Fear of the Dark
I am a man who walks alone...
What's that?
I apologize in advance for the wall of text, I'm not a native english speaker but I just can't help it.
Fear of the Dark started as an update of the
Fear the Night mod by Xangi for my personal use. Since then it has grown into something a little bigger as I added several features. The mod's focus was (and still is) to add better and more diverse night creatures and offer harder fights. A quick warning though : if you played Xangi's mod, please don't expect this one to be just an update and keep everything untouched. I changed a lot, for both balance and my-mod-now reasons.
The mod still isn't that balanced (not that the base game is any better, DF wasn't made for balance anyway), but I feel like it's at least playable and probably ‼FUN‼ as well.
So what exactly does this mod add, you ask?
New Vampires
Cursed by a god to prowl the night in search of blood, these are significantly stronger than vanilla vampires while not having all of their advantages. As always, you can become a vampire by drinking the blood of one, but there are others ways...
The mod adds three tiers of vampires :
- master vampires : the strongest and fastest of all, they also benefits from all the immunities vanilla undead have. They can transform into giant bats, give themselves a temporary buff of speed and agility, paralyse targets with only a stare or make an entire group dizzy with just a scream
- elder vampires : less powerful than the master vampires, but still way stronger than human beings. There are three kinds, each having different powers :
- Canine : transform into a wolf, buff to speed and agility
- Feline : transform into a panther, scream can disorient foes
- Avian : transform into an owl, can inflict nausea upon targets with a stare
- minor vampires : quite weak compared to the higher tiers but still stronger than vanilla vampires, they lack several undead immunities. There are three types, again with different abilities:
- speed : lesser speed bonus
- stealth : slightly stronger and more agile
- transformation : can transform into a rat
Stronger Werebeasts
Also the cursed result of a god's wrath, they behave mostly like the vanila ones except that you are free to transform whenever you feel like it (you still turn at full moons, I think that's a nice touch). The werebeasts are also bigger and stronger than in vanilla and
very resistant to all metals except one.
- werewolves : the size of a yeti, they are fast and weak to silver :
- red werewolves : can become berzerk, stronger human form, sharper claws but both human and wolf form are very weak to silver
- white werewolves : weaker human form weaker but stronger and faster wolf form
- brow werewolves : high recuperation
- werebears : the biggest and meanest, they are powerful and weak to copper :
- polar werebear : bigger and stronger but slower
- grizzly werebear : can rage, sharper claws
- werescorpions : because why not? They can attack with their tails and are weak to bronze :
- non venomous : not venomous (surprising, I know), larger and more powerful attacks than the other one
- venomous : slightly weaker but venomous
- werelizards : more or less equals of the werewolves in size, they have sharper claws and are weak to iron :
- werelizards : stronger, even sharper claws
- werechameleon : a lot weaker, they are supposed to become invisible but it doesn't work anymore since a recent DF update. They are pretty useless, don't be one of them
Diversity in Necromancy
Like in vanilla, they learn their powers from gods or books and live in towers. Unlike vanilla, they can do other things than animating undeads. There are currently three types, I'm trying to make each of them unique but it's still a work in progress :
- dark sorcerers: the closest to vanilla necromancers, they have spells debuffing their foes.
- infernomancers : transformed permanently into a platinum shelled creature, they can use fire to destroy their ennemis. Their zombies are on fire
- liches : very hard to kill, can fly, weaker undeads
Real curses
Unlike in vanilla where being cursed by a god is a good thing for an adventurer, the mod adds a number of "bad curses". You can still save-scum near a temple to get the vampire you want, but you'll find yourself reloading a lot because your adventurer has been turned into a goat or otherwise incapacitated.
Mummies a little more forgiving
Rather than cursing you with a permanent chance to fail a random action, these ones avenge the profanation of their tombs by trying to kill you and making a better job of it.
- draugrs : can freeze their foes and throw ice spears. Zombies are frozen
- tomb lords : covered in gold, they are skilled fighters
- wights: cannot raise the dead but hard to kill
Night trolls everywhere
The mod replace vanilla's night trolls by its own creatures. They behave very much like vanilla night trolls, hiding in cave and lairs and turning random people into more of them. Drinking their blood gives you small bonuses. Some are fairly weak by the mod's standards, others are stronger. The majority of them shouldn't be a trouble for a semi-competent adventurer.
There is also a special kind of night troll that is also a kind of vampire and whose bite can turn you into a minor vampire.
Bogeymen you will fear
Because the name of the mod isn't just a Maiden reference.
But seriously, the vanilla bogeymen that an experienced adventurer can roll over are (mostly) gone. Scary creatures will appear among more vanilla ones and you should avoid traveling alone in the dark if you aren't sure of your abilities.
If you feel like trying anyway, some of these bogeymen carry within themselves the secrets of a random form of necromancy and may give them to you. Not without having a honest try at killing you, but you know what they say : with great risks come great rewards. And an even greater death, most of the time.
Megabeasts to add to the ‼FUN‼
- Ancient Vampire : More powerful than any other creature in the mod, they are primal beasts knowing only the thirst for blood. Their bite carry the master vampire curse.
- Vampire Lords : A more civilised version of the above, their bite can quickly drain you of your blood but also turn you into an elder vampire.
- Golems : Ancients beings formed of rocks animated by some unknown force, they are rumored to be impossible to overpower. Quick thinking is the key when pitted against a seemingly invincible opponent...
More crafts
Because slaughtering countless creatures just isn't that fun if you can't make trophies out of it, the mod allows you to create useful tools but also primitive weapons and armours from the bones of your ennemies. You can also make accessories out of horn, teeth and shells, much like vanilla allows you to make those out of bones.
Installing the mod
First you need to download the mod (
here).
Installing a mod for Dwarf Fortress isn't that hard most of the time, you just need to copy the "data" and "raw" folders into your main DF folder (where the game is). Having done that you need to create a new world. The mod comes with customs worldgens optimized for it, but you can use your owns if you want, just remember to set the number of vampires, werebeasts, necromancers and night trolls to 0 and the number of bogeymen to
1 (not 0, 1 is needed for this part of the mod to work correctly).
Known issuesBecause you just have to have those.
- the ability of some vampires and werebeasts to turn invisible isn't working properly
- You cannot make crafts out of an intelligent creature's corpse. It's a vanilla bug.
This is just a list of bugs that I know of. If you find one that isn't listed (or any issue, really, even if you're not sure it's a bug), please post about it in this thread. I play with the mod, but I can still miss issues for a long time if they just don't come into my attention. Also if something about the mod is unclear, please ask about it.
Too many things, I'll just start over from this version and update this section with any subsequent updates
