Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

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

[Imp]

My surgery went perfectly, and I'm recovering just fine

It's so great to have you back and healing well.  You take as long as you need to get your mind solid again and your fingers firmly on the code, and know that we who are your players are delighted that you and thus your mod are on the road to recovery and will be sources of delight and wonder into the future!

[Pan]

Glad to hear the news regarding the surgery

Narhiril, have you ever considered making the caverns more dangerous? For instance, packs of dangerous wildlife (like crundles and crap, except they don't fall apart after you so much as fart in their general direction) that you would shudder to behold? Most dangerous wildlife tend to be solitary, so dogpiling tends to work. Even devourers just takes some minor tactics (send in some useless potash makers armored for it to chew on, then flank it with adamantine armed weapon masters. A pack of, for example, giant poisonous centipedes in the third layer would really be a challenge.

Cavern civilizations would really spice things up. I currently, for roleplaying purposes, have 4 squads of dwarves 'Wardens of the N/W/S/E Caverns' consisting of one speardwarf (to deal with big creatures - get em in the spleens ) and 2 marksdwarves with javelin throwers (lots of goblinite). They man archer towers with drawbridges that extends into the 3 caverns vertically. But they haven't really encountered anything dangerous other than the wayward FB, especially after the cavern specie population has been all but extinct. So with some dangerous cavern civilization and large population dangerous creatures, LFR can live up to the 'strike the earth, but careful for it not to strike back' promise. Although I do suppose most people prefer caverns to be as benign/dangerous as it is now. This could use some discussion, I suppose?

[SirAaronIII]

I agree with adding more dangerous creatures to caverns, but usually when a mod adds animals to the underground, I barely ever see them. Maybe I'm just unlucky.

[Pan]

I agree with adding more dangerous creatures to caverns, but usually when a mod adds animals to the underground, I barely ever see them. Maybe I'm just unlucky.

I've encountered megalania and deep wolves in the caverns. Haven't seen those crystal dragons yet, but I'm sure I will someday and is training my men on that.. Haven't seen damascus sentinels either, but I have orihalcum dug out, so I'm good.

[simonthedwarf]

Seeing as enemies being able to cross walls and disregard the bridge defenses that most players put up is a key feature wanted by a lot of players, (diggers, for isntance) you should consider going avant-garde with more infilitrators in your mod, narhiril. Enemies that show up out of nothing inside your fort create a new type of challenge that starts and then finishes with their death. Vampire's are sort of like this atm, but more annoying than really challenging because of how their mechanic works. You have shown that you are both inventive and able to build on something over time. LFR doesn't seem to attract the % of audience it deserves, while highly unscientific I for instance have only attracted a single person to a post about wanting to start a LFR succession fort. Castes that provide problems is something to consider form my less mod technical point of view.

At any rate, it would be a step outside of the more generalized meta-genre of mods to introduce hostiles that encourage you to have internal defence and security. The need for this is non-existent in vanilla DF and afaik in mods as well.

As for creatures in cavern's, again I would propose to step outside the general genre. Cut down on creatures which you see as less important for LFR's general feel and theme, and start focusing on the likelihood of your own added creatures appearing in the cavern's or otherwise. Player's dont react in a way closely identifiable with your mod's theme if animalmen or vanilla creatures are appearing more than your own creations.

A key idea with LFR has been specific creatures that advances tech through what they drop or hoard. This is great - why not make it even more important and more likely to appear as a opportunity?

Perhaps remove giant animals, remove goblins, rework elves. Take control over the features that are not part of the LFR identity. Shedim and voidwalkers are now the main hostiles you worry about in LFR, the others COULD (notice COULD) be changed or removed.

I've encountered megalania and deep wolves in the caverns. Haven't seen those crystal dragons yet, but I'm sure I will someday and is training my men on that.. Haven't seen damascus sentinels either, but I have orihalcum dug out, so I'm good.

Yes, yes and more yes. I haven't encountered more than fragments of the non-civs that LFR add. Make them more numerous and more likely to appear. Seeing something that has a 1% chance of appearing is awesome, but like I outline above a lot of the additions to LFR other than the workshops themselves are not reliably showing up. I would love to see sentinels in a game of LFR, and I haven't encountered them once in five different patch versions.

[Pan]

I agree with some points. But removing vanilla is a bit too drastic. I mean, the rare animal people and giant animals are optional for just that reason.

[Stirk]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Seeing as enemies being able to cross walls and disregard the bridge defenses that most players put up is a key feature wanted by a lot of players, (diggers, for isntance) you should consider going avant-garde with more infilitrators in your mod, narhiril. Enemies that show up out of nothing inside your fort create a new type of challenge that starts and then finishes with their death. Vampire's are sort of like this atm, but more annoying than really challenging because of how their mechanic works. You have shown that you are both inventive and able to build on something over time. LFR doesn't seem to attract the % of audience it deserves, while highly unscientific I for instance have only attracted a single person to a post about wanting to start a LFR succession fort. Castes that provide problems is something to consider form my less mod technical point of view.

At any rate, it would be a step outside of the more generalized meta-genre of mods to introduce hostiles that encourage you to have internal defence and security. The need for this is non-existent in vanilla DF and afaik in mods as well.

As for creatures in cavern's, again I would propose to step outside the general genre. Cut down on creatures which you see as less important for LFR's general feel and theme, and start focusing on the likelihood of your own added creatures appearing in the cavern's or otherwise. Player's dont react in a way closely identifiable with your mod's theme if animalmen or vanilla creatures are appearing more than your own creations.

A key idea with LFR has been specific creatures that advances tech through what they drop or hoard. This is great - why not make it even more important and more likely to appear as a opportunity?

Perhaps remove giant animals, remove goblins, rework elves. Take control over the features that are not part of the LFR identity. Shedim and voidwalkers are now the main hostiles you worry about in LFR, the others COULD (notice COULD) be changed or removed.

I've encountered megalania and deep wolves in the caverns. Haven't seen those crystal dragons yet, but I'm sure I will someday and is training my men on that.. Haven't seen damascus sentinels either, but I have orihalcum dug out, so I'm good.

Yes, yes and more yes. I haven't encountered more than fragments of the non-civs that LFR add. Make them more numerous and more likely to appear. Seeing something that has a 1% chance of appearing is awesome, but like I outline above a lot of the additions to LFR other than the workshops themselves are not reliably showing up. I would love to see sentinels in a game of LFR, and I haven't encountered them once in five different patch versions.

I disagree with you. Some of the greatest appeal of this game is the fact that it adds a lot without changing anything major or taking stuff away. You could run a completely normal game with this mod if you wanted to, only using the new races instead of the old. The mod ads a nice touch to the world, with all the new features, put forcing the features to be the only thing worth noting takes away from the overall game. What fun is it to climb the tech tree if a sentinel jumps you have way up every game? The whole point of the rare creatures is to be rare, not something that every fortress sees. I like how she is handling the mod, it would be annoying to have been railroaded into one thing or another.

[Meph]

At any rate, it would be a step outside of the more generalized meta-genre of mods to introduce hostiles that encourage you to have internal defence and security. The need for this is non-existent in vanilla DF and afaik in mods as well.

I think IT-000 (corrosion) and me would tend to disagree on that one.

@narhiril: Any idea when you will be back in the game?

[Ifeno]

ptw

[simonthedwarf]

I'm not sure I understand the criticism of wanting to down-size the vanilla parts of LFR - we have all these raw files lying dormant in the average LFR game which don't get used while instead we get to see giant faced lovebird or two-backed camel. What's the problem with making new stuff actually encounterable in the game and toning down the frequence of the less themed stuff? Why'd you want a minotaur - or a giantess - to attack your LFR fort?

[narhiril]

I'm sorry guys, recovery has been going smoothly, but it's been a lot harder on me physically and emotionally than I thought it was going to be.  I may need some more time before I really can get back into things.

My body is still in shock from all of the drugs, changes, and unusual hormone levels, and I'm having a really difficult time sleeping or even just getting comfortable for an hour or two.  I'm still peeing through a tube (though I get that taken out today), and I'm only very recently off of opiate painkillers.  I feel compelled to state for the record - morphine withdrawal is NOT fun.  My nights this week have consisted of me waking up every few hours drenched in ice-cold sweat, and having to dry myself off, change clothes, and change all of my bedding.  To top it all off, I'm off my anxiety medication (a precaution to avoid complications with other meds), so I've been a total nervous wreck over the past couple of days, and I'm really far away from my boyfriend and my home.

Not to turn this into a blog about my life or anything, but I'm just a little overexerted in more ways than one right now.  I really hate having to ask for more time, but I'm just not in a good place now for modding.  Or sleeping.  Or even going to the bathroom by myself.  I am hoping things settle down here soon.  I can start my old meds again when I get home, on the 19th, which will put me in a place to give a more accurate timeframe for the next update(s).

But right now, I need a hug.  T_T

[wyrdness]

You don't have to ask for more time, it's your mod! We're the lucky ones who have enjoyed your hard work free of charge, so we'll just have to wait until you feel well enough to work on it again.

I'd offer hugs, but, well, there's a reason I lurk on internet forums at all hours of the day and night instead of going out and meeting people face to face. Yes, I'm really an elf, but shh! Don't tell anyone! >_> <_<

[Meph]

Then good luck and take your time with your recovery. I wish you all the best, and if you happen to live somewhere between LosAngeles and NewYork, I might even come by the next months and give you a hug

PS: I mean it, would be fun to meet some people from the forums, I have been visiting thistleknot in LA and it was fun.

[Sunday]

Sorry to hear you're having such a rough time right now. Indeed, opiate withdrawal is really tough, and surgery on its own is really tough. Together, I'm sure it's terrible, especially with the lack of meds on top of everything.

Anyway, many vibes and best wishes, and hope you feel better soon. 

[narhiril]

Then good luck and take your time with your recovery. I wish you all the best, and if you happen to live somewhere between LosAngeles and NewYork, I might even come by the next months and give you a hug

PS: I mean it, would be fun to meet some people from the forums, I have been visiting thistleknot in LA and it was fun.

I live in St. Louis, but I'm currently staying in Philadelphia for recovery until the 19th.  Definitely make sure to message me if you're ever in the area!

---

Thank you everyone for your concerns and kind words.  I really do appreciate them, and they go a long way towards helping me get better faster.

Now, I may just be delusional from my medications, but I thought I heard somewhere that underground sieges work now?  Can I get a source on this please, if it's true?