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[Pearlslugs]

https://srg.vercel.app/

I only just started this, weapons, metals and entities are all very easy, but the creature editor seems very hard given all the variables, I'm not sure I can do the creature editor as when I make new creatures I just sort of copy and paste and check the error log for stuff that doesnt work. Could anyone help me out? this is only a hobby and I will credit you on the website but unfortunately I am trying to use this project to gain better employment and am super broke. I would not be against payment later, honestly I would do back pay once I got a better job, but for now I'm broke af.

Could anyone help?

[Putnam]

Yeah, there really is a lot to keep track of. My personal suggestion is that this:

when I make new creatures I just sort of copy and paste and check the error log for stuff that doesnt work.

Can and should be formalized: allow starting with a template then deviating from that template.

[EuchreJack]

What sort of help are you looking for?

If you can get playable entities working properly, that should be more than sufficient compensation.  Especially since I'd really like to update my Beastfolk mod.

I'd suggest you get the program to create the hardest creature possible, then prune it back from there.

Your creature editor will have to spit out multiple files/descriptions.  Creatures have to be added in multiple places.

Again, a bit more details on exactly what you need, what problems you're facing, would help greatly.

As for employment, you can always just cut the creature editor from the project and act like it was never there...

[taldarus]

I don't know if I am an expert, but I have done a lot of creature modifying, so I am pretty solid.

Most of this is really OOD, and so it isn't exactly relevant. I mostly did stuff back in v28. I built a gnat that could kill a giant (NO_BREATH was an annoying necessity, as the d@m giant kept suffocating it before it tore him apart). I built wolverine, and I built a pretty solid xenomorph. (I gave up trying to get the chest burster working without dfhack) I love modding the genetic code of DF creatures.

I also am avoiding it as much as possible until TOADY finishes....If that's in my life...

Note that I modded everything down to the smallest detail I could find. My creatures were as close to 'genetically' pure as I could make them. It was also an almost complete waste of time.

Toady added the ATTR and that is definitely the easiest place to start. Those values are honestly SUPERIOR in priority to any of the others. I haven't tested it too see if/how it has been balanced, but a character with STR:5000, TOUGH:5000, and END:5000 was/is tougher than steel. I would be surprised if those values are now inferior in priority, as that would have involved a major code rewrite. I would also be surprised if they were still tougher than steel. Toady has surely balanced them in the background.

What do I mean?

STR * (Whatever bone changes you make to the bone and muscles of the creature) is how it appeared to be built. Not:
Bone material values * (Str + End + Tough)

The reason is that the 'strength' of an individual isn't limited to the properties of the materials in themselves, but also to the scale, size, and dimension of the interlocking parts. This is a mechanical engineering problem, and I am ABSOLUTELY certain that Toady hasn't figured out how to model leverage (Otherwise a castle couldn't stand on one support). The game runs on individual cells and cell structures. If you change the materials of the Femur Bone alone, it does not provide any meaningful change to the creature as a whole. Just a cosmetic one.

My guess is Toady is trying to figure out how to model the real deal, but he is barking up the wrong tree. That's why he added STR, END, TOUGH tokens to allow the game to model variations in the physical prowess of the characters, and why I mean they are superior. He probably needs to completely rebuild the code to get it away from its current design. Anyway, I love talking creatures, so you are in luck there.

If you need cash/work, I would also being willing to help, but I would want credit and a thank you [LGL DISCLAMIER - OK, technically if I help you get a point where you personally get reliable revenue for my services rendered (IE a patent) I would expect 5% royalties, but you are just looking for work so it isn't that relevant]. Also you would need to answer a lot of questions. I love design work, digital creatures or living ones, makes no difference to me. I love to play Igor.

*Laughs Maniacally*

[Putnam]

STR * (Whatever bone changes you make to the bone and muscles of the creature) is how it appeared to be built. Not:
Bone material values * (Str + End + Tough)

multiplication is commutative

My guess is Toady is trying to figure out how to model the real deal, but he is barking up the wrong tree. That's why he added STR, END, TOUGH tokens to allow the game to model variations in the physical prowess of the characters, and why I mean they are superior. He probably needs to completely rebuild the code to get it away from its current design. Anyway, I love talking creatures, so you are in luck there.

Unironically I think they might actually just be RPG stats. Strength is correlated with muscle growth, yeah, but other than that it's mostly used as a coefficient in stuff like momentum calculations for attacks.

[taldarus]

multiplication is commutative

My apologies, but I wasn't meaning a simple multiplication. I was meaning a force multiplier. I was using the simple math to make the effect more understandable to the average reader. As most people are uncomfortable with more... complicated equations.

"Investing in Force Multipliers means that you’ll get more done with the same amount of effort."
-The Internet

Strength is correlated with muscle growth, yeah, but other than that it's mostly used as a coefficient in stuff like momentum calculations for attacks.

A Coefficient is a force multipliers. As in...

Co^3 * Variable + other crap.

Is not a difference at all from what I wrote here.

STR * (Whatever bone changes you make to the bone and muscles of the creature) is how it appeared to be built. Not:
Bone material values * (Str + End + Tough)

Although, admittedly it isn't the best example on the planet. It is a very good example for on the fly. It is also a coefficient, as you yourself state, just not very meaningful in the example given. I can see that is confusing.

The biggest force multiplier is obviously size, unless Toady has done something to provide a penalty. There are some easy ways to balance that, but I don't see anything to tell me one way or another.

I have tested it with multiple versions, and multiple sets of organic material. I am tempted to see if an adamantine colossus with TOUGHNESS:5 would be breakable by a copper sword. I suspect it would. This is incredibly significant. It would mean we are literally multiplying the strength of the material by 0.005, assuming we are using 1000 as the median value. This could mean adamatine's sharpness would be lower than almost every metal, it's mass would be comically low, and its material properties would be lower than almost everything in the game. I doubt that is what Toady has done, but it would be hilarious to see these massive adamantine colussus's with the weight of a feather and more brittle than a cracker.

Tsudonymious, the Adamantine Wafer Titan, has appeared....

Wafer would have a whole new meaning there. Lol.

[Putnam]

my statement on how things work comes from actually knowing tbe precise equations the game uses, which do not, in fact, take i to account toughness for material properties

a bronze colossus is capable of being broken by a copper sword because copper > bronze for all blunt calculations