Also maybe stick to a specific theme for the content (nothing too constricting obviously, but something a bit more concrete than MDF had). Just my opinion, but one of my biggest beefs with MDF was that the sheer amount of clashing content made it feel artificial to me and took away from DF's storytelling potential simply because player worlds didn't feel like individual settings anymore.
This. To me, MDF's appeal lay in the various playable custom civs, with their strategy-game sensibilities and the unique fortress experiences they offered. Something like Fortress Defense, while also a darned fine mod, was clearly tailored to a rather different experience, with a distinct aesthetic.
It should probably also include the original ASCII as one of the tilesets for those who prefer it. Because unless I missed it, all the tilesets in MDF were user-made.
Also this. ASCII is love, ASCII is life. The apostates and the heretics must not be allowed to prevail.
Well currently my new mod pack is a full install of ZM5s entire mods so WC/DD for additional creatures/plants/minerals/etc. and as adventure mode is in there, and his cave revamp is in too to add to the caverns, more plants, more creatures. ZM5 has worked really hard on this and it is balanced. Its also a full install of grimlocke's weapons/armor/tool gear + bodyplan updates so you wont be wearing generic DF gear anymore. I've combined these two and worked out the few "errors" that cropped up. Grimlocke's iron mineral deposits are also in so easier access to iron (which always amazed me how you couldn't find one of the 3 most common metals on earth on many embarks). Additionally Grimlocke's "historic metal smithing" is in and planned for human usage.
due to the fact that ZM5 also includes several races, those will be made capable of on and off, and many are planned to fully replace vanilla DF races. I plan to flesh out fort mode play for several of these. If anyone wants to create races and stuff that would fit inside that environment go for it. I'm also looking for more collaborators/writers, I can't do it all. I haven't fully idealized the mod launcher yet. Basically I don't want to many different WTFs that doesn't match. I do have a graphic artist and the concept of workshops being artwork pieced together is a big talking point, we want our own look and feel. As for graphics, as our programmer works his way through the mod launcher we do plan to have more graphic options, but since the launcher may not be ready for production(I have faith in him, but I expect at least a month out past initial release), initial game play will most likely be setup with generic settings. i.e. until the launcher is nearer to completion initial testing will be with all mods on and a singular graphic pack that I have already installed while doing design work...
Currently its ALPHA... but a very stable ALPHA... As I add in each new group of things, I'm ensuring compatibility and zero error log and testing out new reactions as they come. As for theme: well I'd just call it a warcraft fantasy style theme in which each race is its own individual theme of fort game play while allowing you to traverse the wilderness of a world where you can literally experience all sorts of things. As far as being plastic/artificial... well I try to tie down the clashing content. I'm asking creators to consider what is already in the pack and to balance it to that. I'm not bringing back massive amounts of mini mods that just doesn't fit in. I'm having each race be sandboxed so that we can fully remove them from the experience and not have the rest of the pack insta break when someone decides they don't want dwarves or whatever. The massive amount of options available in MDF is not going to reappear in in LDF; either you have the race on|off; fort on|off as it is, or you don't. That is to keep more control over the theme of each etc.
back to original graphics... I plan to do something easier than how MDF does graphics. I plan to basically set it up to give a) run original DF graphics, or b) run TWBT and allow setting a font and tileset group that comes with its own color scheme. I'm really interested in anyone doing TWBT_NEXT graphic sets. the reason I want to do this is because I want to showcase tileset writers work as they intended it to be, while allowing players to switch between them and standard DF graphics.
Additionally my pack is going to be designed to SHOWCASE the mod writers and graphics creators etc. I want to include small write-ups so on the graphics switch page it will tell you who wrote the graphic set you have selected, may even allow splash images, say 160x160 or 320x320 banners that pop up beside the selector which will be designed by that graphic artist. Modders who contribute to various things will have their name prominently displayed next to options for their content ; Individuals who contribute large sections of code may even have their own pages on the launcher that includes all the switches for that mod writer's content and banner/image for their content. I want it to be a showcase of the community and to keep the idea that "I made all of it". far from the players mind. so when they come here to discuss it, they can actually discuss say ZM5 or Stagnant Soul's content with them.
