Print

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

[DS]

You're all wrong, these are the real vampires:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But seriously, there are so many different literary representations of vampires that it's really impossible to decide their 'canon' habits, appearance, or weaknesses. They're a monster from folklore, and folklore is mutable from culture to culture, even in a modern context. Point is, vampires in DF are going to have procedurally generated properties which, as I understand from a recent DF talk, are going to be selected from a list of such traits that do have some kind of precedent in literature or folklore.

As far as I'm concerned, the representation of vampires in the previous picture is as close as possible to what it means to be a vampire, in essence. Sleep all day, party all night, live forever... but you must feed.

[King DZA]

From the tales I've heard, vampires are little more than leather sacks of blood(In a metaphorical sense. A magical, bloodsucking leather bag wouldn't be all that terrifying), clinging onto the mortal realm and preventing themselves from their "second death"(I.E., crossing over) by feasting on the life essense of the living.

Of course, I've never had the privilege of encountering a vampire, so I can't say whether or not this is true.

[Encased in burning magma]

I think it would be very funny if Toady trolled us, and implemented twilight vampires instead.

This is Urist Pattinson. His abs are glistening. He talked with a child recently. He made a friend recently. He took someone to bed recently.

[Neonivek]

I think it would be very funny if Toady trolled us, and implemented twilight vampires instead.

This is Urist Pattinson. His abs are glistening. He talked with a child recently. He made a friend recently. He took someone to bed recently.

Ahh yes Twilight Vampires. The Meat eating Vegetarians

[Dae]

I think it would be very funny if Toady trolled us, and implemented twilight vampires instead.

This is Urist Pattinson. His abs are glistening. He talked with a child recently. He made a friend recently. He took someone to bed recently.

Well, in the latest Devlog he DID say they were "practically shiny as it stands".

[Rowanas]

I think it would be very funny if Toady trolled us, and implemented twilight vampires instead.

This is Urist Pattinson. His abs are glistening. He talked with a child recently. He made a friend recently. He took someone to bed recently.

Well, in the latest Devlog he DID say they were "practically shiny as it stands".

He didn't mean it literally. Oh god, please let him not have meant it literally.

[EveryZig]

He didn't mean it literally. Oh god, please let him not have meant it literally.

Why are you guys upset at the idea? Have you never wanted to introduce sparkly vampires to some nice, shiny MAGMA?

[Deimos56]

Having a vampire noble might be useful for acquiring vampire blood...

Though I don't know how you get blood out of magma once the noble problem is solved...

We're going to have to modify our previous strategies, I'm afraid.

Noble Danger Rooms must be designed. With Candy Spears of course. Holes in the noble's floor leading to direct lines flowing into the water supply will provide a direct means to contaminate every dwarf if alcohol is temporarily prevented from being drunk...drank... whatever.

There is, however, the problem of how to feed your dwarves once they've turned.

Suddenly, migrants are useful again.

[Vattic]

Pfff. Virgins. What nonsense. Vampires in my mind are more like the original eastern european ones. Dead people come back to haunt the living. They look like a dead person before any rotting has occurred; gaunt and pale, but otherwise normal.

They suck the blood out of victims, but if the victim survives, they will rise as a free vampire (none of this subservience nonsense). If the victim dies... that's it. There's no unusual post-death events, and a vampire can be killed by staking, sunlight or beheading. They can be rendered impotent by nailing them to their coffinbeds, placing a heavy stone cross above them, or tying them down with garlic. Things soaked in holy water or garlic will hold and hurt them.

Or my favourite: Filling the coffin with grain or similar small objects. They can't help but count them, no joke, seriously, and never finish before sunrise. We all know how OCD vampires are right? The only problem is that counting objects is already a FPS drain.

[YetAnotherStupidDorf]

They suck the blood out of victims, but if the victim survives, they will rise as a free vampire (none of this subservience nonsense).

Now you have your own nonsense - world would be overriden with vampires and eradicated from sentient life in hundreds of years, if not decades. Exponential growth, anyone?

[EveryZig]

They suck the blood out of victims, but if the victim survives, they will rise as a free vampire (none of this subservience nonsense).

Now you have your own nonsense - world would be overriden with vampires and eradicated from sentient life in hundreds of years, if not decades. Exponential growth, anyone?

Unless the vampires (either consciously or through instinct) ensure that the vast majority of those that they feed on die during or soon after the feeding. I do agree that such a situation would very easily lead to everyone (including the vampires) ending up dead if too many vampires got careless.

[Deon]

You all seem to forget the fact that DF vampires are DF vampires. DF has quite a unique lore and gameworld. Show me a common fantasy world where elves eat killed men and still pass for animalistic treehuggers? Same for vampires, they may be any...

As for the differences: dwarves almost never see sun (at least in many of my fortresses) so they are naturally pale, also they are covered in dust and mud. In such situation it shouldn't be too hard to hide your "undead" appearance.
And while DF vampires never age, they should still grow the nails and beards (even on corpses those tissues grow, and judging by how vampires probably will have regeneration, all the tissue growth stays).


I am more interested in those facts:

In this case, the plan is to then have a witness to a bloodfeeding be able to report that to a guard/sheriff/etc., and then that'll be available for you when you decide on somebody to accuse/arrest/punish. You'll be able to accuse the wrong dwarf, and we might have the vampire or grudge-holding dwarves level false accusations that'll muddy the witness accounts a bit.

Vampires that are hiding their identity in your fortress will intentionally walk at normal speeds and their historical kill lists will be hidden, although you might spot them running fast if they are in your military and fighting with an opponent.

Holy crap, it's like you're the AI monitoring crew trying to find a changeling, and a random assistant yells "captain is a changeling" and a bunch of guards go down on him with fire extinguishers and batons and space him... Sorry if you didn't get the reference .
[1]
[2]

[Shadowlord]

Personally, I'd lean towards borrowing something from Buffyverse vampires or World of Dark (e.g. Vampire: The Masquerade) vampires, in that vampires might tend towards merely drinking some blood without draining their victims to avoid arousing suspicion, or make an arrangement with someone who wants to be fed upon (because they enjoy it). No sense killing dwarves if they can avoid it (unless you end up with a homicidal vampire), and that to turn someone would require bringing them to near death before feeding them vampire blood.

(Of course, Buffyverse vampires lose their soul upon becoming vampires and are essentially possessed by a demon, but I'm assuming Toady isn't going that route, if players are supposed to be able to become vampires)

[Os Q]

He didn't mean it literally. Oh god, please let him not have meant it literally.

Why are you guys upset at the idea? Have you never wanted to introduce sparkly vampires to some nice, shiny MAGMA?

...then pour water on the magma - dig them out and cut them into sparkling gems.

If vampire blood or dust is magical... what about vampire glass?

[Teneb]

Show me a common fantasy world where elves eat killed men and still pass for animalistic treehuggers?

The Elder Scrolls' Wood Elves wich actually refuse to eat vegetables and even fast before battles. But it may not qualify as a "common fantasy world".