I'm currently plugging away at a different take on the old Playable Kobolds idea. Trying to keep the spirit as close as possible to DF's Kobolds, without veering too hard into Forgotten Realms kobolds, or the whole Aboriginal Cutebold territory. Tentatively titled
Kobold Caverns.
The general idea so far:
- Kobolds have local-only government, with no central monarch supporting your expedition, so your settlement is largely on it's own.
- Diplomacy and trade are
technically options, but your Kobolds aren't particularly well-liked, so positive relations are an uphill battle.
- Kobolds are prone to banditry, and even your own civ can splinter off into rogue camps that might give you trouble.
- As your settlement grows, all military and social leaders become elected mini-nobles, who demand trinkets and special treatment.
- Kobolds tend to bond quickly, and have multiple kids which grow up as fast as animals, to make up for the low immigration.
- A broader range of intelligent creatures/monsters can petition to settle at your camp, like harpies and serpent-folk.
- You can metal-craft, but you'll need to
acquire anvils from your neighbors. And alloys, if you want to use harder metal than copper or lead.
- Due to being tiny, Kobolds use smaller weapons and tools, though some Dwarf weapons can be 2-handed by particularly mighty kobolds.
- Kobolds are anxious little critters, and tend to flee or go catatonic in melee. They do best with war animals, traps, and ranged weapons.
- To round out their ranged damage types, they can use cloth and leather slings, which use Throwing skill to deal ranged blunt damage.
- When they can't steal, they rely on wood, stone, and animal products. Expanded bone, shell, scale, ceramic, and wood crafting are available.
- Kobolds have access to unique animals, like large cave rats for meat, dog-sized wooly spiders for silk, or helmet snakes for eggs (and venom).
- They lack artful language, but still dance and play music (
with gibberish lyrics and single-note melodies, but they're doing their best).
And since the graphical release doesn't have a working kobold sprite sheet for most clothes and gear, I've been re-spriting all their equipment! Whoof!
Also pictured here are some of their new small weapons, and a few pets.
I ran into a bit of a snag trying to let them envenom their weapons and traps without DFHack. Latest attempt was a ridiculous idea, to use a crafting recipe that creates a "venom gas", which induces an inhalation syndrome that briefly panics them and enables them to use a fear-based interaction to emit venom mist from their hands and onto their weapons. But the result was weird, clumsy, and wasn't consistently triggering.
For now, they have access to several venomous war animals, and I'll probably add proper venom support when the game allows, or if I get any better ideas for doing it without hacks! Hoping to release the first draft on the Steam Workshop, and backport it to classic over the next week or so.
That pyromancy mod is finished with the help of some smarter people from this board, now I'm feeling ambitious and wish to make more types of -mancers. Starting with one revolving around either wind or water.
Always thought magic mods were a neat concept! If you're looking for ideas, interactions like PROPEL_UNIT could be neat for wind. And I think dust clouds made of fixed-temp supercold materials can make things freeze, for water.
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Topic: What's going on in your modding? (Read 275662 times)