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[Lav]

My personal 5 cents contribution for the world of DF modding. :-)

Dwarf Fortress Rebalance: trying to change as much as possible while actually changing as little as possible. :-)

Changelog follows:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Races.
    * added orcs from 3rd party mod with some modifications.
    * rebalanced goblins and kobolds.
    * split elves into three cultures: noldor, teleri and laikwendi.
    * split humans into six cultures: humans, zeevolks, varyags, nomads, eskimo and berbers.
    * split dwarves into two cultures: dwarves (vanilla) and duergar (evil isolationist).
  Civilizations.
    * orcs (orcs race). brutal technologically advanced warriors, using mostly heavy weapons.
    * goblins (goblins race). average evil race, will kidnap.
    * kobolds (kobolds race). skulking thieves, mostly use blowguns and stilettoes (will not deal great damage, but critical chance is very high so beware!).
    * noldor (noldors race). town race, prefer mountains. technologically advanced elves (no steel though).
    * teleri (teleri race). town race, prefer ocean coasts. prefer lesser metals but have access to all animals and will send a liaison, so they are great to request exotic pets from.
    * laikwendi (elves race). essentially feral elves from vanilla DF with some cultural modifications. they have access to some really lethal arrows though.
    * imperials (humans race). essentially vanilla humans from DF. they have a piercing short sword which dwarves can order but cannot manufacture themselves.
    * ganza (zeevolks race). merchant cities, usually located on coasts and rivers.
    * varyags (varyags race). proud warriors and sailors of the north. they favour two-handed weapons for their punch.
    * nomads (nomads race). warriors of the steppes, may be quite dangerous with their bows. they favour weaker metals though.
    * eskimo (eskimo race). rarely appears in the coldest areas of the map, and even if they appear they rarely survive. a primitive northern race.
    * berbers (berbers race). a skulking culture to complement kobolds. will send thieves and raiding parties.
    * dwarves (dwarves race). essentially vanilla dwarves from DF.
    * duergars (duergars race). evil isolationist variety of vanilla dwarves with minor mental and cultural modifications. they usually start as hostile to every other race so play them to get nearly-constant attacks and sieges.
  Items.
    * ammo: added some variety for blowguns and crossbows. added higher-damage arrows for laikwendi.
    * shields: added tower shield (dwarves cannot produce but can import and use).
    * toys: expanded list of toys to better reflect cultural differences between civs.
    * weapons: totally rebalanced, added practise weapons (very low damage) and primitive axes/hammers/spears (can be manufactured from stone).
  Minerals and Metals.
    * added anthracite coal (appears in veins inside metamorphic layers).
    * added reactions to convert petrified wood and graphite to coke.
    * generally rebalanced coal to produce more coke (rich coals now produce 3, poor coals produce 2).
    * added and modified a number of alloys.
    * heavily modified steel production reactions - there are now two variants of how to produce steel, one needs more flux another has lower productivity.
    * a number of reactions now requires catalytic components (they are used up with 5% probability).
    * added mithril as a second deep ore. adamantium is now great for weapons while mithril is great for armor.
    * rebalanced price, damage and block coeffs for all metals.
    * flint is now a sharp stone like obsidian. however only primitive weapons can be produced from stone so resulting damage coefficient is about 66% IIRC.
  Plants.
    * added plants from 3rd party mod with some modifications (mostly prices for plants and products).
  Shapes.
    * added a huge number of shapes from 3rd party mod for greater variety.

Comments and criticism are welcome. :-)

[Deon]

I see what you did here .
I mean, yeah, almost the same thing I am doing: different subraces, more creatures, some alloys...

It looks like we've ran out of ideas till the next release .

I will give it a try tomorrow.

P.S. A suggestion: give it a sounding name. As long as DF stands not for a mythical "balance" but gameplay, find something epic-sounding. I personally don't like my "Dwarf Fortress Complete" name either, I am just lazy to rename it .

P.S. Do your elves use unique equipment for each subrace? If so, we could collaborate... cooperate... Whatever, I am currently friendly and drunk. I mean I have human subraces (4) with various items, you have different elves, we have a developed duergar mod here too... It would be cool if we focused each other in some race for subraces' sake and form a single mod... Ah, drunken dreams...

[Deon]

Eh, I see your elves use the same things, they mostly just have different names and biomes... Work on details, it can turn out pretty good.

Wait, what the hell did you use ? Some devilish xls-to-raws converter? These xls files are weird and all those newlines and empty spaces burn my modder's eyes! :O

[Blakmane]

P.S. Do your elves use unique equipment for each subrace? If so, we could collaborate... cooperate... Whatever, I am currently friendly and drunk. I mean I have human subraces (4) with various items, you have different elves, we have a developed duergar mod here too... It would be cool if we focused each other in some race for subraces' sake and form a single mod... Ah, drunken dreams...

I'm thinking we could create something pretty awesome if we combined things Deon =). Our mods have the same focus (graphics, creatures, races, options) but in complimentary ways.

[Lav]

Deon, I have downloaded all major mods including yours. They are all mostly similar, but I have a somewhat different approach to certain things.

First, I don't like introducing tons of mythical metals and alloys. Mithril and adamantite are enough IMHO because they are related to Things-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Second, I don't like introducing tons of items that essentially do the same thing and their only real difference is that they have different names and are produced by different cultures. This may be interesting for adventure mode but is excessive for fortress mode IMHO.

At the same time, I don't have the nerve to start working on language files. I'm currently translating game language file into Russian and it's hell of a work but at least I see a certain goal there. Inventing some unexistant languages however is something I lack willpower to undertake. And graphics are not exactly my strong point, too.

I'd rather concentrate on game balance which is my primary concern.

Perhaps we could list the features and decide what features from what mod could be bundled together into a "community mod"?

[Deon]

Deon, I have downloaded all major mods including yours. They are all mostly similar, but I have a somewhat different approach to certain things.

First, I don't like introducing tons of mythical metals and alloys. Mithril and adamantite are enough IMHO because they are related to Things-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Second, I don't like introducing tons of items that essentially do the same thing and their only real difference is that they have different names and are produced by different cultures. This may be interesting for adventure mode but is excessive for fortress mode IMHO.

At the same time, I don't have the nerve to start working on language files. I'm currently translating game language file into Russian and it's hell of a work but at least I see a certain goal there. Inventing some unexistant languages however is something I lack willpower to undertake. And graphics are not exactly my strong point, too.

I'd rather concentrate on game balance which is my primary concern.

Perhaps we could list the features and decide what features from what mod could be bundled together into a "community mod"?

Nah, there's no such thing as "community mod". Many tried, I tried too, it's just about the fact how it's easy to customize dwarf fortress. I mean, every player wants something different...


And I don't get it. You don't want to introduce new items. You don't want to introduce new metals (and I agree that you shouldn't, I think there's a lot of mods and there's Minerals mod which nicely address it). What you did is copy a few absolutely same races and name them differently. What's the point?

Also I do not agree that different items are bad for Fortress Mode. If you play it as a standard RTS, then yes. You could have a generic "armor", "weapon" and "shield" then. If you play it as I do, I mean reading dwarves' thoughts, giving them nickname and getting a headache by customizing their equipment and stuff, then ability to dress your warriors as you like and to fight enemies with different weapons is really nice.

It's all about flavor.

[Lav]

And I don't get it. You don't want to introduce new items. You don't want to introduce new metals (and I agree that you shouldn't, I think there's a lot of mods and there's Minerals mod which nicely address it). What you did is copy a few absolutely same races and name them differently. What's the point?

The point is in the mod title. It's not about a new world. It's about rebalancing the game while staying as close to vanilla as possible. There's still a lot of room for improvement there.

Besides, the races are not the same. They are very different culturally and will probably have some biological variations too once I start working on creatures(though not much).

Also I do not agree that different items are bad for Fortress Mode. If you play it as a standard RTS, then yes. You could have a generic "armor", "weapon" and "shield" then. If you play it as I do, I mean reading dwarves' thoughts, giving them nickname and getting a headache by customizing their equipment and stuff, then ability to dress your warriors as you like and to fight enemies with different weapons is really nice.

Well, what you did is copy a few absolutely same weapons and name them differently. What's the point? I prefer to keep things simple when there's no real need for complexity. Civilizations required variety so you could be sieged by three different elven civs per year instead of one, or trade with some elven civs while fighting with other ones. Weapons on the other side are not that important for me and I'm perfectly fine to call all mid-eastern blades "scimitars" for the sake of simplicity.

As for the minerals, I'm all for realism so when I see a real mineral that adds something to the game, I add it, that's all.

[Deon]

I get your point.

However I tuned weapons, so they are not absolutely same weapons, and they make a nice variety if you know what're you going after .
I wish weapons had more parameters though.

[Lav]

I wish weapons had more parameters though.

Seconded. :-)