Please see
this post for details on DF2010(0.31.10+) orcs.
Just thought that I'd throw this out there as my first bit of attempted modding, since I've benefited from the mods other people have posted here.
I decided that the goblins didn't come often enough, and ran away too quickly. The goblins from the "better goblins" mod seemed more geared towards adventure mode than fortress mode, since they seemed a bit
too powerful to be able to take on a siege of. Or, if they weren't, it was a siege vs. a large, mature fortress who's entrance was covered in more traps than there were dwarves inside.
Enter the orcs, a non-speaking race that will show up in large numbers. Larger and tougher than the average dwarf, they are raiders drawn by tales of wealth in dwarven (or human, or elven, or goblin) fortresses, and once they have arrived they show no fear and feel no pain until they have killed and plundered everything. Unless, of course, they get bored and leave for another fortress to loot and pillage. Assuming you can't drive them away, though, you should be prepared to spend at least 6 months out of the year sealed away underground, not an easy task at all.
Also, unlike non-speaking goblins, I've never had an issue with the orcs dying out during world gen. Fast birth rate and large populations seem to help with that.
Version 0.2 changes!
- Orcs are now faster, so they can chase down your woodcutters and fisherdwarves that are caught outside during sieges
- Orcs are now active summer/winter only, so that they don't interfere with dwarven caravans. I've seen them show up as early as my first winter, though with a fast start they might show up the first summer.
- Orc settlements are much larger, which helps them in world gen combat, because...
- Orcs worship a pantheon of (mostly unpleasant) gods, rather than a demon. Demons seem to have some odd things attached to them in world gen, so I wanted to take them out. Plus, they should put decorations of their gods on their equipment, and who doesn't want an iron shield with an image of an Orcish god of war on it?
- Orcs now eat their kills.
- Orcs are now clad only in armor, leather loincloths, and leather cloaks, as befits their savage nature
- Orcs are less choosy about their fortress locations, and so have a tendency to expand more rapidly during world gen.
- Orcs will no longer send crossbowmen, only bowmen. No bolts for you!
- Custom names for orcish soldiers: Crushers, stabbers, slashers, carvers, maulers, lancers, and snipers.
Version 0.3 changes!
- Orcish language!
- To have non-speaking orcs with names in fortress mode, generate the world and then add the [CAN_SPEAK] tag to their entity file after embarking.
- Added [trAPAVOID]
- Added three mount animals: Dire wolves, Giant Wolf Spiders, and Armored War Elephants
- Minor tweaks that should encourage them to expand well in world-gen.
- Updated first post
Overall, they are now a race of savage barbarians that will raid your fortress twice a year, killing anything that they can path to. They don't need demons to lead them, they do just fine on their own. Goblins need demons because goblins are
weak.
Installation:
- Download from
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=877- Place the three files in your raw\objects directory
- Regenerate the world
- (optionally) add [CAN_SPEAK] after starting fortress mode
- Have Fun!
Edit 2/12: Finally remembered to do this:
Thanks to Jarathor, there are now Orc graphics. I haven't tested them, but the image is
here and the instructions are
hereEdit: Foxbyte has repackaged Jarathor's Orc graphics into an easy-to-install file, available at
the DFFD