I got questions not answered in the main modding thread yet either so I might as well try again.
I was capible of modding it so I can play as a batman(and every cavern civ) but my guy is completely useless, no skills, no armor, no clothes, and a copper spear. How can I mod it so that at the very very least these guys start with basic armor?
If I modded it so Slade was minable does the game already allow you to make weapons/armor out of it? If so what skills does it use to make better slade stuff? As I'm pretty sure it's a rock not a metal. If you cannot make stuff out of slade with it being minable how could I edit the creation of slade stuff into my Smelter or something similer?
How can I mod it so Adventurers start with more availible skill points at character creation?
I can't help with#1 or 3, but I may be able to help with #2.
Slade is considered an ore, sort of, but has no metal made for it, and even if you had mined some out, you can't make a rock short sword out of it because it's max edge(as far as I know) is 1000, and you need 10000 to make a rock short sword. So, basically, you would need to make a metal for it, then specify it used for weapons, armor, etc, then make a smelter reaction to turn the ore into a bar of the metal.
Something like this, just off the top of my head:
(Goes in inorganic_metal.txt in raw folder)
[INORGANIC:REFINED_SLADE]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:METAL_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:refined slade]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:LIQUID:molten refined slade]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:GAS:boiling refined slade]
[DISPLAY_COLOR:0:0:1]
[MATERIAL_VALUE:300]
[MELTING_POINT:50000]
[BOILING_POINT:50000]
[ITEMS_WEAPON][ITEMS_WEAPON_RANGED][ITEMS_AMMO][ITEMS_DIGGER][ITEMS_ARMOR][ITEMS_ANVIL]
[ITEMS_HARD]
[ITEMS_METAL]
[ITEMS_BARRED]
[SOLID_DENSITY:200000]
[LIQUID_DENSITY:200000]
[MOLAR_MASS:55845]
[IMPACT_YIELD:4000000]
[IMPACT_FRACTURE:5000000]
[IMPACT_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[COMPRESSIVE_YIELD:4000000]
[COMPRESSIVE_FRACTURE:5000000]
[COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[TENSILE_YIELD:4000000]
[TENSILE_FRACTURE:5000000]
[TENSILE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[TORSION_YIELD:4000000]
[TORSION_FRACTURE:5000000]
[TORSION_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[SHEAR_YIELD:4000000]
[SHEAR_FRACTURE:5000000]
[SHEAR_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[BENDING_YIELD:4000000]
[BENDING_FRACTURE:5000000]
[BENDING_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:100]
[MAX_EDGE:100000]
[DEEP_SURFACE]
(goes in reactions_smelter.txt in raw folder)
[REACTION:REFINED_SLADE_MAKING]
[NAME:refine raw slade]
[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:1:BOULDER:NO_SUBTYPE:NONE:SLADE]
[REAGENT:B:450:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:COAL:NO_MATGLOSS]
[PRODUCT:100:2:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:REFINED_SLADE][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:150]
[FUEL]
[SKILL:SMELT]
(This takes 3 coke/charcoal and a slade boulder and will require either another one to fuel it or a magma smelter. You can remove the three coal by taking out reagent b.)
Chances are, even if i got everything right(which is unlikely since i just threw this together on the spot), it still might not work, pretty sure Toady said this stuff is buggy because of something in the code. You'd also have to enable the smelter reaction in entity_default for dwarves and generate a new world. ALso keep in mind each slade boulder is something like 14 tons, i think? Moving these is going to be awful, and anyone using weapons/armor made of it would likely move slow as hell.
Of course there's also the problem of actually getting the stuff to test with it, you could try removing the [DEEP_SURFACE] tags from the metal and the ore, and slapping them on something else, then giving slade boulders this tag:[SEDIMENTARY] That should turn it into a sedimentary layer, though again i've never tried it, i'm pretty much just guessing. Also make sure you remove the [UNDIGGABLE] tag, or you won't be able to dig through any of it.