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[Bronze Dog]

Recently, I thought about an idea involving taming Crundles (possibly changing their PET_EXOTIC tag to just PET for my very first mod, so I wouldn't need a DM) and using them to explore caves, though everything I know about pets suggests they'd just gather in meeting places and idle. I'd rather not micromanage leading them around by declaring and then removing meeting activity zones.

Then, while browsing the mechanics section of the DF Wiki, a new idea hit me: Is it possible to mod a workshop so that you can make a creature at a workshop? If so, I think it'd be neat to build a sort of robot explorer.

Raw materials:
2 mechanisms
1 cut gem (for an eye, magic power source, whatever)
1 wood log/metal bar

For the creature shape and description, I was thinking a sort of four-legged spider, like a miniature version of that walking eye from Johnny Quest.

Tags that come to mind:
No Eat/No Sleep/No Drink/No Breathe and other tags that would signify it as a non-living creature.
Flee Quick: It avoids combat and has no attacks.
Meander: Random movement is probably best if you can't control it.
Castes: Could different versions exist, like a fire immune one if you made it out of fire safe materials?

I do see a lot of difficulties, though: If it's not a pet, how can it reveal previously hidden areas? You also run the risk that it could cause mass interruptions if it's treated like a non-tame animal, at least before you cage it and release it in the caverns. And, most importantly, if you can't make creatures at a custom workshop, this whole discussion is moot.

So, any thoughts?

[Grimlocke]

All moot, you cant make creatures from reactions.

The creature itself is all possible though. You could even give it hydrolic fluids as blood and a pump as a heart.

[forsaken1111]

To keep it somewhat in flavor with the game you could make it a small exploration golem with various runes and ichor instead of vital organs?

[Bronze Dog]

All moot, you cant make creatures from reactions.

The creature itself is all possible though. You could even give it hydrolic fluids as blood and a pump as a heart.

Curses. Oh well. Could have fun thinking up details for the creature itself, still. Maybe have it spawn in caverns, like someone else made one and had it wander off, eventually reaching my place.

Could choose to have it drop raw materials for its corpse.

[jester]

you could mod them in and then embark with 5 or so of them, keep them in a cage until needed?
will the Meander tag work if they can find no path to anywhere?  Ive dumped heaps of kittens down into my caverns and they just sit in the one spot until a GCS comes and pulls their heads off

[antymattar]

I would definably love to see this!

[Lancensis]

you could mod them in and then embark with 5 or so of them, keep them in a cage until needed?
will the Meander tag work if they can find no path to anywhere?  Ive dumped heaps of kittens down into my caverns and they just sit in the one spot until a GCS comes and pulls their heads off

Just have to keep moving the meeting zones, I suppose. You can gain a surprising amount of control over your dwarves and animals in this version, with the burrows.

[Sidhien]

I'm not entirely sure how castes and reproduction interact, but what if you made a "replicator" caste you could embark with, which would then create the needed explorers?