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Dwarf Fortress => DF Modding => Topic started by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 01:01:56 am

Title: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 01:01:56 am
This may or may not be known, but I've stumbled on a way to at least make your own forgotten beasts.

Since there was no difference in material properties for organs other than tile/color, I combined them all into a generic material called offal and pointed all the organ tissues to this new material.  The point was to change the meat name of this material to yield 'sausage' when butchered.  It worked great for my purposes.

However, when I generated a new world, I noticed error messages that it could not generate random creatures because these materials were missing (obviously hardcoded to use those materials).  It did, though, grab the first creatures (in the order they appeared in the file) from the first (alphabetical) creature file and made them forgotten beasts (my first file happened to contain the fishes, which is why it was easy to notice).  It did not generate night creatures, demons or overland titans.

Apparently, as long as you rename your materials (if you want to still use the default ones) and point your tissues at them, then put whatever creatures you want as forgotten beasts in the first creature file with enough of them to cover the count, you will at least be able to have your own forgotten beasts in your worlds.

Of course, there's more testing to be done, but I figured I'd turn everyone loose on it and see what you come up with.

(Edited for clarity.)
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Hugo_The_Dwarf on August 13, 2011, 03:57:51 am
Genius! This could make some new-er-ish mods more indepth with custom FB. I am watching this !!SCIENCE!!
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Knight Otu on August 13, 2011, 07:42:33 am
Huh. Too bad that I don't have the first world in my minimalist mod anymore, where I ran across the same warning after creating separate offal. Would only have been toads if it worked, though. Were all those fishes unit-sized?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 07:48:15 am
I haven't done much more testing other than adding a phoenix to see if it would gen as a FB and it did (was in legends, didn't see it during play).

Since world gen used regular fish for forgotten beasts, it doesn't seem to be adding/removing any tags, as the forgotten beast fish died within their MAXAGE limits, so I'd tailor your beasts accordingly.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: narhiril on August 13, 2011, 02:49:18 pm
So basically, you're modding the tissues to throw off the procedure for FB generation, then modifying what it defaults to if those procedures don't work?  I'll give you credit, it's a pretty spectacular find.

Now, when you mean "the first creatures" - literally the first creature, or any creature from the first (alphabetical) creature file?  The latter would have an enormous amount of modding potential.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 03:21:10 pm
It used the first alphabetical creature file, then stepped through the creatures in the order they appeared in the file until it reached the count it needed (based on map size/init setting).

Edit:  I retested this, and if the first file doesn't contain enough creatures, it continues in the same fashion to the next alpha creature file, through the creatures in the order they appear in the file.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: narhiril on August 13, 2011, 04:00:22 pm
Highly intruiging.  And this gets rid of titans and clowns as well?  Final question - does it throw out a bunch of stuff in the errorlog?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 04:25:25 pm
Nothing that is revealed in legends mode was generated other than forgotten beasts.  Not a 100% sure on bogeymen or feature demons.

There aren't a 'bunch' of errors, just one line for each 'missing' material (eye, lung, etc.), and only one line (not one line for each creature attempt), so about 8-10 lines at most.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Knight Otu on August 13, 2011, 04:47:04 pm
Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me (as I suspected after you mentioned that it takes the next file as well). It goes straight from the dragons to the dwarven deities. :-\ After the reports that UNIQUE_DEMON supposedly works, that's the second thing that just doesn't work for me. Could be a difference due to operation system (Ubuntu in my case)?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 05:24:59 pm
Interesting, I'm on Vista.

Pic of my file listing:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I made the creature_all_generated to hold the single creature test phoenix to see if it would fail or continue on to the actinopterygii - it continued.

Pic of the errors from the remapped materials:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And pic showing the legends where it used the phoenix and the fishes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: magistrate101 on August 13, 2011, 05:43:57 pm
This is a pretty damn AWESOME find, keep us posted!
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Knight Otu on August 13, 2011, 06:14:47 pm
Quote from: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 05:24:59 pm
Interesting, I'm on Vista.

Aha! Downloaded the Windows version to use through Wine, mangled the eye material template, and genned a world, and it does happen... except not in alphabetical order (that was a problem with other files on Wine, wasn't it?). Starts with creature_small_riverlake, into creature_standard, taking a detour into creature_equipment, going back to creature_subterranean, then grabbing the first two from creature_large_tropical as the final beasts.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: GreatWyrmGold on August 13, 2011, 08:20:52 pm
Cool.

Did it work with other randoms?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Excedion on August 13, 2011, 09:39:37 pm
Quote from: Knight Otu on August 13, 2011, 06:14:47 pm
into creature_standard, taking a detour into creature_equipment, going back to creature_subterranean, then grabbing the first two from creature_large_tropical as the final beasts.

A forgotten beast wagon with deadly blood :O Now this i gotta see
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: veok on August 13, 2011, 11:23:48 pm
Quote from: Knight Otu on August 13, 2011, 06:14:47 pm
Quote from: Dwarfu on August 13, 2011, 05:24:59 pm
Interesting, I'm on Vista.

Aha! Downloaded the Windows version to use through Wine, mangled the eye material template, and genned a world, and it does happen... except not in alphabetical order (that was a problem with other files on Wine, wasn't it?). Starts with creature_small_riverlake, into creature_standard, taking a detour into creature_equipment, going back to creature_subterranean, then grabbing the first two from creature_large_tropical as the final beasts.

Definitely OS specific then. It's not doing something completely random in this case, but darned if you can find an easy way to predict the pattern.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Mikey on August 14, 2011, 06:46:33 am
Try experimenting with file creation/modification timestamps, see if that's what's determining load order in Wine.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: magmaholic on August 14, 2011, 12:00:46 pm
does that mean i can make a slade fb,with adamantine teeth and claws and firebreath?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Hugo_The_Dwarf on August 14, 2011, 12:15:26 pm
Quote from: magmaholic on August 14, 2011, 12:00:46 pm
does that mean i can make a slade fb,with adamantine teeth and claws and firebreath?
In theory yes... That would end any fortress lol, Unless you made his left foot forth toe his only weakness

Slade FB: RAWR!! YOU DIE NOW LITTLE DWARF
Dwarf Mcdwarf: Oh S**T *runs away*
Slade FB: GET BACK HERE I WILL DISTRO... *stubs toe on rock*
The Slade FB has been struck down
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: aradar on August 27, 2023, 11:24:18 pm
I really hate to necro this thread but this topic interests me greatly, since ive discovered this thread ive tried to reproduce what the OP says happens and so far ive got the game to produce legends, where im really confused is the alphabetical creature part, where exactly do I insert FB creature fillers to manipulate the FB creation

Im getting a lot of odd ball FB but I don't see any pattern to there creation. :(

also OP says his error file is small, mine is rather large coming in at a smoken 13mb of text XD but every thing still works.

What exactly is the first (alphabetical) creature file ? I don't quite understand this.. concept?
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: FantasticDorf on August 28, 2023, 10:20:51 am
This thread is very outdated, the versions that they're referring to had significant differences (20+ years of differences) compared to steam-game version 50. standard, or even 40. to 47.05 classic.

Nowadays you can create your own FB's as long as the rest of the information is correct using [FEATURE_BEAST] (https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Creature_token#FEATURE_BEAST). Simply defining your own beasts then editing the world-details to narrow the types until just yours or a mixture appear seems to be enough, and works in the latest version.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: aradar on August 28, 2023, 10:22:34 am
Omg thank you Google is not my friend apparently I will dig deep into this knowledge thank you again 🫠🤣

Setting the world details is that something that can be controlled from a mod or I have to manually do it? Cause I'd love to use this feature to add a boss battle to some end game content I want to make but if the user has to specify worldgen stuff then it's not ideal :(

Weeelp it's kinda hilarious this still kinda works 😂😂🤣
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: FantasticDorf on August 28, 2023, 11:46:19 am
Quote from: aradar on August 28, 2023, 10:22:34 am
Omg thank you Google is not my friend apparently I will dig deep into this knowledge thank you again 🫠🤣

Setting the world details is that something that can be controlled from a mod or I have to manually do it? Cause I'd love to use this feature to add a boss battle to some end game content I want to make but if the user has to specify worldgen stuff then it's not ideal :(

Weeelp it's kinda hilarious this still kinda works 😂😂🤣

Advanced world generation would be what you are looking for. Better still, it can be tied to a preset for ease of use, by creating a world.txt file with all the info. Though i admit i might have mis-remembered FB's for Titan's when re-looking through the wiki (titans are seperate creatures who walk the surface seperate from megabeasts and FB's). You can't currently make the pool of FB's smaller because they lack the ability to edit the types, but you can give creatures with [FEATURE_BEAST] the exact same behaviour as FB's when they appear adding them to the pool.

Sorry about that didn't mean to mislead you, but you will still have some random FB's. A more on topic example of thinning another editable random creature so yours is more prevelant would be [UNIQUE_DEMON], which it works great for that. A potential workaround would be to make a lot of types of FB, with some minor distinguishable differences so that you see them more often.

Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: aradar on August 28, 2023, 01:17:37 pm
Okay so if I'm understanding all of this somewhat you just make a creature the way you normally make creatures but just include the feature beast tag the biome tags that it requires or unique demon tag and then just make a bunch of copies in the same creature file?



edit: I guess I got this working sort of I made a creature file with 4 creatures inside of it all tagged feature beast, started a game played for a while then decided to change some details on the creatures, this was a mistake after reloading the game with creature changes the game started throwing errlog errors about missing/corrupted :unit files and only 4 lines …….. so apperaently you can not edit creatures with feature beast in the same fashion you can without that tag because it saving information at world gen? im guessing ? so I loaded a new world and so far the error has not came up so im guessing that my creature is out there waiting for its turn to appear ….??
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Eric Blank on August 29, 2023, 02:31:44 pm
It might show up in legends mode too, you should read through the list of forgotten beasts

Or open the arena with that worlds data and see if you can spawn it (Assuming you didn't exclude it from the arena like most cavern creatures)
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: aradar on August 29, 2023, 04:07:12 pm
the creature is just a dwarf with [feature_beast] on it, with different names, I removed tags from dwarf that I think would maybe conflict with the fb tag

the way the wiki reads is that using feature beast will not produce legends ? or am I mistaken ?


and no its not arena restricted I will see if it is there or not.
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: Eric Blank on August 29, 2023, 05:01:13 pm
Huh, didn't notice that part. Maybe you could get it to spawn by opening up and searching all of the caverns on an embark and chopping down a few trees in each before sealing them back up. Other beasts will spawn as well, could kill them until you see the one you made.

Ive never played with this tag before tbh
Title: Re: Your Own Forgotten Beasts
Post by: aradar on August 29, 2023, 05:28:52 pm
They are in arena they don't all have graphics but they're all their
I'll post here if I find any profound discovery