Seeing as how the next interesting version of DF is going to come out in the next 1-3 years I have decided to get ahead of myself, and by that I mean go into something I barely have any idea of how to do myself.
The basic idea of this is to create a creature from scratch following a strict points limit. I'm not sure how many points you're limited to, because there's so much to add, so I thought it should be a little more than enough for two core bodies, head, movement parts, and something to hold things.
So without further ado here is the V.0 of the Creature mod contest 1 rules list.
V.0 rules contents
0.0 Basic Stuff
0.1 Basic idea
0.2 Basic Rules
0.3 About everything else
0.4 Basically items...
1.0 After you made your creature, and it survived world gen.
1.1 Playing the game
2.0 Now how should we handle points! -\_(0_o)_/-
2.1 Important stuff first
Basic Stuff
0.1 Basic idea:Create a creature using DF modding templates. That creature must be able to build a civilization, and basically survive world gen. Participant's creations will be thrust into a special world full of only other modders creatures who have participated in this topic in order to see who's creature is more superior or is just able to survive the harsh settings. Along with other civ creatures all other less destructive creatures e.g. cows, deers, etc will be removed and replaced with tougher creatures, to make things more interesting.
0.2 Basic Rules: Make a creature, and three other creatures tuned to your own creations with out going over the points limit. Your creature must be able to survive world gen with at least two cities left in the world. The three creatures tuned to your own creations must be a food source creature/pack animal, war animal, and vermin hunter, your limited to only embarking with these three creatures, and all of these characteristics must not be packed into one convenient creature.
0.3 About everything else from crops, drinks, cloths, weapons, basically the items apartments. Can be changed to your likings, except I must ask that you not give your creatures access to a bajillion different crops. Instead just change plump helmet into Sweet clouds if you're creature is some sort of weasel with wings or short swords into Sais if you've got some ninja civ going on.
0.4 Basically items from the vanilla version can only be made into flavor items for your creatures i.e. you can not change the old items characteristics.
After you made your creature, and it survived world gen.
1.0 Playing the game: Play the special DF world with your creature, and see how stuff goes from there.
-This section should be discussed heavily-
2.0 Now how should we handle points! -\_(0_o)_/-
2.1 Important stuff first As we know in DF size matters, it's what determines how well a creature will fare in battle, so to make things challenging I suggest that this be one of the more costly things.
{Basic structure}
Head
Upper body-L Arm-R Arm-L R Grasper
Lower body-L Leg-R Leg-L R feet
So I guess this should be something of the basic template, if you feel like it your creature doesn't need to be humanoid, but it must have all of these things! Anything else, wings, organs, are not mandatory due there being the [no breath] tag of course that should cost more than having some sorta organ for breathing.
-This of course should be discussed the most-