Topic: Making a Pixie civilization (Read 5906 times)

JoshuaFH · « **on:** December 03, 2008, 11:40:45 am »

Some of you may know that, in my problems with DF, have vehemently denied the use of modding. This is not because i'm one of those stuck up "you should play the game the way it was made!" people, no, but because i'm incredibly paranoid when it comes to dealing with code or programming or other small-detail-reliant things, that i'll mess up my beloved games and never be able to get them back. i'm not experienced in modding AT ALL and so i've shut myself off from it, out of fear.

But i was recently inspired by Marlowe's thread "faerie fortress", and i got it into my stupid head to make a "Pixie Civilization".

So this is my idea, Pixies would essentially be a race of very small bodied flying people. They'd have little aptitude in fighting, but not incapable of it. because their bodies are so small, they can't wear wood or metal armor because of the weight, so i was thinking they'd naturally wear leather, cloth, or silk type armors. They could still use metal weapons, but maybe special "tiny" weapons that can't be used by any of the other civs.

because their aptitude in fighting is so low, i knew that making such a race would only result in them getting wiped out by war very easily. I think this could be counteracted by giving them a plethora of useable habitats and increasing the rate at which they reproduce and increasing their litter-size, if i understand that at all.

Can somebody teach me alittle about modding, so i can make my idea become reality? I've never touched the raws once, and only touched the init once in order to turn on seasonal autosaves, so i'm sorry if i sound incredibly naive and newbish in the matters of modding.

JoshuaFH · « **Reply #1 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:24:00 pm »

I've been reading the articles on modding at the wiki, and i've come up with a first draft of the future pixie code. I haven't added wings or FLIER because i'm still learning what that entails or if it's even possible.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What do you guys think? imput is appreciated. i'm still learning, big time.

I used the human speech, because i'm still alittle in the dark, and humans seem like they'd talk the closest to what i want.

things i don't understand: layering, standard_flesh, homeotherm, how to make them more likely to give birth to multple children besides removing MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE.

Footkerchief · « **Reply #2 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:27:38 pm »

All of that sounds doable, except maybe those particular restrictions on armor material. You should start by looking at entity_default.txt in the raws so that you can see how the weapon/armor permissions work. Next you should look through the item_armor files and item_weapon. Armors are sized to match their creator, so you can probably get away with using the existing armor entries, but weapons have a fixed size, so yeah, you'll want to create separate miniature ones, including maybe an "earth wand" instead of a pick?

These pages will be essential:
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Entity_tokens <= entities are civilizations. You'll especially need the tags relating to weapon permissions, metal/wood usage, etc.
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Armor_Tokens <= you'll need these for armor material restrictions
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Weapon_Tokens
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Creature_tokens <= for modding the pixie creature itself

Once you have a basic idea of what the raws look like, you'll want to start by tweaking the "Pixie" creature to be a real creature rather than vermin, creating the miniature weapons, MAYBE creating separate armors/clothing, and finally copying the elf entity definition (they're very big and time-consuming to write from scratch) and tweaking everything.

Boksi · « **Reply #3 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:31:12 pm »

Also, make sure to check up color on the wiki. You only have 16 colors to work with, actually.

You won't need new kinds of clothing or armor, since it'll just adjust them to the creature who produced them.

Also, you don't need [BUTCHERABLE_NONSTANDARD] anymore, it's obsolete.

Footkerchief · « **Reply #4 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:31:56 pm »

Oops, that's a good start. Make sure you capitalize TRANCES. GENPOWER and BUTCHERABLE_NONSTANDARD are obsolete tags. Adding wings is easy, just give them the 2WINGS token in the body definition and the FLIER tag. Currently you've set them to have litters of 1 -- bigger litters might help, use LITTERSIZE.

Boksi · « **Reply #5 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:36:19 pm »

The [trANCES] thing is really just a forum bug. I wrote that completely capitalized there, for example.

Keep in mind that flier pathfinding is currently bugged in that you can't actually make control a flier civilization in fortress mode, they'll panic once they get into the air.

Footkerchief · « **Reply #6 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:40:16 pm »

Quote from: Boksi on December 03, 2008, 03:36:19 pm

Keep in mind that flier pathfinding is currently bugged in that you can't actually make control a flier civilization in fortress mode, they'll panic once they get into the air.

Haha, oops. That happens with aquatic civs too, right? Too bad. Well, it could be a whole civilization of Aeries from Baldur's Gate, constantly whining about how they USED to be able to fly.

JoshuaFH · « **Reply #7 on:** December 03, 2008, 08:35:32 pm »

ha, i just realized that was you Footkerchief. I just saw the pic and assumed you were somebody else entirely. i'm so used to that little pointing asian.

Since my pixies can't fly, i've decided to give them some abilities to create the illusion of flight, such as TRAPAVOID, WEBIMMUNE, EXTRAVISION, GRASSTRAMPLE:0, and SWIM_INNATE, i figured that something that is able to fly would have characteristics like this, but instead of SWIM_INNATE, what tag do i put in to make them like alligators, that can just jump in and out of bodies of water without needing a stairway? I also fixed some other stuff But hey, you said that YOU can't control them, do you mean that if the computer is controlling them, they'll do just fine?

If i understand the way speed works, i've also made them twice as fast as humans and dwarves, and fairly faster than elves in order to compensate for their incredible smallness some more.

I present, the second pixie draft.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I still don't know what layering and homeotherm mean or do. i've read about them, i just don't know what they mean or do. Why is that important to me? because I want to make one of their natural homes tundras or glaciers, while also them being able to settle in temperate climates like forests or shrublands easily.

Also, i plan on pixies being an entirely aboveground race, so no 'earth wands' but they can farm, chop wood, and smelt metal like humans, but not wear metal armor like elves.

I'm thinking of putting in some things to make them unique, like LIGHT_GEN and NOSMELLYROT.

i really hope i don't make pixies super-badass by accident.

Aqizzar · « **Reply #8 on:** December 03, 2008, 08:38:17 pm »

One little thing. At Size 3, your pixies are the size of cats. I would think Size 1 would be more appropriate, although I'm not sure if Size 1 creatures actually function.

JoshuaFH · « **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2008, 08:49:50 pm »

Quote from: Aqizzar on December 03, 2008, 08:38:17 pm

One little thing. At Size 3, your pixies are the size of cats. I would think Size 1 would be more appropriate, although I'm not sure if Size 1 creatures actually function.

Yeah, i know, thats the size that i imagine them to be, and so that is how i will make them.

i won't hesitate to make them smaller if problems arise though.

Neoskel · « **Reply #10 on:** December 03, 2008, 10:23:27 pm »

There's already vermin sized pixies (they swarm like flies) in vanilla. Another idea for naming, since they can't fly, would be brownies or something.

Marlowe · « **Reply #11 on:** December 03, 2008, 10:29:32 pm »

"Sprites" seems to fit the bill.

I'm not sure what the layering and homotherm do either, but the Faerie are living in swamps of all the temperature extremes (except maybe scorching. Gotta check that) so I don't think the glaciers and tundras will be a problem.

JoshuaFH · « **Reply #12 on:** December 04, 2008, 07:50:58 am »

I forgot to mention i'm going to remove the Vermin pixies from the game, to avoid redundancy issues.

I don't mean to insult your knowledge on the topic Marlowe, cause lord knows i haven't studied mythology at all, but every website i go to seems to bunch Pixies and Sprites into the same category.

this one is my favorite:

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Sprites?t=anon

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Pixie

I don't even know what a Brownie is, but all the pictures i find of one seem REALLY ugly. So i'll think i'll just keep it at Pixie.

What did you change on your Faeries Marlowe to keep them safe in cold climates? I don't think you posted detailed information on them.

Jurassiced · « **Reply #13 on:** December 04, 2008, 02:04:08 pm »

if you dont want them to freeze set there body temp lower than 40 then just add the tags to there entity file that say they will set up shop there

Neoskel · « **Reply #14 on:** December 04, 2008, 04:27:55 pm »

Quote from: chaoticjosh on December 04, 2008, 07:50:58 am

I don't even know what a Brownie is, but all the pictures i find of one seem REALLY ugly. So i'll think i'll just keep it at Pixie.

They're basically really small gnomes. As in many things based off lesser known mythology you don't really have to worry about how other people depict them.

My personal image of brownies are pretty much like the Nac Mac Feegle from Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men.
Or like 1-4 inch tall native americans.
But that's just me.

P.S. Please don't use the name, this thread and the ant colony thread have inspired me to mod DF to 2 inch brownie scale. I'm a bit of a completist though, so i'm going to wait for polymorphism in the next version so i can do insects properly.

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Author Topic: Making a Pixie civilization (Read 5906 times)

JoshuaFH

Making a Pixie civilization

JoshuaFH

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Footkerchief

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Boksi

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Footkerchief

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Boksi

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Footkerchief

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

JoshuaFH

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Aqizzar

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

JoshuaFH

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Neoskel

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Marlowe

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

JoshuaFH

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Jurassiced

Re: Making a Pixie civilization

Neoskel

Re: Making a Pixie civilization