Heyo !
It seems like no one has ever started a historical total conversion mod for DF. So I'm doing it.
And because I don't want it to be MY thing, i'm looking for interrested people to take part on the project.
Basically it's a total conversion centered on Ancient Greece with a focus on various civilizations such as Greek, Egyptian, Etruscan, Persian, Phoenician.
I've got a ton of ideas (and a life to make them happen). No deadline. No "what we must do before next release". No roadmap. Just, you want to improve the thing on a particular point, you do and if it's good, it's released. Anyone can participate, can share its own view of the project, can add something to the thing.
Still, i've an idea of what it could look like.
Main :
0. Basically, the main "races" (civs ofc) would be egyptian, greek, persian, etruscan, phoenician (by that time phoenician carthage ruled over west mediterranea and etruscan civ over Northern Italy, Egyptians regained their independance from persia in -404 and Greek were less and less under influence of Persia.)
Distinctions between races would be cultural, technological, from their languages, from religion etc.
1. Strong focus on culture, technology of that time (objects, weapons, buildings, science, metals...) depending on the civ and focus on greek mythology (maybe with some egyptian/persian borrowings).
2. Overhaul of species (creatures and plants) to match the mediterranean climate and ecosystem ; also complete changes of WorldGen (advanced parameters). And also adding most creatures from greek myths (a lot of em are already in the game
That would be a strong basis and a long way to go. Of course, you could do a LOT more :
- Making a tileset that fits well with the context.
- Changing Musics
- ReCreating a map of the mediterranea (with PerfectWorldDF) with all the civs at a good starting spot.
- Etc.
Ok, but How the hell can I help ? I don't know shit about programming, i'm neither musician nor graphist, nor Historian ...?
A. You don't need to know shit about programming. Basically, modding within DF is almost everything about how Tokens work all together, and they are widely described on the Wiki. Just like playing DF, modding DF is all about reading the fucking wiki and experimenting from it. OFC i'm not talking about DFhack/stonesense and crazy things like that but about modding the content of the game, not changing the core engine. I don't know anything about programming neither and I understand well the explainations on the wiki so DO NOT PANIC.
Here are the main pages about Modding :
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Tokenhttp://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:ModdingB. You certainly may have some interrest about various things like : Civs, or History, or Mythology, or Geology, Currencies, Metals, Biology, Techs history, musics, graphics, ancient litterature, Greek/Egyptian culture, study of pagan religions, Deities, geopolitics, or even trade... You don't need to get involved on everything; you could just pick a thing you're interrested on and start modifying till you get bored... The goal is to have fun modding what you like, not to make the perfect glorious thing.
Z. As I already told, I don't want you to "help" me : I don't want it to be MY mod, all hail to me the glorious Dark Omen. Of course i've got a relatively precise idea of what the mod could be, doesn't mean it can't evolve. I find that the most interresting part could be building it all together and making the thing evolve while trying to get the best of the DF Engine, pushing it as far as we can (and it has a LOOOOT of options for modders).
What could be the name of the mod ? I've thought something like "Tales of Ancient times", but I think there are better options.
I already deleted in the raw files All the creatures that shouldn't figure on the mod (quite a lot of research, mostly based on distribution maps of real animals) :
And I tried to make a pocket world that fits with mediterranean climate that I named "Pocket mediterranea" :
[WORLD_GEN]
[TITLE:POCKET MEDITERRANEA]
[DIM:33:33]
[EMBARK_POINTS:1504]
[END_YEAR:900]
[BEAST_END_YEAR:50:80]
[REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
[CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:0]
[ELEVATION:1:400:350:50]
[RAINFALL:0:80:5:5]
[TEMPERATURE:35:80:5:5]
[DRAINAGE:40:100:51:51]
[VOLCANISM:0:100:51:51]
[SAVAGERY:0:100:500:500]
[ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:2:40:10:1:1:5]
[RAIN_FREQUENCY:2:7:3:1:0:0]
[DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:2:1:1:2:7:15]
[TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:2:1:2:5:4:1]
[SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:2:1:2:8:2:1]
[VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[POLE:NONE]
[MINERAL_SCARCITY:2500]
[MEGABEAST_CAP:5]
[SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:5]
[TITAN_NUMBER:5]
[TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
[DEMON_NUMBER:5]
[NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:0]
[BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:0]
[VAMPIRE_NUMBER:0]
[WEREBEAST_NUMBER:0]
[SECRET_NUMBER:20]
[REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:20]
[DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:20]
[EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:0]
[EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:0]
[GENERATE_DIVINE_MATERIALS:1]
[GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:0:0:1]
[EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:2:0:0]
[PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:0]
[PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:1]
[COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
[VOLCANO_MIN:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:0:0:0]
[EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
[RIVER_MINS:0:0]
[PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
[OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
[SUBREGION_MAX:2750]
[CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:0]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:0]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
[LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
[CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
[CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
[MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:0]
[NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:3]
[ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
[SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
[TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:5]
[TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
[SITE_CAP:68]
[PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
[ELEVATION_RANGES:0:0:0]
[RAIN_RANGES:0:0:0]
[DRAINAGE_RANGES:0:0:0]
[SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:0:0]
[VOLCANISM_RANGES:0:0:0]
I'm not entirely satisfied with it but it's a good start.
I'm now working on creating the "races". They will at first be a simple copy of the vanilla human one, made playable in DF mode so it shouldn't take too long.