Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarf Fortress => DF Modding => Topic started by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 08, 2012, 11:26:13 pm

Title: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 08, 2012, 11:26:13 pm
Alrighty, thought i'd get to working on a proper mod that should hopefully see the light of day.


I pretty much suck at explanations, so bear with me. For those of you who have played or at least heard of Spacestation 13 (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SpaceStation13?from=Main.SpaceStation13), this is basically a ground-based spin-off mod thing. For those of you not familiar with SS13, that link back there should give you an idea of what to expect, though keep in mind the page is based more on the chaos of /tg/station and Goonstation rather than the more serious RP of Baystation12.


With that out of the way, let's get on to the mod itself.

Since you cannot into space in DF, this mod will obviously take place on and under the surface. You'll assume the role of an AI overseeing a NanoTrasen Exploratory Team sent to establish an outpost on (insert planet name here). I'm basing this mainly on Baystation12's fluff and such, but i'll include certain stuff from /tg/station and Goonstation as well.

There'll be:

Plasma to dig out for the Scientists to work on.
Syndicate agents infiltrating the outpost to steal equipment or silently murder the team one by one.
Clowns for Security to robust.
Custom tileset using sprites taken straight from the game. Obviously they'll be smaller (most of them are 32x32, i'll be doing them at 16x16 18x18), but hey, you gotta make the most of what you're given.
Not just humans on the team, there'll be Tajaran, Soghun, and Skrell as well.
Cyborgs to order around.
Metroids to breed and then release upon the unsuspecting Scientists.
Xenomorphs to infiltrate the outpost and, you guessed it, silently murder the team one by one.
Hopefully some kind of tech tree with different tiers.
Deadly land-based cousins of the Space Carp. Because why not.
A distinct lack of Goonstation's "AI door. AI, DOOR DAMNIT. AI'S ROGUE, CARD IT AND BLOW UP THE BORGS!".

And more. Basically, if it's in SS13 then chances are i'll try to include it in some form or another.


That's pretty much it. I've only just started work on the mod so i don't have anything to put up for download, but we'll be watching our 2D spessmen groundmen murder eachother soon enough!
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 08, 2012, 11:28:51 pm
Green = done. Yellow = currently being worked on. Red = not done.

This doesn't list every little thing, just the main stuff.

TO DO:
Everything.

MORE SPECIFICALLY, in order of when it came to mind and was typed out:
Tileset.

Creature graphics set.

Simplify rocks and ores into generic stuff. Cuts down a bit on lag, and there's no way i'm making half a billion variations of a specific reaction if it comes to that.

Plasma, of course. And not the current weaksauce Plasma, but the terrifying skin-melting lung-destroying cloud of purple death we had back on the Luna. Ignite those chunks of raw Plasma at your own risk for the !!fun!! of it.

Stuff to use said Plasma for.

DEM FUKKEN SYNDIES. There'll be two kinds, generic ones that sneak into your fort and steal stuff and robust your dudes in the face, and the kind which are castes of the regular NT humans and have tags making them similar to vampires so they'll sneak around and kill people silently. I'm debating on how to handle the generic agents attacking the caste agents, the castes have to keep their cover but at the same time it's weird to think the generics would be constantly hostile to the castes. Maybe i'll have two different castes for the generics, one that attacks NT-caste syndies and another that doesn't... i don't know. Can any of you think of a good way to do this?.

Aliens (Xenos, Tajaran, Soghun, Skrell, Metroids, etc.). I gotta make the Tajaran, Soghun and Skrell as castes of humans. Pro: They'll be in fort mode and such. Con: There's one of two ways i can do this. I can either have them all be sterile, which will cause who knows what kind of trouble population-wise. Or, they can all breed with eachother, there's something i can try that might prevent that but if it doesn't work then you'll have to put up with Skroghun and Tajarmans.

The NT civ, plus tweaking the humans themselves.

Some kind of random events, in a similar vein to the syndrome clouds.

Figure out SS13's values for how much some materials are worth via getting cR values for coins in BS12, multiplying by how many coins can be made from a single 10-unit stack of material, and going from there. I've got the cR values, now it's just how many coins that can be made...

Weaponry.

Will add more as i think of them. This doesn't take up 100% of my free time by any means, but i'll still work on it as much as i can.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on October 08, 2012, 11:39:10 pm
 * Putnam presides over topic like a hawk, waiting to strike should a question be asked.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 09, 2012, 01:23:35 am
* Putnam presides over topic like a hawk, waiting to strike should a question be asked.

PREPARE YOUR ANUS. Here goes:

With Metroids, there's the thing with them splitting into two after they're fed enough to reach adulthood*. I've heard stuff like that is possible by dismembering a limb somehow and raising it like Necromancers do or something? How's that work?

*Speaking of, i've got an idea for how that could work. If i give them an attack interaction similar to what Werebeasts have in vanilla, would it be possible to make the attached syndrome affect them instead of the victim? If so, it will allow them to become adults a short time after draining someone.

And speaking of sucking blood, i'm trying to figure out a way to use seperate castes with certain Vampire tags to represent Syndicate agents in the team (i'll have seperate generic agents that steal equipment and such, i'm talking about agents in the team itself like in SS13). Is there any way to make them sneak around and kill people sans the bloodsucking part? Or will i have to put up with my Syndies exsanguinating the populace?


I've got more, but i can't remember them off the top of my head right now.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Man of Paper on October 09, 2012, 02:17:52 am
Oh...oh god. I don't even know how to quantify how I feel about this sort of mod.

Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 09, 2012, 06:00:43 am
Oh...oh god. I don't even know how to quantify how I feel about this sort of mod.


That image is not entirely accurate. There won't be poo, Cryotubes or Air Alarms. Everything else is pretty much how most vanilla DF forts end up anyway, so you should feel right at home once this is ready for release :P.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: GreatWyrmGold on October 09, 2012, 06:32:48 am
Have you considered having facehuggers arrive, infect people (turning then into chestbursters, then xenomorphs) instead of just having xenomorphs show up?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 09, 2012, 06:36:13 am
Have you considered having facehuggers arrive, infect people (turning then into chestbursters, then xenomorphs) instead of just having xenomorphs show up?

Ah hell, Facehuggers had completely slipped my mind. Yep, i'll see if i can apply some syndrome wizardry and get Facehuggers in as well as having Xenos sneak in normally.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: EmperorJon on October 09, 2012, 07:03:03 am
The mod is adorned with hanging rings of grief. It is decorated with rings of robustness. On the mod is an image of a singularity eating an engineer. The engineer is screaming "AI DOOR".
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Darvi on October 09, 2012, 07:05:42 am
:g Absorbing the disc.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on October 09, 2012, 08:48:24 am
* Putnam presides over topic like a hawk, waiting to strike should a question be asked.

PREPARE YOUR ANUS. Here goes:

With Metroids, there's the thing with them splitting into two after they're fed enough to reach adulthood*. I've heard stuff like that is possible by dismembering a limb somehow and raising it like Necromancers do or something? How's that work?

*Speaking of, i've got an idea for how that could work. If i give them an attack interaction similar to what Werebeasts have in vanilla, would it be possible to make the attached syndrome affect them instead of the victim? If so, it will allow them to become adults a short time after draining someone.

And speaking of sucking blood, i'm trying to figure out a way to use seperate castes with certain Vampire tags to represent Syndicate agents in the team (i'll have seperate generic agents that steal equipment and such, i'm talking about agents in the team itself like in SS13). Is there any way to make them sneak around and kill people sans the bloodsucking part? Or will i have to put up with my Syndies exsanguinating the populace?


I've got more, but i can't remember them off the top of my head right now.

1. Like that. They need to transform into a creature that has 3 parts: a grasp part, a part that connects the grasp part to the upper body, and an upper body. The connector part needs to boil. You can then animate the grasp part, then transform it.

2. It would be better if you used a tennis interaction--the metroid gives an enemy the ability to use the interaction that transforms the metroid and lets the metroid revive its clone.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 09, 2012, 08:44:08 pm
* Putnam presides over topic like a hawk, waiting to strike should a question be asked.

PREPARE YOUR ANUS. Here goes:

With Metroids, there's the thing with them splitting into two after they're fed enough to reach adulthood*. I've heard stuff like that is possible by dismembering a limb somehow and raising it like Necromancers do or something? How's that work?

*Speaking of, i've got an idea for how that could work. If i give them an attack interaction similar to what Werebeasts have in vanilla, would it be possible to make the attached syndrome affect them instead of the victim? If so, it will allow them to become adults a short time after draining someone.

And speaking of sucking blood, i'm trying to figure out a way to use seperate castes with certain Vampire tags to represent Syndicate agents in the team (i'll have seperate generic agents that steal equipment and such, i'm talking about agents in the team itself like in SS13). Is there any way to make them sneak around and kill people sans the bloodsucking part? Or will i have to put up with my Syndies exsanguinating the populace?


I've got more, but i can't remember them off the top of my head right now.

1. Like that. They need to transform into a creature that has 3 parts: a grasp part, a part that connects the grasp part to the upper body, and an upper body. The connector part needs to boil. You can then animate the grasp part, then transform it.

2. It would be better if you used a tennis interaction--the metroid gives an enemy the ability to use the interaction that transforms the metroid and lets the metroid revive its clone.

1. So, transform into placeholder creature with a hand that falls off, then raise and transform the hand and the placeholder into young Metroids?

2. Sounds a bit roundabout. How's it better compared to giving the Metroid the interaction?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Phlum on October 09, 2012, 09:10:42 pm
Urist McCyborg cancels job, AI malfunction

Urist McCyborg has gone bezerk!

Is this what you want to make?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on October 09, 2012, 11:32:51 pm
1. Yes.

2. Interaction modding of this kind is always roundabout because we don't have enough usage hints and counter triggers for all the things we need to do. Just giving the metroid the interaction will make it either use it as soon as it's available or never.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 10, 2012, 05:56:11 am
1. Yes.

2. Interaction modding of this kind is always roundabout because we don't have enough usage hints and counter triggers for all the things we need to do. Just giving the metroid the interaction will make it either use it as soon as it's available or never.

1. Alrighty, thanks.

2. Something similar to how 173 works in your SCP mod? (173 gives the interaction to everyone nearby to make them keep their eyes open which puts it in the frozen state until they "blink" when the interaction wears off.)
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on October 10, 2012, 09:00:20 am
Yep.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: OREOSOME on October 10, 2012, 02:25:26 pm
I suggest Molitz as the name for the Basic generic rocks.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: CaptainArchmage on October 10, 2012, 03:18:20 pm
You missed the buttbots. Robots that are just a butt on wheels, and broadcast the word "butt". And sometimes repeat lines said by other people, but with some words randomly replaced with "butt". When they die, they will leave behind some toxic residue or other.

I haven't played Space Station 13, but I've been on the internet enough to hear about that one.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: DarthBoogalo on October 10, 2012, 08:41:22 pm
Oh boy, here we go.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's a longsword with whiplike lightsaber qualities.
So.. it's pretty much a lightsaber, probably shouldn't be easily created, like needing plasma refined into whateverdahell with some uncommon or expensive ore.
Or make them obtainable only from SYNDICATE ATTACK SQUADS.  :)

Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on October 10, 2012, 11:00:00 pm
Oh boy, here we go.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's a longsword with whiplike lightsaber qualities.
So.. it's pretty much a lightsaber, probably shouldn't be easily created, like needing plasma refined into whateverdahell with some uncommon or expensive ore.
Or make them obtainable only from SYNDICATE ATTACK SQUADS.  :)

The extremely small contact area on the slash means that it will act as a stab attack. Make that ~60000--the extremely high velocity will more than make up for the large contact area.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 11, 2012, 05:44:30 am
Mod's progressing slowly but surely, i'm chipping away at it bit by bit. The new XCOM: UE will be released tomorrow, so i'll definitely be playing that a lot, but i'll still make time for working on this mod when i can.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: jaxy15 on October 11, 2012, 07:39:39 am
Hey, just to be clear, there WILL be vampire-like changelings, right?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 11, 2012, 07:52:33 am
Hey, just to be clear, there WILL be vampire-like changelings, right?

I'll definitely implement them as best i can, though i can't make them change into people they've absorbed. Some of their other abilities should be easy enough, though.

I wonder, do vampires go hostile if you attack them with your soldiers in vanilla? If so then i can make them a caste of the NT humans as well so they'll blend in and be part of the workforce, killing people to death when no-one's looking and going all-out with its abilities if Security comes after it. If they don't go hostile, perhaps i'll give them an interaction that gives them the [CRAZED] tag so they'll attack everyone, then it's just a matter of how to trigger it...

Idea: Give people a dummy interaction they use on creatures they're attacking. Changeling gets hit with the interaction, that gives it the [CRAZED] tag and thus it goes hostile and puts its stings and Lesser Form and such to use.

Could also have undercover Syndies be affected so they'll pull out an energysword and fight back. It'll have to be a transformation to a body that has a sword as a bodypart, then i can have a real energysword drop with the corpse. Would having the "bodypart" sword be set up like a nail or claw (so it can't be chopped off and ruin your immersions) work?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Darvi on October 11, 2012, 07:56:26 am
No more hostile than a regular civ member, I guess.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Azated on October 12, 2012, 04:48:07 pm
My first thoughts when I read this:

1: SHITCURITY IS ROGUE, AI CALL SHUTTEL
2: I'm sorry, Dave. I can't let you do that.
3: Rename all cats to Runtime and give them some sort of tag to disable atmospheric systems.
4: The teal tide has arrived!


Also, bookmarked. Will be keeping an eye on this.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Darvi on October 12, 2012, 04:49:03 pm
Shouldn't it be called a turquoise tide though? Since that's the colour of peasants.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Azated on October 12, 2012, 04:52:52 pm
Shouldn't it be called a turquoise tide though? Since that's the colour of peasants.

Best I could do was teal.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: GreatWyrmGold on October 12, 2012, 05:34:02 pm
Shouldn't it be called a turquoise tide though? Since that's the colour of peasants.

Best I could do was teal.

Teal tide sounds nice.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: DarthBoogalo on October 12, 2012, 10:06:21 pm
Teal Tide is how I tend to deal with Forgotten Beasts. :/ One time I even got away with only one or two casualties!
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 15, 2012, 06:24:43 am
Oh, don't worry, i intend to include Grey Tides as well. Placeholder creature with a whole bunch of limbs that detach creates a syndrome cloud that raises the limbs as hostile Grey Tide Assistants. Keep your harmbatons ready.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Darvi on October 15, 2012, 06:33:13 am
Will there be gibbers for corpse disposal meat processing?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 15, 2012, 07:05:39 am
Will there be gibbers for corpse disposal meat processing?

As far as i know reactions can take corpses, so there just might be gibbers. There's gonna be one or two things you'll have to use vanilla workshops for due to a few reactions being hardcoded (or because i don't feel like manually remaking half a million reactions for the sake of having them in different buildings :P), unfortunately, but there's still a good deal of stuff i can move to custom buildings.

Now that i think about it, i can actually make Cloning work via a reaction that creates a placeholder object with a syndrome in its material. Material's set to boil, so it does so and the resulting syndrome cloud revives any nearby corpses. Obviously that's a hell of a lot more robust than what you have in SS13, but i don't see any other way.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on October 17, 2012, 09:39:26 pm
Still going, getting it done bit by bit.

(http://i48.tinypic.com/fmpgco.jpg)

Eeyup, The Welder's just about done. Couple tweaks to the creature and body files, then it's just a matter of deciding how i want him to appear in fort mode. He's a [MEGABEAST] so i could just leave it at the default "appear at the map edge" thing, but i'm thinking of having him appear in an explosion of blood somewhere instead. Just because.


On the topic of Metroids, it turns out it's possible for a creature to use an interaction as part of an actual attack (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Creature_token#Attack_Tokens), instead of it just being a seperate thing it can do.
Code: (Taken from the wiki) [Select]
SPECIALATTACK_INTERACTION

When this attack lands successfully, an interaction with I_SOURCE:ATTACK will take effect on the target creature.
The attack must break the target creature's skin in order to work. This will take effect in worldgen as well.

So i'm not sure a tennis-style system of interactions is needed after all! Their attack has the interaction attached to it, a little bit after they attack someone they'll grow into an adult. I can get away with keeping it simple like that because either the Metroid will kill the dude and you can pretend it sucked him dry enough to be able to grow, or the Metroid will be killed and thus nothing happens. I don't see why a Metroid would only attack once and then run away considering the tags i'll be giving it, so weirdness should be kept to a minimum.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Courtesy Arloban on October 18, 2012, 05:45:41 pm
I voted other,  I think common stone should use the most common stone as a template, which from what I've read is chert.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on May 27, 2013, 01:03:00 am
Just bumping this to inform everyone that i've resumed working on it again. Hopefully with less hiatuses this time.

I've decided to somewhat change my goals for this mod. Instead of trying to fit everything i could from SS13 and make it as much like SS13 as possible, which was kind of killing my interest because of the extra hassle, i'm instead creating this as kind of its own thing gameplay-wise. It's still in the SS13 universe of course (BS12's specifically, but it'll still have certain things from /tg/ and Goon), but it's being made specifically for DF's ground-based gameplay as opposed to haphazardly cramming in everything from SS13 (i'll still include what i can from SS13 of course, but only if it's sensible for this mod). This isn't a full-fledged science station, it's just an outpost on (or under) the ground, and while there will be science to do, the focus is on just keeping the place going despite whatever's thrown at you.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Itnetlolor on May 27, 2013, 11:03:40 am
If you still want to emulate the antics of SS13 in space, you can always build floating fortresses. Shutting off [CAVE-INS] generally will help out with this; or at least having some sort of anchor to retain cave-ins.

For other items of interest that can contribute to the mod, I think the Wasteland/Fallout mod should have some items here and there that you can apply/base off of; like the cement factory and arc reactors.

Always an interesting thing to implement, if possible, is to be able to collect blood, and produce clonexadone to produce synth-meat. Of course, synth-meat, due to how broken it could become, should have a risk of poisoning due to not being entirely natural; especially in raw form. However, if in an evil biome, I don't know if synth-meat should have a chance of "awakening" or not.

As to not render chemistry stations and the like from being horribly broken, what can help is collecting the necessary raw materials the ingredients would come from, and use material processors to break them down, and a centrifuge or something of the sort to finalize the processing of the material. Naturally, beakers, vials (and chem-safe barrels), and such will need to be be produced to contain them.

Using syndromes, all kinds of grenades can be used/produced with the various properties they can be given, when produced right. Even my personal favorite, Peyote-nades (space drugs in gas grenade form + whatever else I feel like including in them, like polytrinic acid, for example), can be produced and used.

Thanks to the customizability of DF and raws, I think we can make more varied chemistry reactions, and ways to make use of them. Explosive thermite boulders anyone?

EDIT:
For alternative building materials (and a way to spend some excess chemical resources), you can always combine a chem-station to produce sodium chloride, and use a synthesizer which takes that product, and use it to produce rock salt boulders/(blocks from mason workshops) as a cheap 'n' easy building/crafting material; alternative to green glass and cement.

If possible, within the limits of the technology of SS13, and some coding in DF, you can always build a well over a saltwater source, and have sodium-chloride as a byproduct of desalination plants (as a workshop; not the screw pump method). Produces clean drinkable water, and cheap building materials (along with chem-station ingredients; especially when separated through a centrifuge/chem-processor into Chlorine and Sodium separately for other uses in a chem-station.) when processed in a material synthesizer. Should make beach and island embarks a bit simpler to take on without needing to breach an aquifer.

Naturally, to make an effective desalination/water purification plant (to clean murky and blood/vomit/toxic water as well), I would advise you bring at least a block/bar of activated carbon or few to produce a proper desalination plant. Of course, to produce activated carbon, you'll need a forge of sorts to process raw carbon into activated carbon. Besides desalination/purification plants, activated carbon can also be used for cleaning materials, and air scrubbers to remove miasma for areas where they tend to come up often. Dwarves/crew members that stop around air scrubbers/purifiers get a happy thought from "tasting delicious freon" or "smelled clean air".

REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon (amazing stuff with plenty of SS13-DF potential; even compressed into building blocks (which material grinders can grind back into a powder (speed up transporting it from one part of the fort to another, sparing sand bags in the process); with other materials as well), would make an interesting looking building or craft/statue to show off.)
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: 612DwarfAvenue on May 27, 2013, 07:48:01 pm
If you still want to emulate the antics of SS13 in space, you can always build floating fortresses. Shutting off [CAVE-INS] generally will help out with this; or at least having some sort of anchor to retain cave-ins.

Yeah but still, that has its own issues and quirks that i wouldn't be able to fix. I'd rather have it all on the ground proper.

For other items of interest that can contribute to the mod, I think the Wasteland/Fallout mod should have some items here and there that you can apply/base off of; like the cement factory and arc reactors.

I'll look into it.

Always an interesting thing to implement, if possible, is to be able to collect blood, and produce clonexadone to produce synth-meat. Of course, synth-meat, due to how broken it could become, should have a risk of poisoning due to not being entirely natural; especially in raw form. However, if in an evil biome, I don't know if synth-meat should have a chance of "awakening" or not.

I know it's possible to buy barrels of blood, not sure how to collect it manually. Is it even possible to use liquids in reactions?

In addition, hordes of Synthmeat attacking the fort from within would be awesome.


As to not render chemistry stations and the like from being horribly broken, what can help is collecting the necessary raw materials the ingredients would come from, and use material processors to break them down, and a centrifuge or something of the sort to finalize the processing of the material. Naturally, beakers, vials (and chem-safe barrels), and such will need to be be produced to contain them.

I am going to try getting Chemistry in in some form.

Using syndromes, all kinds of grenades can be used/produced with the various properties they can be given, when produced right. Even my personal favorite, Peyote-nades (space drugs in gas grenade form + whatever else I feel like including in them, like polytrinic acid, for example), can be produced and used.

Grenades are out, since there's no real way to make people actually use them. Syringe guns, on the other hand, should be pretty possible.

Thanks to the customizability of DF and raws, I think we can make more varied chemistry reactions, and ways to make use of them. Explosive thermite boulders anyone?

Thermite doesn't explode that much, rather it just burns hot as hell. :P

EDIT:
For alternative building materials (and a way to spend some excess chemical resources), you can always combine a chem-station to produce sodium chloride, and use a synthesizer which takes that product, and use it to produce rock salt boulders/(blocks from mason workshops) as a cheap 'n' easy building/crafting material; alternative to green glass and cement.

Ehhh. This is 2557 we're talking about, i doubt they're still using cement, and building stuff out of salt is just silly :P.

If possible, within the limits of the technology of SS13, and some coding in DF, you can always build a well over a saltwater source, and have sodium-chloride as a byproduct of desalination plants (as a workshop; not the screw pump method). Produces clean drinkable water, and cheap building materials (along with chem-station ingredients; especially when separated through a centrifuge/chem-processor into Chlorine and Sodium separately for other uses in a chem-station.) when processed in a material synthesizer. Should make beach and island embarks a bit simpler to take on without needing to breach an aquifer.

Only way that'd work is if you roleplay that the plant's desalinating anything, and only use it next to wells over saltwater. It's impossible to make workshop require it be built over or near water.

Naturally, to make an effective desalination/water purification plant (to clean murky and blood/vomit/toxic water as well), I would advise you bring at least a block/bar of activated carbon or few to produce a proper desalination plant. Of course, to produce activated carbon, you'll need a forge of sorts to process raw carbon into activated carbon. Besides desalination/purification plants, activated carbon can also be used for cleaning materials, and air scrubbers to remove miasma for areas where they tend to come up often. Dwarves/crew members that stop around air scrubbers/purifiers get a happy thought from "tasting delicious freon" or "smelled clean air".

A working air scrubber is outright impossible. Water purification may be possible, but i'm not sure how to work it without requiring the workshop be deconstructed every time you need to clean the water. I guess you could say it's just a container that you fill up with some "cleaning agent" (that's just water, for game mechanics purposes), then deconstruct to let it loose. But if that works, that has the risk of washing the dude who deconstructed it into the water as well. Maybe some roundabout way using supports to hold the container in the air, and then pulling a lever to destroy the support, caving in the building (and floors it was on, so you'd have to keep everyone away) so the cleaning agent splashes into the water without putting anyone at risk. But even that sounds kinda screwy, since i don't even know if the "water" it contains will even count as actual water.

REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon (amazing stuff with plenty of SS13-DF potential; even compressed into building blocks (which material grinders can grind back into a powder (speed up transporting it from one part of the fort to another, sparing sand bags in the process); with other materials as well), would make an interesting looking building or craft/statue to show off.)

I'll look into it.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Putnam on May 27, 2013, 08:00:00 pm
What the heck do you mean there's no way to get people to use grenades??? A grenade-throwing arm weapon that uses grenades as ammunition, using projectileExpansion to make grenades... yeah.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Itnetlolor on May 27, 2013, 08:27:34 pm
Water purification can work this way:
Reactions require a bucket of impure water (anything but clean), and desalinate saltwater will require the same thing for it's own reaction.
Impure & saltwater to pure water requires an empty barrel and up to 3 buckets of the impure water (fetched from a well; a collect water command could be used/made). Desalination adds an empty bag to the requirements, since we're dumping filtered salt out of the machine.

A (or several) block(s) of activated carbon is among the building materials used (no need to replace; unless you want to add a bag into the mix, and expand the requirements to several barrels and empty bags to have a more plausible output).

Concrete is a timeless material (and it's been around since the Roman Empire, and we still use it); and building structures out of salt is no sillier than building them out of tallow. This is DF. Besides, salt structures have been made, or at least, carved in caves. Not surprisingly, I wouldn't be surprised to see if salt figurines and the like, exist.

Putnam makes a good point about grenades (and grenade guns, you can always make).

Thermite with an explosive inside it would explode and burn; but it depends on if the thermite is set off first before the grenade explodes. Otherwise, thermite ammo can still be considered; provided they ignite on contact; but then again, magnesium tracer rounds can be just as effective; and thermite rounds would work better with higher calibur stuff, like ballista heads or some sort of (auto-)cannon round which melts just about any armor after enough contact.

EDIT:
Spoiler: As do salt crafts (click to show/hide)

Being in space that whole time does things to you. BTW, how else would you make use of a near-limitless excess of salt?
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: ggamer on May 27, 2013, 09:03:34 pm
The Shitcurity hits The Syndie in The Head with A Toolbox, tearing a ligament and cracking the skull!

The Shitcurity hits The Syndie in The Torso with A Stun Glove, bruising the muscle and tearing a ligament!

The Assistant hits The Syndie in The Head with A Crowbar, shoving the skull through the brain!

The Syndie has died.
Title: Re: (34.11) NanoTrasen Exploratory Team - RD mandates Sulphuric Acid 0/3
Post by: Starmantis on June 01, 2013, 02:11:21 pm
Any chance of cyborging being added?