Topic: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions (Read 12474 times)

than402 · « **on:** April 20, 2015, 04:06:24 pm »

Hey. I want to make a mod to add more stuff to Good Regions

Evil regions are a popular challenge for single player and community forts, but Good regions are somewhat neglected by the community. Aside from unicorns and sun berries, there are simply not enough dangers or goodies to intrigue most players.

So my aim is to make Good regions better: richer, more unpredictable, more challenging.

Here's what I would like to include:

- new creatures to contest with your dwarves. maybe fey of some kind: weak to iron, very resistant to everything else and carrying harmful interactions. after all, there has to be some reason the other races avoid them like the plague in woldgen

-new megabeasts to fight, incuding treants and (huge) animal spirits

-new regional interactions, both beneficial and harmful

-new trees and plants. like the sun berries, their products will be more expensive than normal ones but some will require special processing. sometimes, processing them will be quite dangerous. in other occasions, processing them will be perfectly safe but they will be rare.

-possibly even some civ living exclusively on good regions, but I'm not sure about that one.

so, any suggestions?

Naryar · « **Reply #1 on:** April 20, 2015, 04:53:08 pm »

-healing mists. Will of course heal the gobbos AND the dwarves,

-more plants. more sun berry lookalikes. a dye plant that grows in good regions as well.

-treants (semimegabeast),

-more fey, there are pixies and general fairies but the fey are very varied. seelie fey for good regions.

-while you're at it : unseelie fey for evil regions.

-Some of the weirder holy/good creatures : cherubim, buraqs, lamassu, shedu, phoenixes, shisas, kirin, etc.

-While you're at it go for evil creatures : barghests, wendigoes (will make evil glaciers even more fun), also things like various yokai.

than402 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 20, 2015, 05:14:41 pm »

thank you for your suggestions, Naryar.

the healing mists might be tricky (the only way I can think of would be creature transformation, and that may result in a million pop ups about goblins and dwarves transforming). now, stuff for the evil regions never crossed my mind but now that you mention it I really wanna do it. And you know what would be a great unseelie megabeast?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JQpE7n6eUk

I don't know if I'll change the vanilla fairies and pixies (I probably will, or at least give them a purpose), but new, human sized and more traditional fairies are on the list. maybe two varieties, a seelie and an unseelie one with slight differences in appearance and interactions. I'm also thinking about making the treants drop special "treant wood". It will be valuable and you'll be able to make good quality armor sets out of it.

TheFlame52 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 20, 2015, 06:00:44 pm »

Ressurection, but only once, and on all creatures.

Make a weather like evil animation but with resurrection instead. Then turn the creature into a flesh ball or something for one tick and stick [CANNOT_TARGET_IF_ALREADY_AFFECTED] in there.

Nahere · « **Reply #4 on:** April 20, 2015, 07:22:08 pm »

For a healing mist the easiest thing to do would be to just boost recuperation rates. It won't heal all wounds, but I think it can help heal blood-loss, so it could keep a battle going much longer.

Salmeuk · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am »

This is a cool idea and you should definitely create it!

What if sunberries occasionally detonated upon harvest, flashing the poor dwarf into permanent blindness?

Give unicorns a huge boost to their value, making unicorn farming all the more appealing.

What if you made a creature based off the human body structure, giving it boosts to strength and toughness and naming it 'Forest Protector' or 'Feral Druid'? he/she would occasionally show up and mess with your dwarves. It would be best to make him sentient, I think. Not sure if that's possible.

Is it possible to make trampling things result in syndromes or effects? Say one of your dwarves tramples down a dreaded 'needle tree' sapling. Subsequently, you find them passed out with both their legs covered in poisonous spines, and once the paralysis sets in to their lungs they suffocate.

. . .

Chicken - like creatures that also produce milk and more meat than physically possible, but are prone to serious rage and breed like cats? Not sure what I'm getting at here lol

Meph · « **Reply #6 on:** April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am »

I had milk/honey rain that adds nodrink and noeat to creatures, made regional interactions that resurrect creatures (best not on invaders, or you get tons of fighting) or removes the need for sleep, you can make animals INTELLIGENT and CAN_SPEAK so your adventurers can talk to them.

I'd love to see something that is nature-related, so trees, grasses and plants that fight back when your dwarves try to harm them.

Otherwise you can give syndromes to grasses to affect grazing animals. I gave my EVIL grasses the ability to turn your pets undead/crazed, maybe a GOOD grass could make them stronger/intelligent.

Full-heal mists/fog are a neat idea too, and if you want to delve into dfhack you can even make more crazy stuff.

Gold-producing pets like a golden goose, steel-quality woods or plants that make extremely high-value alcohol (which might even add combat boosts).

than402 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 21, 2015, 08:13:48 am »

thank you for your suggestions, everyone. I finished the fairies. I'm thinking about adding a couple more interactions so they can transform into other creatures, but overall that's how they'll look :

Spoiler: seele/unseele fairies (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: appropriate colors (click to show/hide)

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am

What if sunberries occasionally detonated upon harvest, flashing the poor dwarf into permanent blindness?

I'm not sure if it's possible. I think I'll leave sunberries as they are, but some new plants might explode (or poison the dwarf, or drive him insane) when processed. To counter that, they will be very valuable, even more than sunberries

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am

Give unicorns a huge boost to their value, making unicorn farming all the more appealing.

Isn't unicorn farming appealing enough as it is? I might do something with their horns, however. They were said to be able to cure sickness and clean water.

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am

What if you made a creature based off the human body structure, giving it boosts to strength and toughness and naming it 'Forest Protector' or 'Feral Druid'? he/she would occasionally show up and mess with your dwarves. It would be best to make him sentient, I think. Not sure if that's possible.

I've made fairies and I'll also be making grimeling-esque Green Men. They'll have the INTELLIGENT tag, and I may even give them their own civilization if it's practical. If so, they'll have wooden weapons, access only to good biomes, they'll be ambushers like the elves and hostile to everyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man#Related_characters

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am

Is it possible to make trampling things result in syndromes or effects? Say one of your dwarves tramples down a dreaded 'needle tree' sapling. Subsequently, you find them passed out with both their legs covered in poisonous spines, and once the paralysis sets in to their lungs they suffocate.

I don't know. it would be really cool, though

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am

Chicken - like creatures that also produce milk and more meat than physically possible, but are prone to serious rage and breed like cats? Not sure what I'm getting at here lol

go crazy

I don't want to add one "uber-animal that does everything" creature, but new pets (trainable or not) are on their way.

Quote from: Nahere on April 20, 2015, 07:22:08 pm

For a healing mist the easiest thing to do would be to just boost recuperation rates. It won't heal all wounds, but I think it can help heal blood-loss, so it could keep a battle going much longer.

that might work, actually. thanks.

Quote from: TheFlame52 on April 20, 2015, 06:00:44 pm

Ressurection, but only once, and on all creatures.

Make a weather like evil animation but with resurrection instead. Then turn the creature into a flesh ball or something for one tick and stick [CANNOT_TARGET_IF_ALREADY_AFFECTED] in there.

hmmm. I've never thought about ressurecting a creature like that. Would that even work? What would happen if, say, a dwarf loses an arm and then the weather raises the arm? Not to mention this weather would make it almost impossible for you to lose dwarves

Quote from: Meph on April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am

I had milk/honey rain that adds nodrink and noeat to creatures, made regional interactions that resurrect creatures (best not on invaders, or you get tons of fighting) or removes the need for sleep, you can make animals INTELLIGENT and CAN_SPEAK so your adventurers can talk to them.

how did the resurrection work out? I'm still not sure about it, especially when it comes to raising limbs.

Quote from: Meph on April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am

I'd love to see something that is nature-related, so trees, grasses and plants that fight back when your dwarves try to harm them.

I can do that without extensive use of dfhack?

Quote from: Meph on April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am

Otherwise you can give syndromes to grasses to affect grazing animals. I gave my EVIL grasses the ability to turn your pets undead/crazed, maybe a GOOD grass could make them stronger/intelligent.

ooh, and then your cow can become your mayor. Plus your food industry would suffer if your meat suddenly started talking

Love it.

Quote from: Meph on April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am

Full-heal mists/fog are a neat idea too, and if you want to delve into dfhack you can even make more crazy stuff.

I would if I could...

Quote from: Meph on April 21, 2015, 06:59:13 am

Gold-producing pets like a golden goose, steel-quality woods or plants that make extremely high-value alcohol (which might even add combat boosts).

I could put golden gooses, but they would be rare and short lived (otherwise you'd find yourself swimming in gold a few months after you capture one

) Steel grade might be a bit too good, but "better-than-iron" grade wood and rare, valuable trees would be awesome. I'll also add rare, "ambrosia and nectar" plants. They'll be very, very valuable and will add combat and mental boosts, plus they'll make the dwarves not age for a few years. But they won't leave seeds behind and processing them can sometimes be very !!FUN!!

I'll also add new cloth producing plants, as well as new dyes and a relatively common plant that can make a cloth so thick that can be crafted into adequate armor.

p.s: sorry about the wall of text

Dirst · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2015, 09:11:02 am »

I like to see the good regions getting some attention.

Quote from: than402 on April 21, 2015, 08:13:48 am

Quote from: Salmeuk on April 21, 2015, 01:18:21 am
Chicken - like creatures that also produce milk and more meat than physically possible, but are prone to serious rage and breed like cats? Not sure what I'm getting at here lol

go crazy I don't want to add one "uber-animal that does everything" creature, but new pets (trainable or not) are on their way.

It's called a shmoo. They pose such an existential threat to civilization that they could justify all by themselves the lack of any settlements in good biomes.

Though I don't recommend shmoon or anything similar, making Good animals that are more bountiful than normal is perfectly legitimate. For example, animals that are milkable more often, or drop a bunch of edible extra butcher objects. Rapidly-growing crops would be appropriate as well, just don't give them a DRINK tag or a PREFSTRING. That way they don't become Super Plump Helmets to make farming trivial.

One possible tree-that-fights-back is one whose wood boils away at room temperature and causes a syndrome. My understanding is that the tree will remain solid until it's cut down, but I'm not positive about that. If you're willing to use DFHack, or a really really really complicated chain of interactions, the syndrome can be used to summon a creature. The mod in my signature takes the DFHack route to summon creatures when specific stones are mined.

Rydel · « **Reply #9 on:** April 21, 2015, 10:40:38 am »

What about a mist that gives a happy thought, but also drains the affected target of all motivation to do anything? Kind of a Lotus-eaters thing, or the experiment on Miranda from Serenity. I'm not sure how doable that is, though.

than402 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 21, 2015, 11:52:20 am »

Quote from: Rydel on April 21, 2015, 10:40:38 am

What about a mist that gives a happy thought, but also drains the affected target of all motivation to do anything? Kind of a Lotus-eaters thing, or the experiment on Miranda from Serenity. I'm not sure how doable that is, though.

it's perfectly doable. NOEMOTION and NOTHOUGHT should do the trick.

Quote from: Dirst on April 21, 2015, 09:11:02 am

Though I don't recommend shmoon or anything similar, making Good animals that are more bountiful than normal is perfectly legitimate. For example, animals that are milkable more often, or drop a bunch of edible extra butcher objects. Rapidly-growing crops would be appropriate as well, just don't give them a DRINK tag or a PREFSTRING. That way they don't become Super Plump Helmets to make farming trivial.

as long as there's something to differentiate them from "a better cow" or "a better chicken". A rapidly growing, cheap and efficient crop is a nice idea too.

Quote from: Dirst on April 21, 2015, 09:11:02 am

One possible tree-that-fights-back is one whose wood boils away at room temperature and causes a syndrome. My understanding is that the tree will remain solid until it's cut down, but I'm not positive about that. If you're willing to use DFHack, or a really really really complicated chain of interactions, the syndrome can be used to summon a creature. The mod in my signature takes the DFHack route to summon creatures when specific stones are mined.

I believe that what the tree is made of is determined by the [BASIC_MAT:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL] part, so it should not boil until it's cut down. I might make some "trap" trees which are copies of actual, useful trees and then give them the GOOD tag and a low frequency. that should make tree cutting trickier, but due to the low frequency not very annoying. Just another thing to consider when settling there. Similarly, there will be a risk factor to many of the new plants and animal products.

Dirst · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2015, 12:08:28 pm »

Quote from: than402 on April 21, 2015, 11:52:20 am

Quote from: Dirst on April 21, 2015, 09:11:02 am
Though I don't recommend shmoon or anything similar, making Good animals that are more bountiful than normal is perfectly legitimate. For example, animals that are milkable more often, or drop a bunch of edible extra butcher objects. Rapidly-growing crops would be appropriate as well, just don't give them a DRINK tag or a PREFSTRING. That way they don't become Super Plump Helmets to make farming trivial.

as long as there's something to differentiate them from "a better cow" or "a better chicken". A rapidly growing, cheap and efficient crop is a nice idea too.

Just be careful to keep the kudzu under control.

Quote from: Dirst on April 21, 2015, 09:11:02 am

One possible tree-that-fights-back is one whose wood boils away at room temperature and causes a syndrome. My understanding is that the tree will remain solid until it's cut down, but I'm not positive about that. If you're willing to use DFHack, or a really really really complicated chain of interactions, the syndrome can be used to summon a creature. The mod in my signature takes the DFHack route to summon creatures when specific stones are mined.

Quote from: than402 on April 21, 2015, 11:52:20 am

I believe that what the tree is made of is determined by the [BASIC_MAT:LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:STRUCTURAL] part, so it should not boil until it's cut down. I might make some "trap" trees which are copies of actual, useful trees and then give them the GOOD tag and a low frequency. that should make tree cutting trickier, but due to the low frequency not very annoying. Just another thing to consider when settling there. Similarly, there will be a risk factor to many of the new plants and animal products.

That's diabolical. I like it! I figured most players just designate a wide area for treecutting, but this will catch even those trying to be careful. Multi-tile trees means multiple evaporating logs to make the syndrome more reliable, though it does break immersion if you use it to summon an treant that's mysteriously one-twentieth the size of the original tree. Dryads would probably work, though.

than402 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 21, 2015, 12:13:57 pm »

Thank you. May I use your scripts as a basis for that? You have the most reliable spawning script at the moment.

Dirst · « **Reply #13 on:** April 21, 2015, 12:39:30 pm »

Quote from: than402 on April 21, 2015, 12:13:57 pm

Thank you. May I use your mod as a basis for that? You have the most reliable spawning script at the moment.

No problem at all, but the credit really goes to warmist. I changed maybe half a dozen lines to add an age parameter. As far as I know, everything works fine for permanently hostile creatures... it's the [PET] or [PET_EXOTIC] ones you can capture and tame that might act weird.

than402 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 21, 2015, 12:43:20 pm »

thanks. I'm really not good at all with dfhack (that's why I try to avoid it wherever I can), but the idea of dryads swarming and murdering poor lumberjacks out of the blue is simply too good to miss.

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Author Topic: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions (Read 12474 times)

than402

Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Naryar

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

than402

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

TheFlame52

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Nahere

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Salmeuk

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Meph

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

than402

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Dirst

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Rydel

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

than402

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Dirst

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

than402

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

Dirst

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions

than402

Re: Expanding Good Regions- taking suggestions