Bay 12 Games Forum

The OP has been absent for over 2 years, so this thread is a huge mess. But it is an interesting mess. I am giving it another chance to shine. Here is the list of all the sphere magics that have been defined, and a list for those which haven't under it. It has to be written in multiple posts; these are very long, even trying to fit in all spheres starting with C in one post will easily exceed 40.000 character limit.

Just want to jump in and thank you for doing this! Interest petered out back in the day and eventually DF sort of faded from my own interests as well, but I'm grateful that someone picked up the banner and continued the work being done here. Will link your post in the OP as the more up to date version of the list.

With all these new fancy intrigue mechanics, do you reckon that adding in proper secret societies won't take too much effort down the road? As I see it now, the main thing that's missing is having them have motivations beyond generically amassing power, and letting them form a more formal hierarchy as a direct evolution of the current agent networks and such.

Been rather busy the last month or so, but will try and update OP in the coming week.

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Thanks! Glad to see that there is likely to be significant diversity in dwarven appearances!

On a side note, I'll also throw in my support for the 'actual clothes instead of professions' side. I never personally found profession info to be too important.

EDIT2: Might as well state my opinion/preferred solution for every 'dilemma' there has been so far:

Clothing: based on actual clothing.
Trees: original, isometric. They look pretty to me, and I think shading the interior black would help differentiate them from stumps, as someone else suggested before me. The newer, 2D version looks strange and unsightly, in my opinion. I definitely like the experimental tree shadows.
Critter sizes: relative sizes represented, at least to some degree.
Slopes: Mayday's, though Meph's are a close second.

Also, a minor, offhand suggestion related to the experimental tree shadow - maybe having the game sometimes add a fake 'god ray' effect underneath the tree. It would just be two random, translucent streaks of light that would spawn occasionally beneath trees, but might be able to add to the 'fantasy primeval forest' vibe in sufficiently dense woodland. Just randomly tossing ideas around, not sure how feasible any of them all.

Could adjacent wheat/crop tiles in general 'merge' for a more natural look? Here's what I have in mind:

1. Horizontal merging only


2. Vertical merging (an additional row of wheat added in between fully grown tiles)


It's a really quick photoshop hackjob, but I think it gets the idea across well enough. IMO it makes the field look more like proper, lush farmland, and looks more aesthetically pleasing in general. Would this be possible/hard to implement?

Also, I think random patches of tall grass and flowers on the ground would really help with breaking up the monotony of finely-trimmed green lawn grass.

There are ongoing discussions regarding the new graphics over in the mod/tilesets forum with Meph & Mayday (who are making them). Held weapons and such can be seen in the sprites, while clothing seems to be undergoing debate (dyed red tunic should be red, or colours should match profession as in Classic, etc). Facial hair and hairstyles are hoped for too.

Just checked, very interesting thread! Thanks for the heads-up!

Finally got around to updating the list! Sorry for voliol and others for lack of updates recently.

Just an FYI for everyone - I'm currently away from home, and formatting posts on mobile is a pain, to say the least. I'll continue updating the list when I get back home tomorrow.