The concept of replacing current evil/good/savage/etc biomes with more varied ones, and making them alterable during and after world gen has been around for a while.
Rainseeker: [3]Let's talk about spheres for a second. Are the zombies, skeletons, undead and such; are they going to appear only in the undead region sphere now? Or will they come in other areas too.
Toady: It depends on one of those things we were talking about, like do undead have souls, and what is the undead? If it's somebody combing partially back to life then it could be any sphere that's related to death or rebirth even; it's kind of weird to have the sphere of rebirth have undead things but it's possible.
Rainseeker: They're good zombies, maybe.
Toady: Yeah, they're good zombies, with little fairy hats and stuff ... whatever a fairy hat is. But then there's the notion of just animating a corpse, and that's the purview of death or if brooms and stuff are also moving around then it's more of a regular magical thing. But there's also the notion of having some kind of spirits from the underworld populate the body, then that could be any kind of evil.
Ampersand: There's also another concept of it being a disease that is passed between individuals.
Toady: Yeah, there's the viral zombie model ... [and] there's also the radiation zombie model I guess. So the viral thing, I don't know ... are they dead? Or are they ...
Capntastic: Their brain's just messed up by like ...
Toady: Yeah, viruses. I guess what the 28 Days Later model is it's just sort of a viral rage thing, but they aren't actually dead; is that correct? And then they starve to death. So any of those is fair game as they come up. Now, the undead that'll come in at first; I still have evil regions in this release so things will probably be the same as they were before, and then as I move over to sphere-based regions then at first it's going to be just kind of a death thing I guess, and to make them fairly common those will just be common areas. The whole idea of undead in general is going to be generalised to the notion of a curse, and that could just be some random sphere thing: there could just be a bunch of fire dear, and fire elk, and fire chipmunks and the fire man; that's kind of the cheesy thing that you'd expect out of the game after a while. Of course we can get more sophisticated but you don't start there. Then there's these notions of things like infectious diseases and so on, which we were going to do - not as undead or anything - but just the notion of an infectious disease was going to be part of this release with the venoms, but it was one of those things I had to red out on the list, that I couldn't do diseases because I don't have the time. But anything that's red on that list is pretty much fair game on the short term so I'm not sure what's going on after this. But you can start to move to more and more sophisticated disease models - not just models of their spread which aren't ever going to be that sophisticated in Dwarf Fortress - but just their effects, as we get more and more venom effects and so on; that could actually ... like if you had a venom that can alter your behaviour then you can have a disease that can alter your behaviour. We already have berserker dwarves, so it wouldn't be that far of a step to have a venom and then an infectious disease that can make you berserk, and then you've essentially arrived at the 28 Days Later model.
Rainseeker: Which is really bad news if you have your legendary champions crazy.
Toady: Yeah, you'd have to lock yourself ...
Capntastic: Erm ... maybe not so much. They could just bite someone in half.
Ampersand: They could be the solution to a lot of problems too.
Rainseeker: Assuming that you went crazy on the battlefield and not inside your fortress.
If I understand correctelly, the suggestion here is to tie magic system to this sphere system, or perhaps to simply call the sphere system and all the funny stuff it spawns magic. Not a bad idea I think. Spheres could be altered by evil deeds, good deeds, but also things like childbirth, industry, happyness or misery.
It could also be a good thing to link the planned religeon system into. Shrines to a god of fertility could create plant, mariage, etc spheres, and of course hedious sacrifices to a god of death could create evil, death, etc spheres. Well probably it should do that even without the god of death part, maybe just more quickly.
Multiple spheres could relate to eachother, much the way they do now. Some should negate eachother, some could combine to create a third sphere. For example, death negates longevity, and vice versa. Perhaps carefully balanced out combinations of death and fertility could generate a rebirth biome.
Linking a creature or plant to each and every biome seems like a bad idea, as funny as justice mushrooms might sound.
Fake Edit: in response to more recent posts, I think the idea here is to keep the basic game the same as it as, and add more depth for when you get further ahead. It wouldnt be hightening the initial cliff, it would be adding a slope after that cliff.
As promised, the post about the features and ecological niche of magic plants.
NW_Kohaku and I share a habit of very long posts, and I am now copying another one: using spoiler tags to cut the length of absolutely huge ones to something more manageable (demonstrated very prominently here (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76007.msg1920008#msg1920008)). The ones in this post serve no other purpose.
Part 1: Goals, Assumptions, and Definitions1. I want to keep as much real science as feasible. Natural selection, for example, is present and fully intact.
2. There are mundane plants that use photosynthesis, the same process as in real life.
3. Certain plants use a similar but distinct process, called “xenosynthesis,” which uses magic energy (“mana,” or "XE" in some of my older posts) instead of light. This allows them to grow in areas where mana is present but light is not, including caves underground.
4. Xenosynthetic (“xeno”) plants need a source of mana, and I nominate certain other “alchemical” (“alch”) plants for the purpose. These live on the surface, and convert light energy into mana.
Part 2: Magical Biochemistry1. Both xeno and alch plants are viable living species. The offspring of such plants retain the ability. Otherwise, such plants could not spread in the ecosystem, and crops of either type could not exist.
2. To permit the previous point, both abilities must have a genetic basis.
3. To permit the previous point, both abilities must have a biochemical basis. The plants (and animals) that interact with mana make and use specific molecules, unknown on Earth, that allow them to do so.
4. In other words, the xeno and alch processes have an analogue of chlorophyll. I assume that these analogues evolved from chlorophyll.
5. For simplicity, I assume that xeno and alch plants replace the light reactions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-dependent_reactions) of photosynthesis, but the Calvin cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-independent_reactions#Calvin_Cycle) is the same as in mundane plants. Like chlorophyll, the xeno and alch analogues discharge their energy to ATP, which drives the Calvin cycle but can also be used directly for other metabolic purposes.
Part 3: Mana Interactions1. I want free-floating mana in the environment. Xeno plants won’t work without it.
2. To achieve this, I declare that the analogue of chlorophyll used by alch plants is able to release its energy (gained from absorbing light) either to the environment at large as mana or more directly into the mundane cellular machinery.
3. According to my admittedly incomplete understanding of the physics underlying emission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum) and absorption spectra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy#Absorption_spectrum), the ability to absorb and store energy from light implies the ability to emit it. And, by extension, the ability to emit mana implies the ability to absorb it.
4. Conclusion: Xeno and alch plants use the same molecule, which will be referred to as xeno-chlorophyll (“x-chl”).
5. Summary: X-chl is able to convert between mana and light in both directions, with minimal (direct) interaction with other cellular processes. It is also able to convert from either to biochemical energy, but (at least in practical terms) probably not vice versa. I will assume that the plant can control this behavior, most likely by attaching other components to the molecule.
6. As stated previously (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5675505#msg5675505), mana is sphere-aligned. X-chl comes in several different varieties, each interacting with a different sphere of mana. All varieties interact with light, although not necessarily with the same preferred frequencies. The divergent types of x-chl could have evolved directly from chlorophyll (independently of each other), or from other varieties of x-chl.
7. Another result is that both alch and xeno plants inherently have the ability to emit light. Glowing cavern plants are cool, and glowing flowers could be useful for attracting pollinators.
Part 4: Mana Storage and Its Consequences1.
Fruit (and possibly other plant parts) can contain XE in portable form. Intelligent creatures which require XE (such as necromancers) can carry appropriate types of fruit with them. A player wishing to terraform his/her site can also import and use suitable plants. This also has implications for alchemy. It might also open certain exploits with prepared meals.
I want at least some plants to be able to store mana internally for extended periods.
2. To permit this, I declare that the high-energy state of x-chl is relatively stable. For comparison, chlorophyll is also pushed to a high-energy state when it absorbs light, but quickly releases that energy into other cellular processes. With x-chl, that release is much more difficult to trigger. X-chl can therefore serve as both energy gatherer and energy storage.
3. I want mana to be stored in locations other than the leaves, and long-term energy storage in x-chl is a way this could be selectively favored.
4. To take maximum advantage of the storage ability of x-chl, “charged” and “depleted” molecules might be moved around in the sap, as a replacement or supplement to sugar.
5. X-chl is (probably) a much larger molecule than glucose, or even sucrose or maltose. This makes it somewhat more awkward to move around. It is also likely (but, since this is magic we’re talking about, not guaranteed) to have lower energy density than sugar.
6. A sufficiently high-magnification image of a leaf shows that a surprisingly large fraction of it is transparent, since chlorophyll is so concentrated in the chloroplasts. With mobile x-chl, that would not be the case.
7. Given the storage properties of x-chl compared to chlorophyll, it would probably take more molecules to absorb an equivalent amount of light (unless, of course, x-chl has multiple high-energy states; since this is magic we're talking about, it might). Mundane chlorophyll still has a role within both plants and ecosystems. Alch plants might still produce and use it.
8. The counterpoint is that storing the energy in sugar is an additional conversion step, so x-chl storage may be more efficient.
9. Conclusion: X-chl will only be favored over chlorophyll under relatively specific circumstances. Moving it around even more so.
Part 5: Basic Magical Ecology1. Mundane plants are still observed, so alch plants can’t completely exclude them. (Xeno plants generally grow in different areas, so they don’t count.)
2. Certain areas have a lot of mana naturally present in the environment, and some mana is consumed in the caverns, both of which are a waste to the alch plant. Natural selection still applies, so I need to describe situations where this behavior would be selectively favored. Various such situations (“strategies”) are outlined below.
3. I am using the rule of thumb that the caverns have roughly as much primary production (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_production) as the surface (say 10% at a minimum, probably closer to 50-75%, maybe higher).
4. While the single "miracle" molecule x-chl would allow alch plants to switch to xeno and colonize the caverns (or switch back from xeno and colonize the surface), the two environments do involve somewhat different selective pressures.
5. Caverns have near-constant temperature and humidity. The surface has significant daily and yearly cycles for both. Xeno plants, adapted to the gentler conditions underground, might find the surface overly hostile and fail to thrive. Maximum efficiency of gathering mana may also lead to reduced efficiency when gathering light.
6. Certain plants in real life, particularly those living in temperate regions, produce seeds that need a freeze and thaw before they will sprout. Caverns will not provide this, so such plants will grow poorly in the caverns.
Part 6: Magical Animals1. One of the central premises is that at least some animals are able to use mana.
2. Such animals probably use x-chl to gather and store mana, but might use something different.
3. As described previously (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5657537#msg5657537), mana will allow animals to do certain things they wouldn’t be able to do without it. Mana is usable as an energy source, but animals will seek it out for the other benefits as well.
4. Since plants can store mana internally, this mana will affect herbivores (or other animals) that consume those plants.
5. Since chlorophyll, on which x-chl is based, is primarily found in the leaves, x-chl is likely to be primarily found there as well, especially in the charged state that would be of interest to mana-using herbivores. They are therefore likely to target the leaves. This imposes specific selective pressures on the plants.
6. Ideally, the plant would deflect herbivores from leaves to fruit. This simplifies one of my other goals: a mana storage system with a relatively long shelf life.
The format for describing the various alch plant strategies is as follows:
D. “Description” of the strategy.
L. “Logic” behind the strategy, including, if possible, real-life precedents.
B. “Biome,” or the environment likely to be favored by an alch plant using this strategy.
P. “Plant,” or what an alch plant would be like as a consequence of this strategy.
C. “Caverns,” or implications for xeno cavern plants living below an area dominated by alch plants of this type.
M. “Miscellaneous” commentary.
As a final note, very few of the strategies described below interfere with each other.
Cluster 1: Immobile xeno-chlorophyll
I assume that xeno-chlorophyll evolved from mundane chlorophyll. Under most circumstances, chlorophyll does not move around the plant. The main exception is deciduous trees removing it from their leaves in fall (which actually involves disassembling it and moving the pieces). Occam’s Razor then leads to the assumption that xeno-chlorophyll will also, by default, not move around much.
1. Modified CAMD. Charge x-chl during the day, and use the stored energy to run the Calvin cycle at night.
L. CAM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassulacean_acid_metabolism) is a strategy used by many real-life plants, especially ones that live in desert conditions. At night, they open their leaves to air and gather CO2, which is converted to malic acid and stored. During the day, they keep their leaves closed to control water use, and consume the stored malic acid in the Calvin cycle.
B. This strategy is favored under the same conditions as CAM, namely arid ones. It has similar ecological effects (hence the name).
P. This strategy does not interfere in any way with CAM, and in fact helps compensate for some of its shortcomings. Plants are likely to combine the two strategies. They are also likely to have other adaptations common to desert plants, such as the thorns for which cacti are famous.
C. Deciduous trees using this strategy will produce a large glut of mana during fall, when their leaves change color and drop off. Other plants will, under normal circumstances, release little if any mana for the caverns. Surface herbivores, however, will have access to abundant mana from their leaves, especially near sunset.
M. This strategy produces a selective pressure favoring x-chl complexes that can store more energy (high energy density). All of the strategies in the second cluster will benefit from this, as will mana-using animals.
2. Xenosynthetic Roots D. The plant produces mana in its leaves, and releases it to conduct xenosynthesis elsewhere in the plant. The x-chl in the leaves is kept discharged as much as practical.
L. This strategy is excellent under extreme water stress. CAM and modified CAM reduce water use, but this strategy virtually eliminates it. Under conditions of high sun and low water, the vastly improved water-efficiency may outweigh the wastefulness of broadcast power.
B. Arid areas. Other inhospitable areas like the tundra are more tentative possibilities.
> For best results, plants of this type would have mechanisms to discourage competition from other xeno plants, especially their own species. Seeds would need extremely wide dispersal to avoid competing with the parent (synergy with Mana Fruit, below).
> It may also be favored under sufficiently extreme pressure from herbivores, assuming mana-using ones are dominant. They taste the leaves, get very little mana, and lose interest.
P. The plant will still need to use the Calvin cycle to generate new tissue. Given the conditions to which this strategy is best-suited, it will probably use CAM and/or “Modified CAM”.
> Broadcast power also delivers energy much more rapidly than sap would. A sufficiently large alch plant (say a 4-z or 6-z tree) may find that the convenience of broadcast power outweighs its inefficiency.
C. Xeno cavern plants would have an abundant supply of mana throughout the growing season, potentially year-round.
M. No other comments.
3. Mana Nectary D. The plant produces mana, and releases it to attract some kind of symbiotic animal that consumes that mana and helps the plant in other ways. Examples include clearing out competing plants, delivering nitrogen and water from foraging elsewhere, and protecting the plant from other herbivores.
L. Extrafloral nectaries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nectar#Extrafloral_nectaries) do exist in real life, and this system serves the same ecological role, hence the name.
B. This strategy is very useful in a fairly wide range of environments.
P. This strategy, like “Xenosynthetic Roots,” has broadcast power as a basic feature. They two strategies also have excellent synergy. Either could have evolved from the other.
C. Xeno cavern plants would again have an abundant supply of mana throughout the growing season, although not necessarily as abundant as a pure “Xenosynthetic Roots” alch plant.
M. I think this strategy is the best for alch plants. In particular, it is the best one (possibly even the only viable one) in order to allow alch plants to really compete with mundane plants on their own turf, rather than merely grow where they can’t, or grow adequately where they grow poorly.
Cluster 2: Mobile Xeno-chlorophyll
Now we’re getting to the more speculative stuff. All of these strategies assume and exploit moving xeno-chlorophyll around the plant. Given the "Immobile xeno-chlorophyll" strategies described above, this isn’t strictly necessary to support the cavern ecosystem, but it does offer possibilities for other goals I had. See also: "Mana Storage and Its Consequence," above.
4. Mana Sap D. Charge x-chl in the leaves, and carry that, rather than sugar, in the sap to distribute energy to the rest of the plant. Of course, discharged x-chl must then be carried back to the leaves.
L. Like “Xenosynthetic Roots,” this strategy vastly cuts water use. Charging and discharging x-chl consumes virtually no water. Carrying energy in the sap wastes less to the environment than broadcasting and collecting it.
B. Like “Xenosynthetic Roots,” this strategy is most beneficial under conditions of extreme water stress.
P. Since x-chl is assumed to be relatively difficult to transport (much more so than sugar), this strategy limits the size of the plant using it.
C. The efficiency of this strategy is good for the alch plant doing it, but bad for the caverns.
M. An interesting possibility, and it is a prerequisite of the other strategies outlined in this cluster. It also shares another feature with “Xenosynthetic Roots”: reducing the amount of mana stored in the leaves, and thus the interest of mana-using herbivores in them. It is, however, somewhat worse in this area.
5. Shaded Calvin Cycle D. Charge x-chl in the leaves, then transport it to a more sheltered part of the plant. Run the Calvin cycle there, not exposed to direct sunlight and the wind.
L. Similar pressures and results to “Modified CAM.” The plant reduces water use by gathering CO2 from areas where evaporation will be less significant. “Modified CAM” separates things by time; this strategy separates them by location.
B. Again, this strategy will be favored in areas where water is limited.
P. I assume, by default, that plants that use “Mana Sap” will also use this strategy. It may also offer some improvement supplementing “Modified CAM.”
C. Again, plants of this type will not release much mana to the caverns.
M. No other comments.
6. Mana fruit D. Move charged x-chl from the leaves, and store it in fruit.
L. The ability of alch plants to move x-chl around was proposed specifically to permit this strategy. I wanted a mana storage system with a long shelf life, and this was one of only two ways I could think of to get it.
B. All of the factors that encourage real life plants to produce fruit apply. Most obviously, the plant needs plenty of herbivores around to eat the fruit and disperse the seeds inside. Fortunately, that is true almost anywhere.
P. Again, x-chl is somewhat problematic to move around. For best results, fruit needs to grow very close to the leaves.
C. Excellent for mana-using herbivores. Not so good for the caverns. Orchards kept by sentients might allow more fruit to rot, which would release more mana. X-chl might also be prompted to decay (release its mana) by brewing the fruit into alcohol.
M. To employ the “deflect herbivores from the leaves” feature, the fruit needs to be present through most of the growing season. Certain real life plants (including the magnolia tree right outside my house) flower before they leaf out, so this is not as ridiculous as it might sound.
7. Mana Tuber D. Store the mana in a hard-to-access part of the plant, such as a tuber.
L. Opposite in some ways to “Mana Fruit.” This is a way for the plant to make things more difficult for mana-using herbivores. It is also the second of only two ways I could figure out to arrange for plants to produce a mana storage system with a long shelf life. It is somewhat better, since fruit tends to be consumed fairly quickly but tubers need, at a minimum, to remain viable through the winter.
B. Fundamentally, this strategy requires the plant to select charged x-chl over sugar for energy storage. There are two scenarios likely to produce this result. First, the same water stress issues mentioned under “Xenosynthetic Roots” and “Mana Sap.” Second, the plant has a mana-storage molecule that is easier to produce (better input-to-output ratio) and store than sugar. Ideally better energy density as well, but I don't consider this especially likely.
P. Given the constraints on size mentioned under “Mana Sap,” the plants that benefit most from this strategy are herbaceous perennials. As a crop, it would most likely be grown as an annual, since harvesting the tuber is likely to kill the plant.
C. This strategy produces surplus mana for herbivores that manage to dig up the root, but not much for the caverns. Mana would only get released into the region at large if the plant fell to pests or rot. After harvesting by sentients, any processing that prompted fruit to release its mana would likely also work on the tuber.
M. No other comments.
1. Give the game more depth by presenting the player with conflicting goals. These require the player to evaluate opportunity costs and prioritize which goals to pursue and which ones to sacrifice. (NW_Kohaku, Improved Farming (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76007.msg1920005#msg1920005), original post, section "Choices".)
NW_Kohaku described how it applied to Improved Farming in general. I need to describe how it applies to xenosynthesis in particular.
Again, i use spoiler tags to divide the the post into smaller, somewhat more manageable, sections.
Relevant Crop Types As I have set it up, there are several different kinds of "crops" available for a player to grow.
> I named six, with varying degrees of directness, in this thread, reply #124 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5679328#msg5679328).
1. Mundane
2. Deciduous alch
3. Deciduous-dependent xeno
4. Broadcast alch
5. Broadcast-dependent xeno
6. Ingredient alch
> IndigoFenix, in this thread, reply #104 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5672350#msg5672350) (and my response to it in reply #105 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5672367#msg5672367)) described another one.
7. Portal-dependent xeno
> NW_Kohaku named another one, in the Improved Farming thread, reply #4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76007.msg1920009#msg1920009), section "But what do I actually do as a Player?".
8. Fungus
These assemble into four clusters, each with strategic strengths and weaknesses.
Cluster 0: Fungus1. Fungi do not generate new organic matter. At best, they can covert it from a form dwarves can't eat to one they can.
2. There are also mycorrhizae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza), which help plants gather nutrients and therefore grow better.
3. Fungi are a supplement to the other clusters, not a cluster in their own right. They are, at least in principle, able to supplement any of the other four.
Features:
1. The post from NW_Kohaku that named fungi also named an important function for them: generate soil where there had not been any before. The example presented was planting plump helmets on logs gathered from the surface.
2. After the visible mushrooms are harvested, the "roots" of the fungi will remain in the developing soil. If xeno plants were subsequently planted in the same field (which is all but guaranteed), that crop of plump helmets may be able to establish itself among them as a mycorrhiza.
3. If successful, the plants would grow more vigorously, and the plump helmets would send up periodic volunteer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_%28botany%29) mushrooms.
4. Dwarven farmers would be able to notice that certain fields grow more plants, and select plump helmets from those fields for planting in subsequently created fields, a selection pressure in favor of increased mycorrhizal ability and efficiency.
Cluster 1: Surface1. Includes mundane and ingredient alch plants. Neither generates any mana for the caverns.
2. Human farming depends primarily on mundane plants, which are mostly grown for food and alcohol. Some provide cloth or dye instead.
3. Ingredient alch plants are, of course, useful as ingredients in alchemical reactions.
3. Due to the circumstances under which mana energy storage is favored (described in reply #124 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5679328#msg5679328), above), most ingredient alch plants probably won't be good for much else.
Features
1. Since neither plant variety grows underground, or supports plants that do, all the fields are on the surface. This limits food security.
2. Again due to reasons covered in reply #124 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76578.msg5679328#msg5679328), most ingredient alch plants will be highly drought-tolerant. They will favor desert and similar biomes.
3. On the other hand, they will, as a rule, be either highly flood-intolerant or easily out-competed by weeds when well-watered.
Trade-offs
1. "Cool stuff" (alchemical products) vs Easy embark
> Alchemical products will need to be quite powerful to make this a true trade-off rather than a style project.
2. Roof or Greenhouse (Security) vs. Rain-fed (Productivity and Maintenance)
> This trade-off also applies to Deciduous and Broadcast clusters, because they involve surface plants.
Cluster 2: Portal Xeno1. Portal xeno plants, of course, use mana that enters the world through portals.
2. The only such features currently in the game are the eerie glowing pits in the circus.
Features:
1. Productivity will generally be quite limited.
A. Most of the mana is probably blocked by the slade layer. There's not much the player can do about that.
B. Most of the rest is probably blocked by the cotton candy. Removing this block is possible, but extremely risky.
C. Most of the rest is blocked by plants growing wild in the various cavern layers. Reducing this block is possible. While not nearly as deadly as the circus, the caverns aren't exactly safe either.
2. With only the one kind of mana, food variety is quite limited. This opens the possibilities of dwarves growing tired of the food, and of malnutrition.
3. On the other hand, the portal is not (currently) susceptible to any attempt to disrupt or close it.
4. In addition, the fields themselves, being underground, can be made quite secure.
Trade-offs
1. Productivity vs. Security
2. Variety (supplied by other systems) vs. Security
Cluster 3: Deciduous1. Includes deciduous alch plants and the deciduous-dependent xeno plants they support.
2. Deciduous alch plants release significant quantities of mana only during fall, when they drop leaves and go dormant.
3. Deciduous xeno plants thus have some similarity with surface desert plants: mana replaces water. Mana is only available intermittently, but is predictable. Xeno plants must either tolerate or avoid the long gaps of no mana.
Features:
1. Avoidance takes the form of an annual growth pattern. The seed evolves to detect the "mana rain" as a signal to sprout, then the plant will grow quickly, flower, and produce seeds before the mana runs out. Such plants would have very quick growth cycles, potentially two months or less. That plant then dies, but the seeds remain for next year.
2. For dwarves to grow such plants, the optimal strategy is to plant the xeno seeds just before the alch plant is due for harvesting.
3. This results in two distinct "harvest times" (some staggering of food production), but most food is produced in fall or early winter, and must then be stored until the next harvest. It is potentially vulnerable to rot and vermin.
4. Mana "drought tolerance" would involve either a long dormant period or some form of mana storage. I believe dormancy more likely.
5. Most dormancy type plants would probably be biennial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biennial_plant) or worse.
6. Those that store mana would likely make valid alchemical ingredients, but harvesting that storage would kill the plant, and could easily interfere with seed production.
Trade-offs
1. (Relative to Surface) Productivity vs. Simplicity
2. (Relative to Portal) Productivity and Variety vs. Security
Cluster 4: Broadcast1. Includes broadcast alch plants and the broadcast-dependent xeno plants they support.
2. Broadcast alch plans release significant quantities of mana throughout the growing season.
3. The sheer quantity is also much greater. The mana release of deciduous alch plants is essentially an accident, but the release of broadcast plants is an inherent aspect of how they grow. Their steady output throughout the growing season almost certainly produces more mana per day than the deciduous mana rain, even at its peak.
Features
1. The broadcast occurs throughout the growing season, which is generally quite long.
2. The broadcasting plant maintains itself using the broadcast, which requires sunlight but not water.
3. The plant needs water to generate new tissue, so it may have a dormancy period of sorts, but the broadcast is, as a rule, not subject to that constraint. The "broadcast season" is likely to be much longer than the "proper" growing season. Desert plants could easily keep it up year-round. Alch plants growing in other hostile biomes like the tundra may or may not manage this.
4. Ignoring animals (plants only) and considering the conditions under which broadcast alch plants tend to compete best, most of the food production will probably occur underground (xeno plants).
5. Food production is relatively continuous, so storage and spoilage are less of an issue. Pests attacking the growing crops might be more dangerous than otherwise, since there is no winter to make them freeze or starve.
6. Broadcast alch plants, more than any other variety, provide a niche for mana-using wildlife. These are potentially better for food (giant animals, for example), but also potentially worse (undead and, barring mods, animal people). They are universally much more powerful fighters either way, and thus more easily become a security concern.
7. If the player manages to capture and tame the magical animals, they become a substantial military benefit.
Trade-offs
1. (Magical animals) Risk vs. Reward
2. (Also) "Cool stuff" vs. Security and Easy embark
3. Security advantage, because broadcast alch plants are much easier to maintain than most others in a "greenhouse plus irrigation" environment.
4. (Relative to Deciduous) Harvest and store (vermin) vs. continuous production (pests)
[A lot of stuff, skipping to the part that is sort of the crux of the argument]
6. On the other hand, surface plants have access to mundane sunlight. With this source of energy, they can produce more XE than they consume. They become the (primary) magic fountain that sustains the caverns.
I have several problems with this, and I could actually launch into an argument similar to the one GavJ was using about how you're now adding magic in arbitrarily to a single chemical process with known mechanics while saying no other magic suspensions of disbelief can occur. (Plus it raises the question of why caverns have the same magic everywhere, even when there are deserts and glaciers that prevent plants from growing...) However, that's beyond the point of this thread.
The major problem I have is that I see it as weakening one of the major reasons of having Xenosynthesis in the first place.
To go back to the previous argument a little, the purpose of xenosynthesis is to take a magic system that exists within its own little arbitrary rules system, and push it out into the same gamespace where everything else plays.
If you forgive the fact that it has a different overall topic, this video by Errant Signal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSBn77_h_6Q) (on why violence is prevalent in video games) goes into great detail about why everything that goes on in games needs to be represented in the physical space of the game for the player to really understand it.
The Importance of Physical Gamespace
In fact, I've referenced this in some of the Interface arguments in the past:
[snip]
Don't lie to yourself - the way that you see the game now significantly colors the way you actually think about or do things. Playing the game by Stonesense means caring about things far different from things you care about when you play the game normally.
I'm probably one of the very, very few players who actually builds multiple vertical shafts to compact my fortress vertically, rather than spreading out the fortress in a bunch of huge, clunky rectangle rooms specifically because players only view one floor at a time, and the digging tool favors rectangles. Central staircase designs are a direct artifact of the current interface.
If you change that interface, you change the way that players approach the game. How? You'll have no idea until after you do it.
[snip]
One of the big objectives with Xenosynthesis is to make magic something that is a reaction to the things the player does in the physical world that they can directly see happening. Making the rules of the game play out in the physical gamespace makes them immediately graspable by the player.
Consider the difference between the way a conversation affects the mood of a dwarf in this game, and the way that minecarts can be used to create complex logical mechanisms. One is played out behind the scenes in a series of numeric interactions that most players rarely even recognize even happened without purposefully going through a series of screens to specifically peek in on the thoughts and relationships of a single dwarf. The other is plain as day etched into the stone floor in front of you.
Dwarven relationships are invisible spreadsheet managers.
Minecarts are visible physics problems taking place in the physical gamespace.
What's more, by being in the physical space, minecarts can interact with other physical space systems to create deep, emergent gameplay opportunities. Water, magma, pumps, pressure plates, bridges and more are all in the physical space, as well, and that means that every single one of them can interact with the minecarts, (such as letting you dip minecarts into magma to "shotgun" magma at enemies,) creating more and more permutations of gameplay depth for a single fixed amount of additional complexity in the game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL4st0blGU).
Conversations, however, are not part of the physical gamespace, and as such, they don't interact with any of those other "cool things" in DF, nor does the complexity in the conversation system apply to much of anything outside the conversation/personality system.
So, what does this have to do with xenosynthesis and magic?
Xenosynthesis is there as a means of pushing magic into the realm of things the player actively manipulates through the way in which they build and run their fortress.
The game, as Toady has told us he is planning on expanding it, is moving away from just "evil" and "savage" and "good", and towards a complex system of having dozens of spheres. The "meanings" section you quoted earlier on Cado references how one wizard aligned himself heavily with "Illusion" as a sphere to become an illusionist, and at the same time, it corrupted his very essence. There's then mention that there would have been more "balance" if the wizard had woven in a little "Truth" to counteract the imbalance of lies and illusions.
The way in which you set up dead leaves as a source of magic attempts to answer a more immediate question of why stuff in the caverns exists, but it doesn't achieve some of the more important goals of xenosynthesis, which is making the player's decisions in terms of fortress-management have an impact on the
type of magic a region experiences.
Right now, we already have a "history" system wherein, to take the quote from GavJ for a second,
Usually, your chief imports are immigrants, beer, and optimism. Your chief exports are misery, limestone violins, forest fires, elf tallow soap, and carved kitten bone.
It's been a common running joke, great storytelling tool, and fantastic gameplay feature that what you do in a fortress is remembered... and it's usually the most chaotic and violent of things that are remembered. (Although that can go back to the "why are games so violent" video for why...)
What if, instead of just having the way you kill an elephant show up in an engraving, it showed up in the magic of the world, as well?
Now You're Thinking With Spheres
The key thing to understand about how Toady deals with his approach to magic is that it is sympathetic magic. (You might want to reference this thread, from 2012-2013 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109726.0) for when I was more explicitly on this topic.)
That is, shadow creatures attack at night because their energies only work properly when the world is covered in darkness. The powers of the shadow creatures (and the creatures themselves) come from an alternate dimension, but what changes is whether or not the world is sympathetically aligned with the sphere of darkness. In places of the world that are going through the darkest parts of the night, they are sympathetically more aligned with the shadow realm, and as such, more of the energies (or creatures) of that world can spill through.
The thing is, you need to transfer these sympathetic magic acts into things that exist in the physical gamespace.
Let's say for example that killing an elephant with fire or magma generates "fire" or "magma" sphere energy, while killing them with the military generates "violence" or "war" sphere energy, while starving them generates "famine" sphere energy. (Or sphere sympathy or xenoenergeia or XE or whatever we want to agree on calling it.)
Every animal that is born adds to life sympathies, while every animal slain or butchered counterbalances it with death sympathies. Because linking old quotes is oh-so-much-fun, I wrote a different thread concurrent to this one back in 2011: Organizing the Spheres (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=84489.msg2264887#msg2264887), which was about trying to work up a system where you could have all the important spheres organized in opposing fashion, such that the normal world is one where all forces are in relatively equal opposition. As you perform actions that favor one over the other, you tilt your biome more and more towards one extreme of a sphere or another.
This means that you have a direct choice in what sort of spheres your fortress is starting to align with. (Or in some cases, you carelessly allow the choice to be made for you for want of preparation.)
What Physical Gamespace Can Do For Magic
To throw this all together, magic without something like xenosynthesis would basically be something where necromancers just arbitrarily raise zombies because "shut up magic, they just can," and can either do so infinitely, or else based upon some arbitrary MP system that is invisible and not within the physical gamespace (and hence, a series of complex mechanics that have no relation to anything else in the game,) or you can use something similar to xenosynthesis or sympathetic magic.
The point of xenosynthesis or sympathetic magic or whatever is that it brings the source of magic into the physical gamespace, where it can be impacted by player actions.
Let's say the player is very careful about how things work in their fortress specifically to undermine necromancer attacks. If you make sure to have as few creature deaths as possible in your realm, all while fostering life sympathies by having lots of births (presumably, this means trading your animals away instead of butchery,) you can undermine the death energies present in the region, weakening the powers of a necromancer.
In much the same way as engravings already try to hint, if you constantly magma-flood creatures and leave your fortress's front step a blasted hellscape, it pushes your fortress into having magma-themed creatures that represent that history in the physical gamespace for you to contend with.
Maybe if you are extremely capable at handling the stress and happiness levels of your fortress, the sheer joy in the fortress sympathetically attracts joy motes or other creatures that feed on the sheer bliss of a dwarf eating a masterwork dwarven rum roast in a legendary dining room. (Which then gets swatted down and eaten by the cat.) Likewise, it may manifest as magical alterations of a creature like that cat. Conversely, the sheer gloom of a fortress that constantly sees death may feed gloomshrooms in their growth or similar effects.
Using Xenosynthesis ties what you can grow or ranch in with the magic system and the physical gamespace. This means there are direct economic benefits to specific, if seemingly unrelated, actions as a player, which can be used to color your decision-making process. If, for example, you have a really powerful magma flooding device, it may work wonders in wiping out goblin sieges, but it may now have negative consequences for resting too much on your laurels by forcing you to face magma-immune monsters swarming your gates. If you build multiple systems, including, say, a drowning chamber, you might keep your fortress's spheres in balance. On the other hand, you may purposefully want to flood your fortress with a specific type of sphere's xenoenergeia because depleting it with the farming of magical crops or ranching of xenosynthesizing creatures may be part of your overall fortress strategy... just so long as you keep the fortress's spheres in enough of a balance that it doesn't completely overwhelm you.
... And there goes my evening...
In other news, am working on what will eventually become a post for Organizing the Spheres (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=84489.0), and this distinction between wilderness and civilization will carry over to it.
(...) I'm not sure why we need a distinction between wilderness and civilization.
I mean, the world is created with sentient, civilization-building creatures living upon it. Civilization is built at year 1. In essence, civilization is natural in this world, and it makes sense for spheres of wealth and crafts and marriage to exist for as long as sky and mountains and death to have existed.
In the sorts of Greek myths or Norse myths to which DF's mythos tends to trace itself backwards, there wasn't really a distinction made between deities that were civilized or wilderness deities, either.
I can't approach the spheres without making the distinction between wilderness and civilization. There are a lot of spheres I can't apply to a wild animal without turning it into some type or variant of animal person (and therefore no longer really an animal) in the process: Dance, Gambling, Rumors, and Writing, just off the top of my head.
One god might claim spheres associated with both categories, but the overlap happens at the level of the god, not of the individual spheres.
Organizing the Spheres
That post got pretty huge as I worked on it with my word processor. The limit on this forum is 40,000 characters per post, and I handily exceeded that limit long before I felt satisfied with it, so I will put some of it here (the parts I feel I can post here without derailing the thread) to see what kind of response I get. I apologize for any references to cut sections that slipped through the editing.
To start with, I checked the wiki page on the spheres (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere) and counted 130 of them.
I divided the spheres into two broad categories:
1. Major spheres define a fairly broad category, which has a coherent unifying theme.
2. Minor spheres generally fit within the broad category or theme defined by a major sphere. Some are shared between two major spheres. I did make a conscious effort to keep these to a minimum, and to make sure none were claimed by more than two.
Within the major spheres, there are two categories:
1. Wilderness spheres can be meaningfully applied to an area that does not have civilized beings living in it. Most refer to a natural force of some sort.
2. Civilization spheres are directly relevant, or at least directly connected, to civilized beings. This includes their actions and desires, their possessions, the tools they make, and the structures and cities they build. In short, they can’t be meaningfully applied to an area that does not have civilized beings living in it.
The Wilderness spheres are, essentially, the ones I can attach significant engineerability to, since they represent the environment at large rather than something internal to the fortress. More importantly, they are also the ones I can most easily attach substantial results from engineering them.
I wound up with a total of 9 Wilderness major spheres, and 13 Civilization major spheres.
> The Wilderness major spheres are Caverns, Darkness, Death, Fire, Moon, Nature, Sun, Water, and Weather.
> The Civilization major spheres are Agriculture, Art, Chaos, Crafts, Family, Festivals, Happiness, Misery, Order, Peace, Scholarship, Travelers, and War.
Order
1. I will list the major spheres, and each entry will have a section listing which minor spheres that fit within it.
2. This post will only cover the Wilderness spheres. The civilization spheres were much more difficult to attach engineerability to, so I felt they were a bit off topic (in addition to simply pushing me far over the character limit).
3. Within the above constraints, spheres will be listed in alphabetical order.
Alterations
1. I think [SPHERE_SEASONS] is hard to work with. It isn’t quite broad enough to be a major sphere, and as a minor sphere it becomes disputed territory between too many major ones. I am splitting SEASONS into SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, and WINTER. It makes more sense to me to have different gods associated with Summer and Winter, and those two in particular fit best in different major spheres.
Format
(All of the major sphere descriptions are spoilered for brevity.)
Name of the major sphere. M: “Minor spheres” that fall within this major sphere.
S: “Shared spheres,” or minor spheres that fall within both this major sphere and a different major sphere. I will specify the other major sphere.
T: The main “Theme” of this major sphere.
O: “Other Spheres,” or the relationships and interactions of this major sphere this sphere with the others.
> Any of the above might require more than one bullet point to cover everything relevant.
Surroundings 1. This section is to describe the effect this sphere would have while using spheres as a replacement for the current Surroundings (Good / Evil / Savage).
2. This is a complicated subject, so I expect to need a numbered list in most cases.
3. Commentary on the current magical creatures (giant animals, satyrs, fire imps, beak dogs, undead, and so forth) and plants (feather tree, staring eyeball, and so forth) are included in this section.
4. The current Evil surroundings have associated “evil weather,” so if I can think of anything thematically appropriate to put in that slot I will describe it in this section.
5. Only the Wilderness spheres will have this section. Wilderness spheres are those for which I can figure out how to write this section; civilization spheres are “everything else.”
PlayerActions by players having an effect are at the core of the purpose behind the xenosynthesis idea.
Xenosynthesis as an idea was largely started because I was talking realism in farming in a game that has giant magic caverns and plants that have juices "of pure sunshine" and likely will eventually have potions and other blatantly magical things. The idea driving the Improved Farming thread was that things that are too easy in the current game (like getting infinite food from simply throwing seeds at mud) need to be made into something that the player has to mindfully balance and manage.
Hence, magical crops, to carry that mentality over, need to have some sort of similar "nutrient" that is depleted or renewed, with appropriate costs associated with the reckless disregard for their power.
Part of my motivations, as well, was to make something rationally understandable from what seems a rather arbitrary magic system that runs on sympathetic invocations that are largely impossible to infer from the world around you. (That is, every time magic is used in Threetoe stories, it always seems pulled out of the ass on the spot, and therefore, impossible to predict or work with as a player, especially if such magic is put into the game randomly, as the likes of divine metals are.) Like Bahihs and several others (probably including GavJ,) I'm rather more of a rationalist, and prefer my magic to follow rationally understandable rules at least as far as the natural consequences of their original "miracles" are concerned, even if their fundamental existence is totally BS "miracles" in the first place.
The key trait, however, is "engineerability," (if you forgive the use of another non-word,) since that is at the core of what makes DF such a fascinating game.
It is the essence of Dwarf Fortress to hand the player incredibly powerful tools with absolutely no safeties attached so that they have tons of power with which they can engineer marvels or, far more likely, destroy themselves. Xenosynthesis is simply turning the concept of spheres and biomes into something that is engineerable.
1. In other words, this section is for player actions in fortress mode that seem likely to align the area of your fortress toward (or away from) this sphere.
2. Actions that are difficult to avoid doing make poor candidates for actions to align your fort with a specific sphere. The basic concept is covered fairly well in the “Starting Build” wiki article (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Starting_build#Design_Constraints:_Which_skills_do_I_need.2C_really.3F), though not quite in this context.
3. Since gods have spheres, their temples in general, and some furnishings and projects you can place in them, might help, but I don’t want to try that analysis just yet.
Magic1. This is mostly a miscellaneous category for things that don’t fit gracefully into the above sections. Not all major sphere descriptions will include this section.
2. Commentary on megabeasts and similar will generally be placed here.
3. Commentary on civilized beings will also be placed here.
4. The only Secrets currently in the game are the “Secrets of Life and Death” (Death sphere) held by necromancers. There are indications in the Threetoe stories (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_story.html), particularly Cado’s Magical Journey (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/story/tt_journey.html), Forest Befouled (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/story/tt_forest_befouled.html) (which shows, particularly well, a lot of the engineerability NW_Kohaku and I are going for), and possibly Moclem (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/story/tt_moclem.html), that this situation is not intended to be permanent. The commentary on each major sphere will usually include at least some commentary on what Secrets associated with each of the other major spheres might provide.
5. The current Secrets of Life and Death include an ability to apply magic to mundane creatures (animating corpses as zombies). For spheres other than Death, it is more thematically appropriate to apply magic to living creatures.
6. Summoning or conjuring inorganic creatures related to the sphere in question (iron men, magma men, blizzard men, and so forth) is included as a variant of the same idea.
7. There is also a limited ability to control such magical creatures, and a much less limited ability to walk safely among them.
8. These three abilities are considered “the usual,” and will be referred to collectively with that phrase in the sphere descriptions. It is abilities “beyond the usual” that will be discussed in detail in the individual sphere descriptions.
9. The current Secrets of Life and Death also provide innate abilities: no more need to eat, drink, or sleep, and no aging. Innate abilities appropriate to the theme of the major sphere will be covered if I can think of any.
1. CAVERNS M: Earth; Metals; Minerals; Mountains;
S: <none>
T: The caverns themselves, and the things they contain: stone and ores.
> I see Jewels as related more to Wealth, which is a Civilization minor sphere (within Happiness; see that section for details).
> Jewels itself wound up in Travelers (see that section for details).
O: It could be argued that Caverns fits best inside Darkness, which would place Earth at the top of this cluster, but I prefer to present it as its own distinct thing.
> A lot of the current cavern wildlife has the [EVIL] tag, which implies that Caverns is at least allied to Darkness (which I have designated as the primary successor to at least the relevant aspects of the current Evil surroundings).
> Given the location of magma (the primary expression of the Volcanos sphere), Caverns is probably allied with Fire (which contains Volcanos as a minor sphere).
> Fire is opposed to Water. These pull their allies (Caverns and Weather, respectively) into the contrast.
> Caverns are an opposite of sorts to Weather. There isn’t much weather underground; even a mere three z-levels of dirt or rock is a pretty good insulator, so temperature and humidity are increasingly constant as distance from the surface increases. Caverns also do not receive direct precipitation, so weather events are largely limited to the occasional flood coming in from the surface.
Surroundings
1: At first glance, the Caverns sphere might seem difficult to apply to surroundings on the surface. However, the contrast between Caverns and Weather provides some hints.
2. Areas aligned with Caverns would have steady humidity, possibly up to mist and fog, rather than dramatic rainstorms.
3. Temperature swings across the cycle of day and night might also be reduced.
4. Caverns are generally dark, so we might expect steady cloud cover, to reduce the powerful direct light of the Sun.
5. Related to this, the current game has some “cave” versions of surface creatures, most of which are at least implied (sometimes even stated) to be blind. Wildlife in a Caverns area might be more nocturnal.
6. Caverns are also the representative of the classical element Earth, and the current game has various inorganic “element men” in the deep cavern layers. Most of these are aligned with one of the Caverns minor spheres.
7. Carrying this idea farther, stone or metal versions of animals (and maybe even plants) might occur in an area where the Caverns sphere is particularly strong.
Player
1. Dwarves being dwarves, the majority of actions related to the caverns seem either difficult to avoid or difficult to pull off. That complicates things.
2. The majority of forts will probably grow the “six dwarven crops” in large quantities. This shouldn’t align the area with Caverns, or at least not too much.
3. Ditto for mining.
4. Putting your grazer pastures underground so they eat the cave moss might work.
5. Once planting of trees is implemented, an underground tree farm might also work.
6. Using magma furnaces rather than normal ones might help.
Magic
1. As far as I have been able to figure out from the wiki, and Legends mode of worlds I have generated, all FBs have Caverns as one of their spheres.
2. The traits demonstrated by the Circus, at least as it currently stands, seem to suggest that it has a Caverns alignment.
3. Dwarves may not have a Caverns alignment directly, but their entity religion spheres do include several minor spheres within the category. They also tend to live, work, and build their cities in (or next to) the caverns.
4. Secrets of the Caverns should, at the very least, vastly improve the night vision of a wizard who knows them.
5. Some cavern layers can be completely flooded, so some enhanced ability to function in water (faster swimming and at least longer holding one’s breath, if not full water-breathing “amphibious”) might be appropriate.
6. Some cavern layers can be completely dry, making water extremely difficult to find. Enhanced ability to do without water or other drink might make sense.
2. DARKNESS M: Night; Stars; Winter;
S: <none>
T: Night is within Darkness rather than vice versa because Night is not the only reason for it to be dark. The caverns are dark, of course, and so is any area under a sufficiently dense canopy.
> Nights, in addition to being dark, are often cold. Also, Winter in temperate areas is associated with long nights. Things get even more extreme in polar areas.
O: Darkness is allied with Caverns (see that section for details).
> The obvious opposite of Darkness is Light, but I split that one as a minor sphere shared by Fire and Sun. The direct opposite of Darkness is therefore Sun (which includes Day, the opposite of Night, as one of its minor spheres).
> To a certain degree, Darkness is the wild counterpart of the civilization major sphere Chaos.
> I see Darkness as contrasting strongly with Death, even if the two are not outright opposed. The saying goes among climbers that “Mountains don’t care.” Winter doesn’t care. They may be harsh and unforgiving, but, if you’re adequately prepared, you’ll be fine. Death, on the other hand, causes panic and horror with undead (which are [OPPOSED_TO_LIFE]) and rains of blood. These effects demonstrate that Death is actively hostile rather than merely harsh and uncaring.
Surroundings
1. I treat Darkness as one of two main successors to the current Evil surroundings. The other is Death. See Death for the aspects that I placed in that category.
2. I consider Darkness to include most of the various flesh and blood creatures that inhabit the current Evil surroundings: beak dogs, harpies, ogres, and so forth.
3. Considering the current Evil plants, the silver barb seems to fit best in Darkness, since the dye it produces is displayed as black. Possibly the tree glumprong as well, but I am less confident about that one.
4. Some of the magical wildlife associated with frozen biomes (the ice wolf, for example) might benefit from being split off into a distinct “cold” sphere (Winter and possibly one or more additional new spheres like Snow, Frost, or Ice). On the other hand, biome and surroundings in the current game are almost completely independent of each other. A distinct “cold” sphere would be much more difficult to apply outside the cold biomes (Tundra, Glacier, and possibly Mountain) and this goes against that precedent.
5. Since “cold” is being treated as part of Darkness, other cold effects, such as snow and hail, might be more common in areas where the Darkness sphere is strong. Freezing rain, and the resulting glaze ice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaze_ice) could be especially Fun.
6. Hail is especially appropriate as a Darkness magical weather event. It retains the hostility of the predecessor Evil surroundings without being associated with disease (which is part of the Death sphere). Real life hail is associated with strong updrafts aloft, rather than cold temperatures at the surface. It is also, ironically enough, associated with summer, although the magical version here is likely to be a bit more flexible. Either way, hail and freezing rain are both composed of water and therefore will refill murky pools when the ice melts.
Player
1. Most things covered under Fire will align your area away from Darkness.
2. Large unlit indoor spaces might help, particularly those built above ground.
3. In general, it seems much easier to align your area away from darkness than toward it.
Magic
1. Bogeymen are aligned with Darkness. Most night trolls probably are as well.
2. Goblins currently display traits consistent with a Darkness alignment. That may change in future versions, especially as the spheres of the demons they follow start becoming more significant.
3. Darkness secrets should, at the very least, vastly improve the night vision of a magic-user who knows them.
3. DEATH M: Blight; Deformity; Disease;
S: <none>
T: I associate the Death major sphere with decay (which tends to follow it) and, by extension, disease (treated here as decay applied before the actual time of death).
> Following the game’s current rules, Death also includes undead.
O: Death is opposed to Nature and Moon, for different reasons. See the Dualism section at the end for details.
> Among the civilization spheres, the one most associated with Death is Misery.
> I also see a strong contrast with Darkness, even if the two are not outright opposed. The Darkness side is represented by the saying that “Mountains don’t care.” In contrast, Death gets more personal with undead monsters and rains of blood. Both of these are visceral things that cause panic and horror, and that sort of visceral horror demonstrates that a Death area is actively and personally hostile rather than merely harsh and uncaring.
Surroundings
1. Death is one of two successors to the current Evil surroundings. The other is Darkness. See that section for details.
2. Death includes undead, so the spontaneous reanimation that occurs in some Evil areas is clearly a Death effect.
3. Between disease and undead, most of the current “evil weather” events appear to be covered.
4. A “rain of blood” can have a syndrome attached, which would place it in Death, but even one that does not seems more consistent with the flavor of hostility from Death surroundings than Darkness. Like undead, blood rain would cause panic and horror as an explicit and direct effect. Darkness effects are generally less visceral.
5. The visceral aspect of Death indicates that the current Evil grasses, staring eyeball and wormy tendril, fall under Death, rather than Darkness.
Player
1. Things die all the time from various causes, so this on its own is not enough.
2. Similarly, it is hard to avoid being on the receiving end of a siege. Lots of death all at once is also not enough.
3. The real answer here comes back to decay. Leaving the bodies from a defeated siege out to rot will align your area with Death. Burying them in coffins as promptly as feasible will remove this effect.
4. Related to this, leaving the remains of wild animals you use for target practice to rot will align your area with Death, while bringing them in for butchering tilts you more toward Nature.
5. How you deal with sieges can also affect things. Obsidian casting them will not increase your area’s Death alignment, since there is no body to decay. This falls under Fire instead.
6. A designated and stocked hospital will also align your area away from Death. Successfully treating someone might be an even stronger hit.
Magic
1. Obviously, necromancers are associated with the Death sphere. This also applies to mummies.
2. Since the Secrets of Life and Death are already implemented, I don’t see much benefit to discussing them further. Their use as precedent for secrets associated with other spheres is covered in the Format section at the top.
3. Ghosts are also associated with the Death sphere.
4. FIRE M: Volcanos;
S: (SUN) Light;
T: Fire includes heat in general. Magma (the main expression of the Volcanos sphere) tends to cause fire, and both tend to glow (Light sphere).
O: Fire shares the Light minor sphere with Sun, but the two have little common ground beyond this.
> Magma tends to be found very deep. The Volcanos minor sphere (and, by extension, the Fire major sphere that contains it) is associated with Caverns.
> The civilization counterpart of Fire is War. Fire is used directly (incendiary weapons) and indirectly in its aspect as “the Forge” where weapons and armor are made.
> The Forge (along with other furnaces like the kiln) is also associated with Crafts.
> Fire would also be associated with Family (“the hearth,” partially represented in the current game by the kitchen). An example is the Greek / Roman goddess Hestia / Vesta.
Surroundings
1. Obviously, the current magma crab, magma man, fire man, and fire imp are all aligned with Volcanos or Fire.
2. As far as I know, the game does not currently have anything that can be interpreted as magically altered Fire creatures, as opposed to inorganic Fire creations. At the very least, what is present has nowhere near the diversity of the giant animals and animal men.
3. Creatures aligned with Fire will be highly resistant to heat. Three of the four inorganic monsters above have a heat-based ranged attack, and this might apply to wildlife altered by Fire as well.
4. Fire magical weather sounds extremely Fun. The mildest example I can come up with is a spontaneously appearing cloud of smoke. More dramatic rains of fire would hopefully be among the more extreme events, although volcanic eruptions (increasing the “normal” level of magma in a magma pipe) might be more common. They have the advantage of being much more controllable if the player knows it might happen.
Player
1. Using smelters and forges will probably align your area with Fire. There is the usual problem that most forts will need a smelter and a forge, but having several going at once is another matter.
2. Magma forges (along with other magma furnaces) require magma, and getting that magma requires either a lot of work or very selective fortress placement. They, and jobs done at them, are legitimate as ways to increase your fort’s Fire alignment.
3. Defeating a siege with a magma flooding chamber (or by obsidian casting) will also align your surroundings with Fire. To a lesser degree, so will running an obsidian farm.
Magic
1. Secrets of Fire might permit the same “interactions” (throwing fireballs or globs of magma) that fire imps and magma crabs can do.
2. Fire tends to produce light, so some ability to create magical light (whether directly or by enchanting an item) might also make sense.
3. Like magically altered wildlife, wizards that hold the Secrets of the Flame might be more resistant to fire and heat than they were as normal mortals, and might even be able to grant that trait to their clothing and other possessions.
5. MOON M: Balance; Boundaries; Coasts; Dawn; Dusk; Rebirth; Twilight;
S: (AGRICULTURE) Spring; Fall;
T: I am using Moon to represent the liminal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminal), things that aren’t quite one thing or the other, including things in transition.
> Obviously, this includes Twilight, but it does not stop there.
> Moon represents transitions, and the most famous of these are cycles. Dawn and Dusk. Spring and Fall. The moon itself waxes and wanes. Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth.
O: Undead go against the cycle represented by Moon, so Death and Moon are opposed. See their entry in the Dualism section below for more details.
> As covered in the same section, Moon has a minor conflict with Nature as well.
> Among the civilization spheres, the cyclic character of Moon is best expressed by Family: babies are born, grow up as children, become adults, get married, and have their own children.
Surroundings
1. The theme of combination and transition, applied to animals, fits well with the current “animal people” category of modified wildlife. These are not quite animals, but not quite humanoid. As a bonus, this also references the were-creatures (a different way of being part animal, part humanoid).
2. Moon seems to also be the best place to put the current downy grass and feather trees, which combine traits from plants and animals. This appears to tilt Moon toward being at least a partial successor to the current Good surroundings.
3. I am at a loss as to what Moon magical weather would be like.
Player
1. The overlap with Agriculture (Spring and Fall) suggests that farms might be one way, but farms are probably too universal to be a good choice for this.
2. Making large amounts of agricultural products for export (prepared meals and dyed cloth items, as the most obvious) is another matter. Dye in general is also less absolutely necessary than cloth, so it might work.
3. Selecting a fortress site that is at the border between two biomes (including, but not limited to, those of an ocean or lake) is one way that might work. Most players will do this, but this is merely how the player is encouraged to act, not something that requires a very specific starting build and careful planning to avoid.
4. The liminal is hard to represent in the current game. The closest I can come up with is mismatching. A room with both stone and wooden furniture; a wooden door in a stone wall or vice versa; that sort of thing.
5. Some decorations might work. They can continue the mismatch idea, and are less absolutely necessary than most of the items that might be decorated.
Magic
1. The current were-creatures are aligned with the Moon sphere, following tradition.
2. For Secrets of the Moon, the only direct spell I can think of is shape-shifting ability, following the themes established by the were-creatures and animal people.
6. NATURE M: Hunting; Trees;
S: (AGRICULTURE) Animals; Plants;
T: I’m not sure I agree with the name Nature. Despite the elves’ claims to the contrary, the giant animals of the current Savage surroundings, and the unicorns and pixies of the current Good surroundings, are no more part of “nature” than the beak dogs, harpies, and so forth of the current Evil surroundings. Perhaps Fey would express this better?
> As I usually understand it, nature is what happens when the area has no sphere alignment at all (successor to the current Wilderness surroundings).
> An area where the Nature sphere is strong is “more wild than wild.” This is nature in an exaggerated state. It is the primary successor to the current Savage surroundings.
O: Nature is strongly opposed to Death, and somewhat less strongly opposed to Moon.
> Nature is allied with Water and Weather, and less strongly allied with Sun.
> Nature strongly overlaps with Agriculture (Animals and Plants minor spheres), but I tend to consider them opposed.
Surroundings
1. The obvious way to exaggerate an animal is to make it bigger. The current “giant animal” category of magically altered wildlife falls within the Nature sphere.
2. This probably also applies to the Highwood tree. I don’t know enough about Whip Vine to comment.
3. I don’t have any suggestions for magical Nature weather that are distinct from those of the Weather sphere.
Player
1. Hunting is within the Nature sphere, so killing wild animals for food would enhance the Nature sphere in your area (killing them and then leaving them to rot is Death sphere).
2. This also applies to gathering plants from nature with herbalism.
3. Farming crops is Agriculture sphere, which I see as mostly opposed to Nature.
4. Livestock and other animals could go either way, depending on exactly what you do with them.
Magic
1. Elves are, at least for most practical purposes, aligned with Nature.
2. I don’t have any suggestions for the Secrets of the Fae beyond the usual.
7. SUN M: Day; Summer;
S: (FIRE) Light;
T: Sun refers to the sun itself and the light it gives.
O: Sun shares the minor sphere of Light with Fire, but I see little other common ground between these two major spheres.
> Sun is, of course, directly opposed to Darkness.
> Darkness is the wilderness counterpart of the civilization sphere Chaos, so Sun is, to some extent, the wilderness counterpart to the civilization sphere Order. I generally see this link as much weaker than that of their opposites, Darkness and Chaos.
> Light is also used by diurnal humans as a metaphor for knowledge (Scholarship).
> Sun appears to have some common ground with Nature and Agriculture.
> Weather almost always features clouds, and these tend to obscure the Sun. The two spheres are probably opposed.
Surroundings
1. When applied as a surroundings sphere, Sun does not have a clear predecessor in the current set.
2. In an area where the Sun sphere is strong, nights will be well-lit by other sources. Bio-luminescence will be common. Magically altered plants and animals will glow, especially at night.
3. Other light sources in the sky might also be represented. Perhaps the moon shines brighter or larger. Magical weather might include glowing fogs or rains.
4. The current Sun Berry is part of the Sun sphere. To a lesser degree, the firefly might be Sun vermin.
Player
1. Sun is related to Fire, Nature, and Agriculture. Activities that increase those spheres might increase Sun.
2. I can’t think of anything to increase Sun directly. Perhaps the lighting arc I occasionally find mentions of will give some ideas.
3. Producing lots of steam, mist, or smoke (all of which obscure the Sun) might reduce the Sun alignment of your fort’s area.
8. WATER M: Fish; Fishing; Lakes; Muck; Oceans; Rivers; Salt;
S: (WEATHER) Mist; Rain;
T: Water is fairly self-explanatory. Muck is used here to represent swamps and the like.
> I place Salt in this section for the source of salt that is most obvious to me: the ocean.
O: Water is related to Nature, particularly with the Fish (Animals) and Fishing (Hunting) minor spheres.
> Precipitation (especially Rain) is an overlap between Water and Weather.
> Once boats get implemented, the civilization counterpart to Water will be Travelers.
Surroundings
1. An area where the Water sphere is strong would be more prone to flooding. Enhanced precipitation might help this happen.
2. Creatures altered by the Water sphere might become amphibious.
3. Plants would be able to grow in deeper water, potentially up to more than one full z-level of it.
4. The current Sea Serpent and Sea Monster are probably Water aligned.
Player
1. A well with water below it will increase your Water alignment each time it is used. This would have to be a minor effect, due to the inherent utility of a well (hospital, bathing, emergency substitute for booze, and that’s just the obvious stuff).
2. A water wheel is more optional, so it makes more sense as a way to strongly increase your fort’s Water alignment. A Dwarven Water Reactor would be even more effective.
3. Using a drowning chamber to deal with sieges would also increase your fort’s Water alignment.
4. A fishing chamber drawing from a river or ocean might also work.
Magic
1. Logical innate abilities attached to Secrets of the Seas include [NO_DRINK], ability to create at least small amounts of water at will (at least enough for one drink), ability to breathe underwater, and enhanced swimming speed.
9. WEATHER M: Lightning; Rainbows; Sky; Storms; Thunder; Wind;
S: (WATER) Mist; Rain;
T: Fairly self-explanatory, especially with the list of minor spheres.
O: Strong overlap with Water, so I consider them related.
> The variety and unpredictability of Weather opposes the largely constant Caverns.
> Weather tends to be associated with clouds, which obscure the Sun, so these two spheres are probably opposed.
> The civilization counterpart to Weather is probably Art. The rainbow is obviously colorful, and clouds in general have been looked at for the interesting shapes they make.
Surroundings
1. Weather events will be more intense, more frequent, or both. This obviously includes rain, along with snow, sleet, and possibly hail.
2. Heat waves and cold snaps might be more common. Fronts could be implemented as a cloud that does not obscure dwarves’ vision but raises or reduces the temperature of the area it covers.
3. Weather stands in for the classical element of Air, so flying might make sense as an ability of creatures modified by the Weather sphere.
4. Similarly, trees altered by the Weather sphere might grow taller (or at least faster) than normal.
5. Since Rainbows is a minor sphere within Weather, plants and animals altered by this sphere might be more colorful than the mundane version.
6. Magical Weather sphere weather might include lightning strikes. Abilities of altered plants and creatures might include resistance to lightning, or to the resulting fire. The same applies to tornadoes.
Player
1. Nearly all Weather events are associated with clouds. Mist, steam, and smoke mimic the appearance of clouds, so things that produce them are appropriate ways to increase your fort’s Weather sphere alignment, particularly if they are vented to the outdoors. As a bonus, mist and steam essentially are clouds (the key distinguishing feature is simply their location) and smoke is a “condensation nucleus” on which water droplets can collect.
2. If smoke from furnace actions gets implemented, magma furnaces remain unlikely to produce any. Magma furnaces will tilt you toward Caverns (since that’s where magma comes from), while conventional ones are more likely to produce smoke (incidentally, my reading seems to indicate that coke smokes much worse than charcoal) and align your fort to the Weather sphere.
3. Magma furnaces have the convenience advantage of cutting out the fuel supply chain once they’re all set up. I would recommend attaching substantial benefits to strong Weather sphere alignment to make up for the hassle. More frequent rain (which will eventually become significant for crops) and magical trees that grow faster (or produce extra charcoal at the wood furnace) are both good candidates.
Magic
1. Similar to the above (Surroundings part 3), flight makes sense as an innate ability attached to Secrets of Clouds and Sky.
DUALISM
I'll make a list, here, of what I would see off the bat as a set of decent "category" spheres that their "friend" spheres are hangers-on to... Also, I'll try to make some "opposites", like the way that Good and Evil are opposite, while things like "Savage" are unrelated to other alignments. Of course, don't get hung up on this idea, and go for whatever you guys think makes for a fun sphere. It should just be a decent starting point.
Instead of having a dualist system (one versus its diametric opposite), however, we can also have a stand-off between multiple spheres - for example, day and night oppose, but twilight and morning stand between the two extremes. (This might be resolved by having a "are any of these powerful" metric, and then having a "which one of these is the most powerful" metric, so that not all terrain becomes one of those spheres.)
Okay, here we go:
2. Nature <=> Moon <=> Death Each of the three opposes the other two. There are three distinct conflicts here.
Nature vs. Death
This is the most obvious one. Nature represents life: animals, plants, trees, and so forth. It represents healthy growth.
Death, in addition to simply representing undead, represents disease and decay. Undead themselves can also make a mess of things.
Nature vs. Moon
Moon represents things that aren’t one thing or the other.
Nature represents exaggeration, which is easily slides into flanderization (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization). Moon has a bit more focus on the complexity of each individual, while Nature only focuses on the complexity of the ecosystem as a whole.
Moon vs. Death
This is the most subtle one.
Moon represents things that aren’t one thing or the other, so at first glance undead (neither living nor dead) would seem to fit perfectly.
However, Moon also represents transitions, especially cycles. Dawn and dusk. Spring and fall. The moon itself waxes and wanes. Birth, life, death, and rebirth.
Undead are stuck at one place in the cycle; they are not moving on. They are also going through the cycle backward: birth, life, death, then directly back to life without passing through birth first.