hey guys,
Recently I became interesting in DF modding. I want to add a custom civ to my game: A subterranean, amoral semi-insectoid race from my RPG games. They look like emaciated men with a pair of beetle choleoptera on their backs.
This race's "schticks" are:
1) heavy reliance on chitin/bone/skulls/shells for building materials. They use an special proccess to treat bone to a metal-like hardness, and then proceed to use armor like bone-mail and skull helmets, go to town with serrated bone swords and the like. Metal use should restricted to soft metals, and mostly for decoration. Secondary materials should be velvet and feathers made from subterranean cattle and fowl.
2) heavy on animal husbandry, light on agriculture: they herd several types of insects and subeterranean beasts for meat, milk, shells, leather (velvet), chitin and bones. (these animals should live on fungus, but as beasts don't need to eat in DF, I'm skipping this part). Also, they know how train most animals and insects to war-beasts.
3) necromancy: this I figure it's impossible to map to DF right now, but they also rely on reanimating their own fallen, besides some dead beasts, to serve as cannon fodder or sources of power (skeleton manned pumps, etc)
So, the questions for now are:
1) Is there a way to make more items out of bones? In special, can I make helmets from skulls and plate-like armor from bones or shells? Bone weapons should include the serrated swords (doing gore damage?), besides spears, maces and crossbows. Also, bone picks for them to dig with and bone mechanisms would be AWESOME.
2) Is there a way to make my critters to have bone preferences just as dwarves have stone, gem and metal preferences?
3) how to make my creatures' bodies so that they have two large, cutting wings-cases growing from from their shoulders, that can be used to cut (gore?) in close combat. They should hit as hard as fists (that's it, not hard at all), but do cutting damage. Ideally, their deadliness should improve together with wrestling proficiency (as DF seems to lack a "boxing" martial art centered on striking). Also ideally, they should be used to block some hits (like a shield, I figure).
4) how to make them drop their pair of wing-cases, besides bones and skulls when they die?
5) how to make them butcher and process their own dead, to use their body parts? (I said they were amoral!)
6) how to create velvet (from leather), feathers and eggs (from large fowl they herd)? Is a MATGLOSS enough for these? The objective would have clothing like: "velvet gloves" and "feather cloaks" and food like "egg biscuits".
7) If I mod their special pets/herd/pack animals, how to keep them unique to this race? at the same issue, how to make them NOT to bring vanilla cats, dogs and cows as pets? (at the same time that dwarves still have these as pets)?
finally: is there a way to make a race "undead-friendly" for now? The ideal would have skeletons manning pumps, and helping their military.
Any help would be much appreciated! I'll share my mods as soon I make them, for now I need to know what's possible and what's not.