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More tech tree!

36 (26.1%)

More ritual tree!

8 (5.8%)

More lore!

12 (8.7%)

More mythical weapons/armor!

22 (15.9%)

Plagues!

28 (20.3%)

More secrets!

21 (15.2%)

More mechanical constructs!

11 (8%)

Total Members Voted: 137

[Carn]

't' at the lab 

I got the hadrine workshop, saved up pure mithril, steel and tungsten bars, and made some ash. The reaction's still red. (lol, never mind. Forgot I had turned all the steel into the damascus variety.) Also, once I made the hadrine block, extracted the strands and woven it into mesh, how can i make armor out of it?

The reactions you are looking for are "fashion reactive platemail" and "fashion reactive helmet."  They can both be found at the advanced mechanics workshop, and require one hadrine mesh an three advanced mechanisms of any material(s).  I am going to go back and make sure that the manual has a note about this for future versions.

I am also planning to look into more uses for bone in the future, including new types of bone, bone furniture, and bone-derived building   materials.  I'm looking into (read: experimenting with) moving the legendary creatures - such as wyverns, amaroks, aatxes, etcetera - to a stronger, modified bone template.  This should make their bones both significantly more useful and may help a bit with keeping them alive in longer world gens.  If things look promising, I may even go back and adjust their leather material properties.

Leatherworkers and bonecrafters rejoice! I like the risk vs reward style of this. I also like the idea of wearing dragonscale armor and leviathan fang spike traps, etc.

Also, if you're allowing bone to be made into weapons it would give an early option other than wood for basic weaponry. Options are good. Especially since wood is so crucial early. No two embarks are identical (ie, little metal), so having viable non-metal progression is pretty awesome. I know the mod mentions that it was designed for high ore frequency, but options like this would help alleviate that a bit. The whole feel of enhancing leather and bonecrafting in this manner just feels right. Like the rest of this mod, it feels natural. It feels like things toady should have put in already.

Ice and bone everywhere!

[Pan]

What does the 'reactive' in the armor and helm mean? And how much more powerful are reactive armors? (artifact iron reactive armor. How good is this?)

[Carn]

Obviously no one but Nar knows what's really coming with the ritual side of the tech tree, but a spring or water or fertility shrine of some kind that could produce a bucket of water would be awesome. (for a price of course, and probably a bucket, too)

The idea of praying into a bucket amuses me, but really I would like to see the game be playable in more environments (glacier/desert/tundra/badlands/etc) where water is scarce or nonexistant. Kinda like toady putting in the ability to buy bags of sand from traders for maps with no sand.

Anyway, just a thought.

[Carn]

In a similar vein, being able to produce small amounts of magma would be pretty amazing, too. Not really sure what kind of container that would require though, or if it would still ignite the dwarf carrying it.... or I guess it could just flow out of the altar, which could be hilarious.

[SalmonGod]

In a similar vein, being able to produce small amounts of magma would be pretty amazing, too. Not really sure what kind of container that would require though, or if it would still ignite the dwarf carrying it.... or I guess it could just flow out of the altar, which could be hilarious.

This could be the result of failed ritual attempts.  The gods in DF could think the same way we do.

"These dwarves have become a problem.  It was cute at first, but they will not leave me the hell alone.  That's it.  I'm pouring magma on it."

[narhiril]

What does the 'reactive' in the armor and helm mean? And how much more powerful are reactive armors? (artifact iron reactive armor. How good is this?)

Reactive armor uses a series of spring-loaded mechanisms behind a flexible hadrine mesh to "kick back" when struck, absorbing a good portion of the impact. 

It's very loosely based on an early version of a real-life technology, which usually employs explosives or extreme voltage rather than mechanisms for greater effect.  Modern day "explosive reactive armor" is used in armored vehicles to absorb the force of explosive or penetrating munitions.

In a similar vein, being able to produce small amounts of magma would be pretty amazing, too. Not really sure what kind of container that would require though, or if it would still ignite the dwarf carrying it.... or I guess it could just flow out of the altar, which could be hilarious.

This is significantly more problematic than water production.  Magma, unfortunately, cannot be "created" in the same way.  Even if I threw in a reaction to put out an object of sufficient fixed temperature to melt on creation, you would be left with an item called "magma" sitting in the workshop - very hot, but unable to be converted to the red fluid you desire.

For water, this is not as much of an issue because there is an in-game mechanism to transfer water from a bucket object to a fluid - pond designations.  If I produce a bucket of water in a reaction, it can be "dumped" into a usable fluid, or simply used from the bucket for many applications.

I still anticipate a bit of a technical hurdle here, as water/ice is not a raw-defined material, so I need to find a way to produce it in a reaction without being able to simply look up its ID, which may or may not be possible (I really don't know, I'll be looking and asking around about this).  For ice as a building material, I can simply create a "water" duplicate material, call it "ice," and give it whatever properties I want, but the game needs to recognize liquid water for its special functionality, so this method isn't an option for water reactions.  If I want a reaction to produce water, it needs to produce the hard-coded kind rather than a modded "clone" version that cannot replicate all of water's usual functions.

That being said, I really like the idea of being able to use the ritual tech tree for an unorthodox water source, so I hope I can get it to work.

[SirAaronIII]

Rather than magma, you could use another explosive material like those in alchemy called "divine rejection" or something.

[Hitty40]

Rather than magma, you could use another explosive material like those in alchemy called "divine rejection" or something.

I can imagine someone  using that and then it explodes.

"AND THE HEAVENS SHALL TREMEBLE."

[narhiril]

Rather than magma, you could use another explosive material like those in alchemy called "divine rejection" or something.

Oh don't worry, there will be plenty of this.  I'm just holding most of it off until the next version of DF, when some more interesting forms of divine intervention (for better or worse) become possible.

Now, when it comes to lore, I'm at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to gods and the like.  I can either clearly define them or leave them extremely ambiguous.  If I chose to leave them ambiguous, there won't be any conflict with randomly-generated gods and goddesses.  However, if I choose to define some that "transcend" world generation (similar to how Armok is the blood god no matter what else happens), it will make for some much more interesting lore.

My current plan is to incorporate a little bit of both.  The temples and altars will be named for the virtues, elements, or symbols they represent (very generic), but there will be items added with references to the upcoming lore.  That way, you may have genned a world with a fire god named "Amshil," but you may still get a "Breath of Valkor" at your temple, which lights everything on fire (I know, been there, done that, but it's just an example).  The way I was planning to explain this was to introduce the concept of "old gods."

"Old gods" would, in lore, be the premium divine powers of each of their respective spheres.  However, these powers were split, withdrew, or were otherwise disposed of thousands of years prior to the world of LFR.  The usurpers, those who came after them, took up their mantles and fought over the shreds of power left behind.  These "new gods" would be the randomly-generated ones, but their powers would be derived from the "old gods."  Armok would be considered the only one of the old gods to have remained.  Prayer to an altar would fall upon the ears of a new god, but the powers (or retribution) bestowed would bear the names and marks of an old god.

This seems like a good topic for a poll, but rather than giving you all the immediate option to tell me what you think using my packaged one-word answers, I'd like to hear some opinions - agreement or disagreement equally welcome - on what I've got so far.

[Carn]

Rather than magma, you could use another explosive material like those in alchemy called "divine rejection" or something.

Oh don't worry, there will be plenty of this.  I'm just holding most of it off until the next version of DF, when some more interesting forms of divine intervention (for better or worse) become possible.

Now, when it comes to lore, I'm at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to gods and the like.  I can either clearly define them or leave them extremely ambiguous.  If I chose to leave them ambiguous, there won't be any conflict with randomly-generated gods and goddesses.  However, if I choose to define some that "transcend" world generation (similar to how Armok is the blood god no matter what else happens), it will make for some much more interesting lore.

My current plan is to incorporate a little bit of both.  The temples and altars will be named for the virtues, elements, or symbols they represent (very generic), but there will be items added with references to the upcoming lore.  That way, you may have genned a world with a fire god named "Amshil," but you may still get a "Breath of Valkor" at your temple, which lights everything on fire (I know, been there, done that, but it's just an example).  The way I was planning to explain this was to introduce the concept of "old gods."

"Old gods" would, in lore, be the premium divine powers of each of their respective spheres.  However, these powers were split, withdrew, or were otherwise disposed of thousands of years prior to the world of LFR.  The usurpers, those who came after them, took up their mantles and fought over the shreds of power left behind.  These "new gods" would be the randomly-generated ones, but their powers would be derived from the "old gods."  Armok would be considered the only one of the old gods to have remained.  Prayer to an altar would fall upon the ears of a new god, but the powers (or retribution) bestowed would bear the names and marks of an old god.

This seems like a good topic for a poll, but rather than giving you all the immediate option to tell me what you think using my packaged one-word answers, I'd like to hear some opinions - agreement or disagreement equally welcome - on what I've got so far.

I really like this idea. It even gives a lore reason of why you might "advance" up the ritual tech tree - uncovering lore of old gods, bringing their power back to the world in more dramatic displays - perhaps seeking favor of specific old gods ....

... all this mentioning of old gods has me envisioning some hapless dwarf tinkering in the orrery and suddenly realizing that "the stars are right" and bam,  death by Cthulu

[Pan]

Cthulhu was first one my mind when Nar mentions 'old gods'. Could even be implemented somewhere in the ritual tech tree as an easter egg, really.

[sir labreck]

I really like the idea of the old god vs the new one. I normally like anything that become lore and give a common line to something.

[thatkid]

I like the Old God idea. It sounds very, very cool.

[narhiril]

This update is taking more time and effort than I had originally planned.  In order to make the rituals rewarding, I am having to come up with ideas for rewards that alchemy has not already done.  One of the most fun answers I have come up with is specialty weapons.  Unlike the "mood" weapons, these cannot be crafted at the experimental weapons lab (they can still be created by moods, but this is very, very, very, very rare, and I don't anticipate it ever causing a conflict).  These weapons use special materials to obtain some unusual or otherwise unique properties.  While this is producing some great results, it also means that each of these materials needs to be tested (ugh).

Right now, I have finished about a quarter of the raws for tier one.  I have decided on a generic "sacrificial altar" for the main tier one building.  On this altar, you will be able to make two kinds of sacrifices to three (or possibly four, depending on how well the water thing works out) causes - shelter, power, wealth, and (possibly) sustenance.  In addition to these six to eight sacrifices, there will be another workshop for creating components of the tier two buildings (I haven't even started these yet, but I have some ideas written down).

The "shelter" rituals are currently completed and functional - at least, I think.  The error log is blank and they seem to load up fine, but I have decided to put off formally testing them until I have most of the other ones done to save on development time a bit.


--

"Lesser Ritual of Shelter"

This ritual consumes five of any plant.  It can produce low quality shields or small amounts of wood.  It has a small probability of evoking disfavor of the gods, resulting in chastisement (severe pain for a short duration) of the performer of the ritual and *possibly* the torching of anything left on the altar.  Performing this ritual in close proximity to grass or a wood stockpile is generally considered a bad idea, but the direct risk level to dwarven lives is very low.


"Greater Ritual of Shelter"

A more extravagant version of the ritual, this consumes fifteen plants of any kind.  In addition to the possible rewards from the lesser version (whose rates have been increased substantially), this ritual is capable of drawing a stronger response from the divine powers.  You may find a shield or weapon of a unique material and/or design (comparable in strength to iron).  This allows a dwarven civilization to potentially arm itself before it finds metal, though the quantity of these weapons is, of course, limited by probability.  However, being a more evocative reaction, the chances of drawing disfavor are also slightly higher.


These rituals will be mildly useful for some dwarven civilizations, but extraordinarily useful for those in harsher environments, where metal or wood (or both) are scarce.  Though they are not the most interesting concepts ever to surface here, note that these are base level reactions which do not require anything other than the construction of an altar from a few common building materials.  The more exciting rewards and consequences will come later on, as the potential for risk and reward is expanded in the next version of DF.

[Pan]

Plants? Plants for the blood god? Blasphemy! Elf worshipping heretic! Lynch him!