Yeah, though I think specialized castes or overly powerful ones would go against the spirit of this mod (aside from the obligatory rare caste). I like that the dorfs in this mod are weak and grow in strength proportional to their tech. This mod has that really good "feel"to it. It somehow captures the atmosphere of games like Shadow of the Colossus and old platformer games where your tiny avatar faces off against large fire-breathing aberrations. I feel contempt toward squads of dwarves armed with iron spears and armor charging a megabeast after seeing 2 archers with javelin throwers blow a FB to bits in seconds.
Also, is ether any good for blunt weapons?
Not particularly. Ether is quite light.
And yes, javelin throwers are powerful, but the ammo is extremely expensive. They take 1/3 of a bar per shot, which adds up quickly. Also, they're quite valuable, so if you decide to pump out a bunch of javelins to prepare yourself for threats, you'll find that those threats become more severe more quickly - especially if you're using gold hammerheads. From a cost-benefit standpoint, they are an extremely poor weapon. One or two javelin throwers can be equipped for about the same cost as an entire squadron of crossbowmen. However, they do allow the power of an individual unit to greatly exceed what is possible with a crossbow. No matter how good your marksdwarves are, you'll never see one decapitate a bog troll with a bolt. For the same marksdwarves with some decent quality javelins, every shot will take a limb - but you'll run out of metal in a hurry if you try to equip too many of them.
If you're lucky enough to get a masterwork or artifact javelin thrower, though, putting your best marksdwarf on it can turn the tide of battle, especially against a single, powerful unit like a forgotten beast. There are situations where this is a better option, but there are also situations where crossbows will be a better choice. Because of this, I think it's both extremely powerful and balanced at the same time.
Totally random thought, but seeing as how you made the alchemist skill worth something now, any ideas to do something to make strand extractors do anything but twiddle their thumbs until cotton candy is found?
There are plans to use this skill in future tech tree developments. Like yourself, I feel that it's a skill that allows for some possible expansion.
Wait, are Nephilim supposed to be, well, usually hostile? I've genned about ~14 worlds with this mod, and in all of them, I've had Nephilim at war with no one. Also, they come in trading caravans that happen to not sell anything and, when they leave, they actually hang around in the depot until I kill them...
or they decide to kill the bog troll invaders coming in
They were originally planned as a hostile race, but are now friendly by default due to problems getting them to fight both the player and the other hostile races at the same time. They will now only attack you if their trade caravans keep getting killed, or if they declare war (randomly determined by ethics during worldgen).
They won't offer their goods to you because flying civilizations do not behave properly with the current caravan system (they abandon their pack animals, fly to the depot, "unload" and then realize that the stuff that they're "unloading" isn't there yet, so nothing ends up getting moved to the trade depot). They will come to your depot, but they will also leave if a path exists. If you are shutting a drawbridge (likely to keep those trolls out), they won't leave because of the weird way that DF calculates pathing for flying creatures. They will only fly over your walls if a ground path to the other side exists (or sometimes if they are very, very close to an enemy on the other side). If you really want them gone, break into the first cavern layer and they'll stroll out through there.
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Topic: *=*=* Legends of Forlorn Realms (LFR 2012) v0.21a *=*=* [DF 0.34.11] (Read 402315 times)