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Author Topic: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 7 - Trees]  (Read 13095 times)

FACM

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Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 7 - Trees]
« on: April 06, 2010, 08:54:57 pm »

Fantasy Flavor - A mostly subtle mod.

Apparently, Civilization Forge 2 encompasses a lot of what I was planning, and has more or less outclassed this mod in a way that I won't likely catch up with. Go install that instead.

Release 7 now available - http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor7-zip

Release 7 adds in 3 new colored trees. If you want your cobalt-loving noble's bed to match his cobalt room, now you can!

All cumulative changes are detailed here:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've been playing Dwarf Fortress for a couple years now, and I sometimes wonder how much more could be done with the engine. Clearly, a lot of people feel this way too, looking at all of the other mods, especially some of the new ones for .31.01. I've tried a couple of them, and my usual feeling is that a lot of the other mods don't fit what I want to play. Some add things that I don't think fit in this type of fantasy world, and some make drastic changes to the existing game.

My goal with Fantasy Flavor is to make a mod that take the Dwarf Fortress world, and adds a bit more of the fantastic into it, without going (too) overboard. I know that there are other that would like to see this too, and I'm plenty open to suggestions on what to add or change.

I have some ideas in mind, and I'll run most suggestions through them to make sure they fit. Really awesome ideas can get exceptions, but for the most part suggestions will need to match.

My major design goals for FF are:
 * To add some variety to things that need variety. I've seen the far end of flavor mods, and while having 76 more types of trees is a lot more variety, I don't think that 76 more mundane trees makes the game more fun.
 ** That said, to not add too much variety, even if it does add a significant amount of flavor. 36 new farmable crops is a little bit more fun than trees, but it's also a pain to set up anything beyond a one-crop fortress in that scenario.
 * To bring in more fantasy to the game world. Things like flowers made of ice and self-animated swords, if they can be made to fit some sense of continuity in the game world.
 * To NOT re-balance existing objects/items/materials. There are a lot of mods already going around that are trying to fix balance issues, both real and perceived, and future releases could have those issues fixed by either raw file changes or system mechanic changes. I don't want this mod to need redone because the vanilla game got a big update. This also lets you drop this mod into an existing balance mod package.
 ** As a subset of the above note, I'd like to avoid editing the vanilla raw files as much as possible. The new tags, including caste tags, make it look like some edits can be done to existing objects without having to actually edit their tags, to a small extent.
 * To include some silly, 'Rated D for Dwarf' content that refers back to the history of Dwarf Fortress, but keep these entries in another set of separate files, so that players who want the flavor without things like Magma Elephants wandering around the deep can still obtain it without more effort than deleting 3 or 4 files.
 * To get more of the community involved with a mod, so that even people who don't have the skills/desire to mod can still take credit for making something for the game.

Planned changes:
-Implement a few more options for crafts and instruments, after double-checking to see if those are in the raw files.
-Add some fantastic plants
--Above-ground trees could use a few more colors of wood, don't you agree?
-And some fantastic creatures
--There are so many fantasy things to choose from, but which ones to add?
--Also, perhaps more 'fanciful' creatures, so that dwarves will draw more images of things that don't exist. They can write their own little fantasy world inside of the little fantasy world they live in.
--More pets, and more trainable pets. War Camels are a seriously undervalued resource.
--Despite the new forgotten beasts, there's still some room for a couple new, interesting megabeasts. 
-Materials
--There should be a couple more metals, but they'll need fantastic properties to be worth putting in.
-Items
--What items are missing from this society that they might need?
-More silly dwarfy things
--Elephants look to be kings of the beasts again in .31.01. They should be kings of the sea and air as well. And the magma seas.
--Surely, a race as industrious as the dwarves would have found ways to turn things besides plants into alcohol, right?

Again, suggestions are welcome and encouraged!
« Last Edit: May 03, 2010, 10:58:17 pm by FACM »
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Lofn

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Planning Stage - Input Requested]
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2010, 09:12:36 pm »

If you don't already, I strongly suggesting hanging around on #dfmodding on irc.NewNet.net.  There are constant idea discussions and mod concepts being thrown around, and you're likely to need assistance with a mod of this size and scope.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Planning Stage - Input Requested]
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2010, 07:50:54 am »

I'm not big on IRC chat, but I may try to look around there sometime after work.
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Deon

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Planning Stage - Input Requested]
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2010, 08:37:52 am »

Quote
To NOT re-balance existing objects/items/materials
I think it's a wrong approach. Current vanilla system is quite wrong because Toady didn't playtest it. I ran a hundred of arena and in-game tests and now my elves can shoot enemies and spears can reach internal organs. It's not perfect yet, but still better.

I'd suggest to consider balancing for the sake of gameplay. I mean, what's fun in a legendary spear of ancients if it cannot pierce rope reed clothes?
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Planning Stage - Input Requested]
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2010, 10:26:10 am »

Quote
To NOT re-balance existing objects/items/materials
I think it's a wrong approach. Current vanilla system is quite wrong because Toady didn't playtest it. I ran a hundred of arena and in-game tests and now my elves can shoot enemies and spears can reach internal organs. It's not perfect yet, but still better.

I'd suggest to consider balancing for the sake of gameplay. I mean, what's fun in a legendary spear of ancients if it cannot pierce rope reed clothes?

The purpose of not re-balancing everything in this mod is so that other mods, or Toady's updates, can fix the balance without having to alter my mod to keep up. I'd try to make sure that anything I added in was fun to use and properly effective, of course, but the vanilla items I'd prefer not to change in my mod if possible. I am expecting the balance to be fixed officially sometime, or done by the community before that, and I don't want to contradict those changes if possible.

If it becomes clear that the game balance thing isn't going to get fixed in any short time frame, I'll probably work in most of the community changes, or at least make sure I don't interfere with any of them so they can be dropped right overtop of my mod.

I'm also definitely going to consider supporting the Uristmod tool that was posted recently, so that what changes my mod does do to the vanilla files can easily be integrated into other mods. I'd like for this mod to just drop into the game without any work on the user's end, but Uristmod would be an acceptable alternative.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 1]
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2010, 08:19:04 pm »

Release 1 has been uploaded. Nothing earth-shattering here, but it's a start. Only changes 1 vanilla file!

Changelog:

-Items
--Added 22 more varieties of food to cook. I picked them all from Chariot's Cuisine mod, and took out ones that didn't seem to fit the setting.
-Plants
--Ice bells, delicious fruit that only grow in tundra, have been added. You can make some kickin' cider from them, assuming they don't melt before you can brew them.
-Metals
--Added in a new, extremely dense metal named mithril. Should appear anywhere that adamantine does, and in the same fashion, but significantly heavier. And greener, for some reason.
-Coins
--The economy is still broken, but if you insist on having a proper bank, you can do so now by using more valuable metals. Breaks my rule on not editing existing raw files (for now, may try to fix this later)
-Silly creatures
--Magma Men have new, large friends: Magma Elephants. Slightly invincible in .31.10 due to non-living creature being so hard to kill, but otherwise similar in strength to normal elephants.
-Misc.
--Added a .changes file for Uristmod.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 2 - DRAGONS!]
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2010, 08:42:57 pm »

Release 2 is out! http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor2-zip

What do we have here? Dragons? More of them?!

Yes and no. Yes, there are more types of dragons. 10 now, actually. Each has a unique attack, but otherwise matches it's siblings. No, in that it the world doesn't generate more dragons at creation. You won't see all 10 in one world, and 2 types are rarer than the others.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 3 - Colossi!]
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2010, 04:44:39 pm »

Release 3 is out! http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor3-zip

This update does for the Bronze Colossus what the previous update did for dragons. There's now 7 total colossi that can be created, each of a different material. There's currently little other difference between them, but I'm holding off on those until an official solution to address the near-unstoppableness of the bronze colossus is released. Once they can actually be put down, I'll properly balance them.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 4 - bugfixes]
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2010, 10:51:03 am »

Release 4 is out! http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor4-zip

Release 4 is a bugfix patch. The official changes from .31.02 were added in where necessary, dragons with a freezing breath attack now use Deon's coldbreath template, and I removed files that were in the .zip file that didn't actually have any changes in them.

EDIT: And now also fixes the item_ff file, thanks to Lord Urist
« Last Edit: April 10, 2010, 01:16:21 pm by FACM »
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Lord Urist

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 4 - bugfixes]
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2010, 11:54:54 am »

Haven't tried it, but I don't think the extra food should work - the file itself is called 'item_ff', but in the file, first line it says 'item_extra'.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 4 - bugfixes]
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2010, 01:15:37 pm »

I though I caught all of those when I changed the names before. Guess not. I fixed and re-uploaded the mod.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 5 - Toys and creatures]
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2010, 06:27:42 pm »

Release 5 now available - http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor5-zip

Release 5 adds black unicorns (evil variant of everyone's favorite pointy horses), flying elephants (partly a test animal, partly an extra challenge), alpacas (wool-bearing llamas, though wool harvesting is coming later), and 12 more types of toys.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 5 - Toys and creatures]
« Reply #12 on: April 13, 2010, 09:29:18 am »

Release 6 now available - http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor6-zip

Changes since Release 5:

PRELIMINARY:
*Added a new material: phlogistonium. Approximately as strong as steel, but is permanently imbued with preternatural heat. Can be used to make weapons at the artificer's lab.
*Added a new material: hyperboreum. Approximately as strong as steel, but eternally frigid to levels not found otherwise in nature. Can be used to make weapons at the artificer's lab.
*New workshop: Artificer's Lab. Used to make weapons out of materials that an ordinary forge can't handle. Requires an anvil and glass flasks to build, and uses a new skill.
*New weapons: everburning swords(short, long, and two-handed), battle axes, spears, pikes, halberds, great axes, daggers, morningstars, and scimitars, plus all 3 ammo types. Can only be made out of phlogistonium, but cause burns that hurt more than the actual wounds the base weapon would do. Unless you're fighting something fireproof....
**NOTE: the new weapon's special attacks don't seem to actually have any sort of special effect in-game. This might be a bug with the main engine. Likewise, the artificer profession won't really be implemented until the new metals work properly.

UPDATED:
*Fixed mithril ore to use the stone template, not the metal template
*Fixed the mithril dragon to point at the renamed mithril metal again
*Fixed the dwarves to make coins out of mithril again
*Assigned the new toys to the base civilizations. One of the new toys is dwarf-only, as no other race has the innate connection to the mountains required to craft such an exquisite plaything.
*Alpacas now use the 'a' symbol, no longer sharing 'C' with their distant relatives, camels.
*The market has driven the prices of domesticated alpacas down. Despite the now-equally-affordable competition, cow farmers are confident their cattle tastes better than alpacas.
*The corrections from .31.03 have been merged into this mod.
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FACM

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 6 - bugfixes and preliminary new metals]
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2010, 06:57:57 pm »

Release 7 now available -http://drop.io/FantasyFlavorDF/asset/fantasyflavor7-zip

Release 7 adds in 3 new trees. That's all. I've not had time to do much else lately. They do provide wood in new colors (blue, green, gold), which can be helpful if you're trying to keep your fort color-coded.
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RysanMarquise

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Re: Fantasy Flavor mod [Release 7 - Trees]
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2010, 09:55:50 pm »

BURN is not a valid attack type, therefore your weapons cannot perform the action.


I myself have experimented a great deal with hot and cold metals, and your weapons right now will probably cause mass-melting. You might not have noticed this because the game doesn't begin measuring temperature until the item comes in contact with something, therefore in arena mode you would need to have a dwarf drop then pick up a sword.

My heat-based metals were designed to be used with everything though, and were generated by expensive alchemy. The idea was that you could even create heat-traps with them, or use them as incredibly deadly weapons if you managed to get your dwarf to wear cold protection gear. Additionally, they are especially awesome because if you manage to get a bolt of the material stuck in the enemy then that enemy will ignite then melt away. Have yet to fully test consequences.

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