Hello guys,
I basically registered for this thread.
Last time I played DF was in .31 and I was annoyed by amount of micromanagement that all those beardy biatches required.
Too much !fun! caused by sawdust, lost pets and broken fingers.
Adventure mode wasn't much better (empty!), so I abandoned DF for a time...
Then I heard about Masterwork Dwarf Fortress by Meph. I was intrigued by Warlock race, hoping that having limited amount of toons to micromanage and ability to summon monster fodder will be more enjoyable and I looked forward to check it one day....
And later on I discovered Hermit mode which I decided I have to play NOW.
Over a week and dozen of fortresses later I finally hit on one lucky embark into such an awesome area that I decided to back up the arrival save (might share it with you if you want).
I would like to give some feedback/suggestions after my hermit experience. My comments below should be treated as such - opinions and suggestions and at no point I intend to offend anyone.
Hermit mode is quite unique in what happens after arrival and few first seasons. Here is my experience:
- I learned the hard way that first thing to do as a Hermit is to U -> C -> and enable all labours needed (woodcutting especially).
- second thing is to dismantle wagon, create carpenter and wooden block and sundial. Slowing time passage is absolute must for survival.
- cut trees, craft doors, 2 tables and chair, create cloth workshop and make clothing.
- switch to mining, mine a long passage to the room and place table there (make meeting hall for dogs if you have them) or make pasture (for livestock) and channel a single tile above the room for sunlight
- designate corpse stockpile far away and transport past regrets. For some reasons I cannot make wooden coffins and I can't waste stone and I don't have enough grass to build coffins either.
---->It would be awesome to add wooden coffins to the carpenter so we could bury the Past Regrets
From that point onwards things are spiralling out of control. I will write what exactly and then make suggestions.
Hermit seems to spent 25% of his time drinking, eating, sleeping or on a break.
Also priorities for carrying the items around are very weird - I am not sure if this DF issue and can be altered by Masterwork, but my Hermit keeps ignoring weapons and armours that are outside of fortress (where wagon was) and will only carry them to a stockpile if he is idle (no other job), even though these are his only armours and weapons.
---->I think that if this can be altered it should be - Hermit should have higher priority to scavenge items for later reprocessing, it is vital for his long term survival.
Hermit doesn't want to equip armours. I've tried all the tricks (replace/over, etc) and he just refuses to wear armour.
I managed to make him wear it once, he attacked wood troll outside fortress, dropped the items on the ground when I made squad inactive.
I was unable to retrieve it due to issue mentioned above and every single item was spirited away by racoons.
As the time progresses, another issue that is a pain in the back appears.
Vermin.
Dozen of rats spawning all over the place and eating away everything.
I had cats, so it quickly turned out into fortress filled with foul miasma all over the place. I tried to disable vermin in MDF setup, but it seems it did not affected the world already generated.
Anyone knows if I can manually disable/edit vermin somehow, let me know please.
Hermit without cats can't store stuff. Rats will eat everything and they seem to ignore traps completely.
----> Something should be done about that issue. Either by adding female cats for spawning kittens or decreasing vermin spawn in Hermit mode or adding a new trap that will kill vermin (and vermin only) when they pass over it (something like weapon trap only for vermin).
Otherwise fortress gets filled with rotting vermin corpses and burning them to ash is not the solution (sure, free potash is nice and stuff).
As the above issues enter into play, setting doors and weapon traps to prevent Fun from happening too soon gets extremely tedious without Bob.
Speaking of Bob (and talisman) I got no message about either of them spawning.
Bob just pops out into existence with no info, and talisman just spawns at hermit location (which might as well be at the other edge of the map).
Which brings me to conclusion that these events should be tied to a Journal somehow (writing entry " Describe your best friend Wilson" or something).
Funny though, I was unable to build journal ever, except for a single instance when journal was brought by migrants.
----> I believe that journal should be created at embark and placed inside Wagon. Otherwise it's a long way to get it.
----> Also I think Bob (who is not a Wilson) should be friendly with undead just as NecroHermit is.
As the game progresses it becomes more and more tedious - too few hands to carry the stuff around, too many vermin corpses, too many corpses on the trap field etc etc.
Also, since there are no caravans and trading, gemstones and crafts are basically useless. I have an idea how to utilise them and make them very important for further progress - I will write about that below.
One thing about deciding what to choose. One interesting choice was necromancy, however as it is right now it is broken in my opinion. Further info below.
Ok, so that was my feedback. Now for suggestions.
There are four possible paths that Hermit mode can be played.
1)Old MacDonald's Farm.
I am not a big fan of old crazy geezer sitting in his cabin in the middle of nowhere, but some people expressed interest in this scenario.
I think that people should be allowed to embark with both male and female animals (cats especially, unless some vermin eradication method will be created) and create that scenario. In such case altar upgrade could be into some "Altar of fertility" where Hermit could build healing shrines (not sure if possible), casting aoe heals on friendly units, train wardogs to watch over his farm, trap animals etc.
2) Druid.
Obviously going friendly with nature, creating shrines, planting forests, having a companions amongst wild beasts and creatures.
This could be expanded into an interesting mode, where orcs and dwarfs and humans would go after nearby pesky druid sending swarms of locusts after them for destroying nature.
3) Necromancer.
My Hermit may be mad, but there is method in his madness. Soon he will raise an army and cast the Shadow of Death upon the world of living.
In such scenario keeping live creatures (animals for example) makes sense, as they would be a reservoir of fresh corpses and souls.
4) Archmage.
Summoning monsters to do his bidding and developing powerful magic in seclusion, while planning for world domination and searching for Elixir of Life.
Combining magic and alchemy, to create things like the world has never seen (and likely will never see, due to sudden attacks of Fun our wizzy is experiencing).
All these scenarios are interesting and should be valid. However there are certain things missing from what we have available and lack of them may prevent us from having more Fun later, rather than sooner.
What this mode is missing first and foremost is an ability to summon and create help for our Hermit. For some reasons I can't build pylons (searched through all the options, if it is there I must have missed it) and so undead are basically useless. There seem to be no companions for druid (I haven't played it in depth yet) and I am yet to test wizard altar and see what is there.
I would however like to suggest a change that will make Hermit mode much more enjoyable in the long run, will make gemstones and crafts useful and will give player things to aim at.
I am talking about adding companions.
Since I played Necromancer most (for some reason idea of lone necromancer in the wilds seems nice to me, there are no other games where this happens), I will focus on them, but I will mention the other as well.
For the Hermit to make use of gemstones and other resources we could aim at adding a way for him to utilize these resources to summon help.
There is this item in the game, "Amulet" that is craftable by crafter. Cut gemstones can be obtained from workshop.
By combining the two with some other resources at the altar to summon help we could get rid of automatic corpse raising altogether.
----> In fact, can someone tell me if I can disable/edit this feature and turn it off?
I am not sure if this can be obtained by mod, but since Bob is here and kicking, perhaps it is possible. The general idea is to add spawnable, replaceable creatures (you can have some of them only one at a time) that cost materials to summon and when killed yield no useful items.
Necromantic altar should be central point for controlling what undead spawn.
- Wisps - as they are
- Black monolith - as it is, let it be something that spawns uncontrolled undead that will roam around the fortress.
New ideas:
- Zombies. Essentially war animals (like a war dog). They are created by using stone/bone amulet with fresh or rotten corpses and act like animals (show under z ), but cannot be trained/equipped. They move slow, hit hard and are expendable.
Zombies learn at much slower rate, can only fight and when killed create a useless cheap of rotten meat (or something).
- Skeletons. Created from 2 stones, 20 bones, skull and two stone/bone amulets. They add to a population, do not eat, drink or sleep. They can only dig/cut and haul items, can be added to a squad and fight. Basic military unit, weak when unequipped.
- Skeleton Captain. Created from 2 gemstones (for eyes), 20 bones, leather and 4 amulets. Military Squad capitans, they can dig, cut wood, haul items but also train and organize other units (skeletons) to follow them into battle. They can also have Zombies assigned to them.
*** All skeleton units are learning at much slower rates (need 100% more xp to progress), and when destroyed turn into dust resulting into loss of materials (maybe add some % chance to drop gemstones used?)
- Bone Golem. Requires 3 skulls, 10 amulets, 6 gemstones and 60 bones, 2 leathers as well. Essentially Large War Animal, that can be armoured for further effectiveness.
Spawning Bone Assistants:
- Skelly, Thumb and Knuckle. Your NecroHermit should be able to create 3 undead assistants, who would aid him in his quest for a world domination.
They would work as regular toons, but would not do fishing, animal care, would not fight/lead armies. They would not eat/drink/sleep, but would take breaks and would need 100% more exp to train skills. Required are 20 bones, skull, 2 leathers, 4 amulets and 2 gemstones and soul.
Remember this?
- Igor!
- Yes, master?
- Bring me fresh brain!
- At once, master!
You should have no more than 3 assistants (number to be discussed), and each time they die they are transformed into dust (bone meal?) and loose all skills learned. Cannot be raised, need to be created again and start with low skills.
For a Druid scenario, things could get just as interesting.
You should be able to summon some sort of animal(monkeys?) that have hands and can carry items (similar to the skeletons), although they could also fish/pick plants.
It might be quite interesting to see your druid hermit create plant beds to set up a lair for these creatures, who would require sustenance (so yes, water source and food), would sleep and take breaks.
Companions: (to summon them you need to have score big enough. To prevent snowballing each summoning costs you nature score).
-Woody, homegrown treant. At some point you druid will decide to grow his own treant at the altar. Will require 10 amulets, 3 gemstones, 10 acorns (how to get them without cutting trees?) a pot and 10 potash fertilizers. Idea would be to create a baby treant that will grow after 2 years, but not sure if this is possible. So the slow moving creature would drink but not eat; It would not fight, cut trees, do carpentry or carry wood, neither it would hunt. But would be happy to mine and and craft useful things, care for animals. When killed Woody would disintegrate into wood splinter/sawdust.
(Would be nice to have Woody sleep throughout entire winter!)
- Beastmaster. Requires 10 gemstones, 10 weapons (non training?), 20 amulets. Preferably a satyr (not sure if this race in the game; can be any other strong beastmen race)Would eat, drink, sleep, take breaks. Might not care for clothes, but you would need to Equip him. Would not cut threes/carry wood or fish, and would be your capitain who would train himself and animals assigned to him and lead them into battle.
- Dryad companion. Requires 10 amulets and 20 gemstones. Would not fight, cut or carry wood or stone(or dabble with metal crafting/processing). She needs to eat, drink, sleep and wear clothes, basically giving you a forest lady(elf graphics?) to care for, but in exchange she would heal you if wounded, would care for Shrines and craft things for you, care for animals and your herb garden.
Lone Farmer Challenge:
Since players might want to take this route as well and create Altar of Fertility (a hermit farmer is pious and superstitious man living off the land), he would have to regularly pray at the altar to increase his piety score. At some point he should be able to "Pray for Children".
This could result in him finding abandoned(orphan?) Savant Child. (all males, up to 4 or 5 of them, since he cannot summon carrying minions?).
These would required clothing, food, drinks and places to stay, would get moods and would require 100% more exp to train skills. They would fight of course, for the family.
While replaceable, each costs piety score.
I haven't played wizard yet, but adding him some companions (like Stone Construct similar to Woody, Pit Fiend (demonic beast master) and Succubi Mistress) may be good idea as well. Imps to carry items around and cut tress/mine rock (Dungeon Keeper anyone?) could be awesome too.
Remember!!!
These are nothing more than my opinions and ideas, they are at no point intended to be seen as "demands" or are meant to insult anyone!
I am only writing in this topic because I like both the MDF and the Hermit Mode and would love to see them grow and expand!
Poll
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Topic: ☼The Hermit☼ - Everything Hermit Mode (Read 77117 times)