Quick update and armor discussion
I've spent most of my recent time debugging raws. It is a cumbersome process, but I've managed to fix about 8 things I thought were fine, but weren't. I've done more work on the lua scripts, and have had to back down on at least one "really cool" thing I wanted to do with my mod (the buildings dynamically managing possible labors based on location) which is something I'm sad about. Other parts are working well, however, and I've had a few !!FUN!! forts where I made it all the way to steel axes and coral breastplates before suffering at the hands of forgotten beasts and the like.
Work continues on developing some more ideas to make them more unique and game changing. I'd like to make sure that (aside from water) the race changes the fundamental playstyle of DF. This is a big thing, so I'm constantly revising the system. Right now, I'm doing a rough implementation of a custom planting system, where I allow a reaction to be done at the kelp farm, and it starts a timer. That timer, on expiration creates a job item tool, which immediately queues a job (automatic setting) at the kelp farm to "harvest" it. This produces the kelp, and based on skill, produces different amounts of kelp (not yet implemented). This is similar to what I imagine coral production to be like.
This brought me to a second thing that I want to do. I want to have a few jobs that are "busy work", or just jobs that grant slight, small bonuses, but are easily started and stopped. Kinda like something for your new wave of idiots to do while you decide where best to put them. Or something that keeps them from developing the social network that kills your fortress in a tantrum spiral. Similar to the prayer system of the dwarves, where there's a job you can just pop on repeat, and with a manger keep a dwarf busy forever, I was thinking about a building that would allow for a meditation, or a contact-the-deep kinda magical connection. This would (very occasionally) produce "visions" (bonuses to skills), "oracles" (predictions of things coming, like the gnome "ask a bird") and/or gifts (materials/coral/shell). It would be a one tile workshop and could have the job on repeat. A distance goal for that workshop would be to tie it into the faith system, and make each one dependent on the score of each diety.
Speaking of which, I've started fleshing out a system whereby the naga can increase their progression (similar to, and using, the system for classes developed by Roses) in each god's favor. This would be done using achievements of a sort (crafts out of coral for nautilus, for example), and would increase the reactions available at each temple. Nautilus will be easy, viper and salamander medium, and lamia hard. This will make a progression system that ensures something to do even after everyone is all kitted out in candy and legendary in all skills. I'm working on rewards, but this is a goal of mine, something that I want to make just for the purpose of seeing if the community would respond well to a long-term goal system for the fort.
I've added sharks to the list of possible pets, as I am very pleased with the idea of forcing invaders into a pit of sharks, just for fun. I haven't gotten the eyestalks to work correctly, and I'm having issues with the interaction for head-growing on the hydraling. The eryops are pleasantly filling their role as pack animals, but have a very weak bite, which is unfortunate. The spitting cobras have actually crashed my game when embarking, so I need to investigate there, and the salamanders are fun to play with. Sadly, I can't get them to spawn as pack animals. None come with the cart. I've tried copying all of the relevant tags, but I think I'm missing something, so I'll recheck that.
Building upgrades are giving me headaches, there's a lua error (can't find building 1), which should be the building that it is called from, so I don't know why that's an error. Lack of stacktraces make me sad, and make troubleshooting long and arduous. That said, this error just came up recently, so I know that it is something that I've changed or fixed, so I just need to go back to a previous version and see what I can glean from the difference. Similarly, I fixed the script that did water generation, but it is slow now, so it takes about a month (ingame months, approximated) to fill an 11x11 room with 3/7 water. Still toying with that.
Scripting wise, I'm also VERY excited for the features of the new DFhack for 40.xx. Some of the new things (like the new scripting process for inorganics) that aren't in 34.11 are much easier to code with/for. I'm learning all of this as I go, having never modded DF before, so having a more robust DFHack API is better on all accounts. Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm excited for the move to the new version, and am trying to keep my code as compatible as possible with the new version, to avoid delays.
On the creature/entity front, I'm still having the maddening problem that they don't show up on the neighbors screen. I've finally got them producing forts where everyone doesn't say "last of their kind", but I can't get (I guess) them to survive worldgen? Even on a 2 year stop, they still seem to be "broken" to the game. I've checked legends, and they seem to be just as normal as every other civ, and I've genned with multiple other civs, and also very few. I've also noticed, to my dismay that they need clothing on both their "torso" (not just chest...) and "tail". I gave them pants and a shoe for now, but I'll have to figure something out with flavor, because even with removebadthoughts, my first few test forts ended in tantrum spirals due to nudity. Adding firebreath through a reaction seemed to work just fine, but adding a poison ability didn't, so I'm going to be investigating that. Also, size doesn't really make much of a difference I've noticed. Mostly because they are slow on land, which in 34.11 makes them hit slower as well. Even if the marine-army is in water first, they are about even with dwarves for what they can kill lacking weapons. I'm happy about this.
And finally, the discussion about armor.
I want to keep this simple, considering all the other changes. While I can see them getting specialized armor (Asian themes of any kind, from japanese to hindu), I think that might be more complexity than needed. I would rather them focus on the additions of coral and venom to their equipment rather than the type or style. From this perspective, I'm looking at them as strangers in a strange world. They know about the other races or cultures, but they are the kings of the ocean. They tame great white sharks as pets. They have no need for armor on the ocean floor, and would have evolved as such. When they expand onto land, however, they encounter creatures that can best them. Now, they have to adapt, and I think the armor they wear would be re-purposed armor from invaders. Things they've seen others wear and use on land. They wouldn't generate their own style yet (that's my lore explanation for what I think is best for this mod, and that is to keep the armor/weapons as vanilla as possible).
It seems to be an issue for some though. I've always considered the scales and the size of the naga to be their best quality. I think that because of those qualities, armor is really an afterthought for them. Now, DF doesn't work that way, so I have to include SOMETHING for protection, but I don't think that they would have a different style here from the dwarves or the humans. Maybe a different type of waist/faulds/greaves to fit with the tail, but I don't think they would stray far from the gauntlet/breastplate style for the rest. The helm is a definite point of contention. In WoW and in Hindu mythology, the helm would be absolutely impractical. Naga in both have items on/over their heads. Snakes and fins would make a traditional helm impossible to wear. On the other hand, the D&D Naga, and most of the other naga sources show them with the human head, which would make even more sense to stick with the helms of the (masterwork human civilization) humans. So either their completely impractical, or they are similar to the breastplate and gauntlet idea, normal. In this light, I have no current plans to make any specialized armor. I'll save that for the eastern inspired humans, if Meph implements them there.
Ok, I think that's enough for now. I'll update again, hopefully with something more substantial, next week.
