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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I've recently had the desire to start up a new mod for dwarf fortress.  My current ideas amount to the setting of the mod having the various civilizations being different corporations or groups of raiders setting up on a newly discovered planet.  However, I do need a bit of help with ideas beyond that, though, as the only other major ones are to use humans for each of the groups and each utilizing different types of weapons (Ex. one uses coilguns, another uses laser rifles, third uses plasma, etc.).  It would probably also be good to have some ideas for flora/fuana modification suggestions as well.

However, all of this is moot unless the title question is answered.

[raeborga]

Yes.

I would start a poll.
Add some options as you see fit.
People love polls.

[Enemy post]

Have you seen the First Landing mod?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=151180.0

It's mostly abandoned, maybe Milo will let you take over if you want.

[Splint]

I would say yes, but laser and plasma weaponry would be a pain in the ass to model correctly. Sooo... Random suggestion time.

Mass Drivers/Rail Guns - Extremely hard hitting magnetic weapons, with heavy ammo that is produced in small stacks, and poor melee useage, with no bayonet options, and no shield option. Resource-intensive to produce, probably needing lots of gold, silver, and copper for wiring and some kind of nuclear battery. Should splatter a human-sized target on a hit regardless of protective measures.

Coilguns - Mid-tier magnetic weapons. Encumbering ammo, but not ridiculously so. Rifle version mounts a bayonet. Can't splatter a human like Rail-guns should, but can be produced for a considerably lower cost and has a pistol version comparable to a ballistic rifle to allow a shield.

Ballistics - Lower-end weapons, but serviceable, especially in large numbers. Rifles can knock targets down and defeat armor + has a bayonet, pistols allo shield use of course and can injure foes (good early support weapon,) and shotguns (can take off limbs and in general cause severe bleeding, but ammo can't defeat armor + bayonet)

Hunting bows and crossbows - absolute bottom rung survival weapons. Ammo should cause horrendous bleeding but can't best any sort of military level armor.

Factions
Star Raiders - Two versions, one that steals shit and one that kidnaps people, presumably for ransom. Typical enemy.
Tribal aliens - Animal-man type civ. Hostile to human factions. Possibly make'em playable and try to fight the space age with sticks, stones, and stolen weapons?
Glittertech - G-Techers are a lategame trade partner, a company that deals in advanced industrial building and weapon schematics and crates of ammo or parts for advanced weapons and armor (at downright extortionate rates.) Need to work with them to unlock late-game things. Piss them off and face enemies armed with the best kit available. Also a RimWorld reference.
Voidfarers - Regular colonists and the player faction. Can buy crates of certain materials (such as wood or copper) from them. Active twice a year to make up for no elf stand ins.

Some means of making plastic to make cheap and light tools and parts, refining uranium for advanced technologies, and a gunsmith to make basic military grade ranged weapons and ammo.

Armor includes...

Power Armor - Without DFHack, simply all encasing armor that is a bitch and a half to face off against head on. Only found on Glittertech mercenaries and wealthy Voidfarer militaries.
Impact Armor - Armor made from materials that can feasibly stand up to coilguns and advanced melee weapons.
Combat Armor - Military grade armor. Basically just renamed from vanilla. No chain armor of any sort.
Hardened Leather Armor - One can harden leather at the tannery and use it to make leather body armor and helmets to protect against wildlife and tribal threats. Useless against anything else.

Animal life would depend on the type of planet the mod is set on. More avian, insect/arachnid and lizard-y critters would probably dominate a fungal or arid world, while more lush ones would probably have something like typical mammals and amphibians in charge.

[milo christiansen]

If you want any part of First Landing (or the entire thing even) you have my blessing

You may want to take a look at the Underhive Settlement reboot too, as it builds on techniques I developed with FL.

[JakeSlayer]

This would be EPIC if done right I would like to help if at all possible.I like the idea of different factions having different specialties maybe adding in some aliens too with their own weapons,armors abilities if possible IDK just throwing things out.

[Imic]

I am willing to help part time! I shall be the royal loremaster if I am wanted!

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Large post incoming.

I would say yes, but laser and plasma weaponry would be a pain in the ass to model correctly. Sooo... Random suggestion time.

Mass Drivers/Rail Guns - Extremely hard hitting magnetic weapons, with heavy ammo that is produced in small stacks, and poor melee useage, with no bayonet options, and no shield option. Resource-intensive to produce, probably needing lots of gold, silver, and copper for wiring and some kind of nuclear battery. Should splatter a human-sized target on a hit regardless of protective measures.

Coilguns - Mid-tier magnetic weapons. Encumbering ammo, but not ridiculously so. Rifle version mounts a bayonet. Can't splatter a human like Rail-guns should, but can be produced for a considerably lower cost and has a pistol version comparable to a ballistic rifle to allow a shield.

Ballistics - Lower-end weapons, but serviceable, especially in large numbers. Rifles can knock targets down and defeat armor + has a bayonet, pistols allo shield use of course and can injure foes (good early support weapon,) and shotguns (can take off limbs and in general cause severe bleeding, but ammo can't defeat armor + bayonet)

Hunting bows and crossbows - absolute bottom rung survival weapons. Ammo should cause horrendous bleeding but can't best any sort of military level armor.

Would it be possible to model Laser/Plasma using a bolt labeled '(Laser/Plasma) Shot' that would break on contact?  Considering most ballistic weapons would need that as well since you tend to not be able to reload a shot into the gun (due to deformation from impact, using up the gunpowder fuel), I would not think it is too much of a leap.

There's a way for entities to rename professions/skills, right?  Got an idea for renaming the combat skills that wouldn't see use in the far future to represent different categories of weapon, but I need to be certain whether that would work or not.

Factions
Star Raiders - Two versions, one that steals shit and one that kidnaps people, presumably for ransom. Typical enemy.
Tribal aliens - Animal-man type civ. Hostile to human factions. Possibly make'em playable and try to fight the space age with sticks, stones, and stolen weapons?
Glittertech - G-Techers are a lategame trade partner, a company that deals in advanced industrial building and weapon schematics and crates of ammo or parts for advanced weapons and armor (at downright extortionate rates.) Need to work with them to unlock late-game things. Piss them off and face enemies armed with the best kit available. Also a RimWorld reference.
Voidfarers - Regular colonists and the player faction. Can buy crates of certain materials (such as wood or copper) from them. Active twice a year to make up for no elf stand ins.

This sounds good for a basic set.  For the alien tribes, could even use DF's animal men.  Might make some changes though.
Goblins replaced as two types of Raiders sounds good.  Might have them both be organized named groups, though, with a kobold replacement representing the unorganized raiders.
Dwarves being replaced by a high tech mining/manufacturing group sounds good as well, though I don't think the civ should be directly named after anything in particular, just taking after the style.
Humans being replaced by regular colonists supported by the government sounds good.  Hope to make it so this isn't the only player faction in the future, but this seems to be a good starting location.  Might go with the name of the nation rather than 'Voidfarers', as the major name, though.
As for an elf replacement, what about using a biotech corporation, maybe utilizing genetic engineering in some capacity (if made playable, then through a workshop that produces a transformative gas to transform them into a lower-than-average frequency set of castes (caste rather than separate to allow showing up regularly in history and allow them to still have kids with the rest of the population))?

Some means of making plastic to make cheap and light tools and parts, refining uranium for advanced technologies, and a gunsmith to make basic military grade ranged weapons and ammo.

Would using a custom job to extract an 'oil' resource from pieces of shale make sense as a way to get material for plastics, or should I use a different method?

Armor includes...

Power Armor - Without DFHack, simply all encasing armor that is a bitch and a half to face off against head on. Only found on Glittertech mercenaries and wealthy Voidfarer militaries.
Impact Armor - Armor made from materials that can feasibly stand up to coilguns and advanced melee weapons.
Combat Armor - Military grade armor. Basically just renamed from vanilla. No chain armor of any sort.
Hardened Leather Armor - One can harden leather at the tannery and use it to make leather body armor and helmets to protect against wildlife and tribal threats. Useless against anything else.

This makes sense.  However, what would I be able to do to the Power Armor with DFhack?

Animal life would depend on the type of planet the mod is set on. More avian, insect/arachnid and lizard-y critters would probably dominate a fungal or arid world, while more lush ones would probably have something like typical mammals and amphibians in charge.

I was somewhat thinking of having each biome somewhat be a reference to a sci-fi franchise with such a setting (ex. Tundras being similar to Hoth, Deserts having Starship Troopers-like insects or Dune-esque, etc) combined with a bit of the DF stuff (Underground life will likely largely be the same, but renamed).  I can't think of too many franchises off the top of my head, so suggestions would be welcome.

If you want any part of First Landing (or the entire thing even) you have my blessing

You may want to take a look at the Underhive Settlement reboot too, as it builds on techniques I developed with FL.

Thank you.  I'll look into both mods to see what you did in each.

This would be EPIC if done right I would like to help if at all possible.I like the idea of different factions having different specialties maybe adding in some aliens too with their own weapons,armors abilities if possible IDK just throwing things out.

Right now, I want to keep it to just various human factions encountering a strange world, but if I ever get to the point I could make a Masterwork-style launcher, I could add the option to enable some sort of alien civ.

I am willing to help part time! I shall be the royal loremaster if I am wanted!

Any help is welcome.  Could have you to write up the descriptions of the creatures to sound like a short scientific analysis when they are being overhauled, if you are interested in that.

[Splint]

Energy Weapons: Best I've seen done is as a material emission attack, to represent energy weapons built into robots, otherwise stray rounds would be left lying around, which is basically inevitable regardless. Can be justified somewhat if ammo for coilguns and massdrivers use an especially hard material to reduce deforming and allowing the projectiles to be recycled/reused, while bullets can be handwaved as undeformed enough to be reloaded into a new cartridge.

Profession names can be changed between creature types, aye.

Glittertech: It's actually the name of a mod for RimWorld, which unlocks all kinds of new technologies such as organ cloning and bionics. I figured a referential name would be fitting, since the idea of the faction is the same: A megacorporation able to fund deep space trade expeditions, and trade with them unlocks all kinds of new production possibilities, and drawing thier ire means facing mercenaries armed with the best gear available to human soldiers.

Voidfarer name: Rather than be a single polity, I went with a name that would be able to encompass people from literally anywhere - Earth, Mars, Potato World 92, where-ever, and sounded a little fancier than just calling them colonists.

Kobold stand-ins: Scavengers. They get by on what they can find, and it stands to reason if they think they can take you on, they might try to find other scavvers to assault your colony. Would likely use a mix of ballistic, survival, and melee weapons.

Thought on Melee: It would be wise to include them due to the logistics nightmare of arming even small numbers of men early on for ranged combat or if you can't get certain resources directly from your map - if all you have is gold and copper, then you'll have to make due with copper knives and cudgles until you can import the stuff to make better gear.

DFhack Power Armor: Using itemsyndrome, the armor can physically boost agility/strength (the armor makes for longer strides and carries its own weight and servos enhance the wearer's raw physical might,) and focus/analytical abilities (targeting and optic zoom sensors)

I'd say extracting oil from shale sounds good, as well as maybe finding "crashed pod" gem clusters that can be salvaged for plastics, metal, and circuit boards in soil layers, which has the added benefit of impplying previous colonists in the area (or survivors of ship failures.)

Biotech Company: Seems reasonable. Maybe even have them as an avenue of restoring damaged limbs and the like taking advantage of the transformation thing that regrows severed limbs and restores nerve damage, trading with them for technology that can regrow limbs and repair nervous tissue.

Biomes: like I said, depends on the type of world the people are encountering. If it's strictly supposed to be an Earth stand-in, then go for super diversity, though biodiversity would be much lower on a world that's mainly arid and semi-arid deserts and brushland or dominated by fields and towering growths of fungi.

[skelepound]

It seems like a good idea - i would also see if you can use the necromancer or vampire things to make mutants - except it would be like, they generate a cloud of radiation, and if you get too close, you become a mutant, and your fellow humans will attack you. Big ol stat boosts, so great vs. the tribesman and animals you spoke of - and if you can get close enough, only power armor should be able to stand up to a mutant's strength. But, as a tradeoff, you cannot wear armor yourself, and are vulnerable to weapons. Also maybe make the tribesman like native americans, and give certain individuals like shamans abilitities linked to mysticism, or ust to their sheer discipline. Allowing them to stop heavy bleeding at will and such.

[Kyubee]

be sure to make it modular.

[Rekov]

Definitely put Master of Orion 2 style blue space elves in. Better yet, make them playable.