Double posting because it's a separate issue...
Are the USE_MATERIAL/TISSUE_TEMPLATE tags creature level or caste level? I've been trying to give one caste nails and the rest claws, but the game keeps using just the last material/tissue combo declared.
They are creature level.
Secondary question: if they are indeed creature level and the nails and claws need to be entirely separate parts of their own,
Doesn't follow: You can make a CLAW material/tissue and a NAIL material/tissue. Put
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:NAIL:NAIL_TEMPLATE]
[USE_TISSUE_TEMPLATE:NAIL:NAIL_TEMPLATE]
[TISSUE_LAYER:BY_CATEGORY:TOE:NAIL:FRONT]
in one caste and
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:CLAW:NAIL_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:claw]
[STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:claw]
[USE_TISSUE_TEMPLATE:CLAW:CLAW_TEMPLATE]
[TISSUE_LAYER:BY_CATEGORY:TOE:CLAW:FRONT]
in the other, I think that should work.
what's the least weird method of making the 'proper' body parts as untargetable as body parts created within a creature entry? All I can think of is making them [INTERNAL], which is vaguely defensible at least.
I'm not sure what you mean here. All body parts are targetable unless they are INTERNAL. INTERNAL body parts can be damaged when the parent body part is damaged. INTERNAL body parts with no parent body part can never be damaged, however, the game may crash if a creature has only internal body parts remaining (it did when I was testing this stuff back in .13 or so).
Body parts can't be
created inside a creature entry, as far as I know. You have to use the BODY tag. Body parts created by a BODY tag inside a caste are targetable as normal.
Tissue layers may be added to existing bodyparts within the creature entry. This is how nails and claws work by default, they are a layer of tissue added to the front of specified body parts, rather than being body parts in their own right. That is why they can't be targeted by attacks.
Now that the body part has a function, something to be made out of, and somewhere to go, it can finally be created using the BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:<step 6 entry>.
Body parts are created by the BODY tag, but need at least one tissue to interact with things properly. The tissues are added using the BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:<step 6 entry>.
I thought I'd covered that part with steps 4 and 5, unless we're talking about slightly different things? Function = tissue, something to be made out of = material, somewhere to go = body part. There's some overlap between the tissue templates and the body parts (because there are parts that had their functions defined before the introduction of the tissue system, maybe), but tissues are mostly function where body parts are mostly location.
I think we're talking about slightly different things. I was speaking from a programing point of view: From what I can tell based on the error messages we get when we mess something up, the body part is
created using the BODY token, the BODY_DETAIL_PLAN token adds important information to already existing body parts.
However, the tissues mostly seem to determine what happens when a body part is damaged (by setting healing rate, function/structural/etc, vascular/not vascular and so on), while function of the body part is declared during the creation of the body part its self (grasp, stance, thought, etc).