(https://i.imgur.com/SZlHk1n.png)
Hi everyone! I've been playing Dwarf Fortress for ages but I haven't really interacted with the forums at all over the past 6 years or so I've played the game on and off. Recently, after buying the steam release of the game, I decided I might as well make a mod for it. I really love robots and automatons so I said to myself, why not add them to the game as a playable civ? So that's how Automata came into existence as a mod!
Features
- A whole new creature and civilization of robots to play with. They're robust and made of living copper, which can heal albeit slowly.
- New graphics for them including all sorts of weird heads! Soon to be completely redone too, so stay tuned.
- A new pet creature known as a Tomoid, little vermin hunting robots that you can select on embark.
- Unique government rank names such as deathsmen, who are tasked with executions. Or The Serene One, the leading monarch of Automata civilization.
- New weapons! Use an arquebus to eliminate enemies from afar or a sabre to cut them down to pieces.
- More to come, feel free to request any features!
Links
For now the mod is only available for the steam version of the game, and can be downloaded through the Steam workshop here:
Steam Workshop Link (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981832572)
However, I can easily upload the mod to an alternative location for those who do not own a steam version of the game (itch.io owners, for example) on request. I haven't tried the mod in classic 50.08, but I'm looking into making it work on classic as we speak. Shouldn't be too hard so stay tuned for a classic version soontm. Of course, do feel free to modify the mod as you please for personal use in Classic 50.xx if you so desire in the meantime.
Lore
A civilization of mechanical beings fueled by magic and made of an inorganic yet mysterious material known as Living Copper. These creatures of unknown origin have begun to group together and create a new, robotic civilization. They're thrifty, hardworking and entirely devoid of humor.
- Through unknown means they are capable of speaking a language not many can emulate. Their deep, almost metallic, voices resonate through their hollow interiors creating unique sounds.
- They naturally live long before rusting away and their copper skin makes them incredibly resistant to most forms damage, leading to very long lifespans. They are, however, rather fragile when faced with blunt weaponry such as war hammers.
- They are genderless and reproduce asexually, their "offspring" are not offspring at all. Groups of Automata (in this mod represented as gendered couples, as making truly genderless, asexual civs is impossible) will build new Automata through engineering and secret acts of magic. The ensuing new being is full sized, essentially an adult, but their psyche requires time to mature and grow like any other living creature.
- Nobody knows for sure who created the first Automata. Some say it was a godly being or a mad scientist, others (Elves primarily) blame the Dwarves for creating such abominations against nature. What is known is that they are here to stay.
- They are mostly benign, generally lawful neutral in moral standing. They will set and follow their own laws, but are more than willing to engage in acts of violence to meet a goal. They do, however, value self-control and harmony with the self. Self-sacrifice is another valued pillar of Automata culture, putting one's own needs after the community's is a valued merit.
- An interesting quirk of Automata is that, when they're exerted, they will exude steam. This is room temperature steam for the most part, it won't burn or hurt in any way anyone around them. But it can create some interesting visual effects!
- They are capable of crafting some weaponry foreign to Dwarves such as flails, halberds and pikes. They actually quite like polearms and spears culturally. Automata also have access to special weaponry: Arquebuses and sabres.
Other Important Information
There are however a few things that aren't directly related to the lore and I consider important information:
- As you will notice, Automata have weird as hell heads. This means I had to essentially hide helmets from them because I couldn't manage to set special helmet images for each head type. It was a decision between giving them boring, humanoid head shapes or picking the funky little weird heads that IMO make them unique. I'm open to criticism in this regard, if enough people find the lack of helmet images annoying or wrong then I'll make the heads more standard across the board to make helmet sprites possible again.
- I can do pixel art, but I'm not great at pixel art of this scale. As such, some areas of the mod might be a bit lacking on the beauty side of things. If anyone wishes to redo the sprites please do message me on Discord.
- As it was said in the flavor text, Automata are genderless and reproduce asexually in-lore. Unfortunately, this is impossible to replicate in-game without their civilization dying out entirely. I decided to just cope with it and give them genders that make zero difference in actual gameplay. "Female" Automata will get pregnant normally, and it'll probably last 9 months as it does for most other creatures. Just pretend they're in the process of building a new Automata and such, can't do much about it.
- You might notice that Automata's body parts are skin-colored and have red blood when they get severed and go flying. I tried giving Automata their own body parts graphics, this did not work. I had to make do and accept that their internal organs and severed limbs will look like normal organs and limbs instead of fancy robotic ones.
- These guys are STRONG. I'm still trying to get the balancing right as to not make fights a complete joke, but do bear in mind that this mod is probably unbalanced. It takes around 2-3 dwarves to take down an Automata in naked melee combat in the arena, and with armor involved and non-blunt weapons it gets even harder. Basically if you want to kill one, hit them with a hammer. They're extra resistant to slashing damage but weak to blunt damage.
- The actual gameplay is not too different from traditional Dwarf gameplay. Automata don't mind living underground, but they don't need to drink alcohol to survive. They need to eat, which might be weird to some but it's there for balancing reasons. Essentially Automata need to get power from somewhere, and there's no charging ports in the game, so they use their internal "compressor" to turn biological matter into energy. For all practical purposes this is the same as eating to them and require your typical dining things. Their crops are also entirely above-ground crops, they traditionally don't grow crops underground.
Credits & Thanks
Thanks to RocketShep, whose Hobgoblin mod I dissected with great care to see why my own mod wasn't working right.
Thanks and credits to my friend Velo, who made the amazing Steam Workshop thumbnail image! You can find its Tumblr here: https://cybertek.tumblr.com/ (https://cybertek.tumblr.com/)
Contact me
Well that's the end of it for now. If you desire to contact me you can either leave a comment in this thread or, if you want a faster response, send me a DM through Discord. My discord username is CitrusTree#7570.