So what I heard is that by adding the [PET_EXOTIC] tag to any intelligent creature (such as animal people) you'd be able to train them should they be captured, and eventually have they become a citizen.
In vanilla, gremlins are the only ones like this by default: intelligent and exotic pets, and I've heard of quite a few stories of people integrating them in their fort.
I have a few doubts about this probably unintended behavior and its caveats, and also would like to share
a few facts I've learned about it, in order to compile a handy list of information for people trying this same gimmick.
Context: I captured some kea men trying to steal my valuable ☼cherry wood wheelbarrows☼, and since I disabled migrants to raise a fort through families alone, I decided to
enslave integrate these wonderful bird people into my fortress.
Normally, what you do is train them
once while they're in their cages and then release them (build the cages and link them to a lever). That's because once they're trained, they'll need to eat and drink and sleep, and while dwarves will bring them food and water, they can't sleep in cages and will go insane.
Alternatively, you can chain them all in an animal training zone and let them sleep on the floor and be fed by your dwarves, but since we want to integrate them in a more friendly way, let's not cover that.
Here's what I have so far:
1- Trained intelligent beings are long term residents of your fort, but not citizens. This means that you can't control their labors or see their thoughts, and in order for them to sleep in a room, you'll need to assign that room to a tavern (q, put cursor on bed, l, select tavern). Like other residents, they'll socialize at the tavern, drink your booze, utilize your library, etc. After a while they'll petition for citizenship and then you can control their labors just like your dwarves. Doesn't work like that. The fact that they have a pet tag makes their labors unchangeable, with the message "This animal can't work". However, all the hauling labors, as well as recover wounded and feed prisoners, get enabled once they become citizens. You can change their labors through Dwarf Therapist, but note that you can't assign any occupations to them, such as scholar or messenger. Remodding the raws to remove the pet tag fixes this and you get a perfectly functional citizen.
2- Trained animals tend to follow their trainer around, and this remains true for intelligent beings. In my case, there's a flock of kea men constantly swarming my trainer. Roleplaywise it makes sense since you could assume that the trainer is showing them how to behave in the society and teaching them stuff, but could be annoying if you're training 12 beings at once and they constantly clog the hallways. It also introduces some weird behaviors due to constantly pathing to nearby the trainer, such as holding on to mugs after drinking. When they petition for citizenship, the following will continue. Killing the trainer or just expelling them fixes this. Bringing them back from where you expelled them will make the following begin again.
3- They have no names and will show up in the animal tab of the Stocks screen as a "Stray [race]". You can make them available as pets just like anything else in that screen, but I haven't tried that. I assume they'd get names and follow their new ownersocial teacher around in case they get "adopted". I'll do more testing on this later. They also show up at the bottom of the Jobs screen, like other long term residents (unless they're doing a basic necessity, then they show up at the top, as normal).
4- They have values and personalities as normal, and consequentially have needs too, as I figured by using Dwarf Therapist. They'll also claim clothing suited to them, but I have yet to observe bad thoughts due to being uncovered. I may be mistaken about this, but beings without civilization don't care about being clothed. Any info on this topic would be appreciated.
5- They'll start worshipping gods. IMO, that's the most awesome part of it and gives the feel that they're fitting in nicely in the dwarven ways. That also means they'll get prayer needs and spend time in the temple.
6- Specific to egg layers: they'll attempt to claim nest boxes, but fortunately burrows can be used to prevent (or encourage) this. They'll leave in order to do basic necessities such as eating, drinking, and sleeping and then return to their eggs, but I don't know yet about fortress jobs or need induced jobs, such as praying and socializing. Another interesting point: as with other intelligent beings, I assume they have to be married to a partner in order to get pregnant (in this case, have their egg pouch fertilized), because my kea women have been around kea men for more than enough time to lay fertile eggs but didn't. They also don't care if you harvest and cook their eggs, and I assume omnivorous beings will even eat food made from their own eggs without a problem. If they're following the trainer, they'll run back and forth from their nest boxes without laying any egg, and be stuck in that loop forever, stopping only to eat, drink and sleep.
7- Specific to meanderers: some beings have the [MEANDERER] tag, which causes them to move EXTREMELY slow unless they're pathing as part of a job. If you're gonna mod a creature to integrate in your fort, you might also wanna remove the [MEANDERER] tag from the base animal while you're at it, or maybe remove it altogether from the game, like some people do.
8- Specific to item thieves: if the base animal of that animal person has the [CURIOUSBEAST_ITEM] tag, they'll hold on to anything they begin to haul and will only let go in a few (unknown) circumstances. Even the mugs they use to drink or the furniture they were hauling. Hauling something as part of a crafting job seems to be an exception. You might want to mod out the tag from the base animal or avoid having this kind of animal people in your fort (a shame, since they're the easiest to capture).
Anyone has any idea how long petitions usually take to occur?
Also, any comments on the mechanics and inner workings of Dwarf Fortress that allow this to happen? Just like the drunk cats thing, I assume this is an unintended but fun behavior, and understanding it could lead to cool mods and more stupid challenges to try.
The animal people aspect of the game definitely could use more features rather than just "Yeah this weirdo here joined that site during world gen" and "You can play as a furry in adventure mode!".
I'll upload a save later if requested.
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Topic: [44.12] Gremlins and modded animal people !SCIENCE! ( Intelligent exotic pets ) (Read 7095 times)