Bay 12 Games Forum

Hello, this is a question for those more familiar with fortress mode and reaction modding than i am.

How might one go about making a fortress startable with absolutely nothing? What means of gathering resources are available without access to any tools or workshops which require materials to build?
A custom, no-cost workshop could be made to run reactions to potentially gather resources from the environment, but to what extent can that be done; how much can custom workshop reactions interact with the environment? Just like gathering webs, for example. I think it's possible to gather webs using a custom reaction, IIRC.

Likewise, does anyone know of any mods that might have tackled this problem before me?

In addition, this thread should serve as a hub of discussion regarding this topic.

Presently it is very difficult to use syndrome-bearing materials for anything due to the inability to coat weaponry or deploy such materials in a useful way, therefore in this post i suggest a possibly easier to implement alternative: Syringes and other devices that can deliver injection-based syndromes. In addition to that: AI hints for syndromes to help them use syndrome-bearing materials.

Syringes themselves are of course items and thus very easy to add, and TOOLs can already contain materials, this suggestion aims to extend this functionality to weapons too, as well as the addition of syringe functionality and tokens to enable this for attacks. There are two new tokens, to be put in weapon attacks:

• [INJECTS_CONTENT], which will, as the token suggests, inject any contained material into the bloodstream and trigger any [SYN_INJECTED] syndromes.
• [DRAW_BLOOD], which will behave as the equivalent attack token for creatures does, except it draws as much blood as possible to fill up the item's container.

Neither of these tags work if the item in question lacks a container. Injection will also not work if the contents are logically not-injectable(such as actual items). Drawing blood does not work if the item already contains something.

The possibilites this would open up are quite varied: Syringes, Injector Daggers and Arrows/Bolts come to mind, all of which can of course be put into weapon traps.
Are syringes compatible with DF's world and time period...? Yep, primitive syringes existed a few hundred years before that, and these are dwarves we're talking about, surely they must have come up with the idea? Not to mention, a syringe isn't exactly complicated, as far as devices go.

AI should not be afraid to use attacks that have the INJECTS_CONTENT tag with a TOOL that contains a beneficial syndrome-bearing material in it on friendlies.

How do you get a material in a thing? That is incredibly easy using a simple reaction.



The second and the more complicated part of this suggestion deals with how the AI sees syndromes and the materials that contain them.
In order to facilitate AI's use of syndromes i suggest new hardcoded syndrome category tokens that are tied to AI behavior to use these materials in the right way.

The main tag is [SYN_USE:X(:X)...] Where X is a sub-token that determines the what AI will use this syndrome for. Multiple sub-tokens may be specified in a single SYN_USE token.

A few proposed sub-tokens(they don't have to use these names of course):

• HEAL: AI will consider this syndrome to help with healing somehow.
• LETHAL: AI will consider this syndrome as one to invariably result in death.
• BUFF_GENERAL: This syndrome somehow provides a general buff not specifically related to fighting.
• BUFF_COMBAT: This syndrome helps in combat.
• DEBUFF_GENERAL, DEBUFF_COMBAT: As above, except it the syndrome harms the functioning of a creature instead of helping it.
• TRANSFORM_GOOD, TRANSFORM_BAD: This syndrome transforms a creature. Either to its benefit or not, respectively.

The SYN_USE tag propagates upwards through to materials, attacks and interactions. So all of the above will apply to AI's use of these things.

The syndrome category system also has a few benefits elsewhere:
For interactions, this syndrome category system can be used to partially replace the clunky AI hint system there.
For procgen syndromes, they can now be constructed backward: Start with a category then add appropriate effects. This will allow for more varied procgen syndromes if AI knows how to use them.

As an aside, blood should have a LETHAL syndrome as well as a special syndrome tag such as SPECIAL_BLOOD that will only trigger the syndrome if it is injected into anyone else other than the creature from whom the blood came.

This is a suggestion for some new weapon related tags and behaviours as well the associated functionality in the code.

[THROWN] - This tag marks a weapon as a weapon suitable for throwing.

Melee weapon token

• This is mostly a AI tag, to indicate a thrown weapon.
• AI will only throw the weapon if it has a backup weapon
• If the AI has multiple throwable weapons, it will equip another throwable weapon after throwing it, equiping a non-throwable weapon last.

[RETRIVEABLE:X] Makes this weapon a melee/ranged hybrid weapon that can be thrown with a limited range and then retrieved via rope/chain etc.

Melee weapon token

• Implies THROWN
• X is the range of the weapon, in tiles.
• AI will throw these weapons if they are within range.
• The weapon will be retrieved automatically unless its stuck in the target, in which case it'll need to be pulled out, which will also retrieve it.

[GRAB:X] -  These attacks will have a X percentage chance to "wrap around" the targeted BP if the attack hits.

Attack token(This token goes on a weapon's attack rather than the weapon itself)

• If the attack is bladed, the weapon will cut into the BP
• Useful for non-lethal/capture purposes.
• If a weapon with any GRAB tokens is thrown, the weapon will "wrap around" the hit BP.
• The (highest/random/average)? GRAB chance will be used for this, should the weapon have multiple attacks with GRAB set.
• If the thrown weapon in question is [RETRIVEABLE] then the attacker can pull the target back.
• In adventure mode, this is done the same way as pulling out a stuck weapon
• How many tiles the target gets moved per "Pull"(if at all) heavily depends on the difference in size between the attacker and the target.
• EDIT: Targets hit by a GRAB attack will not be "propelled away" if hit with sufficent force but will be knocked down and dazed instead.

[RANGE:X] - Sets the max range for this attack, X is the range in tiles.

Attack token

• If you've played Crypt of the Necrodancer or RuneScape then you know how this works.
• Attacks with at least 2 tiles of range can pass through fortifications
• If any attack on the weapon has at least 2 tiles of range, the AI will try to stay at least a tile away from their target but will only move if it cannot attack with any attack on its weapon.
• If the attack in question also has GRAB the target will be kept at the maximum range of the attack.
• Defaults to 1

[MIN_RANGE:X] Sets the minimum range for this attack, in tiles.

Attack token

• 0 allows targets on the same tile as the attacker to be attacked
• 1 means that the attacker can't be straight on top of the target.
• 2,3,4,.. The target must be at least this far to be able to be attacked.
• Defaults to 0

[UNBLOCKABLE:X] Decreases the chance to block this attack by X percent of the inital block chance.

Attack token