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Dwarf Fortress => DF Modding => Mod Releases => Topic started by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:05:32 am

Title: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.19] - Updated and Expanded!
Post by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:05:32 am
Like the challenge of starting a fortress in the coldest biomes?  Then like me, you've probably cultivated a unique hatred for the seemingly endless waves of reindeer and muskoxen that enter your sovereign dwarven territory.  There's just not enough variety in these harsh wilds to keep a dwarven settlement entertained.  And if you luck out and find a good glacier or tundra to start on, there's no special creatures to encounter as a reward!

I've fixed this.

In the following posts (because everything together quickly overtakes the 40,000 character limit), you'll find a host of cold-themed creatures and plants to help add arctic diversity, challenge, and fun to your next world.  Just copy what you want into some new files (named appropriately), throw it in the raws, generate a new map, and have fun!

As with all my mods, everything here is considered free to use and modify in other mods as anyone else so wishes without permission.

Update Log
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:12:28 am
Vermin - Aurora Fairy.  A vermin creature (as all fairies are) that generates light and makes a nice pet for those who like that sort of thing.
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Vermin - Snowflake Fairy.  Another type of verminous fae.  This one has snowflake-patterned wings.  But they're too small to really see in an ASCII image, let alone code, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
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Vermin - Lemming.  I briefly considered creating a kobold-like lemming so that the fortress could get attacked by suicidal little things with the ability to blow themselves up somehow, but went with the actual creature instead.  I reserve the right to add my kobemmings (Lemolds?) at a later date.
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Vermin - Hotheaded Borer.  Added 14/11/30.  A small rodent with a heat-producing 'horn' that it uses to melt snow and ward off potential predators.  It's like a living space heater!
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:25:37 am
Monster - Blizzard Harpy.  Like the conventional harpy, but more owl-ish and comes equipped with a portable snowstorm for fun times.
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Creature - Jolly Snowman.  It's a creature made of snow, so don't expect it to pack much of a punch.  This one has a few problems in that the color for its nose and eyes aren't being used (not sure why), and it isn't leaving a silk hat behind after death (maybe because it's not recognizing the SPIDER_PHANTOM or ITEM_HELM_CAP tokens).
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Semi-megabeast - Krampus.  The evil counterpart to Saint Nicholas.  Except that it's not just one guy, it's a type of monster.  Don't know what it is?  Here's an example. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7qLbJUPC10)
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Animal - Mastodon.  An elephant for the arctic, so you can get traditionally gored without breaking a sweat.
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Animal - Woolly Boar.  The mammoth was too big for you?  Here, take a smaller example that tastes like pork, provides ivory, and can be sheared for wool.
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Animal - Woolly Rhinoceros.  The boar was too small for you?  Fine, here's a medium-sized example from pre-history that should split the difference between easy-mode and dwarf pancakes.
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:28:12 am
Species - Jotunn.  Ice giants, if you will.  Their frost breath can immobilize (unless they're in a non-freezing biome, in which case they basically mass spit at everything; think of it as an impromptu wet toga contest).  With the entity part added in, you can have a winter-based trading partner (unless you decide to start a fight, in which case watch out because their size and might makes them pack a punch).
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 16, 2014, 01:36:00 am
Plant - Snowbulb.  A round plant that fits pleasingly in the palm of most hands.  Naughty children -- or tantruming dwarves -- seem to derive great satisfaction from throwing them at others.
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Plant - Icicle.  A creeping vine that bears a long conical fruit.  Known for growing in and encapsulating the essence of the cold itself.
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Grass - Hoarfrost.  Something for the herbivores to eat in an otherwise barren environment.
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Grass - Lichen.  It's not in any way connected to undead spellcasters.  It's that stuff that grows on rocks.
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: panstach on November 16, 2014, 01:57:54 pm
That's great. I'm soo starting a community fortress with this next week
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: DarthBoogalo on November 16, 2014, 05:12:42 pm
Looks good!
Now, I'm struck with the desire to make a Don't Starve mod/add the idea to my backlog of ideas to eventually work on.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Illogical_Blox on November 17, 2014, 12:52:36 pm
Personally, I would add a DFFD link with all the files for quick, easy access.

Also, panstach, good luck!
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: locustgate on November 17, 2014, 03:53:42 pm
Glad to see I'm not the only one that was disappointed by the lack of arctic animals.

If the snowflake fairies are so small why not just do a swarm like the sprites? BTWs......I'm SOOO going to need to steal that harpy.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Meph on November 19, 2014, 04:50:57 am
That is pretty awesome :) Well done.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 20, 2014, 02:23:36 am
Thanks, everyone!  I found coding the Arctic Addition a great way to knock the rust off my coding skills while I beefed up a sparse biome.

panstach:  Excellent!  I'll keep an eye out for it and see how it goes.  But don't worry if it doesn't start up right away as I've still got a few more things coming down the line before I'll claim this done for now.

Illogical_Blox:  This will eventually be thrown up onto DFFD once I'm done.  Just a few more beasties, solve the riddle of the jolly snowman, and maybe a cryomantic equivalency to the necromancer curse and I'll wrap it up and put it on the shelf!

locustgate: I made the arctic fairies the same size at the regular fairy, which doesn't have a swarm, so that dwarves could capture and tame them as pets (I envision the borealis fairy working like a wee little living flashlight).  Although perhaps I should make a flurry fairy swarm; so small that they look like a drifting patch of snow over the ice.  Also, you cannot steal what is freely given!  Everything here is open to whatever anyone else wants to do with it.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Ladygolem on November 24, 2014, 05:59:10 pm
This is absolutely brilliant! Once I settle on a version of DF to do some proper fortressing in, I'll give it a shot! (Not much point atm, with the constant updates.)

Question/suggestion: would it be possible to add animal man versions of the 'generic' beasties? I know they're rather unpopular and useless atm, but I'm working on a mod to fix that.

Much less serious suggestion: What about adding the Ningen? ;) (http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Ningen)
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 26, 2014, 01:22:43 am
I had completely forgotten about the giant & anthro versions of creatures!  I'll lookup the appropriate code in the wiki and get started on it right away, although I notice as I Control-tab while writing this that Toady didn't make either for elephants, rhinos, or warthogs, so I take no blame when somebody's militia gets processed into dwarven paste when the mammoth-men attack.

And the Ningen would be an excellent project to work on; thanks for bringing it to my attention!  I'll even let you decide on their form: humanoid, mermaid-style, or with some form of sexual dimorphism (say, women get to have legs, the guys have the tails, or vice versa).
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Ladygolem on November 26, 2014, 10:31:52 am
Yeah it's strange, none of the common or familiar creatures seem to get animal men variants. Bears, wolves, lions, any domestic animal (though that's understandable)... only more uncommon beasts like cockatiels, thrips or sperm whales (!) seem to have them. The giant varieties are no less exciting though, just imagine how enormous a "giant mastodon" would be. Seems like the sort of situation where you'd need to build extra kitchens just to process all that meat and blubber! And your fort would be fed for years!

As for the ningen, here are some ideas:

- As you said, male legged and female tailed (when there's sexual dimorphism to this degree, it's usually the females that are larger)

-Four castes of the creature: male and female versions of each. You could call them 'lesser' and 'greater' ningen, unless you think of something better-sounding;

-Two separate creatures altogether, as there might be issues with their different lifestyles and breeding; in which case you could have the huge water-bound creatures as "ningen" and come up with a different name for the terrestrial ones, like "snow wanderer" or "passerby".

One thing to consider though: the larger ningen variety cannot be fully aquatic, as arctic oceans do not actually contain any water, which means they'll never spawn. They'd have to be amphibious, like a seal, dragging their bulk across the ice.

Anyway, thanks for the response! You've done brilliant work here. If you add the beast folk versions in, would you like for me to include them in my animal man civ mod? The tundra civs do seem rather sparse at the moment ;)
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 30, 2014, 12:36:59 pm
As I've never really done anything with modular dimorphism, I think I may have to opt for 'just' a 20 metre long quadruped male and a 30 metre long tailed female.  But hey, if I make their body parts valuable, I could re-start the old mermaid fishing industry!  Either way, it looks like I'll be doing some code analysis of elephant seals and antfolk.

And yes, feel free to take what you like for your own mod; everything I put up here is free game for anyone in any fashion.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 30, 2014, 12:56:48 pm
Giant versions of creatures!  Because what fun is vermin for the cats to kill if their big cousins can't turn the tables like some old WB cartoon?  Also, those who look at the code may see I've differed from Toady on speeds here.  It's only because analysis of isometric growth does not seem to play any factor in speed (Hall's Laws of Locomotion, if I recall correctly).  Ergo, giant creatures should move at the same speed as their normal-sized counterparts.

Giant Hotheaded Borers!
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Giant Lemmings!
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Mammoth Mastodons!  Because the name just seemed right, that's why.
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Giant Woolly Boars!
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Giant Woolly Rhinoceroses!  Fun fact: spell 'rhinoceros' enough times and it loses all ability to ever appear correctly spelled.
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.16]
Post by: Malecus on November 30, 2014, 01:09:01 pm
Anthropomorphic versions of creatures!  I have a suspicion that Toady has some criteria for what gets turned into an animal-folk, a giant version of an animal, and a were-creature; but I'll be dipped in the River Lethe if I know what those criteria might be.  Also as stated above, there may be some differences in speeds between Toady's animal-people and mine.

Hotheaded Borer People!
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Lemming Folk!  Guess I give up my rights to making those lemming-kobolds, although I may still create a self-destructing quasi-civilized race in the future.
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Humanoid Mastodons and Mastodonnas!
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Woolly Boar Folk! Or depending on who you talk to, arctic pseudo-orcs.
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Woolly Rhinoceros Kin!
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.19] - Updated and Expanded!
Post by: Malecus on November 30, 2014, 01:29:50 pm
Megabeast - Blizzard Incarnate.  I wanted a storm that could get inside a fortress, so I made one.  This thing will knock your dwarves unconscious and into their own cage traps (which it avoids, because how can you capture the arctic winds themselves?), then it'll give them frostbite, rotting away their toes, fingers, and noses.  It may also attack your FPS and fill your errorlog with path fail entries.
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Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.19] - Updated and Expanded!
Post by: Meph on November 30, 2014, 02:03:36 pm
Say, do you need some 16x graphics for those?
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.19] - Updated and Expanded!
Post by: Ladygolem on November 30, 2014, 03:51:14 pm
Ooh, love all the new critters! I do like the -folk suffix as a general collective noun, I might use that for my mod as well.

Really curious to see how the blizzard incarnate works! Suggestion: the plural for 'eye of the blizzard' should probably be 'eyes of the blizzard' not 'eyes of the blizzards'. Also, assuming ehis would work, one could easily adjust some of the values for to make tornadoes incarnate, monsoons incarnate, sandstorms incarnate... hell, if someone were really feeling sadistic they could make a firestorm incarnate that dwells in volcanoes... Of course, that's completely beyond the scope of this mod. Still an interesting idea - I might try developing it myself.
Title: Re: Arctic Addition Mod! [40.19] - Updated and Expanded!
Post by: infiniteunrest on December 05, 2014, 05:52:33 pm
Really interesting, great work. A complete downloaded wouldn't go amiss though.

- Infinite