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[Lancensis]

As for genning populations, I don't think populations should be sorted always according to their real world distributions.  Eg, it would be nice for continents to have different fauna, but they don't always have to have "North American" and "Austrailian" groups all together

It's a bit of a fallacy anyway, since in the recent geological past most large mammal groups could be found distributed over far larger areas of the globe then they are today. Admittedly Australian fauna has always* been isolated and unique, but back in the good ol' days, the fauna of America, Europe, Asia and Africa wasn't terribly distinct.

*well, usually.

[mendonca]

Also it would be neat to see a wolf try to attack a porcupine, get driven off with a face full of needles, and you kill the wolf later and find the needles on the corpse.

I was thinking about something like this a bit ago ...

The game could do* with a pre-game (world-gen) match-up (or series of match-ups) between each creature that is likely to face each other, then they would all store a little bit of history of the fights, which would inform the AI of the beast in the world.

This would be the bit where a Magma Man learns that all he needs to do would be hold Dwarfs, Elfs and Humans by the face for long enough to boil the respective brain, and inevitably win. Rather than swinging randomly with some sort of improv magma-man kung-fu.

And also where the wolf learns that a porcupine is not a viable lunch.

Emergent behaviour, mod-compatible, but *I have no idea whether this is even remotely practical, from a programming point of view.

[Shoku]

Maybe not a god, but an angel or demigod level of power is about right.

I get the impression that way back then it was difficult to explain to a person how being a god was anything more than having authority and a little magic.

Maybe they just got godlier as our expectations of gods grew.

Also it would be neat to see a wolf try to attack a porcupine, get driven off with a face full of needles, and you kill the wolf later and find the needles on the corpse.

I was thinking about something like this a bit ago ...

The game could do* with a pre-game (world-gen) match-up (or series of match-ups) between each creature that is likely to face each other, then they would all store a little bit of history of the fights, which would inform the AI of the beast in the world.

This would be the bit where a Magma Man learns that all he needs to do would be hold Dwarfs, Elfs and Humans by the face for long enough to boil the respective brain, and inevitably win. Rather than swinging randomly with some sort of improv magma-man kung-fu.

And also where the wolf learns that a porcupine is not a viable lunch.

Emergent behaviour, mod-compatible, but *I have no idea whether this is even remotely practical, from a programming point of view.

If it's not practical for world gen each time we might be able to run some other thing. It would store all that info in a text file somewhere and you'd only have to redo it when you added or removed entities. Otherwise the world would just skim through it each time for relationships.

So actually laying down all the code to make this stuff happen is the big task and only Toady knows what old hard code jungle he's going to have the machete through to do it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I think a chainsaw would be more fitting for that sort of jungle. Or a hacksaw... since it's, you know, a code jungle...  >_>

Anyway.

You could have default behavioral patterns embedded into creatures. Because in real life, creatures have preferred methods of attack. Big cats ambush, chase, pounce, and bite your head (well, neck) off. A magma man would simply grab you and punch you until you boiled. Setting up default attack preferences would be rather straightforward, and combined with generated predator-victim relationships it'd produce some nice behavior.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

steel battle axe is the dwarven way to do it

[Christes]

hacksaw

Oh god.  The pain.

[jokermatt999]

I think a chainsaw would be more fitting for that sort of jungle. Or a hacksaw... since it's, you know, a code jungle...  >_>

Anyway.

You could have default behavioral patterns embedded into creatures. Because in real life, creatures have preferred methods of attack. Big cats ambush, chase, pounce, and bite your head (well, neck) off. A magma man would simply grab you and punch you until you boiled. Setting up default attack preferences would be rather straightforward, and combined with generated predator-victim relationships it'd produce some nice behavior.

This makes me want to mod magma men to only give out firey doom hugs instead of punching. They're really nice people, they just don't know they're on fire.

As for more on topicness, a seperate ecology file from worldgen is a good idea. It'd be especially nice if it was tweakable to fix any glitches in it, but I doubt that will happen.

[KaelGotDwarves]

This makes me want to mod magma men to only give out firey doom hugs instead of punching. They're really nice people, they just don't know they're on fire.

Tentacle demons are only trying to give you high fives with their tentacles but they have terrible aim. 

That being said, glad to see Toady's doing well again.

[Cruxador]

This makes me want to mod magma men to only give out firey doom hugs instead of punching. They're really nice people, they just don't know they're on fire.

That would make sense, since dwarves don't realize they're on fire either. Hence the booze explosions and similar.

[G-Flex]

Booze doesn't explode. Booze never exploded.

[Naero]

Dragons just want to say hi, but everytime they breathe fire by accident.

Ironically, all they want to say is 'run away, every time I do this somebody catches on fire!'

[Outcast Orange]

Batmen just want to kill villains, but somehow they are confused and...
I have no idea where that sentence would have gone if I hadn't abandoned it.

In other news, the trees in my game can have invisible sex.
Much more efficient then tentacle demons.

[Wirevix]

In other news, the trees in my game can have invisible sex.

I think I have found my very first sigquote, if you do not mind.

As far as on-topic goes... being able to define a creature's general tendencies would be rather nice.  Of course, there would have to be missing parts; i.e., wolves that live near cliffs would probably start to use said cliffs as a hunting tactic, driving a panicked prey animal off the cliffs to do the dirty work for them.  (Eagles will do the same to hunt prey too large for them to carry, which means giant eagles might drive elephants off cliffs...)  Seems like it would start to get complicated fast to include all the possible geological adaptations individual packs/specimens of animals might make to their hunting style depending on the natural formations they live near.

[Lord Shonus]

The game won't be complete until Man's oldest hunting tactic is modelled. They followed the animal until it fell over from exhaustion.

[Duelmaster409]

I wish it were possible to chop off ears, preferably from elven children, then make a necklace or some time of accessory with it. Multiple accessories. Then walk around with your bling.