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-zipRelease 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:
-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.
--12 more types of toys can be created.
-Creatures
--9 more varieties of dragon have been added, totaling 10 subtypes (the default dragon is now a Red Dragon). Loosely based on the D&D set of dragons. Each one's attack varies somewhat. Balance was tested fairly quickly, so none of them should be over-powering any other dragon too consistently, but a thorough check would be good.
--6 more colossi were added, making a total of 7. Different materials, but otherwise nothing different about fighting them. Once Toady fixes their nigh-immunity, they'll be balanced properly.
--Alpacas are in-game! They're small llamas that are known for their wool. Wool-harvesting will be coming at some point in the future, but until then they're milkable.
--Black unicorns have been added. They're just like unicorns, except slightly larger, more aggressive, and black.
-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.
--3 new trees have been added, with the colors blue, green, and gold.
-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.
--Phlogistonium, a metal imbued with its own internal fire, has been discovered. The secret to unlocking that fire hasn't been found yet, though.
--Hyberboreum, an eternally frigid metal, has been discovered. A way to harness that chill is in progress.
-Workshops
--An Artificer's lab is available to be occupied, as soon as someone figures out how to work the new metals properly.
-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.
--Likewise, Dumbo opened a flight school, and flying elephants can now be found in both standard elephant stomping grounds and higher mountain peaks.
-Misc.
--Added a .changes file for Uristmod.
--The odds that something in Fantasy Flavor has a name conflict with a new creature in another mod have been drastically decreased. This hasn't been an issue yet, and hopefully never should be.
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!