Bay 12 Games Forum

So I've had this idea for a mod recently:

It's sort of DF meets X-COM. Of course it would be impossible to replicate X-Com exactly with the Dwarf Fortress engine. But I'm thinking a sort of 'research' system, where items collected from enemy civilizations or alien corpses can be turned into 'data blocks' which can be used to make advanced weapons and armor. Or mining out ancient technology that can be turned into components to make said items.

The thing is that I only really have a handful of ideas right now, (most of which are for weapons) and I don't think that this can be done properly (with the current version at least), specially with how you can't make ranged weapons more accurate, change their firing rate properly or have magazines/clips, so making certain firearms is impossible.

Would anyone be willing to help me with this or does anyone think that this is in any way a good idea?

Here are the Ideas I have so far:

Civs/factions

EPDS Agents (Emergency Planetary Defense Squad)
The playable civ, a group of humans who will do whatever it takes to protect the human race, even if they need to protect it from itself from time to time.

Federation
Humans who live in cities, who can show up to trade supplies and weapons with you.

Cultists
A group of humans who see the aliens as messianic figures that will save the human race. They will most likely see your efforts in a negative light and should attack as well as midgame FUN.

Greys
Stereotypical aliens, small size but big heads. Physically weak, but carry powerful plasma weapons. Early game fun. Perhaps have them be accompanied by mutants of some kind, so they are more like vanilla DF goblins.

Barbarics
The native and primitive beings of some faraway world before the aliens captured them and tried to use them against us. Big, powerful, but only have access to sub par and primitive weapons. They seem to be interested in trying to steal our stuff, though. (Perhaps make these as the replacement for kobolds.)

Brutes
Larger and more warlike aliens, perhaps closer to mutons. Could carry plasma weapons and a type of armor. (I should make them bigger than humans so their armor is unusable and must be 'researched'.)

Elders
Physically weak, but capable of great destruction. Wield psionic power staves which tap into mental energies to deal damage to others. (Since there's no magic system yet that could simulate psionic powers I'll have to make due with psionic blast staves. Perhaps have them spit 'globs' of psionic energy for when ammo runs out.)

Masters
Powerful and deadly aliens who have extremely powerful weapons and armor and are not afraid to use them. Late game !!FUN!! which will invoke fear in the most experienced agent. (I wonder if there's a way to have them use different 'allies' from greys. Also make them bigger so humans can't use their armor)

Alien monsters

Mutants
Humans who have been kidnapped and subjected to horrid experiments, and are now larger and stronger, but also under alien control. Fortunately they are also not very bright. (I should find a way to make them appear with greys during sieges.)

Cerebrals
Weak floating brains which can fire psionic blasts. A nuisance alone, but dangerous in large numbers.

Parasitoids
Terrifying monstrosities which implant small embryos into their targets, turning them into the borderline undead Hosts. (One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the next version is being able to make this happen. I still wonder if I can make these appear with the Masters rather than greys with some clever use of biome tags.)

Hosts
A human infested with a Parasitoid embryo eventually becomes one of these. They know no fear. They know no pain. They know only death. Make sure it is not yours. (I'm wondering if I can make one of the infected humans turn into a Host some time after being implanted, and then turn into another Parasitoid after a long time. And yes, I'm basing them both on the Chryssalids.)

Weapons
This is a bit more complicated, since I'm thinking of having a 'researched' version of most of the alien's weapons while others are obtained from digging up tecnology left by old civilizations or the ruins of crashed space ships. Basically I'm making most weapons into these classes:

-Pistols (Smaller, lighter, and hopefully faster to fire, but generally weaker. Uses knife skill)
-Rifles (Average in most regards. Uses crossbow skill)
-Machineguns/Cannons (Heavy and unwieldy, but hopefully spit ammo like nobodies business. Uses whip skill)
-Swords (Deadly if you can get close enough to use them)
-Staves (Can tap into to psionic energy to deal serious damage at a range. Uses pike skill)

with varying levels
-Primitive - Tier 0 - Barbarics
-Standard - Tier 1 - Starting EPDS
-Plasma/Laser - Tier 2 - Greys and brutes
-Ancient technology - Tier 3 - Elders
-Pulse/Ion - Tier 4 - Masters
-Precursor technology - Replacing 'cotton candy'?

Armor would probably follow the same system, with a complete suit being developed from the parts of alien armors, but also from technology 'ores', and the first 'armor' being essentially a reinforced jumpsuit kind of like in the original X-com.

Reactions and buildings

Making bullets could be used with lead, copper and a propellant. One idea I had was making it a variation of nitrocellulose which is used in modern ammunition, so a variation of my old muskets mod could be used. Thing is, I know that doing this would be rather complicated, so I also considered making the propellant from a plant, or an alien plant's extract and some clay, like a form of TNT.

As pitchblende is an ore of uranium, I'm thinking of a reaction that makes uranium power cores, which can be used to make ammo for the human's energy based weapons at 'charging stations', leading to it becoming depleted uranium which can be used to make more powerful ammunition for the otherwise weaker weapons, or for more powerful advanced weapons. Perhaps using precursor tech there could be another type of charging station that can do the same without needing uranium, much like a sort of magma smelter not needing fuel.

Researching would require a weapon, a piece of armor, or a 'technology ore', and would result in a blueprint, perhaps at an adequate chance (80-60%?), some usable parts (50-20%?), or explode in your face (30-10%?) While it shouldn't result in a blueprint 100% of the time, I don't think that risking unleashing an army of sealed horrors would be worth it if you only got the parts or blueprint for the best weapons and armor at a tiny rate.

The actual work I have so far is very small, and it would take quite a while to do all of this, but I've got some ideas at least.

For just the muskets themselves: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3881


So I'm in the process of trying to make a mod that will add muskets to DF (among other things). I realize that firearms are hard to implement because of the way ranged weapons are handled, (which considering how Toady feels about this kind of 'advanced' technology won't change any time soon) though I did recall how one person (who's name I have sadly forgotten) was planning to do it, though I made some changes of y own.

I started off using several parts of Civilization Forges alchemy system, but considering that it was probably about to be greatly overhauled considering the addition of jugs and all, and that I sort of wanted to make my own separate mod, I'm about to redo a good deal of what I already have. However I already have a few problems in my plans as is.

Here is where my first problem arose: I want the reaction to take metal mechanisms. Not just one kind of metal, ANY metal. But I don't really know how to put that into the reaction. I do recall that in 40d I was able to make golems that were made out of gemstone in a way that would make them spawn as being made out of a random kind of jewel, but I lost those files long ago. 

So what I want to know is if there's a way that I can have a reaction take an item made out of any kind of one type of material (any metal, any gem, any wood, etc.). If I can know how I could remake those random material golems that would also be awesome. Solved thanks to Girlinhat.

Basically this is what I have done so far:
Muskets Mod:
New workshop:
-The gunsmith's forge: A place where your dwarves can build their muskets and make their bullets.

New ammo types:
-bullets and flechettes: While bullets are useful against most enemies and can one shot some foes, the sharp-tipped flechettes are more capable of dealing internal damage.

New weapons:
-The dwarven musket: which will quickly become any trained marksdwarf's best friend. If you keep a good stock of ammo, that is.

---

In the main project:
New workshops:
-The alchemy table: Where your brave alchemists can create the multiple compounds to use in several other tasks

New ammo types:
-Needle: A type of ammunition with a near 50% chance to stick in wounds. (There may be the possibility to coat them in poisons or make them combust or explode when they hit)
-Shards: A type of ammuntion that can easily sever what they hit. While very powerful, they are very hard to create.

New weapons:
-The bladed musket: a regular musket with a large dagger attached to the end which allows it to be used as a useful melee weapon.
-The dragon musket: more powerful that the normal musket, but heavier and more expensive to make. Still, it can easily become a powerful melee weapon in a pinch.
-The hell musket: even more poweful than the dragon musket, with the added advantage of an even more powerful melee attack.

New creatures:
-A number of golems now exist, which can siege you, along with a number of other creatures that were once confined to the underground, with the addition of wolfmen.
-Bronze colossuses now come in silver, gold and platinum flavors as well.
-Dragons now have a number of castes too: Red (firebreath), white (frostbreath), green (debilitating poison breath), black (rot-inducing blood), gold (destructive dust breath). They can also fly, they are all around stronger and harder to kill and they hve horns.
-Remember how Unicorns, Elephants and Carp were the most horrifying creatures around? There are magma carp, magma elephants and magma unicorns now. SWEET DREAMS.

New materials:
-Blackpowder can now be made using brimstone, saltpeter, and charcoal. This is needed to make ammunition for the muskets.
-Mithril is lighter than steel, and makes better weapons and armor. Good luck getting it, though.
-Six elemental gems: dragoneyes, golem's hearts, lightning gems, ice crystals, luminous crystals and void gems are used in the creation of more powerful metals:

• Blazesteel: A warm metal which is better than steel in general, but is not quite as good as mithril
• Frostite: A cold metal which makes better armor than Blazesteel, but slightly inferior weapons
• Living Iron: Imbued with powerful energies, this metal makes wonderful armor, but is a bit heavier than the others.
• Maelstrium: Lighter than a lot of other metals, Maelstrium makes good bladed weapons.
• Shadowsteel: Competing with Slade for heaviest material, this metal should make very good weapons... If you can lift them.
• Luminite: Even lighter than cotton candy itself, this metal makes rather good armor, but it makes inferior weapons.
• Spirit Silver: The best armor making metal in existence. However, you need cotton candy to make it.
• Infernium: Said to contain the trapped essences of several demons, this metal is required for some of the best muskets around. Like Spirit silver, you need cotton candy to make some.

What is planned to do:
-A (hopefully) simpler system based on some of the well-known alchemy systems out there
-Several more metals, gems, and plants, most to work with aforementioned alchemy system
-Unnecessary as nobles stuff! TONS OF IT.