And it's out! After quite a while in development, I am quite proud to announce that the first version is done. Included in various spoilers below is the manual.
Firstly, thank you for downloading this mod.
Now, with that out of the way, I must warn you that certain features are not currently working and will continue to not work until a stable DFHack version is released. This may mean certain workarounds are in place and civilizations having access to creatures they shouldn't. Hopefully, this won't stay such for long.
Furthermore, when generating a world: do not use the Create New World! option. Instead go to advanced worldgen. I've tweaked the presets to match the feel I want the mod to have. If you want to make changes, keep the following in mind:
-No secrets
-No bottom layer
-No demons
-No bogeymen
-No night creatures
-No curses (vampire or werebeasts)
-No secrets
-No regional interactions
-No disturbances
-No evil clouds
-No evil rain
-No divine materials
-Increased evil and savage region counts
-No titans (unfortunately I cannot remove forgotten beasts)
The mod was made with the assumption that worlds would be created with the above factors. If you feel like you want to change any of them, go ahead, but things may be strange or missing. I should also note that while I also changed embark points, cave visibility, end year and mineral scarcity, you can change them without any problems.
Regarding the Strand Extractor and Blowgunner skills: With the removal of adamantine, strand extractor has no use, as such it will serve as a magic-related skill (I'll point out in the "manual" files for each entity the skills for each reaction). While some creatures will get blowguns, guns will be more common, especially amongst humans. Both gunpowder weapons and blowguns will share the same skill.
Currently (again due lack to DFHack) certain reactions have to spawn evaporating stones to give certain effects to the unit performing it. Some research was done on Bay12 and there is a chance said unit may not inhale the stone due to how breathing works. There is nothing that can be done until DFHack is in.
And finally, I renamed some plants. Below is their original name.
Plump Helmet: Cave Cap
Pig Tail: Cave Grass
Kobold Bulb was removed
While you can play as an adventurer belonging to any of the playable races either as a member of on the present civilizations or as an outsider, there are also a few outsider-exclusive creatures
A note on magic-using adventurers: you need to use an interaction that the adventurer has to roll the spells. For more info see the magic section.
The ones currently available are:
-Dwarf Slayer
-Dwarf Runesmith (Magic)
-Pink Horror (Magic)
-Bloodletter
-Plaguebearer
-Daemonette
-Fury
The dwarfs are pretty straightforward to play, in that they resemble the default DF dwarves.
There are three new buildings for them: the Anvil of Doom, the Book of Grudges and the Shrine to the Ancestors.
The Anvil of Doom (requires a rune and anvil to build) is all about runesmithing. Currently, there are only two reactions and both require runes as reagents. The first is to make a dwarf into a runesmith (has a chance of failure; check the magic manual file for details) and the other is to strike a rune. This second reaction should only be performed by a runesmith (otherwise nothing will happen) and will give the unit a (one of three) one-shot interaction that can be used for a week. They are based on three of the six runes available to runesmiths in general, with the difference that they have no range.
The Book of Grudges, which needs a unit building material and a book. You can, with no chance of failure, turn any dwarf into a slayer with it at no cost. Slayers get quite a few buffs, but their personality is shifted to focus on hate and violence and away from pretty much all else. Besides that, also at no cost, you can have a dwarf read the book to get a slight buff to skill rolls with the "downside" of a (pretty minor) negative emotion, both lasting a week.
The Shrine to the Ancestors has a single reaction: to pray to the three dwarfen ancestor gods. There are two possible results to it (besides being ignored) and that is to get either a small boost or small malus to skill rolls, both at 15% chance.
Additionally, there are three reactions in pre-existing workshops. The first is the ability to make stone beds in the mason workshop. The next is the ability to craft runes (for the Anvil of Doom) in the metalsmith forge. And finally you can turn three gromril boulders into a gromril bar. Dwarfs are the only faction to be able to use gromril (undecided about their chaos counterparts having access or not).
Dwarfs get a couple of weapons, the dwarfen handgun, the dwarfen pistol, the trollhammer (in the fluff/tabletop, it is an alternative ammunition for the drakegun, but in DF each weapon can only have one type of ammunition), the dwarf pick, the steam drill and the whirling blades of death.
MISSING STUFF:
This is the stuff that is missing due to there being no stable release of DFHack yet.
-Custom Siege Engines
-Firedrakes
-Dwarfs are not supposed to have any creatures (other than one they'll use for wagons), but right now they do because I want future factions to have animals.
-Runic Equipment
Fear and terror work in a pretty straightforward system.
Creatures capable of causing fear and terror have spammable interactions that can affect multiple target that cause not only bad emotions, but also minor debuffs. Creatures that cause fear cannot be the target of fear, but can still suffer terror, while terror creatures are immune to it all. There are certain creatures that are immune to psychology, which means they are immune to either.
So. Magic. I tried to reproduce most spells from the tabletop, but I had to take some liberties with most.
Before I say anything else, while there are summon spells, they are useless right now due to, you guessed it, no DFHack.
Now while a few select creatures will get guaranteed spells, the wizards you'll often deal with will acquire their skills through reactions at player fortresses, will already start with magic (for certain races, for example: beastmen, tomb kings, vampires) or worldgen secrets that will hopefully be written down and added to libraries.
When a unit gains magic, they'll roll for each spell. The Lore Attribute of each lore has been changed into an interaction like the other spells, and every single mage is guaranteed to get it. Stronger spells have a smaller chance to get rolled. Due to modding limitations, there is no way to know what spells the creature got, unfortunately.
For now dwarfs and non-feral strigoi vampires are the only possible spellcasters in the game, and any dwarf can try to become a runesmith and all strigoi will know some magic, but with other races you will usually have a magic-capable caste that will be the only able to learn it. With elves and humans, you won't know at first that they are magic-capable, though there will be small hints. Take too long, though, and bad things may happen (takes far longer for elves than humans for it to happen).
Finally, there is the antimagic attribute. Some creatures, as well as all regular dwarfs and all daemons of Khorne have that attribute. It means that certain interactions will not work on them. No positive magic will ever be resistible, but some of the hostile spells also ignore the resistance. Material emission reactions cannot be resisted due to modding restrictions, though I wouldn't make them resistible either way.
There are three unplayable factions, in order of threat: Gnoblars, Ghouls, and Trolls.
Gnoblars are thieves and fulfill the same role as the kobolds of regular DF, and, in fact, behave mostly the same.
Ghouls are ambushers that have three castes: ghoul, crypt horror, and strigoi. Ghouls should be as dangerous as a naked human with limited weapons. Crypt horrors are bigger and tougher, but still nothing a mediocre military can't handle. Strigoi may be a threat depending on their magic rolls (they use the lore of vampires, which means guaranteed zombies if nothing else). They can all cause fear and are immune to psychology.
Trolls are big and can destroy buildings, also possessing a vomit attack that can cause mild physical and emotional damage. They come a bit later than the other two (that should come pretty fast), but they can possibly be quite threatening. They only have blunt weapons, and not very good ones either.
The point of all these three entities is to provide some mostly-guaranteed threat in the early game.
The next release will focus on integrating Deon's DF Wanderer mod.
Finally, have a teaser:
