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[Neoadept]

Weird, mine work just fine on the latest build.  Is the squad off duty and do they have access to (*shudders and tries to come up with a way around it*) bone or wooden shotgun shells?


The battle reports are great actually, it helps me know what works and what doesn't without playing full games myself.  That, and they're awesome.

[MathijsBuster]

Archery Targets work normally for me.
It could have non-mod related reasons, including, but not limited to:

- Do you have the targets set as archery range?
- Is the archery range big enough?
- Is the direction for the archery range okay? (From left to right, or up to down..)
- Do you have enough guns? (Wouldn't be the first time I noticed I didn't have enough guns for my guys to actually use for training).
- Do you have enough wooden or bone munition?
- Are the soldiers standing down? (As in: Not on duty).
- Is there a gap between the targets and the shooter? (I believe they won't shoot if there's a gap or so inbetween).

The battle reports are great actually, it helps me know what works and what doesn't without playing full games myself.

About that, I noticed the following thing/bug while playing. It's kinda minor, but maybe it can be fixed:

- Soldier Miners repeatedly pick up and drop their equipment when the mining skill is activated but no tiles have been designated for digging out. This prevents them from doing anything else.

It's easily prevented by deactivating the mining skill when you don't need the miner, but it's still a tiny bit annoying.

[Neoadept]

Ah, the old jackhammer bug, I'd forgotten about that since switching survivors to shovels.  It has to do with me deciding that jackhammers shouldn't be one handed, and DF making everyone use one handed weapons by default.  Just set your miners to use two-handed weapons from the military screen and they'll carry things normally.

Thanks for reminding me, I'll add a note to the weapons section of the main post about that.

[MathijsBuster]

And another more gameplay based suggestion:

While I really like the paralyzing aspect of the zombies, there is nothing more annoying than having a short skirmish with a single undead leave up to 3 dwarves permanently paralyzed.

The main annoying thing about this is that the paralyzed guys still count as living.
This means that if they carry around valuable equipment, you can't take it off them. Forbidding it won't cause them to drop it because they are paralyzed.. etcetera.
Other reasons as well.. You'll get endless "Blahblah cancels rest: Paralyzed" messages if they get wounded before getting paralyzed but actually survive the battle.
Now, you can decide to turn off job cancellation messages... but that means keeping them off (and never knowing about any other important job cancellations) until the paralyzed guy dies of hunger or thirst... which can take quite a while.
At least with temporary paralysis these messages only get spammed for about 30 seconds and then it's back to normal.

Also, you'll scream at the monitor as soon as one of your guys runs out of ammo and promptly decides to quickly try his luck in close combat.
Even if the enemy is gravely wounded and vastly outnumbered and your guy would normally win, random last lucky bites will cause your guys to never get up again and be a burden forevermore.

I did a minor test with removing the permanent paralysation and making it only last temporarily, much like giant cave spider's paralysis.
This causes the zombies to be deadly enough in combat, because one bite will leave your guy open to whatever attacks will follow, marking his death unless you quickly send in troops to help him.
I noticed the paralysis lasts long enough to get to the end of the combat situation, and even a while longer, but the main thing is that if your guy is otherwise unharmed, he'll eventually get up again and be useful once more.

I think this is a much fairer system. Instead of making a lucky strike permanently disable your guy forever, you're instead making sure you have to help him out quickly if he does get bitten.

An other solution would be to make it so that extracts can be turned into antidotes, which in turn can be administred. But I'm pretty sure that's up to Toady to achieve, as it's impossible currently.

Until Toady makes antidotes work, I think it would be better for gameplay to make the paralysis temporary. This is based on my own experience with the game, and believe me, I do not suggest this because I want to make it easy for myself (I would've made a moat and a dozen traps if I wanted that). It's just that I think it's more fun and fair this way. It's currently too punishing in my opinion.

Anyway, of course it's up to you. Just wanted to get this off my mind.
It's not like I can't change it for me personally by editing the object files, but maybe you want to change this for everyone in the next update. ^^

[Neoadept]

That one's been on my mind for awhile, actually.  The thing is that I was hoping that the initial bite would be enough to cause anyone paralyzed to bleed to death, because most zombie material indicates that one bite and it's a one way ticket to dead-town.  Still, I suppose that permanent paralysis is just a stopgap until we get poisons that will kill in-game.

I'll give it some thought.

Have you tried dumping the important things you need?  I know that works with captured goblins.

[MathijsBuster]

That one's been on my mind for awhile, actually.  The thing is that I was hoping that the initial bite would be enough to cause anyone paralyzed to bleed to death, because most zombie material indicates that one bite and it's a one way ticket to dead-town.  Still, I suppose that permanent paralysis is just a stopgap until we get poisons that will kill in-game.

It also spams limitless "Guy cancels rest: Paralyzed" messages this way... kinda annoying.
But mostly it's so random that it isn't really fun. You have a wide plethora of close combat weapons, but I don't want to send any dwarf anywhere *near* a zombie when a random bite can disable him forever.
And my guys seem to get bitten relatively often... Also, since you don't have *full* control over your guys, they sometimes run at the zombies when they run out of ammo or something. Even though they'd normally have good enough combat chance, I just scream wildly trying to get them back. They never listen and always get paralyzed forever though, even though I'm usually able to get some reinforcement near before they get really ripped apart. Kind of a bummer.

The paralysis still adds a lot to combat though, and it usually makes the zombies rip the paralyzed guys apart right afterwards. But in the odd case they do survive by help of other survivors, the paralyzed guys become a source of major frustration.

I admit it would be cool if the poison would turn the bitten guys into zombies themselves, but as it is now I think it would be better to make the paralysis temporary.

Have you tried dumping the important things you need?  I know that works with captured goblins.

I tried, but goblins usually get disarmed by dwarves.
These guys have to put their equipment down voluntarily.
Though they'd normally do so happily, the fact that they're completely paralyzed seems to... well, stop them.
I haven't found a way around this yet.

[Kay]

Playing this with the most recent build seems to yeild the result of the CIVs being friendly with one another - and the infected. The only exception is sieges, but I recently embarked on an infected town to discover a bunch of friendly wrestler zombies.

[MathijsBuster]

Playing this with the most recent build seems to yeild the result of the CIVs being friendly with one another - and the infected. The only exception is sieges, but I recently embarked on an infected town to discover a bunch of friendly wrestler zombies.

Mhyeah. I noticed this too.
Is it even possible to make civilizations auto-hostile from the start these days?

[Carcer]

Fixed my problem. I for some reason assumed shotguns don't need ammo. 

[StrayCat]

Oh. My. GOD.

I do believe this counts as a pertinent post, and I hope the mods are lenient about thread necromancy, but I've got a few things to say.

First off, you're the shit man. Neoadept, you win 40 internets. Downloading another DF copy and gonna go live in a zombie nation.

Second thing: How do I make myself play as corporation or military? I don't really know how to play in fortress mode as other civilizations. What do I click?

Third thing: As a wee one, I was big into zombie movies. Books, comics, movies. There's even zombies (and giants, and very nasty fallen angels) in the bible. Fun stuff. I've heard some interesting things, and I've got some ideas of my own as to what might just be a sweet idea for megabeasts if you're still running this mate- which I hope to heaven you are. I don't know everything about modding, and truth  be told my extent of knowledge is someone telling me how to put a new world map into my saves along with typing in a new trap component, but I'll try and format it best as I can to what I think would be some killer semi-megabeasts and megabeasts.

Mutations, the lot of 'em. Hope that doesn't go against your ethos or zombies, but that's the easiest thing to work with- gives the imaginative a lot of room to move in!

GENERAL NASTIES

Lurker
The representation of one should be something you see everywhere- like a green comma. If that's too hard, then one type of tree. It moves fast, and is stealthed until encountered. Attacks by latching onto something, paralyzing it, and then mauling the sonovagun. Very, very violent, like most of these suggestions, seeking out prey whenever it pops up. Everywhere, since the mutation pops up randomly. Can open doors.

Loper
The fastest zombie, hands down. a wiry looking zombie degeneration where the infected wins the mutation lotto and reverts to all fours and gains the speed to haul hindquarters all over to devour the living. Comes in groups of five to ten, the standard zombie powers. Hope you've got a channel with a drawbridge up whenever it's not caravan time, because these things'll go from the edge of your map to your doorstep in the time it takes your character to take twenty steps. Seeks out prey actively. Lives everywhere.

SEMI- MEGABEASTS
Bear Eater
Some severely nasty things that can and will go toe to toe with just about any native creature and bend it so far backwards that the poor animal will find it's head touching its butt. Immensely strong, large enough to -just- hide behind a Sports Utility Vehicle that's resting on it's grill, and not to be engaged in hand to hand. A bit faster than a regular zombie, way slower than a lurker. Can destroy buildings, like, say, a trade depot, or a bridge. Strong enough to survive a fifteen Z-drop. They won't be doing too well, but they'll survive it.

Albatross
Winged zombies. Hey, hey, what's to say after ten thousand years of world gen and the zombie outbreak hitting on year one there wouldn't be winged zombies? Here's a hint:

Think skeletal Giant Eagle.
Isn't that just too horrifying and awesome not to pass up?
I thought it needed suggesting!

Can open doors, can destroy floodgates and doors and small stuff, but not buildings, like a trade depot or workshops. Have a tendency to pick up.

MEGABEASTS
All of them get the highest building destroyer possible. All of them are slow. All of them should be able to absorb enough ammunition to conquer Rhode Island. And all of them should be really, really ticked off.

COLOSSUS

Get your Cthulhu on. eight spiked extending jaws, doing the highest damage of the bunch of appendages. Three stinger tails, paralyzing and poisoning. One arm, ending in nine claws with a spiked tentacle in the center of the palm. seven tentacles, which grasp and hold humans, throw them, crush them, or thrust them down one of their gullets. Five eyes of various sizes scattered about the body. No neck. three legs that can stomp on humans into a fine paste. If it doesn't feel like breaking down a door, it'll open it with a tentacle. No pain, no breathing, no exert, doesn't sever on breaks- it's a fleshy monstrosity that would make demons seal themselves back up in adamantium and hide in the bathroom until it goes away.

DREADNAUGHT

Four arms, one head, the strength to punt humans into pink splashes on the walls. Enough mass to him to take numerous ballista bolts and keep pounding wet chunks of bone into ground. The ground it walks on dies from the weight. It'll kill an elephant by stepping on it. It's big and nasty. Pretty simple.


LEVIATHAN/MONSTER O'WAR

Mix a carp with a zombie with a whale with a man o'war jellyfish with some sentient gelatinous ooze dumped from DuPont with a little bit of seething rage for good measure. Now make it transparent, invisible for all intents and purposes until discovered. Scared yet? A zombie mutation that's grown to live on the bottom of ocean floors, moving silently in the depths, like the ungodly horror of the deeps that it is. And lucky you, it's surfaced and wandered its sodden mass over to your settlement. Enjoy the remaining time you have with your loved ones, then detonate the roof above yourselves. It'll be much quicker that way.

My memory is terrible, and I'm certain there's more you can do with this- but these are some suggestions that I hope'll spark some ideas in your head. Once again, thanks for making this fantastic mod mate!

Double edit (First was for crap formatting): Forge plastic Aromor, craft bone/wood aromor should be "armor". Minor spelling thing, very minor. So far looks quite good! Second thing: With 200 starting points, it's impossible to max out the potential of all the people. First run I ended up with two peasants and no extra goods but for one potato seed and two cats to keep those nasty sounding rats away. Tough stuff.

I'll post results of my first run when I get through my second winter (year two, one and a half years in). Aside from what I mentioned, it all seems to be ticking over nicely.

I don't know if this is just me or an error with DF itself, but when I designate a workshop to be built in my underground bunker, they won't move the stone in the area. I gotta wait for the darned stuff to be moved for the workshops to be built instead of suspended... I think the stones are being used in my wall- or that's what their designated purpose is, but they're not in the wall -quite- yet.

[MathijsBuster]

Straycat:
How are you not playing the game 'Left 4 Dead' now instead of writing that thread? xD

[moghopper]

Not to make demands or anything, but could someone provide that graphics set one of ya was using? The one with the soldiers with guns instead of swords and the such.

Also, I used that new graphics text so i could use the mayday set, but the zombies just appear as black boxes. Any idea how to fix? It really ruins the atmosphere

[StrayCat]

Straycat:
How are you not playing the game 'Left 4 Dead' now instead of writing that thread? xD

Because I am a sad monkey with no moneys. And somehow, that I have a computer and an Xbox makes it all the nastier for me. Send 60 bux plz.

[moghopper]

Not to make demands or anything, but could someone provide that graphics set one of ya was using? The one with the soldiers with guns instead of swords and the such.

Also, I used that new graphics text so i could use the mayday set, but the zombies just appear as black boxes. Any idea how to fix? It really ruins the atmosphere

Nobody cares How Dwarf-ish of you all

[StrayCat]

Not to make demands or anything, but could someone provide that graphics set one of ya was using? The one with the soldiers with guns instead of swords and the such.

Also, I used that new graphics text so i could use the mayday set, but the zombies just appear as black boxes. Any idea how to fix? It really ruins the atmosphere

Nobody cares How Dwarf-ish of you all

Dude, you posted this during this very -day-. Don't expect immediate satisfaction. I use regular old smiley dwarf faces. And FUCK ME, my fortress is gone. My saves are in the saves folder under region two, but I can't embark on my old worldmap again and there's no CONTINUE PLAYING option! Poop on a stick!

I'll just have to embark on a military square for right now until I get my fortress back...