Highfantasy is right on the cusp of moving from dev version 1.3.16 to a 1.4.00 release. The last thing I can't seem to figure out is the token FEATURE_BEAST, and the wiki doesn't have much helpful information on it. Here are a few cases and things I noticed.
Creature A is a former cavern layer 3 creature with no special castes, changed into a feature_beast spawning layer 3-3.
Creature B is a former semimegabeast changed into a feature_beast spawning layer 3-3.
Creature D is a multi caste creature with a FEATURE_BEAST caste and a DEMON caste. Spawn layer, which must be defined at CREATURE level, was listed as 5-5 to cover the demons. Note that generated forgotten beasts don't even have a spawn layer defined.
How on earth do I check if these guys are spawning?
FEATURE_BEAST clearly hides their entries from world_sites_and_pops, so that's a no-go.
I added [LOCAL_POPS_CONTROLLABLE] for debug purposes to check if I could play any of them in adventure mode, confirming their presence. I could only get Creature A to appear on the Intelligent Wilderness Creatures list, which suggests to me at least that one is spawning. The adventurer was able to spawn from a Dark Fortress civ ruled by a unique demon, suggesting it gained adventurer-ness by crawling up the spire into the dark fort.
Some observations:
-turning off/on LARGE_ROAMING didn't seem to change anything
-nor DEPTH vs no DEPTH
-nor adding cluster, population, frequency
And by "change anything" i mean produce any of the following:
-nothing made the demon caste of Creature D show up in the demon list of world_sites_and_pops
-nothing made any difference in debug adventure mode playability of creatures B or D
-nothing made any of these creatures appear in legends mode as historical figures, despite many forgotten beasts being listed there, not even Creature A in the saves where I could play as one as adventure to debug
Any thoughts or help on how exactly this tag works?