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Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress Revised (v3.1.1 for v0.47.04)  (Read 156359 times)

Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #105 on: March 17, 2018, 06:17:42 pm »

I don't want to spam my thread too much, but I should note that I've found several bugs in the current release. I messed up kobold floppy ears, for example. Several lines are missing end square brackets. There are some LIKES_FIGHTING tags that I needed to remove. There might be a few more. I don't think it's anything major, but the next release will have it all sorted out.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2018, 06:20:53 pm by Taffer »
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bloop_bleep

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #106 on: March 18, 2018, 12:40:39 am »

I remember reading somewhere that scratch attacks are so powerful because the game uses the entire finger to scratch. Perhaps you should an untargetable "nail" body part that connects to fingers and change the scratch attacks to use that instead?
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vvAve

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #107 on: March 18, 2018, 05:21:55 am »

Feels like unarmed nerf and skulls buff are a bit too much. Situations when dwarfs were kicking big unconscious animals for weeks with no effect are now even worse. 
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #108 on: March 18, 2018, 08:17:51 am »

I remember reading somewhere that scratch attacks are so powerful because the game uses the entire finger to scratch. Perhaps you should an untargetable "nail" body part that connects to fingers and change the scratch attacks to use that instead?

Good suggestion. I can give it a try, but to be honest, I dislike scratch attacks even if they are balanced. They're just used too often. I want to get the next release out soon, but I'll test nail scratch attacks after that to see what I think. Thanks for the idea!

Feels like unarmed nerf and skulls buff are a bit too much. Situations when dwarfs were kicking big unconscious animals for weeks with no effect are now even worse.

Yes, I agree. Revised was already thickening skin, which is a better solution anyway. The next release is reverting the unarmed attack nerf. Thank you kindly for the input! I'll also better document the changes in the tissues file, in the opening thread.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2018, 08:23:29 am by Taffer »
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #109 on: March 18, 2018, 10:58:37 am »

v1.5 v1.5.1 released. This is a dramatic cleanup of the RAW files. Unnecessary deviations from vanilla were reverted. Features I didn't care for were reverted. A few files were deleted and it'll be necessary to generate a new world, so you're best off installing over a fresh v0.44.07 installation. There's one new feature, courtesy of Warlord255: some insects have more accurate and more varied colors. Thank you! I also rewrote a few descriptions, including the empty bucket reaction descriptions.

  • the last remnants of microreduce have been removed.
  • the horn butt, horn gore, and mosquito male (non bloodsucking) attacks from the Modest Mod have been removed. This feature may return if the extra attacks prove to be popular: this is mainly being reverted because I want to make sure combat is in a good state.
  • the attack priority changes have been reverted. This was a noisy fix for debatable benefit.
  • the talon_scratch and kick attacks are now separate again for bird people, just like vanilla.
  • giant creatures no longer kick, just like vanilla. Revised still adds bite attacks to many giant creatures, they just won't kick.
  • all attack velocity reductions have been removed. Weapons are still rebalanced, skulls and skin are both thicker, so combat should still be in a reasonable place.
  • all of the pet and training changes have been reverted. Things are fine as they are in vanilla. Revised still adds children to trainable creatures that lack them, because training is broken otherwise. Revised also still increases the MAXAGE of trainable giant creatures with very short lifespans.
  • slow mounts and mounts that curl up when threatened are now mounts again, just like vanilla. Amphibious mounts are still not considered mounts anymore, because they drown invaders riding them. Testing how often this happens is on the todo list.
  • an untested fix for flying lungfish has been reverted, because I should have tested it first. Doing so is on the todo list.
  • snail, moon snail, and cave fish people now have legs, just like vanilla. I don't see why these creatures have to be legless, so I'll defer to Toady here. The descriptions account for this by describing their legs as "bloated and short". EDIT: the v1.6 or v1.5.2 release (whichever) will have "fin-like legs" for cave fish people, I just didn't feel like another point release.
  • the LIKES_FIGHTING tag imported from Wanderer has been removed wherever it appears, reverting things to vanilla. This tag is deprecated.

As mentioned, Revised is now significantly closer to vanilla in terms of lines changed. I want Revised to be as bug free as possible, and the more bloat there is in the RAWs, the more lines changed, the more potential there is for buggy behaviour. There's a reason I refuse to mod (or install mods) without comparing things to vanilla using diff tools, and why I've commented literally every line changed.

Better descriptors and improved body parts are absolutely on the agenda. I have lots of plans for Revised still, and that can proceed now that the description work is done (for now) and the files are cleaned up. When my todo list is finished I'll be doing another editing pass over the descriptions.

As always, contributions, suggestions, and critique are always welcome. Or just stories and comments.

EDIT: I forgot to revert the attack changes I made to creature_standard: without the velocity change fixes, there's no longer a need to replace locally defined attacks with global attacks. I also added woolly-limbed dwarves as an optional extra.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2018, 02:37:24 pm by Taffer »
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jecowa

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #110 on: March 18, 2018, 01:35:34 pm »

• forgotten beasts made of stone, wood, and metal can be butchered. (Modest))

Does butchering a wood and metal forgotten beasts produce logs and ores?

COMBAT IMPROVEMENTS

Do these combat changes make the game easier or harder?
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #111 on: March 18, 2018, 02:22:18 pm »

Does butchering a wood and metal forgotten beasts produce logs and ores?

Yes. I'll add testing this to my todo list, because it's been a long time. I really wish I could make bronze collossi drop statues of themselves rather than random statues, but I doubt that's possible without dfhack.

Do these combat changes make the game easier or harder?

It's complicated. I prefer a harder game if possible (checking and testing the harder farming mod is also on my todo list), but many of these changes weren't made "to make the game harder". I'll be looking into consolidating and removing layered armor, but that will take some testing (and will make the game harder, because armor layering is cheaty nonsense).

Quote from: Taffer
• elves siege and wield better—and more sensible—wooden weapons. (Coherent Weapons)

This definitely makes the game harder, unless you're playing as an elf in adventure mode. The weapons elves wield in vanilla, however, simply don't make sense. They're using "regular weapons, but shitty because they're made of wood". The weapons they wield in Revised make more sense as wooden weapons (clubs, for example). This is as much for flavor as it is for balance. Players shouldn't laugh off elf invasions. Dwarf Fortress elves are already reasonably unique in terms of lore. Personally, I think the new weapons suit Toady's vision for them better than their old weapons, but I can see why this would be a controversial change.

There's a bit of hand waving here, as their "hardened" wooden spears are much better than regular wooden spears, but that's easy to dismiss as being a culturally guarded secret. Some mods use magical wood here, but I prefer my approach. It'll also continue to make sense after the magic and myths update, but magical wood won't.

I'm considering elven wooden armor for an update, it's on the todo list. No idea if I'll go through with it. Probably not, because tiered leather is also on the todo list.

Quote from: Taffer
• long swords aren't easily used one-handed, but they slash better. (Coherent Weapons)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders.

Quote from: Taffer
• large spiders and spider people that couldn't trap with their web now can. (Modest)

Definitely harder, unless you happen to be playing one of the spider people that can trap with their webs. (Does adventure mode let you? Would be fun to test.)

Quote from: Taffer
• scratch attacks without claws or talons have been removed. (Grimlocke, Revised)

Neither harder nor easier, this affects all the main humanoid races. Combat just makes a bit more sense. A change in v1.5 that I didn't bother mentioning is that bear people can now use nail scratch attacks, even though it's not a talon attack. Because bears. I'll be going through the files and giving nail scratch attacks back to more animal people that thematically have long claws.

Quote from: Taffer
• many animals and humanoids aren't as flighty. Predators are fearless. (Wanderer)

Definitely harder. Things just won't run from you as easily in Adventure mode, and will be more willing to fight to the death in Fortress mode.

Quote from: Taffer
• scimitars are big and powerful, with a wide contact area. (Coherent Weapons)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders.

Quote from: Taffer
• bows and crossbows are weaker and differ from each other more. (Wanderer)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders. On the todo list is adding a reaction to make arrows in fortress mode, but I need to take stock again of just who uses bows now. Pretty sure elves use spear throwers exclusively now (for ranged).

Quote from: Taffer
• bone doesn't feel pain, and fat and muscle feel less pain. (Wanderer, Modest)

Neither harder nor easier, this affects everyone. Just makes combat and injuries make more sense. I suppose this makes it easier in Fortress mode whenever you're fighting something without bones, fat, or muscle.

Quote from: Taffer
• whips have been weakened and cost more to create. (Coherent Weapons)

Easier, unless you're in adventure mode wielding a whip. Whips aren't usually used in fortress mode but were overpowered before. The cost change here is the part of Coherent Weapons I'm the most confused about (I don't know why it's here), but I trust the author here. Might be worth looking into on the todo list.

Really, whips aren't weapons at all and never have been to my understanding (to any great degree). This is more D&D nonsense. It's a tool for controlling and hurting people and animals (or being kinky, apparently). I was tempted to remove whips entirely but that seemed unnecessary. If whips are too weak after these changes, then good riddance. That's what goblins get for using a stupid weapon. (I suppose I should add rethinking a whip replacement to the todo list).

Quote from: Taffer
• short swords and spears have smaller contact areas. (Coherent Weapons)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders. Come to think of it, I should confirm that this change also applies to the elven spears.

Quote from: Taffer
• long swords can now be gripped partly by the blade. (Coherent Weapons)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders.

Quote from: Taffer
• some insects have more accurate and more varied colors. (Warlord255)

Misplaced line. No affect on combat whatsoever.

Quote from: Taffer
• giant predators eat dwarves, and many ambush prey. (Modest)

Definitely harder. This is a significant change. They'll be a lot more dangerous creatures in savage areas. I'm not sure if so many of them need to be ambush predators, though: I might look into that.

Quote from: Taffer
• renamed body parts for more legible combat logs. (Modest)

No affect on combat whatsoever. Only better reading. An upcoming version will have some additional bones added (for good reasons, not just because), that will affect combat and will need to be tested.

Quote from: Taffer
• skulls are sturdier and skin is thicker. (Wanderer, Grimlocke)

Neither harder nor easier, this affects everyone. Easier, if you're facing something in Fortress mode that doesn't have a skull or any skin. Hopefully, this change alone is enough to balance combat better.

Quote from: Taffer
• short swords penetrate more. (Coherent Weapons)

Neither harder nor easier, weapons are used by both dwarves and invaders.

Quote from: Taffer
• many tissues now heal naturally. (Modest)

Easier, because the invaders will be dead or will flee, and who cares if they heal slightly better off screen. Fewer dwarves should need medical treatment for minor wounds. I need to take the time to rewrite some of these lines, as this is poorly written: this just makes hair, nails, horns, and more heal naturally (but slowly).

Quote from: Taffer
• many giant creatures can bite. (Modest)

Definitely harder, as you can't play as a giant creature and bite attacks are broken (overpowered). I don't think Toady will fix bite attacks even when he revisits combat, because he seems proud of stories of dwarves biting off limbs and carrying them around in their teeth. If a dwarf can bite off a limb, you can bet a giant lion can do worse.

Quote from: Taffer
• most humanoids won't bite. (Revised)

Neither harder nor easier, but combat makes a lot more sense. Arguably easier, if you're playing as a bird person or a bug person in adventure mode, because now you enjoy a strong attack that most of your opponents won't have.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2018, 02:52:17 pm by Taffer »
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Dahrk

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #112 on: March 21, 2018, 12:31:16 pm »

This is a seriously impressive endeavour! The fixes and improvements are very useful, but I actually find it hard to play without your descriptions now. Where once my eyes would skip over creature descriptions, I now go out of my way to inspect new arrivals!
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #113 on: March 21, 2018, 01:24:18 pm »

This is a seriously impressive endeavour! The fixes and improvements are very useful, but I actually find it hard to play without your descriptions now. Where once my eyes would skip over creature descriptions, I now go out of my way to inspect new arrivals!

Thanks so much! I worked hard on the descriptions. I'm pleased to see somebody enjoys them. If you notice any mispelled words or awkward sentences, please let me know!
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CarpBiter2000

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #114 on: March 26, 2018, 01:45:32 pm »

Just wanted to chime in and say that I too have been enjoying the new descriptions a lot. Also, I've been silently playing Revised for almost 2 years now, and I figured I'd finally make an account and say "thank you". So, thank you, Taffer.
(checking and testing the harder farming mod is also on my todo list)
That's something I'd really like to see. There is way too much food just lying around, and running "deteriorate food" all the time causes a lot of job cancellations that annoy me. And it's not healthy for my fortresses to have me annoyed. Not healthy at all.
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #115 on: March 28, 2018, 09:56:45 am »

Just wanted to chime in and say that I too have been enjoying the new descriptions a lot. Also, I've been silently playing Revised for almost 2 years now, and I figured I'd finally make an account and say "thank you". So, thank you, Taffer.

Thank you, and you're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

That's something I'd really like to see. There is way too much food just lying around, and running "deteriorate food" all the time causes a lot of job cancellations that annoy me. And it's not healthy for my fortresses to have me annoyed. Not healthy at all.

I'll see what I can do, then! I have a lot to deal with at the moment, but when life settles a little I'll work on Revised more.
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Meph

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #116 on: March 29, 2018, 10:04:38 am »

I started merging revised into the tileset launcher pack. So far I have to say I'm really impressed. Sensible changes, everything documented inside the files themselves, and a lot more intricate changes than I expected.

Only bug, if you want to call it that, that I've seen so far is in tissue_template_default, the first entry has a duplicate line:
Quote
[TISSUE_TEMPLATE:SKIN_TEMPLATE]
   [TISSUE_NAME:skin:NP]
   [SCARS]
   [TISSUE_MATERIAL:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SKIN]
   [RELATIVE_THICKNESS:2] Revision: made skin thicker.

   Lower is faster.
   [HEALING_RATE:100]

   [VASCULAR:1]
   [RELATIVE_THICKNESS:2] Revision: made skin thicker.

You added the thickness change twice, but it has literally no negative effect. I'll post more if I find something.

Edit: Just saw the item_weapon changes.

The material change to whips has no effect on gameplay, since the player never makes whips, and goblins are not playable.

The elven clubs/giant clubs seem thematically a bit... unfitting to slender elves. Might I suggest batons, quarter-staffs or the like? Still a blunt wooden weapon, but not quite as low-tech.

Edit2: Suggestion: Your new creature descriptions are fairly colorful, but ultimately do not help the player get more information about the creature. What about adding facts from the raws? Creature size, clutch size, max age and the like. Anything that would be of interest to the player. An example:

   Vanilla: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast, known for its tusks and powerful build.]

   Revised: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast with large tusks, short legs, and a stocky body. It has strong neck muscles to dig for food, and uses its snout as a plow.] Revision: rewrote description.

   Revised v2: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast with large tusks, short legs, and a stocky body. It has strong neck muscles to dig for food, and uses its snout as a plow. A benign meanderer, it appears in groups of 5 to 10 individuals. It lives to be up to 20 years old, weighting up to 80kg. It's an exotic pet if you can tame it and valued with 100 urists on the market. Beware its tusk attack.] Revision: rewrote description.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2018, 10:25:00 am by Meph »
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Taffer

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #117 on: March 29, 2018, 11:21:27 pm »

I started merging revised into the tileset launcher pack. So far I have to say I'm really impressed. Sensible changes, everything documented inside the files themselves, and a lot more intricate changes than I expected.

Thank you for the vote of confidence! Hopefully I'll get more comments, suggestions and criticism once it's in your launcher.

Only bug, if you want to call it that, that I've seen so far is in tissue_template_default, the first entry has a duplicate line:
...
You added the thickness change twice, but it has literally no negative effect. I'll post more if I find something.

Good catch! Thanks for the report!

Edit: Just saw the item_weapon changes.

The material change to whips has no effect on gameplay, since the player never makes whips, and goblins are not playable.

The elven clubs/giant clubs seem thematically a bit... unfitting to slender elves. Might I suggest batons, quarter-staffs or the like? Still a blunt wooden weapon, but not quite as low-tech.

I admit that I'm a little attached to the primitive elf weapons now, especially since I envision them being more aztec inspired than caveman inspired, but the quarterstaff is a decent idea. I'll see what I can do, even if it's just describing them differently.

Edit2: Suggestion: Your new creature descriptions are fairly colorful, but ultimately do not help the player get more information about the creature. What about adding facts from the raws? Creature size, clutch size, max age and the like. Anything that would be of interest to the player. An example:

   Vanilla: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast, known for its tusks and powerful build.]

   Revised: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast with large tusks, short legs, and a stocky body. It has strong neck muscles to dig for food, and uses its snout as a plow.] Revision: rewrote description.

   Revised v2: [DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized beast with large tusks, short legs, and a stocky body. It has strong neck muscles to dig for food, and uses its snout as a plow. A benign meanderer, it appears in groups of 5 to 10 individuals. It lives to be up to 20 years old, weighting up to 80kg. It's an exotic pet if you can tame it and valued with 100 urists on the market. Beware its tusk attack.] Revision: rewrote description.

I admit to being a little wary about another big pass over the descriptions, but you raise a good point. I've been leaning more towards simple descriptions than complex ones, but I could definitely stand to include some more useful information. I'd rather do that all in one go than a bit at a time, however, so I'll have to delay that at least until my todo list for Revised is done. It'd be a shame to improve a handful of descriptions and leave the rest of the game's creatures comparatively lacking.
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Meph

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #118 on: March 30, 2018, 04:55:43 am »

Well, there are only around 600 creatures or so. :P

I'll do some more work today, I'll let you know if I spot anything else.

If you don't mind, I might write a few longer descriptions myself afterwards, which you might or might not use, as you like.

Edit: Saw the "[SIEGER] Revision: elves will now siege.". Is it possible that you misunderstood that tag? It changes the siege AI, with the sieger-tag the invading elven armies will make camps and starts camp-fires and wait outside for months and months... instead of pathing straight in or leaving, if that's not possible. They will not act like a goblin siege, but like a human siege. Together with the ambush tag, that makes elven sieges pretty hard to deal with, because their army is both invisible at first AND camping outside.

Edit2: You do simplify the black mamba to just mamba... why exactly? To quote Wikipedia: "Four extant species are recognised currently; three of those four species are essentially arboreal and green in colour, whereas the so-called black mamba..." People wouldn't know if the mamba is a black mamba or another mamba.

Edit3: Same for king cobra to cobra.
Edit4: Same for buffalo and water buffalo... as someone who rode through Africa and had to hide from damn cape buffalos, while petting tame water buffalos in India, I'd say the distinction is quite important. :P

Edit5: Thrips... It says "[CREATURE:THRIPS][DESCRIPTION:A tiny pest insect. It feeds on both crops and other bugs.] Revision: rewrote description." But the description is exactly the same as in vanilla DF.

Edit6: Giant Moon Snail have [MOUNT_EXOTIC] in vanilla, in your file versions they do not. No note about removing it though. On other snails/slugs you removed it, with a note saying that they are too slow to be used sensibly as mounts. Guess the same should be true for moon snails.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2018, 07:08:32 am by Meph »
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CarpBiter2000

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Re: Revised for v0.44.07. All creature descriptions rewritten!
« Reply #119 on: March 30, 2018, 07:49:48 am »

clubs
clubs
There are different kinds of clubs, though. Something like this, for example, looks slim and elvish enough and is still called a club:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, quarterstaves seem a bit pointless. The elves already have what is essentially a wooden quartertaff with a (slightly) pointy end. Alternatives like Fijian "totokias",
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Irish "shillelaghs"
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
and African "knobkerries"
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
are relatively long and bashy, but their names are way too exotic for an average user like me to recognize. Therefore, I suggest the laziest solution possible: renaming the clubs into "elven war clubs" and letting the player use his imagination.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2018, 06:29:05 am by CarpBiter2000 »
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