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Just wood with some tweak (blessed, runed, poisoned, etc)

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A special bone-made metal-like material

0 (0%)

Fancy glass

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A special native elven metal

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Standard vanilla metal, obtained in some magical/alchemical/hippie way

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Rough gems

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: October 30, 2019, 02:06:51 pm

[LargeSnail]

By all means, continue on your current course, since it will probably be of use in other mods too if you can make it work reliably.

However I think for ease of implementation, everything you're looking for with plant traps seems to be much easier to implement with a reskinned version of meph's gargoyles from his WIP warlock test mod (but I don't mod myself so what do I know). And all the problems can be solved by not looking at them as problems but as features.

For the issue of plants becoming historical figures, whats the problem with that really? In general pop fantasy culture you have plants with sapience such as the Ents in LoTR so you could just give them all faces. Or don't, since there are some creatures in e.g. Masterwork that are just shambling masses of tentacles (presumably with a mouth like a squid in the center?). On top of that, even if they don't have a face or can speak, elves in fantasy settings tend to confer sapience to plants anyway collectively.

For the issue of pasturing a plant over stone, how about instead on a farm plot you grow a key part of the plant, e.g. 'small piranha plant', then you have a special workshop where you can take a Large pot, a small piranha plant, and some magic ingredient (amber?) and turn it into a giant potted plant entity that you can drag around, similar to the plants you can find in offices, or even huge ones in public squares (like a giant potted xmas tree). While on the topic of potted plants, I think elves should have pottery, or be able to also make 'pots' out of grown wood, leave both options open.

All in all, I think there's a lot of potential for a distinct elf race experience in giving them a lot of options to defend themselves with both slow and stationary war "animals" that are based on plants. I remember when playing an older version of the masterwork warlock mod I was early on and suddenly a forest titan appeared before I had any defenses or equipment, and I used ton of slow-moving, weak units to grapple it down and buy myself time. It was a very interesting form of combat strategy and if you replace zombie theme with Ent, it's somewhat similar to something you could develop.

Well, using a gargoyle-inspired plant creature to simulate plant-traps is very more versatile than using actual shrubs. My elves have pottery (Earthenware and Stoneware products), so adding potted plants looks fine to me.

Soon, Armok willing, I'll release the first version of this mod. This took more time that expected, but the good things come late.

[LargeSnail]

What skills should be trainable in animals? The druidic system that I developed so far allows the player to train the Striker, Kicker, Dodger, Observer, Discipline, Wrestler, Fighter, Climber and Armor User skills of any adult pet. Should they be able to train another skill?
I added the option to train skills based on the body of the animal (i.e. if an animal isn't able to grasp, you'll be unable to train its Striker or Fighter skill). I need to figure how to equip armor and weapons on a creature that doesn't have the EQUIPS token.

Beyond that, the druidic system allows you to interact with the birds in a similar way that in the old Gnome mod; a worker will select a random bird on the sky, then will ask something or use it to send a letter to another civilization, and leave. The birds can tell you about incoming events (migrants, megabeasts, etc), show the druidic penalty of the forest and request migrants or diplomats.
Oh, and you can also recruit beasts. At the moment, I didn't add any function involving animal men.

Suggestions are welcome.

[brolol.404]

What skills should be trainable in animals? The druidic system that I developed so far allows the player to train the Striker, Kicker, Dodger, Observer, Discipline, Wrestler, Fighter, Climber and Armor User skills of any adult pet. Should they be able to train another skill?
I added the option to train skills based on the body of the animal (i.e. if an animal isn't able to grasp, you'll be unable to train its Striker or Fighter skill). I need to figure how to equip armor and weapons on a creature that doesn't have the EQUIPS token.

Beyond that, the druidic system allows you to interact with the birds in a similar way that in the old Gnome mod; a worker will select a random bird on the sky, then will ask something or use it to send a letter to another civilization, and leave. The birds can tell you about incoming events (migrants, megabeasts, etc), show the druidic penalty of the forest and request migrants or diplomats.
Oh, and you can also recruit beasts. At the moment, I didn't add any function involving animal men.

Suggestions are welcome.

You should add biter.

Are you going to make custom barding/weapons or will animals be able to use breastplate and short swords?

[LargeSnail]

You should add biter.

Are you going to make custom barding/weapons or will animals be able to use breastplate and short swords?

Huh, I skipped biter for some reason Thanks for noticing that.

Animals will use wooden/leather/bone barding, and the weapons will be claws (for non-ungulates) and regular swords/spears for creatures that can grasp (gorillas, molemarians, etc).

[DerMeister]

What skills should be trainable in animals? The druidic system that I developed so far allows the player to train the Striker, Kicker, Dodger, Observer, Discipline, Wrestler, Fighter, Climber and Armor User skills of any adult pet. Should they be able to train another skill?
I added the option to train skills based on the body of the animal (i.e. if an animal isn't able to grasp, you'll be unable to train its Striker or Fighter skill). I need to figure how to equip armor and weapons on a creature that doesn't have the EQUIPS token.

Beyond that, the druidic system allows you to interact with the birds in a similar way that in the old Gnome mod; a worker will select a random bird on the sky, then will ask something or use it to send a letter to another civilization, and leave. The birds can tell you about incoming events (migrants, megabeasts, etc), show the druidic penalty of the forest and request migrants or diplomats.
Oh, and you can also recruit beasts. At the moment, I didn't add any function involving animal men.

Suggestions are welcome.

Fighter is skill of all fighting. Creature without grasp can bite and kick, so you need to add fighter skill for them too.

[LargeSnail]

*Gestures*

Hello beautiful DF community! I'm performing necromancy on this thread just to say that I've restarted this project.

I know that I left this mod unfinished and without saying anything about it in October of the last year (sorry for that), but I had two good reasons:
1. I've been dealing with a lot of familiar/personal/country-related stuff.
2. When I wished with restarting this mod some months ago, my PC broke and all my progress got completely erased 
Under those circumstances, I rejected to restart all the mod from nothingness. However, since my country (Argentina) is under a quarantine that isn't going to end in a near future, I chose to work again in this nice project.

Alongside with the stuff that we talked in the thread, I added some brand new things to add flavor to the mod:

• Using the new create-tree script and the great Roses's functions, I added actual Shaping Trees (as a new tree species) to the mod. As in vanilla Elven Retreats, wooden items will be grown in its canopy.
• If you're playing as any other race with this mod added, and the elves are ambushing you, they will turn some random trees of your map into deadly treants prone to lots of fun. This was a planned behaviour in the pre-release movies of Dwarf Fortress.

I'm posting this at night, so I'm too sleepy to write a giant wall of text in this wonderful language. Tomorrow I'll be talking more about this mod.

See ya!

[FantasticDorf]

Great stuff, your return is warmly welcomed, i always liked the niche as playing as elves.

[LargeSnail]

Great stuff, your return is warmly welcomed, i always liked the niche as playing as elves.

Thanks!

I added and removed lots of stuff from the mod, but so far I have this:

Spoiler: New buildings (click to show/hide)

   Hunter's Vault -  Butchers corpses, produces tooth knifes & arrows and poisons weapons.
   Bowyer's Vault - Produces special bows.
   Spellsinger's Shrine - Controlls weather and cast special AoE spells. Uses Singer skill.
   Glassblower's Yurt - Like the glass furnace, but cannot send elves to collect sand.
      Native elven glass types: Green glass, Cranberry glass.
   Potter's Yurt - Shapes clay into different items & furniture.
   Elven Kiln - Burns greenware clay items to obtain finished ceramic ones. Also used to glaze clay/stone items with salt.
   Digging Zone - Collects soil from the floor. Uses any skill.
   Seelie Court - Fairy-related stuff. Gives you special fairies and buffs for your elves. Changes with season.
   Wicker Works - Makes wicker furniture & objects.
   Teamaker's Yurt - Brews tea from leaves.
   Druid's Garden - Summons trees, grows items and calls treants. Uses druid skill.
   Alchemist's Yurt - Potions & Fuel-less alchemical stuff.
   Elven Athanor - Fuel-related alchemical stuff. Uses booze as fuel.
   Flowerpot - Your elves can see it, and maybe get a positive thought.
   Bonemolder's Yurt - Produce bonemold armor & weapons.
   Rootsinger's Shrine - Allows underground travel.
   Salt Deposit - Extract salt from rock salt. Salt is used as glaze material.
   Knocking Stone - Elven Quern.
   Basket Press - Elven Screw Press, without any dwarven-like machinery.
   Mushroom Circle - Grows Black-cap/Nether-cap/Tower-cap/Goblin-cap items.
      It's needed to start a glass/ceramics/alchemy industry, since nether-cap wood is your only source of fire and magma-safe logs.
   Sacrificial Grounds - Trade elven lifes for valuable objects, including great amounts of food and nature-blessed weapons.
   Trainer's Hut - Trains animals in specific skills and equips them with armor.
   Druid's Altar - Tames roaming animals and recruits animal people. Checks Hunting Merit.
   Shop - Can be upgraded into four different themed shops. Four will appear over the canopy of a Market Tree once you grown one.
         (\/ These upgrades require a Seelie/Unseelie Court \/)
      Spriggan's Bazaar - Sells magic stuff. Buys glass and gems.
      Redcap's Smithy - Sells orichalcum-made melee weapons. Buys meat and bones.
      Brownie's Bakery - Sells lavish brownie food. Buys flour and edible plants.
      Sprite's Atelier - Sells fine amber goods and archery stuff. Buys crafts and bows.
         (\/ These upgrades can be done without previous requirements \/)
      Satyr's Yurt - Sells all kind of plants and tree seeds. Buys compost globs and tea barrels.
   Compost Heap - Turns organic waste into useful fertilizer.

Spoiler: New materials (click to show/hide)

   Bone meal - Bone powder, used in bonemold making.
   Bonemold - Armor-grade (but not weapon-grade) material, stronger than wood and yellow-colored.
   Cranberry Glass - Valuable red glass, made from gold salts and sand.
   Wicker - Building material for various tools and furniture, made from leaves and various plants.
   Vegetable Ivory - Obtained from Tagua palms, made from tagua nuts.
   Orichalcum - Iron-like metal, only obtainable through the Redcap's Smithy.

Spoiler: New animals (click to show/hide)

   Treants - Large human shaped trees, summoned from the actual trees of your map. Can be milked for resin.
   Redcaps - Gnome-sized unseelie fairies with an insatiable bloodlust and an abnomal strenght.
   Brownies - Calm, kobold-sized seelie fairies.
   Sprites - Agile, small seelie fairies with little magical powers.
   Spriggans - Mischievous, unseelie fairies with great magical powers.

Spoiler: New plants (click to show/hide)

   Tagua Palms - Palms with nuts made from a ivory-like material. Produces vetegable ivory.
   Mallorn - Large, silver-colored trees with an very heavy wood. Items grown in winter are made from this wood.
   Aglaophotis - A desert herb. Its extract can instakill any clown plus some other evil creatures.
   Spearmint and Watermint - Nice herbs used in tea production.
   Rosebush - Roses for rose tea, rosehips for booze and food, rose leaves for wicker and compost.
   Lemongrass - An aromatic grass for tea and oil.
   Shaping Tree - Your main tree. Items grown at the Druid's Garden will appear on its canopy.
   Market Tree - A large tree with four naturally grown shops and a floor at its top. (Very WIP)

Spoiler: Miscellaneous New Stuff (click to show/hide)

   Elves don't start with a wagon.
   Elves don't have any sort of engineering, so they can't build wells (but will not get an unhappy thought from drinking straight from a river)
   Elves can sleep over the grass without problem, but they still need to have their own bedroom.
   Elves can butcher corpses from sentient beings.

This mod is employing insane amounts of DFhack, so I'll take a good time testing everything before releasing anything.


More info coming soon

[EmuHippie]

I think the idea of ​​the mod is very good and I even have some suggestions for it!

Maybe, it would be nice to add a caste of elven fighters with the best physical abilities and fighting skills in hand-to-hand combat, such as ''nature champions'', maybe with a special noble for this caste.

P.S. Voting is not available for voting

[Rekov]

I am very excited for this mod. I've been playing my own elf fortress mod, but I didn't know how to do any of the scripting stuff, and yours looks much more complete and thematically consistent.

Couple thoughts:
Are your elves going to be able to make wooden blocks, and use those to make constructions? If so it might be worth including a reaction that makes a set of four blocks from a log, similar to how dwarves can get four blocks out of a boulder.

It might also be useful to have some way to access feather wood.

[LargeSnail]

I think the idea of ​​the mod is very good and I even have some suggestions for it!

Maybe, it would be nice to add a caste of elven fighters with the best physical abilities and fighting skills in hand-to-hand combat, such as ''nature champions'', maybe with a special noble for this caste.

Every suggestion is welcome

I generally dislike the addition of unnecessary castes on any mod, and my elves already can boost their military with buffs and by using animal men as soldiers. I'll add a new poll about elven castes tho, after the current one closes.

P.S. Voting is not available for voting

Hm, that should not be happening. It shows unlocked to me. Maybe it's a problem of the forum?

I am very excited for this mod. I've been playing my own elf fortress mod, but I didn't know how to do any of the scripting stuff, and yours looks much more complete and thematically consistent.

Thanks!
I never made such a complex mod, but since Lua is a very simple language to write scripts with I felt confident enough to rely on DFhack for the sake of a better gameplay.

Couple thoughts:
Are your elves going to be able to make wooden blocks, and use those to make constructions? If so it might be worth including a reaction that makes a set of four blocks from a log, similar to how dwarves can get four blocks out of a boulder.

It might also be useful to have some way to access feather wood.

Elves don't have carpentry; they only cut logs for instruments and tools. Every other object (i.e. blocks, furniture, armor and weapons) is naturally grown on the Shaping Trees. You can only grow one item per reaction, but since it's utterly free you can end with giant amounts of blocks once your druid's skill becomes higher.

Feather wood is available from the very start. Every item grown by your druids in Spring will be made of it.
The season-linked woods table from my druidism script is exactly this:

Code: [Select]

seasonalWood = {
'Spring' = 'PLANT_MAT:FEATHER:WOOD',
'Summer' = 'PLANT_MAT:HIGHWOOD:WOOD',
'Autumn' = 'PLANT_MAT:MALLORN:WOOD',
'Winter' = 'PLANT_MAT:PINE:WOOD'
}

seasonalMushroom = {
'Spring' = 'PLANT_MAT:TOWER_CAP:WOOD',
'Summer' = 'PLANT_MAT:GOBLIN_CAP:WOOD',
'Autumn' = 'PLANT_MAT:BLACK_CAP:WOOD',
'Winter' = 'PLANT_MAT:NETHER_CAP:WOOD'
}
^{(Yeah, you'll be able to grow mushroom-wood items, but not using Shaping Trees)}

[Rekov]

Hm, that should not be happening. It shows unlocked to me. Maybe it's a problem of the forum?

The poll has an ending date of October 30th, 2019 for some reason. At least for me.

[LargeSnail]

=====More Info=====

• All the elven furnaces, with the notorious exception of the Athanor (used for alchemy-related stuff and to smelt items without adding the Smelter labor to my elves), can work both with Dried Peat and with Vegetable Oil. They're equally effective, but you can produce two peat bars using a peat boulder and vegetable oil.
• Pottery and Glass-Making were reworked! These two industries now are splited into four workshops; the Potter's Workshop (shapes clay boulders into greenware objects), the Elven Kiln (burns greenware objects to turn them into valuable and useful ceramic ones), the Glassblower's Yurt (produces green glass objects from sand, and cranberry glass objects from sand and gold salts), and the Digging Zone (produces a boulder of the same material of the floor, if it's a valid soil type).
• Your only available glaze type is salt glaze. Salt is obtained from the Salt Deposit if it's located on the same X and Y positions of a rock salt layer, or from transmutation of metallic salts into regular salt.
• While elves can't dig, they can employ the natural boulders of the surface as regular stone boulders.
• Elves don't have machinery, thus you can't build traps, bridges, wells, or any other sort of mechanical building. However, there are new and more nature-themed ways of improving your defenses.
• Using compost globs, you can build Fertilized Plots. These plots can grow any tree you wish (it requires a seed, unless it's a special tree like a Shaping Tree or a Tavern Tree)
• Animals tamed through the Druid's Gazebo will leave if your Hunting Merit becomes high. (This doesn't apply to their offspring)

[LargeSnail]

Hm, that should not be happening. It shows unlocked to me. Maybe it's a problem of the forum?

The poll has an ending date of October 30th, 2019 for some reason. At least for me.

I can't remove the ending date, nor the poll itself.

[EmuHippie]

By the way, can pointed-eared comrades pray to their forces like dwarves in dwarven temples? I know that in adventure mode, elves cannot communicate normally with their own forces of nature and can suffer from this. Will there be such a problem in the forest retreat mode?