I did mention a little project that I wanted to do... its a hermit. Putnam gave me the idea with this Dark Wizard mode in Fantastic DF, which has a starting wizard that insta-kills all his friends and absorbs their power, then continues to be bad ass and summons anything he wants with hackwish.
While that works in theory, I thought it would become boring after a while, because you start with the end-game and lack a bit in progression. Since you can summon anything you want, like adamantine armor and weapons, and have maxed stats and magical interactions, you would watch your uber-soldier run around a while and do not much else. He also has noeat, nodrink, nosleep...
But the idea is good, and a DF classic - The Hermit Challenge. So I made my own spin on it. Here is how it works:
You embark with the hermit civ. You still have 7 units and 2 migrant waves, but all but one unit will turn out to be hallucinations... of your hermit. They will instantly die and leave an item, "past regrets". Your hermit will have to bury those to get his past life behind him and start a new one. (Explanation: The past regrets are renamed corpses, which you have to bury, because they are civ members and otherwise haunt you as ghosts. You cant get rid of your past? It will haunt you.)
After that has been done, you will have a look around and try to survive. You need food, you need drink, you need shelter. Clothing as well, because you start naked. Naked because otherwise all hallucinations leave piles of real clothing, free to pick up. Cant let that happen.
Being naked and losing 6 friends will leave you miserable in the beginning, so you get one free "remove all bad thoughts" after one ingame week. That gives you some time.
You can take as many items with you at embark as a normal group, but I made 3 embark profiles for you. Easy, with 10 dogs and iron armor. Medium, with 3 dogs and equipped like a hiker, with backpack, bags, flask, a bow and ammo... and hard, with exactly nothing except your trusty dog.
You only can take male dogs and male cats with you at embark. One animal for hunting/combat, the other against vermin. I dont want people talking 100 farm animals that breed... you are a lone hermit, not Old McDonald of the woods.
I tried to make life as easy as possible. Well, not quite, but give the hermit many boni. You get several free skills. Your bones should heal without a splint/cast, so you dont need a doctor to survive any broken bones. You have nopain, to stop boring "pass out and get instakilled" situations. You shouldnt get moods (because the population is below 20), and you shouldnt get miserable/tantrum easily. You are at peace with wildlife, so you wont flee from animals, and they wont attack you. (Predators excluded) You also never make parties and barely take breaks, because I thought it would be boring to watch your one civ member do nothing for that long. You have very high physical stats. You shouldnt be able to die of infections. And you have access to 20 custom workshops.
The first ten, as you can see, are basic workshops that use materials to make items. Nothing new, just less items and smaller workshops, so they fit better into a smaller house.
Then a bathtub, to clean contaminants. A handpump to fill barrels with water, for storage. Hermits Journal for quicksaves (save early, save often, you only have 1 unit), and getting rid of bad thoughts. Two training workshops, one for combat skills, the other for attributes, then the human pantheon/praying system. You pray to one god, get points, and the more points you have the more the god will help you. Effects vary depending on the gods sphere. And the gnomish druidism system. The better you treat animals, the more might join you. You can use very special training method on them and even tame invader mounts at some point. The pitch brazier can light arrows or attach blackpowder. You might want to set the world on fire now and then, as a defensive measure. And lastly the sundail.
It controls timestream, the calender speed script, ingame. So if you feel that the onslaught of ambushers, snatchers and thieves is too much, slow it down a bit. If you are bored watching your hermit and want to see some action, speed it up. Due to your low population (1) and no trading (0), the only way to attract attacks is by wealth. If you keep your cottage modest, you wont be attacked by other civs. If you hoard treasures in your basement, you will get visitors.
For fairness sake you are allied with automatons, warlocks, banshees and frost giants. These pretty difficult races wont attack you, giving you a better chance. You will be able to change this, for example join the civilized faction, which would even enable trade.
I am still testing a lot, because this is all rather new to me, but it looks good. Obviously you will die a lot, but its not called a challenge for no reason.
Here an example of the hermits personality and stats:
Sosh Medtobmemad has been unhappy lately. She has complained of thirst lately. She slept in the grass recently. She has complained of the lack of chairs lately. She has complained of the nasty water lately. She admired a fine Furnace lately.
She is a worshipper of Furgig and a worshipper of Tath the Compassion of Cloaks.
She is a citizen of The Bins of Gorging. She is a member of The Everseeing Mirror. She is the hermit of The Everseeing Mirror. She arrived at Laradil on the 1st of Granite in the year 70.
She is forty-four years old, born on the 1st of Galena in the year 26.
Her hair is extremely long. She is tall and fat. Her sunken raw umber eyes are very wide-set. She has an angular chin. Her nose is narrow. Her somewhat broad head is somewhat short. Her ears are somewhat splayed out. Her nose bridge is somewhat concave. Her hair is dark chestnut. Her skin is pale brown.
She is rarely sick, but she is quick to tire and totally clumsy.
Sosh Medtobmemad likes pure hematite (iron), billon, seordstone, black mamba tooth, the color buff, broadhead arrows, boots, backpacks, floodgates, figurines, goblets and giant barn owls for their coloration. When possible, she prefers to consume beetlemead, lich meal and glassthorn spores. She absolutely detests garter snakes.
She has a deep well of patience, great analytical abilities, a very good feel for social relationships, a very good sense of the position of her own body and a good memory, but she has a little difficulty with words and next to no natural musical ability.
She has a very calm demeanor. She never becomes angry. She almost never feels discouraged. She occasionally overindulges. She is confident under pressure. She does not actively seek friendships and is incredibly distant and reserved. She truly treasures the company of others. She is unassertive. She is put off by authority and tradition. She is willing to compromise with others. She is very willing to compare herself favorably with others. She is incredibly confident. She finds rules confining. She will persist in the face of any difficulty until the task is complete. She needs alcohol to get through the working day and is starting to work slowly due to its scarcity. She likes working outdoors and grumbles only mildly at inclement weather. She is getting used to tragedy.
what race is he?
Dwarven. With custom stats, as described above.
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Topic: ☼The Hermit☼ - Everything Hermit Mode (Read 76990 times)