Hey guys, quick update here.
@Mr.Palau: Everything I post here is for the NEXT version. Not the current one. All the proposed changes are not in the game yet. I am more or less waiting for the next DF Version... like everyone else.
@bombzero: Sure, will do. Or change it, since they should fight with dwarves, not alone. I liked the idea, did not consider friendly fire. Too bad it is not a syndrome, otherwise I could make dwarves immune to it. Did the thunderbird drop a nice little something for you Research lab ?
@Mitchewawa: Yup, mummies will go, or be renamed to avoid confusion.
@couchmonster: That is weird, but it will not matter for the next version, just finish reading this post and you will understand.
@zeebie: I have peat (soil) and compact peat (stone, which only appears in peat) for the next version. At least now I remember why I took out the "peat-to-coke-reaction", since peat wasnt there yet ^^
@cheatingchicken: I have to admit that I did not test turning castes on/off a lot. I am sure that you are right, and will have a look. If there is a problem, it is most likely a typo and easily fixable.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Like I said in my last post, I planned to redo the worldgens, since the sometimes cause weird errors, like a very high molten rock layer, or caverns without plants/trees. Because of this, I used the PerfectWorld Utility to make some highly customized worlds. The general geography of these worlds is always the same, but civs, river, lakes and regions differ slightly every time you generate one.
All worlds have following settings:
65*65 tiles, a small region, to help FPS.
Very high mineral count, to allow all new features.
200 Semi/Megabeasts, and many caves to allow them to survive.
Lower Megabeast attack trigger. 30 dwarves, and you are a fair target.
3 very open caverns, to avoid FPS problems.
Minimum 25-50 water in caverns, to avoid barren, plant/tree-less caverns.
I made caves visible at embark, so you can pick one if you like. The usually connect the surface to the first cavern.
25 solid levels before the first cavern. I dont know how exact the endresult is, but you should have a lot of space for your fortress.
Recommendations:
Always check the civs before you embark. You might be seperated, or allies did not survive.
Dont run long histories. With 200 titans civs might have a slight problem to prosper.
Cursed Urborg (the evil swamp world) might easily kill of allies. This is intentional.
Scorching Shiv (the desert-volcano world) might cut of trade, and has mostly no trees. This is intentional.
Remote Tolaria (the islands) has many civ-less little islands. Again, intentional, for players who like to play without invaders.
Garden of Gaia (the patchwork world) has a huge amount of biomes. It is very easy to find 3-4 biomes for one embark. This results in a bigger variety of creatures.
Blesses Serra (the plain-good world) is for beginners. It features ocean and mountains, many volcanos, forests and streams, and mostly a benign sourrounding. You can find everything you need here.
Screenshots of all five worlds and templates:
I added all of these maps to the manual. Same goes for a screen of the new arena, and a new macro section.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I made some macros as well, 2 small fortresses, one for a staircase that goes down 200z-lvl, two mining patterns (small and big) and the asked for uniform templates. This one adds a a metal clad archer uniform, all 5 throwing weapons (in seperate uniforms), a javeline squad, a 1-handed melee squad and a 2-handed melee squad. I really, really hope that I dont make any change to the forge anytime soon, otherwise I have to redo them
Beginners Fortress example:
I added most of the new stuff to the manual as well, but cant use my VB currently. A testversion that I have to register... well, cant take to long to get it funtional again
Ah yes, and I gave all vermin Penetrate_power:99. This way they can and will gnaw through barrels and eat your stuff. AND... I fixed the stockpiling and usage of the special ammo, the 15 ammo types you can make in the alchemist.
Testing for creature variations is also started, I made, in addition to the Animal Man and Giant, a new creature variation for: small/dwarf/little/large/curious/mischievious/raging/mutated. I plan to add these to all creatures that already have a creature variation. If I can make a good template, maybe more ^^ So far only penguins have them, for testing. Here the list:
Small - 50% size, small remains and trapavoid.
Normal - Unchanged.
Large - 150% size.
Giant - 200% size, building destroyer 1.
Animal Person - Equip, can learn.
Curious - Curious item, eater, guzzler and can open doors.
Mischievious - Fleequick, trapavoid, can open doors and pulls levers.
Raging - Likes fighting and is prone to rage.
Mutated - 175% size, likes fighting, drinks blood, ambushpredator, amphibious.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I upped the needed building mats for the apothecarius. It now needs 1 cloth, 1 thread, 1 clutch, 1 splint and 1 traction bench. Just one test-sample of everything a hospital needs. Except soap, dont want to make it too hard.
I upped the needed building mats for the metallurgist. Now needs 1 gold,silver and bronze bar. Base mats for alloys, so to speak. Both are just to avoid that these two buildings are done too early.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
What I noticed when I made a testembark on a volcano:
magma steel refinery has only 4 reactions.
magma siegeworks has only 1 reaction.
magma obsidian factory has only 2 reactions.
magma slade factory has only 2 reactions.
All need the same buildings mats. All have the same background idea: Better things with magma. Maybe putting them together in some way ? Or at least into 2 buildings, one Factory, one Refinery. What do you think ?
Another idea, inspired by narhiril, would be some kind of research lab. You assign a dwarf to reserach stuff, and he might produce rubbish, he might hurt himself, he might produce somethink awesome. A randomized item generator, with a chance for epic stuff, like all the mood weapons and armors I added. Or gun plans, gunpowder recipes, a very low chance for the weaponry/armory blueprints, something like that... one of the few kinds of tech-advancements not in the mod yet