Bay 12 Games Forum

In my experience, I'd personally say clothing and soap are the most overlooked. I've really never managed to get a successful clothing or soap industry set up; too many steps, i get overwhelmed and confused.

Economically, I'd say a lot of people sleep on pottery. Sure, it takes fuel, but its still an incredibly lucrative thing, in my experience. Clay is infinite, so as long as you either have your dorfs pumping out fuel, or access to magma, its a source of trade goods that literally never runs out, and never needs you to take a break to replenish it.


Activity-wise, I always tend to overlook bedrooms. I just throw together a dormitory for the starting seven, and put off making individual bedrooms until the late stages, though, I have been getting better about it in recent forts.

Yet another mod that overhauls the setting while trying to stay somewhat lore-friendly.

Currently included stuff:

• Several new pieces of sea life, from tiny vermin, to new types of whale
• Magma Sea Life; Magma fishes and krakens.
• Several new insects and spiders
• A couple new bird types (Lesser rocs and Macaws)
• Two new goblin variants! Hobgoblins (smaller, more lawful goblins willing to trade with you, but still prone to war), and bugbears (larger, more brutal goblins that do everything they can to make people suffer, including other goblins)
• Cursed ratfolk with repurposed farm tools
• Cursed dwarves with brutal weapons
• NEW! Cursed Elves; playable cave dwelling elves; They may be smaller than dwarves, but they have many of the elven upsides, most notably, access to every pet race (For now). NOTE: May be bugged. When I tested, they refused to do labors.
  
• Primative neanderthals
• New metals! Osmium (a metal thats like a denser platinum, which can be used to make durable armor), Sky Iron (a rare, valuable metal processed from meteors found deep within sandstone deposits), and Tungsten (a metal comparable to silver, but with slightly better edge-holding properties)
• Much, much more!

DOWNLOAD HERE: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15096

More to come!

All in all, who does these? I like em, but I'm looking for other people's experiences and tips.


My own personal tip; If you want to build ON or IN the ocean, go temperate. If you wanna build OFF the ocean, and just use the ocean as a fish source, go tropical. Oceans that freeze (temperate) tend to end up with  mass extinction, in my experience (That seems to have been slightly nerfed). But oceans that freeze are easier to build off since you don't have to orchestrate dangerous surface cave-ins.

My second tip, savage oceans have some of the best creatures for meat, namely, Giant Sperm Whales. If you can air-drown and butcher them, your fortress will eat basically for eternity. Though, they tend to have a pretty low population.

My final tip, one I encountered recently, is that if your ocean freezes, and a siege shows up, if they have nowhere better to go, they might just stand on the frozen ocean until it thaws. While you can't collect goblinite this way, it is a great way to ensure siegers dont commit genocide on your population.

I'm working on my mod, and I was thinking about adding Glacial Ooze to evil cold areas. So, is snow a valid material for manual creature generation or does it only work with procedurally generated creatures

So, I modded in Mongolian Death Worms as a part of my mod (its in releases), and, in testing them, i expected them to be a megabeast tier threat since their "slime" causes severity 100 necrosis wherever it contacts. However, when I went into object testing for it yesterday, not only did it die to a pitiful squad of naked, weaponless, unskilled dwarves, but its secretion didnt even work. There just was no trail behind it.

Here is the code I used, think any of you could help me get it working so I can raise this abomination to the megabeast status it deserves? Also, any tips to make contacting the slime even more dangerous?
[CREATURE:GIANT_DEATH_WORM_KYU]
[DESCRIPTION:A gigantic worm of the savage deserts. It's toxic to the touch.]
[NAME:giant death worm:giant death worms:giant death worm]
[CASTE_NAME:giant death worm:giant death worms:giant death worm]
[CREATURE_TILE:'W'][COLOR:4:0:0]
[PETVALUE:500]
[FREQUENCY:20][BIOME:ANY_DESERT][SAVAGE]
[NATURAL][NOBONES]
[LARGE_ROAMING]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:15:30]
[CLUSTER_NUMBER:1:1]
[PREFSTRING:awesome presence]
[SPHERE:STRENGTH]
[SPHERE:MUCK]
[LAIR:SIMPLE_BURROW:100]
[LAIR_HUNTER]
[EXTRAVISION]
[CANNOT_JUMP]
[BODY:BODY_WITH_HEAD_FLAG:HEART:GUTS:BRAIN:MOUTH]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:STANDARD_MATERIALS]
[REMOVE_MATERIAL:HAIR]
[REMOVE_MATERIAL:BONE]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:STANDARD_TISSUES]
[REMOVE_TISSUE:HAIR]
[REMOVE_TISSUE:BONE]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:EXOSKELETON_TISSUE_LAYERS:SKIN:FAT:MUSCLE]

[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SLIME:CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:frozen death worm slime]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:frozen death worm slime]
[STATE_NAME:LIQUID:death worm slime]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:LIQUID:death worm slime]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:boiling death worm slime]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:GAS:boiling death worm slime]
[STATE_COLOR:ALL:ORANGE]
[PREFIX:NONE]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:death worm contact]
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:GIANT_DEATH_WORM_KYU:ALL]
[SYN_CONTACT][SYN_INGESTED]
[CE_PAIN:SEV:15:PROB:100:LOCALIZED:VASCULAR_ONLY:RESISTABLE:START:50:PEAK:1000:END:2000]
[CE_NECROSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:LOCALIZED:VASCULAR_ONLY:RESISTABLE:START:50:PEAK:1000:END:2000]
[SECRETION:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SLIME:LIQUID:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:SKIN]

[HAS_NERVES]
[APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_WALK_CRAWL_GAITS:9000:8900:8825:8775:9500:9900] 1 kph
[APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_CRAWLING_GAITS:9000:8900:8825:8775:9500:9900] 1 kph
[BLOOD:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SLIME:LIQUID]
[CREATURE_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[GETS_WOUND_INFECTIONS]
[GETS_INFECTIONS_FROM_ROT]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:PUS:PUS_TEMPLATE]
[PUS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:PUS:LIQUID]
[BODY_SIZE:0:0:80000]
[BODY_SIZE:1:0:400000]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:800000]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:LENGTH:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[ALL_ACTIVE]
[NO_SLEEP]
[NO_DIZZINESS]
[CASTE:FEMALE]
[FEMALE]
[CASTE:MALE]
[MALE]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:SKIN]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:RED:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:skin:SINGULAR]
[SELECT_MATERIAL:ALL]
[MULTIPLY_VALUE:8]
I should remove vascular only, but it still hasnt been secreting.

Download here! http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14566

I'm getting back in the modding scene, with a nice overhaul mod! Currently it only has a few features, but more are planned once I've tested these and fixed them!

The plan with this mod is to both add so much new stuff that the game is practically all new, while still trying to fit the rough aesthetic of Dwarf Fortress. (To some degree, I can't promise some sillier stuff won't get added over time; just nothing that drastically alters the game's feel. So you might, say, encounter some silly clothing, but you're not going to, say, find guns)

Current features:

*Plants! Some have booze, some don't! All more valuable than vanilla plants, but most are more specialized, or at least more dangerous! (Hint: Be careful what peppers you cook and what peppers you grind)

*Vermin! Mostly worms, but also corn snakes, pigeons, and centipedes.

*Fish! Mostly ported from one of my past mods.

*Cryptids! Skunk apes, Chupacabra, Tsuchinoko, Death Worms, and more! To find them, settle in savage biomes. (Except death worms; theyre megabeasts) But be careful, some creatures really, really don't want you there. More cryptids have been added, including creatures based off legendaries from the Endless Ocean games.

*A couple "standard" creatures! Currently mostly desert dwellers.

*More food variety!

*Nilbogs, the opposite of goblins! These peaceful people will try to trade all year, bringing all kinds of good stuff, especially toys!

*Slade is technically a soil for the purposes of growing plants! Because theres plants in hell now!

Planned Features:
You'll have to see them as they come! I don't want to give any spoilers.

Compatability: Mod should be compatible with basically any other mod, due to all files and objects i add having the suffix "_KYU" on their file. Worst case scenario, some mods have overlap! (Especially my own, if i like an idea, I tend to recycle it)

as a modder myself, i feel like we could use more tags for creatures and entities, as well as some for plants. Along with these I'll give examples.

Creatures

PARASITES_RAW: When a piece of meat from a creature with this tag (large freshwater fish, most land animals) is eaten, theres a chance that a fish can contract parasites. Perhaps these parasites can be their own creatures, whom give syndromes when consumed using a complicated extra set of tags.

PARASITES_HAIR: this creatures hair or fur can attract parasites like lice, fleas, and ticks.

VERMIN_PARASITE (with variants for meat, hair, and more): this vermin latches onto creatures often in general, but occasionally specific, often sucking their blood, and lives off them for most or all of their life.

NEEDS_BALANCED_DIET: A tag for humanoids only, NEEDS_BALANCED_DIET is a tag that makes it so by default, creatures no longer get a negative thought from eating the same gruel and drinking the same booze every day. Instead, a creature without the tag functions like one now, minus those unhappy thoughts, while one with this tag can not only get unhappy thoughts, but minor negative effects (or even major), if they dont eat a varied enough diet. Personally I'd make a balanced diet depend on the later-mentioned FLAVOR tag.

Entities

PRECURSOR: An entity with the tag "PRECURSOR" creates sites rapidly in the first days of history gen (Or even before history, but that weould be complicated), then immediately dies off either at the end of year 1, or preferably, in the complicated solution, before history even starts

Plants

PARASITES: Similar to the meat parasites thing, some real world plants tend to have parasites when raw. Why don't i just use syndromes? Because I'm pretty sure syndromes would apply when cooked too.

DESCRIPTION: Honestly its wasted potential that plants dont have descriptions, and they could really use them.

Materials (as in the ones that plants, creatures, and more use)

FLAVOR: Requires the template to be edible by default. The FLAVOR tag lets you determine what a food tastes like. Some dwarves prefer certain flavors and combinations, and a mix of flavors in a dwarf's life will allow them protection from blandness induced negative thoughts, while also giving them positive thoughts.


Feel free to add on to this with your own tokens.

so, once again, I feel directionless in my modding, I havent done much in a looong while. So, I wanna throw some ideas out.

1. a Neopets total-conversion mod. Neopets, being a long running website that somehow still exists, has all kinda of items and creatures to work with, so it could actually be incredibly interesting. It even has a decent variety of potential megabeasts, such as Chiazilla, The Snowager, and more.

2. Another Fallout mod attempt. Aside from the only races in Fallout being Humans, Super Mutants, Ghouls, and a handful of more gimmicky races (including a couple relegated to cut content), this seems doable, if a little small, and I wouldnt have any idea how to add guns properly without using DFhack

3. Bring back my old idea for a Starbound inspired mod, including plants like the Oculemon. I've done some work on it before, but abandoned it

4. Kitten Fortress: An Epic Battle Fantasy inspired mod where you pit the Kitten Kingdom against all sorts of series foes.

5. a simpler mod that just adds more plants, both fanciful and real, to the game.

What do yall think of these 5? Some have a lot more potential than others, but i think I could do them all some form of justice.

Update: More random franchise mod ideas

6. A Kingdom/West of Loathing mod (This one sounds also incredibly hard... but silly. Could go well with the Epic Battle Fantasy if I made a compilation mod)

7. Terraria (Also a silly semi-fantasy world!)

8. Cryptids!!!

9. Xanth-Esque Pun creatures

10: Wizard101, because yet another fantasy world that doesnt take itself too seriously, which I think lends best to DF

11. Don't Starve also has a world ripe for messing with.

12. "Do SOmEtHiNG oRIgINal"

In all seriousness, I might go Epic Battle Fantasy after all