Mankind is finished. The earth, once home to his vast, sprawling cities, is little more than a polluted ruin populated only by what little life remains in a world gone mad. But life as we know it is not the ruler of this world, anymore. This is the age of steel, the age of the thinking machines and their vicious battles for survival. Renegade war constructs raze and destroy the countryside, blindly following their programming to destroy all they encounter, and thousands of androids march in wars of conquest only to die by the hundreds as the oil leaks from their torn metal shells. To enter this world is to forget what you have known about combat, for the inhabitants of the age of steel feel no pain and wear skin of cold iron, with terrible weapons that no mortal animal could survive but a single blow from. Who will you choose to support in the struggle for survival? Will you throw your lot in with the various hard metal androids who need only water and air to survive? Or will you join the nanomachine swarms and devour the metal of your foes? Or will you ally with the daemoniacs and simply try to kill everyone who isn't you?
Or will you play one of the last humans in the world, and try not to die?
All of these options and more await you in the age of steel:
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As of version 1.5 I am moving this to beta. I still have lots of things planned, but I would say the "core" mechanics this mod intends to focus on have been at least added to the game, though they could definitely use some fleshing out.
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What is Age of Steel?
The Age of Steel is a total conversion mod that aims to turn the entire world of dwarf fortress into a post-apocalyptic scifi setting where mankind is nearly extinct and the primary inhabitants of the land are sentient machines, coming in many different types and each with their own agenda. In a general sense, however, they can be classified into two categories; nanite-based and 'hard metal' androids. Nanite beings are robots that shape themselves out of nanomachines and a solid core. They are typically sleeker and more humanoid in terms of design, and have control of nanomachine life-forms. Hard metal androids, on the other hand, are more the type of robot most people think of when they hear the word; a person shaped mass of metal plates, sensor modules, circuits, and cpu boards. The two differ in that hard metal androids need to breathe and circulate air, and they only need water or other liquids to survive. Nanite androids must consume food, which is often nanopaste derived from processed metals, and need to drink to survive, but do not need to breathe. As development progresses, more detail will be added, and eventually I hope to create a fully fleshed-out setting.
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Changelog:
2.85 changes:
-Updated to 44.11
2.8 changes:
-Updated to 44.10
2.75 changes:
-re-added manual (highly recommend reading)
-leadbelchers and demoniacs should have more jobs
-reduced ammo weight
-everyone can use minecarts now hopefully
-fixed deconstruct ammo and corpse maybe
-unique title music added
2.71 changes:
-Updated to 44.09
2.7 changes:
-Some primitive projectile weapons added to a few civs.
-Updated for 44.08.
2.7 changes:
-some primitive projectile weapons added to a few civs.
-updated for 44.08
2.65 changes:
-All civs should use pig iron now, I missed that.
-Fixed crafting bug
-New technowizard class, the Defective. They will broadcast good and bad emotions in equal measure. Like a vampire, they will siphon the code of other machines in order to survive, and will conceal their presence within a fortress should they migrate to one.
2.6 changes:
-3 new civilizations added. Observers, which are relatively friendly collectors of knowledge, Manowars, which are ruthlessly ambitious colonial empires, and Spinebacks, which are anarchic masses of machines doing everything they can to tear down civilized society.
-Feral roombas added to the wilderness.
-A large machine predator added to the wilderness.
-Taffer's Dawnbringer tileset added. One because it looks neat and two because vanilla ASCII hurts my eyes.
-Greatly enhanced leather and bone crafting, but don't expect that stuff to be too helpful.
2.5 changes:
-Age of Steel updated to 44.07
2.4 changes:
-Age of Steel updated to 44.06
2.35 changes:
-"Wood" armor removed from certain civs, it caused problems and couldn't be replicated in fort mode.
-Weaver females now give live birth. Gestation time is tripled for pregnancy but litter size is doubled so I hope that balances it out.
-Some civs have more in-depth role names.
-Some other misc fixes.
2.3 changes:
-Can now turn iron to steel in the supermetal refinery.
-Language files tweaked and bugged words fixed.
-IMPORTANT: I have had to remove tank armor due to NPC soldiers spawning with it as a shield, they should not be doing that. Just bring your own shield or armor up when driving a tank, because you will be vulnerable.
-New vehicle, the dune buggy. Half the size of a jeep and a reduced carrying capacity, but can be made with just the 3D printer. Good for solo adventurers who don't want to settle down.
-Grazing animals have been fixed, they should have proper dietary needs according to their size. The affected animals are grazer nanoswarms, mining drones, mobile fuel synthesizers, and swamp lobsters.
2.2 changes:
-Using minecart physics, I have created 3 pilotable vehicles for you, usable only by adventurers unfortunately because NPCs don't know how to work them. They control exactly like minecarts do in adventure mode, so be careful! If you run into a wall, ramp, or other solid object, you will probably die, so don't do that. To operate, stand atop the vehicle, press 'u', and select the desired direction you wish to go in. You will pick up speed from there and soon enough will be zooming across the concrete! Please note that yes, you can attack from a vehicle if you so desire. There are three types of vehicles:
-Motorbikes: These are lightweight, can be crafted with just a 3D printer, and cannot hold anything in storage.
-Jeeps: These have a heavy weight so don't try carrying them around, can store a great deal of possessions, and can only be made at a carpenters workshop (its clunky but it will have to do. You should only be able to construct large vehicles at a site you control, since its a big deal.)
-Tanks: Yes, you heard me. These have less storage and require the carpenter's workshop, but have some unique benefits, namely that the tank is actually three separate items that must be held together in order to work. Upon constructing a tank, you will receive the "primitive tank" item. This is the base and is driven as described above. The other two items are the "weapon" called the tank turret, which is far too heavy to use outside of a vehicle but fires artillery rounds, and the tank armor "shield" which can deflect a great deal of blows even when the user is unskilled. Stepping inside the tank and equipping the turret and armor come together to form a tank-like entity that can be driven and fired.
As a final warning, this is all very clunky and silly so there is no pressure to download this update right now as its more a proof of concept than anything and when mounts are added they will probably be better in every way. However I will be keeping these in for the madmen among you who enjoy it.
2.15 changes:
-emergency fix to Obsolete species
2.1 changes:
-Megabeasts tameable
-Eliminators will take over civs
2.0 changes:
-Various tweaks and fixes to make sure everything is running smoothly.
-New fauna both passive and predatory.
-Several new forms of machine life.
-Weaver civs can now tame organic creatures, and Inhumans specialize in taming two of them but will otherwise just kill to get what they need. It should be noted that player fortresses can tame just about any animal or machine, though.
-Cyberwraiths are now guaranteed to have access to every species of nanomachine life, as befits their status as the most advanced of the sentient nanomachine races.
-Handbook updated to include desert biome lore since I forgot to put that in last time.
1.975 changes:
-fix to Inhuman civ files
-fixed rats
1.97 changes:
-Lots of new organic life added.
-You may or may not be able to carve chitin like you do bone now.
-Kabutos playable in adventure mode.
-Handbook has a section on how the biomes of the world have been changed.
-Inhumans have a lashing tail attack now.
1.96 changes:
-All civs can now process coal from stone.
-Subcastes have unique tiles for easy identification, as do Weaver females.
-Hauling takes a very long time for Weavers since they are so small. They now have a slave-race called the Kabuto to handle such things. Kabutos are intelligent, but have the status of animals in Weaver civilizations. They also can only be found in Weaver civs, but will always be found in them.
-A nocturnal rat creature has been added to the lands. It is found in all biomes, but is somewhat rare and only appears during the night. Tame them to gain a steady supply of leather.
-Daemoniacs will use evil creatures as beasts of war.
-The various Obsolete races were merged into one race with varying subcastes since otherwise they'd consistently crowd out the other races.
1.955 changes:
-refinery interactions fixed to real honestly
-nanomachine refinery reactions also fixed.
1.95 changes:
-fixed supermetal refinery for real this time.
1.94 changes:
-New weapon, the gunstaff. Its a staff you can shoot bullets out of. Melee attacks include jabbing and bashing. Can be found in various civs.
-Supermetal refinery reactions are either fixed completely or you get 100 metal bars on completing one reaction idk.
-New armor, the battle standard. Basically just a metal pole with the sigil of your nation engraved atop it. Place it on your soldiers to be cool and gain a bit more protection.
-New spells for the techno-wizards. Or one spell, rather. Each class of technological wizardry has a spell that allows them to negate the worst effects of mindhacking, though they will be disoriented and stumbling around if they get hit by such an attack. They will still be able to fight, though. Make sure you cast it before such an enemy can hit you though, or its all over.
-Obsolete overhaul. Rather than being just one race, Obsoletes now have six different species which share the same name, but have vastly different bodies and cannot interbreed. An Obsolete civilization has a random chance to be populated by one of these species. But beyond their physical appearance they are more or less identical in stats and abilities, so I will still be referring to Obsolete as a single "race" of defunct and abandoned machines.
-Obsolete, Mach-Head, Leadbelcher, and Weaver civs can make armor from wood now. Or concrete and scrap metal, in this case. As they are some of the more primitive civilizations, I thought it would be fitting.
-Automatons could not construct grinder workshops, this has been fixed.
-The handbook now covers the various races and their lore, along with recommendations for how one might play the average fortress of that race.
1.93 changes:
-Fixed issue with necromancers not spawning. New change as well. If you start as a black wizard you can gain the powers of a white one by reading a slab of theirs, but you cannot start as a white wizard and gain the powers of a black one later on. This is unfortunate but it prevents every NPC from eventually turning to the dark arts when there is supposed to be an even mix of good and evil technowizards.
-New playable outsider robots, the valkyries. Very skilled in all manner of combat and can fly, but very rare.
-New predator machine, the disassembler. Its big and has massive crushing claws.
-Protomasses have hair now. Well its not actual hair, they just craft their bodies to have protrusions resembling hair, but you get the idea.
-Some new helmets
-Only inhuman alphas can be kings, mayors, or expedition leaders now for inhuman civs.
-Change to stats. Originally they all had high skills in crossbows which was good when they were the only viable weapon, but now there are too many types to give specific skills to each race. As of this version sentient bots just have high fighter and archer skills instead, barring a few exceptions.
-Cyberwraiths can make themselves immune to being paralyzed or stunned for a short period, and recovery nanites can do the same to anyone who eats/drinks them.
-New large axe weapon found in Inhuman civs.
-Swamps given slightly more life.
1.92 changes:
-Fixed supermetal refinery and grinder.
-Weavers nerfed, only females can spit web now and they are 1/10th of the population. On that note, I should talk about how Weavers play in fortress mode. Their MO is that their females do not need to eat or drink, being entirely fueled by an internal reactor. This means they can sit on a nest box and produce eggs that will hatch into more Weavers, usually male, that you can use. You will likely expand exponentially so I recommend constant raids and a large military to keep the population manageable.
-New creature, the Mobile Fuel Synthesizer. Give it space to graze and it should make fuel for you.
-Material cost for all new weapons reduced.
-All sentient machines possess the knowledge to repair themselves, by which I mean they can heal now. Hard metal androids do this slowly, but nanomachine life can heal way faster to compensate for being made of weaker stuff.
-Grinder Drones can now be trained as attack animals if you are playing a hard metal android civ.
-You can now grind corpses into scrap as any civ instead of just nanomachine ones.
1.91 changes:
-Mechanical sharks should not hunt on land now.
1.9 changes:
-Battle axes replaced with monomolecular axes for the various civs. Battle axes still exist though.
-New creature added, the grinder drone. Its basically a mobile woodchipper except for metal, and it hates you.
-Werebeast interactions. Now you will know why you fear the night.
-Mummy equivalents added, be wary when plundering tombs.
-All civs have a new specific title for the ruler of their civ, felt it was appropriate.
-Body-altering nanites found in good and evil areas may have been causing crashes so I removed them. They are still in the mod's main folder in a special subfolder though. If you want to put them back in just take the files from there and put them where they need to go.
-This has been a feature for awhile but I might as well notify people. If you select advanced worldgen there will be premade worlds designed to complement the additions added by Age of Steel, and serve as templates if you want to make your own.
1.85 changes:
-Players can now start out as a hearthperson equivalent for any civilization, each with their own unique title. Talk to a site's mayor to be inducted.
-Reworked position titles for civs, should at least be 1 new title position for each civ, will add more later.
-Added new armor types. Mechanically they aren't that different but should add a bit more variety to the different civs. More will come later.
-Weaver civilizations will now produce a new weapon, the monomolecular katana, which isn't as hefty as other weapons but is very, very sharp.
1.81 changes:
-The Age of Steel handbook can be found in the main folder of the game. It is currently a bit sparse on content but should contain helpful information, especially for fortress mode.
-God Machines should no longer be used by the game for normal megabeast attacks.
-Supermetal refinery no longer needs to be made of steel. Originally it was designed to only produce Khybersteel but is now too crucial to the tech tree to be restricted in such a manner.
1.8 changes:
-New melee weapons. Turns out most of the normal ones were not effective at all in world where iron plates are the average level of protection something is gonna have. I have changed this.
-Crusher sword: very large and heavy sword that is slow.
-Battle chainsaw: it has a long attack time but a short recovery time and does amazing slash damage.
-Rocket axe: its an axe with booster rockets on the back end. Use a special slash attack that hits at incredible speed but has a long recovery time.
-Rocket hammer: same as rocket axe but blunt damage.
-Warlance: obscenely girthy and long spear.
-Heavy whip: very large whip.
-Battle crescent: claw-style weapon in the shape of a crescent, attacks fast.
1.7 changes:
-3 new semimegabeasts. These are different than normal though. The new semimegas added in this mod are superintelligent beings who will take control of civilizations and rule them as eternal god-kings. Each is made out of a super-substance, but is vulnerable to a different one. I'll leave figuring out which is which to you. Of course, you could always pledge your loyalty to the god machines and help them forge an everlasting empire, too. Regardless, these beings are incredibly powerful, and can incapacitate multiple mundane androids with a mere thought. Great numbers, amazing luck, or stellar tactics will be needed to bring one down.
-Inhumans, in keeping with their predatory theme, have the ability to birth a rare "alpha caste" which has perfect physical stats and a high level of social awareness, allowing them to quickly assert themselves over their fellows.
-Weaver genders have changed significantly. Weavers as you know them will now only be the male variety. Females are now six times as large, do not need to eat or drink, and produce large clutches of eggs. However, they have a shorter lifespan before breaking down, are one-fourth of the population, and cannot produce webs.
-You can 3D-print metal armor using the 3D printer tool. Experimentation has revealed high-tier armor is absolutely essential to survive against massed ranks of musketmen. You can also turn copper scrap (found in pipe worms from the first cavern layer) into bronze scrap, and thus make bronze tools/armor.
-Civilizations will not produce silver or copper weapons. Considering what most life is made out of in this mod, weapons made of these substances are effectively useless and so this increases your odds of getting a weapon that is actually usable.
-New languages for each civ.
1.6 changes:
-4 new aquatic/amphibious creatures. Rivers, lakes, and oceans should be much more dangerous now. Especially oceans.
-Total overhaul of the first cavern layer. It is now a sprawling sewer system with a floor of metal mesh adorned with twisting copper pipes. This hellscape of steam and steel is home to three new forms of machine life.
-Subterranean tribes reworked. I don't wanna say much about this. Let it be a fun surprise for anyone who seeks to plumb the depths.
-Misc bugfixes and tweaks
1.53 changes:
-Reverted the addition of the NOFEAR tag, as it turned out the negative status effect they were afflicted with was insanity, not fear, which raises all sorts of interesting questions, like how did they get like that? Does it have to do with the new worldgen artifacts? Either way I dunno how to fix it since its a different problem from fear.
1.52 changes:
-You can now craft stone, leather, and rock objects. No real reason but it might make the game more immersive
-For some reason there's a bug where outlaws will constantly be in a panicked state and won't do anything. As a stopgap measure, all sentient races now have the [NOFEAR] tag. For now this should make them willing to fight, though be prepared for bloody battles that only end when one side is completely dead.
1.51 changes:
-Accidentally made mercury drakes way too strong
-Interaction error has been fixed
1.5 changes:
-Good and evil biomes have had a major creature overhaul. Both biomes are now filled with incredibly dangerous creatures that simply cannot be killed by low-level weaponry or alternately are too numerous for one adventurer to take on. Adventuring into a good or evil biome without at least one of the trump cards of the setting (super-element weaponry, wizard powers, artillery weapons, or a large amount of companions possibly equipped or trained in the previous) will likely end in failure unless you are very good at avoiding monsters. A hint though, certain creatures in both biomes are weak to certain new materials added by the game. So why would you want to go in these biomes?
-New nanomachine clusters can be found in both good and evil biomes. Defective clusters in evil biomes can be synthesized into unstable nanites, which grant a random powerful mutation but may also make you go insane. On the other hand, upgrader nanites from engineering clusters in good biomes are safe to use, but only offer stat increases. Both clusters can be brewed into a liquid that, while useless on its own, is the vital ingredient for synthesizing their respective body-altering nanomachines.
-A new food item called a restorative pod can be found growing in temperate biomes. It greatly increases the healing speed of anything that consumes it, but the effect is not permanent. Good for keeping the inhabitants of a fort, or your adventurer, safe and healthy.
-Regenerative nanites can also be found in good biomes. Consuming these will, regardless of what type of creature you are playing, break you down into a mass of nanomachines and rebuild you with all wounds and missing limbs restored. A valuable curative, but guarded by some of the most powerful creatures in the game.
-Nanite-based life can tame a new creature; the majestic and powerful Mercury Drake. This exists to be the counter against hard metal androids using flying fortresses, since before now nanomachine civs had no heavy airship equivalent.
-Both currently existing schools of magic get a new spell. Technomancers can overclock their body for incredible strength, and nanomancers can heal themselves and their allies with powerful Hydra-class restoration nanites.
-A new creature for hard metal androids, the mobile turret. This crawling robot moves slowly, but when threatened can transform into a stationary autocannon and pelt bullets at enemy forces. Very useful for fortress mode, I'd imagine.
-new wizard type, the holomancer. Holomancers can manipulate hardlight for various effects including ranged attacks, disabling clouds, and augmenting movement speed. And of course, those who pursue the path of evil will learn the art of reanimating hardlight constructs.
-Oil daemons will be visible in legends viewer when one selects the vampire subcategory.
1.4 changes:
-Wizards have been added. Sort of. Wizards can be divided into two schools and further into two types of those schools. Technomancy is the art of upgrading oneself and manipulating circuitry to produce a desired result. Technomancers can do things like shoot a barrage of protobullets in one action or hack an enemy's mind so they fall to the ground paralyzed. Nanomancers focus on the art of manipulating groups of nanomachines to attack and defend. They can summon swarms to batter their foes or congeal them into solid projectiles. The average user of technomancy or nanomancy is called a "white" techno/nanomancer. However, there are also "black" equivalents as well, who in addition to the standard skills of these schools have gone mad with power and begun the forbidden process of raising dead machines into easily controllable puppets. Black technomancers have control of any hard metal constructs, while black nanomancers can resurrect nanite-based life. It should be noted that while black wizards are universally crazed and dangerous, white wizards are not universally good. Rather, they can take any role from adventurer to king to bandit warlord. However, they are all/mostly sane and can possibly be reasoned with. Right now the spell list is a little small but more will be added as the mod evolves.
-Oil daemons have been added. These are machines who have either evolved, mutated, or degenerated into apex predators who consume the oil of other machines to survive. Not only can they infiltrate society, but those who survive an oil daemon's attack run the risk of becoming one themselves, allowing the infection to quickly spread from person to person. And perhaps most terrifyingly, those affected with this affliction will have their personality irrevocably altered, becoming dangerously prideful, violent, and ambitious, resulting in an incredibly determined, cunning, and fearless enemy. However, this affliction seems to be restricted to hard metal androids for now. Please note that oil daemons will NOT be listed under any category in legendsviewer, so you cannot use that utility to find out how many there are. If you click on an individual, however, it will list them as an oil daemon.
-You can now craft guns at the carpenter workshop. I would have made a new workshop for it but its hardcoded that carpenter shops are the only ones adventurers can build. My reasoning for this is that gunmaking is a complex and resource-intensive art, and as such needs at least a small base or settlement if one intends to produce such devices.
1.37 changes:
-Artery issues fixed. Machines will still bleed oil but cutting off a finger won't instakill them.
-Autonomous heavy tank semimegas will spawn now.
-1 new nomadic sentient machine
-1 new nightcreature
-Slight rework to grass tiles
-2 new food plants for nanite civs
1.36 changes:
-So it turns out metal bars are actually bugged in the vanilla game, and will not be consumed properly in adventure mode reactions. A workaround has solved this, but fortress mode players should now build a grinder early on to process the metal chunk items they can find in the world and turn them back into bars. In adventure mode, you will be crafting things out of this new chunk item rather than bars, and it should be working now. You will also be able to acquire scrap iron chunks by killing scraproaches and ironflies, and for nanomass chunks you will need to hunt grazer and hunter nanoswarms. The corpse of any other machine can be processed into chunks using a portable deconstructor, but these should help you get started.
-A bit more detail added to creature descriptions
-Grazer nanoswarms will produce nanopaste if you have nest boxes. This is an edible substance and thus useful for nanite-based life.
-Minor fixes
1.35 changes:
-Important change regarding adventure mode crafting. For some reason, making things cost multiple bars is bugged, at least on my end. For this reason, everything will now cost 1 bar, but there is a chance you will fail to create the item, balancing it out. Overall you are more likely to get higher-level metals by killing creatures made of said metal and using the portable deconstructor tool to process them. Hunting nothing but scraproaches and the like is also viable for more cautious adventurers, but will take longer.
-Several new creatures
-1 new night creature
-2 friendly intelligent species that dwell in the wilds but will join civilizations
-2 new guns of the same type: Portable Artillery. These are less carried by the adventurer and more dragged around. Almost all characters using these weapons will have their speed reduced to .99, and cannot use any melee attacks with this weapon. However, the offensive capabilities of artillery weapons far outclass any other weapon type, and in fact may be essential for killing some of the tougher megabeasts in the mod. So if you intend to hunt such creatures, I recommend being famous enough to assemble a platoon of riflemen to protect your artillery, and expect heavy casualties. There are two different types of artillery rounds, as well. The standard artillery round used by hard metal androids such as Automatons and Leadbelchers is lighter and has incredible crushing power. However, the nanobuster rounds used by nanite-based life like Cyberwraiths have high piercing potential, but much less crushing force to them. The ammunition can be produced by 3D printers, but if you want to have one of these weapons for yourself, they can only be found in the previously mentioned civilizations, barring the exception of looters and such. If you find yourself facing artillery in battle, I would recommend preemptively bringing a lot of other people for it to shoot at, or having a high dodge skill and closing to melee, since as stated artillery cannons cannot be used as melee weapons and are thus vulnerable.
1.3 changes:
-Can grind corpses of machines into metal bars in adventure and fort mode, very important mechanic
-Many new creatures
-2 new semimegas
-1 new gun
-3 new civilizations
-1 new supersubstance
-Many new "trees"
-More stuff that I probably forgot to mention
1.2 changes:
-4 new creatures
-1 new megabeast
-1 new semimegabeast
-4 new trees (except they are not trees)
-2 new grasses
-Armors renamed to sound more scifi
-Many new reactions added to the 3D printer
1.1 changes:
-Tools added
-New races added
-New creatures added
1.0 changes:
-Age of Steel released
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Topic: [44.12] Dwarf Fortress: The Age of Steel 2.8 (beta) (Read 8463 times)