I've managed to get some placeholder sprites for various entities. The re-introduction of the Arena has been rather helpful to look at the rare one's like the Changeling Queen, etc.
These are 32 by 32 pixel sized icons. Scoured from across the internet. I've had to use GIMP to reduce these images down to the correct size (have since corrected the changeling queen as pixels outside the 32x32 square won't display, unless some other special options required?). As they are 32x32, they are rather simple, had to use sharpen and other options to bring out details. They're a bit limited, since they only have one adult, one child, one corpse, etc. image per caste.
I haven't figured out the pony castes, looks like it requires more text as there seem to be 10 castes (5 male, 5 female) per phenotype of pony (earth pony/unicorn/Pegasus) and 4 alicorn castes. So a bit more text files to write up.
Current limitations; no variation for hair colour/style, mane colour. I'm guessing this might be possible but might need more images?
Was quite hard to find suitable existing sprite files of Diamond Dogs, etc that were without clothes and had full bodies.
Most of these sprites were modified from True Frenzy on Deviantart, seemed to be under the fair use license.
Might need to redraw the Diamond Dogs to remove clothes, if planning to add clothes/armour variation, etc. in future, implementation dependent on enthusiasms.
One possibly useful addition, domestic horses has the following code;
"
[LAYER:BAGS:SADDLEBAGS_DOMESTIC:0:1]
[CONDITION_NOT_CHILD]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MIN:1]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MAX:4]
[LAYER:BAGS:SADDLEBAGS_DOMESTIC:1:1]
[CONDITION_NOT_CHILD]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MIN:5]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MAX:9]
[LAYER:BAGS:SADDLEBAGS_DOMESTIC:2:1]
[CONDITION_NOT_CHILD]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MIN:10]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MAX:14]
[LAYER:BAGS:SADDLEBAGS_DOMESTIC:3:1]
[CONDITION_NOT_CHILD]
[CONDITION_HAUL_COUNT_MIN:15]
"
This text is neat as it will apply saddlebags to the horses in the normal unmodified dwarf fortress game when they are carrying objects around like stones, etc.
Copying this into the graphics text file for ponies will make the ponies have saddle bags when hauling. Kinda neat.... might have other applications like animation of alternative poses?
I assume that each sex of the pony phenotype has 5 separate caste defaults in order to over come Dwarf Fortresses' assumption that all the dwarves will have similar skin colour, etc. So having 5 castes of male earth ponies and 5 female earth ponies, would ensure more coat colour variation.
Might take longer for me to right a text file that references them.
So I will possibly need images for the following?
"CASTE:E_DEFA_M][CASTE:E_DEFA_M1][CASTE:E_DEFA_M2][CASTE:E_DEFA_M3][CASTE:E_DEFA_M4]
[CASTE:E_DEFA_F][CASTE:E_DEFA_F1][CASTE:E_DEFA_F2][CASTE:E_DEFA_F3][CASTE:E_DEFA_F4]
[CASTE:P_DEFA_M][CASTE:P_DEFA_M1][CASTE:P_DEFA_M2][CASTE:P_DEFA_M3][CASTE:P_DEFA_M4]
[CASTE:P_DEFA_F][CASTE:P_DEFA_F1][CASTE:P_DEFA_F2][CASTE:P_DEFA_F3][CASTE:P_DEFA_F4]
[CASTE:U_DEFA_M][CASTE:U_DEFA_M1][CASTE:U_DEFA_M2][CASTE:U_DEFA_M3][CASTE:U_DEFA_M4]
[CASTE:U_DEFA_F][CASTE:U_DEFA_F1][CASTE:U_DEFA_F2][CASTE:U_DEFA_F3][CASTE:U_DEFA_F4]
[CASTE:A_PRIN_F][CASTE:A_PRIN_F1][CASTE:A_PRIN_F2][CASTE:A_PRIN_F3][CASTE:A_PRIN_F4]
"
On Alicorns and population ratios.
The text files I used had the Earth Pony, Pegasi & Unicorns as POP RATIO: 100000 and the Alicorn at 100.
The Alicorn never seemed to spawn. So I just reduced the Earth Pony, Pegasi and Unicorn down to 100 each.
The result seemed to improve the chance of one Alicorn spawning. It was suprising that only one spawned, I assume this might be due to the link with Alicorns being eligible for the leadership position of Princess. So I would recommend this alteration to the POP RATIO amounts in the creature files.
Although the Alicorn still seems to have a bad habit of being killed or eaten by others in world generation if the history is long enough.
Also there only ever seems to be one Alicorn, shared by the entire multiple pony societies, regardless of world size.
Hope Poopsikins is okay, I understand how real life issues can and do need to take precedence. If they are able to continue at some point in the future, I look forward to seeing the results, as my own skills are a bit limited and I've many relied on what's available on the Internet.
At some point on my days off, I shall have a go and see if I can get the pony sprites to properly display for Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasus, Male/Female, Alicorn, etc.
Although they might only still have the same eye and hair colour.
I wonder if a larger sprite like 64x64 or 126x126, 256x256, etc. will be still the same size on screen or just more detailed? But might be easier to recognise.
Hope you are all well.