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[smjjames]

Milkable animals!!!
The cheese maker will not be a magma test subject anymore!

And milkable Rancors will be possible! Well, if you wanted to, and the Rancor doesn't decide to eat you for messing with it.

[Spiders Everywhere]

hee hee blood extract hee hee vampire fortress hee

[Thundrim]

Milkable animals!!!
The cheese maker will not be a magma test subject anymore!

Will cows "work" now as a default though, or do you have to edit them yourself?

---

[smjjames]

hee hee blood extract hee hee vampire fortress hee

Toady said non-sentients only.

[wilsonns]

hee hee blood extract hee hee vampire fortress hee

I think he was talking about milking blood from animals to feed the fortress' population...

[AbacusWizard]

Where did this notion of Dwarves being steampunk even come from. Is it a Gamesworkshop thing, or did Blizzard do it?

The idea of dwarves crafting powerful advanced devices goes all the way back to Norse mythology, if not further: dwarven smiths created Thor's hammer, Sif's golden hair, Odin's spear, a huge flying ship made of metal plates that could fold up small enough to fit in your pocket, a golden bracelet that produces nine more golden bracelets each night, and this magic ring that some guy wrote an opera about, among others. In the legends these are described as "magical"; in modern fantasy we often want more detail about how things work, so either dwarves have some sort of complicated runic enchantment system or they have higher technology than the neighboring civilizations, usually involving clockwork and/or steam power.

I'm not sure when exactly the "dwarves=steampunk" thing started, although my guess would be the dwarves in WarHammer with their gyrocopters and organ cannons and what-not. Making dwarves too techy can be annoying, but overall I think the general trend of dwarves being higher tech than their neighbors (and somewhat secretive about it) is a neat trope, and I'm pleased with the implementation of that we see here with Mechanisms (and definitely looking forward to being able to do more stuff with them eventually).

It should be considered that you MUST have an anvil or you can't forge anything as a minor tech tree.

In the Dark Dwarves mod, anvils can be "cast" at a Smelter for three bars of iron or steel. I thought it was a nice workaround and provided a good explanation for where anvils come in the first place--although of course it begs the question of where picks came from in the first place. And of course being able to buy 3 hematite and a fire-safe rock instead of an expensive anvil drastically alters starting build balance, so that needs to be considered as well.

[smjjames]

Where did this notion of Dwarves being steampunk even come from. Is it a Gamesworkshop thing, or did Blizzard do it?

The idea of dwarves crafting powerful advanced devices goes all the way back to Norse mythology, if not further: dwarven smiths created Thor's hammer, Sif's golden hair, Odin's spear, a huge flying ship made of metal plates that could fold up small enough to fit in your pocket, a golden bracelet that produces nine more golden bracelets each night, and this magic ring that some guy wrote an opera about, among others. In the legends these are described as "magical"; in modern fantasy we often want more detail about how things work, so either dwarves have some sort of complicated runic enchantment system or they have higher technology than the neighboring civilizations, usually involving clockwork and/or steam power.

Don't forget Fenrirs chains, which seemed to have more magic than craftswork to it.

[Thundrim]

I hate to do this, but one of the ingredients in that chain was the beard of a woman, that's why they don't have beards anymore. :-p

    * The sound  of a cat's footfall
    * The beard of a woman
    * The roots of a mountain
    * The sinews of a bear
    * The breath of a fish
    * The spittle of a bird

Thus we no longer hear a cat's footfall, women have no beards, mountains have no roots, bears no sinews, fish no breath, and birds no spittle.

---

[Spiders Everywhere]

hee hee blood extract hee hee vampire fortress hee

I think he was talking about milking blood from animals to feed the fortress' population...

Plus making a tame breed of humans would be easy enough.

Vlad McImpaler needs blood to get through the working day

[smjjames]

I hate to do this, but one of the ingredients in that chain was the beard of a woman, that's why they don't have beards anymore. :-p

    * The sound  of a cat's footfall
    * The beard of a woman
    * The roots of a mountain
    * The sinews of a bear
    * The breath of a fish
    * The spittle of a bird

Thus we no longer hear a cat's footfall, women have no beards, mountains have no roots, bears no sinews, fish no breath, and birds no spittle.

Uh, mountains DO have roots, your breath can still smell like fish, and I believe there are a few species of asian cave dwelling birds or something that use spit to make their nests. Bears not having sinews depends on your definition of sinew.

[AbacusWizard]

Don't forget Fenrirs chains, which seemed to have more magic than craftswork to it.

Oh jeez yeah, that sounds like something right out of a Strange Mood, doesn't it?

"This is a mountainroot chain. All craftsvartalfship is of the highest quality. It is encircled with bands of hairs from a maiden's beard.* It is decorated with the sound of a cat's footfalls. It menaces with spikes of fishbreath and birdspit. On the item is an image of a wolf and a war god in beardream.** The wolf is biting the war god's hand."

* ...which means Norse dwarves may have had bearded women, making this part at least extremely easy to get!

** or bear sinew, or the sensibility of a bear, or however you want to translate it.

[Footkerchief]

Uh, mountains DO have roots, your breath can still smell like fish, and I believe there are a few species of asian cave dwelling birds or something that use spit to make their nests. Bears not having sinews depends on your definition of sinew.

Factually inaccurate mythology?  Alert the internet!

[smjjames]

Uh, mountains DO have roots, your breath can still smell like fish, and I believe there are a few species of asian cave dwelling birds or something that use spit to make their nests. Bears not having sinews depends on your definition of sinew.

Factually inaccurate mythology?  Alert the internet!

Norse Mythology doesn't say anything about that bieng why we don't have those anymore, and I think it was more metaphorical than anything. Remember how in the myth that the fetters as they were called looked as flimsy as cobwebs since everything else the gods used, Fenrir broke them.

[Mel_Vixen]

Its not about the existence of such things - its more about how hard it is to achieve such things.

[smjjames]

Its not about the existence of such things - its more about how hard it is to achieve such things.

Or how hard to get. The roots of a mountain is kind of the odd one out because granite technically forms the base of the continents and if you dig deep enough....

I don't really get what is meant by sensibilities of a bear, but I guess that one was left open to interpretation.