Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

 I think items (all of them) should have three levels of customization by their makers:
 1) Race specific, ie Dwarven designs are based on mountains, tools, rocks, metals, Goblin ones have weapons, organs and blood, Humans have castles, books, farms and villages, Elves have trees, animals...
 2) Civ specific, related to their name, or maybe their location and neighbors.
 3) Individual preferences, like what is now used for statues and engravings.

 For example, A shield made by a Dwarf of a civ called the oaken manors that has borders with Goblins and hates cows might paint the shield in rock grey with an image of a cow being brutally murdered near a manor.

[vjmdhzgr]

This is kind of already in the game. There are entity tokens that civs have called a [ART_IMAGE_ELEMENT_MODIFIER] that in vanilla makes dwarves less likely to make artwork showing trees or plants (the opposite for elves), and could probably be edited to do what you had suggested. Civ specific only currently adds a possible decoration on items that's whatever the symbol of your civilization is, and it might be nice to add more, but due to the randomness of names, the ability to mod in new words, but the lack of an ability to add in new designs, I don't see that working out well. Maybe designs could be tied to spheres so then words tied to the same spheres could use the designs. Then individual preferences are already used where dwarves like to make art about things they like, or dislike. Though there's no differentiation between how things dwarves dislike are portrayed, and how things dwarves like are portrayed, and that could be a nice addition.

[NW_Kohaku]

Civ specific only currently adds a possible decoration on items that's whatever the symbol of your civilization is, and it might be nice to add more, but due to the randomness of names, the ability to mod in new words, but the lack of an ability to add in new designs, I don't see that working out well.

You can mod in new "designs":  Descriptor_shape_standard.txt

That also plays a role in what shapes gems can be cut into, as well...

The only thing it's lacking is a linking between shapes and spheres or shapes and words from the racial dictionaries, (as opposed to just the word for the shape itself,) or categories of words.

"Designs" are also often based upon existing animals or objects, and while you can't remove many objects, you can always add more.

So far as what gets engraved goes, shapes tend to be what are engraved when you have poorer-quality engravers, while historical events and objects a dwarf prefers or despises are more likely as they become highly skilled.  (I think the odds are directly tied to quality.)

Incidentally, I did a bit of SCIENCE on engravings, although that was all the way back in 40d, so it's certainly possible that the mechanics behind engravings are now more robust than they were back then.

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

This is kind of already in the game. There are entity tokens that civs have called a [ART_IMAGE_ELEMENT_MODIFIER] that in vanilla makes dwarves less likely to make artwork showing trees or plants (the opposite for elves), and could probably be edited to do what you had suggested. Civ specific only currently adds a possible decoration on items that's whatever the symbol of your civilization is, and it might be nice to add more, but due to the randomness of names, the ability to mod in new words, but the lack of an ability to add in new designs, I don't see that working out well. Maybe designs could be tied to spheres so then words tied to the same spheres could use the designs. Then individual preferences are already used where dwarves like to make art about things they like, or dislike. Though there's no differentiation between how things dwarves dislike are portrayed, and how things dwarves like are portrayed, and that could be a nice addition.

I don't really see how modding in new words would be a problem, as the details of the artwork, are themselves text based, if you added a new word to whatever raw contains the possible civ names or race preferences, it would just be used in the descriptions when needed
 
 Also, it would be nice if you could assign a shield or cape or whatever to be decorated with the decorated with a symbol inspired from the name of your military units, for example, you could assign your engraver (that might require a new workshop though) to engrave a shield with something relating to the Furious chinchillas, and that would create description like this is a steel shield, it is masterfully engraved with an image of a chinchilla wielding an axe and a Forgotten beast. The chinchilla is furious. The chinchilla is dying.

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

Civ specific only currently adds a possible decoration on items that's whatever the symbol of your civilization is, and it might be nice to add more, but due to the randomness of names, the ability to mod in new words, but the lack of an ability to add in new designs, I don't see that working out well.

You can mod in new "designs":  Descriptor_shape_standard.txt

That also plays a role in what shapes gems can be cut into, as well...

The only thing it's lacking is a linking between shapes and spheres or shapes and words from the racial dictionaries, (as opposed to just the word for the shape itself,) or categories of words.

"Designs" are also often based upon existing animals or objects, and while you can't remove many objects, you can always add more.

So far as what gets engraved goes, shapes tend to be what are engraved when you have poorer-quality engravers, while historical events and objects a dwarf prefers or despises are more likely as they become highly skilled.  (I think the odds are directly tied to quality.)

Incidentally, I did a bit of SCIENCE on engravings, although that was all the way back in 40d, so it's certainly possible that the mechanics behind engravings are now more robust than they were back then.

What exactly are spheres? I hear that a lot but I don't understand what they are.

[Witty]

What exactly are spheres? I hear that a lot but I don't understand what they are.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

What exactly are spheres? I hear that a lot but I don't understand what they are.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere

Thanks