torch an pitchfork*

[SabbyKat]

I like the new race variety, could be intriguing! (amongst various other changes - but don't want to list it off until I see them in game and as a product I can test, so I can give proper input).

My only major concern is banshee's. Their instant-death across map is a good idea (many will cry hard about them, but yes - it helps kill off the 'hide in my walls till the enemy leaves!' concept), but are they going to be like warlocks earlier who come in 'ambush' and are INSANELY difficult to find/deal with making them frustratingly unfair? As if they're in ambush - you need to get something close to spot them - and their touch kills, and you can't really order animals (legit at least) to look around, so sending dwarves is the only viable and suicidal option for it which would frustrate the piss out of people imo.

Now if they are NORMAL sieges and visible - I think they are pretty damn balanced. You can't just turn your military into 'melee hero squad of death!' - as these nasty ladies will royally screw that concept, and force diversification of the military (especially as you can't really just ignore them while hiding inside to wait them out ).

That's a big flaw of it atm. Melee is god mode. Arrows? Shield solves it. I had 80+ archers pepper one guy before, and he batted them out of the air, or blocked with his shield every damn arrow. Never had an arrow hit a skilled melee warrior to date, nor have I met a melee unit that I'm scared of to fight with melee (bar perhaps warlocks). So why would I bother training ranged or mages? (Mages especially, since they are hard to get, often dangerous to my fort, etc).

But yes. banshee's alone will help force that, possibly ogres too assuming they hit hard enough to hurt a shielded dwarf in steel.

For Lycan, can they spread the disease and infect survivors by their claw attacks? That would be REALLY fun to have your guys survive a lycan attack, drag him into the hospital, and within a season he's off gnawing the forts ear off, leading to a werewolf apocalypse.

But yes. Rambling done, all the changes I see sound great - gotta see how they are implemented to give proper feedback.

[Meph]

I am playtesting them atm. And yes, the werewolves might infect people with lycanthropie.

[arbarbonif]

Werewolves should be susceptible to magic.  Especially fire.  That would get around the biggest problem I see with them (namely the vanilla DF issues with reliably swapping out weapons)

[Rayc]

How is this going to mesh with the early July release? Will you have to start over, or are you going to stick with a mod of DF2012?

[Meph]

How is this going to mesh with the early July release? Will you have to start over, or are you going to stick with a mod of DF2012?

Updating the raws is no big deal. I just have to wait for dfhack and other utilities to update. That will take a few months I guess. In the meantime I will continue doing updates for DF2012.

[Mithril Leaf]

I am playtesting them atm. And yes, the werewolves might infect people with lycanthropie.

That might make for some !!fun!! for kobolds, as they would be trade partners no?

[Meph]

No. The evil civs and the savage civs do not trade. Kobolds only get kobold caravans, and Warlocks do not get caravans at all, unless lured by reactions.

[omniclasm]

Wow, impressive work.

I do have to admit, I really dislike the idea of Banshees. The game doesn't really make finding invisible units easy, and if they are randomly killing your dwarves instantly...then yeah. I could see essentially acting as ghosts, giving bad thoughts and "possession" that causes tantrums, but random deaths doesn't sound too enjoyable to me.

Just my opinion.

[Meph]

Playtesting will show it. Currently its only 1 banshee at a time, and they path to your fort like kobolds. They are not super-hidden necromancers that never go anywhere.

And Centauren work quite well... they even wear two armors, for their upper torso and lower torso. I assume that the chest part of the humanoid body and the chest part of the horse body. Quite fancy. They came with feather root armor and feather root helmets, equipped with only bows and wooden arrows.

Nagas I have to work on. They have no items atm, and spam their spells way too much. Natural wrestling and biting skills seem fitting as well.

Werewolves work, but they do run away quite quickly. Maybe up the rage tag a bit. Currently they path to your fort, as soon as they see someone get enraged, fight once, then run away. All in all not too bad.

Banshees I have to test more. The most interesting bit. I was playing with the idea that they possess a dwarf and later teleport an entire army into your fort... right in your meeting area or something like that.

And I spotted a lone Elementalmen, a Silver Elemental Wrestler, guarding a camp in cavern1. So they work as well.

Edit: The centauren even spawn with "Curse all friends of nature"

[omniclasm]

Nagas I have to work on. They have no items atm, and spam their spells way too much. Natural wrestling and biting skills seem fitting as well.

I actually really want to make playable Naga.

Three different castes (heavy, quick, and spellcasters), and "spawning pool" type buildings, that spawn certain friendly creatures periodically. Like, lowest tier spawns a lot of "spotter" type things that suck in battle, mid would spawn like murlocs or something, and the highest would spawn a hydra once a year with steel skin.

[Meph]

I have Nagas as unarmed, unarmored easy enemies atm. They will wrestle, bite with poison, swim, and sometimes do magic spells. I want to do a Medusa caste that temporarily takes out 1 unit, but other than that they are easy enemies.

And oh my god, what have I done. I just spawned 5 automaton and 5 frost giant attacks, and they work together. But even they have problems with the werewolves.

EDIT: The mounts work. I have a gnome siege on bobcats and skunks (mounts of their size), while the goblin army exclusively rides Barghests.

EDIT2: And yeah, they dont like each other. The teams/alliances certainly work... its omniweapon-wielding gnomes vs goblin lashers on barghests vs automatons/frost giants.