Bay 12 Games Forum

Hi, send me interesting characters, events, or generated objects/instruments. If I think it’s cool enough I’ll draw it! Please don’t feel bad if yours doesn’t get chosen. Please include a screencap of the item/character or event and give some backstory if need-be

I’ll do this as time allows. I run a tight schedule with a full time job and commissions on the side so I apologize in advance if I’m not expedient.

I’ll post the drawing chronologically instead of editing the original post. Cheers!

I think it would be interesting to have parrying have a chance to disarm your opponent if your strength is significantly higher than theirs. Parrying should also be able to damage weapons of lesser materials than them. I also think heavy attacks from very strong or large creatures should stagger when blocked by a shield. Something about a dwarf blocking an elephants tusk or giants fist with a shield and NOT being staggered or pushed back at all just doesn’t seem right to me.

Firstly, maces/mourningstars are just warhammer with larger surface area and less velocity (better for nonlethal I guess??). Is there any decent reason to use them? Also mauls are kinda garbage because their surface area isn’t way too high in my opinion. Lastly two-handed swords/ pikes, does their extra attack power balance out the fact that they don’t have a shield?

From what I can tell, Historical arms and Grims has fixed these a bit by giving smaller weapons faster swing speed and better contact area, etc. but I wish the vanilla weapons like that had more utility/viability?

How long does it take for a vampire to starve? There's a Dragon lair way out in the middle of nowhere and I wont be able to feed for a while if I go to it, and I already considered feeding on my companions but I don't want them pissed at me (i'm gonna need their help anyway). As far as I can tell, people cant witness you kill or feed when they're unconscious or asleep but Im not 100% sure

In the current version its very hard to harm something like steel weapons/armor with anything short of adamantine or a megabeast. If you look at a steel kitchen knife in real life it will dull from something as soft as an apple or a cut of meat. What I suggest is that weapons slowly lose edge from use and armor may become dented/fractured, reducing their effectiveness. Steel would still last significantly longer than copper, but still wear down if left without maintenance. The current wear naming system (xitemx/xXitemXx) could be replaced with a series of adjectives. Honed, Sharp(excluded for blunt weapons or ranged), Blunted, Chipped, Bent, Broken(could still be used but would be highly ineffective, but perhaps a broken sword might have a very sharp jagged edge right before it becomes unusable?) [from order of best to worst] and Reinforced, Sturdy, Dented/ragged , Torn/Punctured, Disheveled [for armor/clothing]. Weapons could be sharpened after production with a whetstone or by a soldier in their spare time between spars or training. A novice smith might chip a sword when hammering the steel, but a master smith may hit it just right to where it already has a good edge after its made. Maybe even once it reaches the chipped stage, its past the point of no return and you cant re-sharpen it because a significant amount of material has been lost, but anything of blunted or higher can be sharpened. Maybe just to make it less frustrating, a steel sword can be blunted by hitting soft targets, but never be chipped by soft targets unless it hits something hard like iron armor or megabeast bone?

I feel like a nice addition to the game would be building upon the bandit camps and gangs by implementing quests they can give you should you be one of them.

-Banditry-

For being a general thug, your leader can give you the task of terrorizing a town, and/or liberating them of their gold. You could also be tasked with paying a specific citizen a visit to pay up on debts (in the event that they're alone, you could 'encourage' them to hand over their belongings should they be uncooperative.

The items you are asked to retrieve could be anything from coins, to gems, to artifacts, or maybe even a precious tome or quire.

-Assassination-

Tasks to assassinate a specific leader or noble would be interesting, as you would have to find a way to lure them into an empty area before disposing of them (unless you have a disguise and escape plan). To lure them you could simply tell them that there is something they should see, or that somebody was looking for them. your social skills would determine how effective this would be.

These quest wouldn't come from bandit leaders most likely, but perhaps from someones political opponent? The next in line for king perhaps wants you to expedite the handing down of the crown?

to make assassinations more viable for things like daggers, making to impossible to speak with a slit throat would be very handy as of this post, someone with a slit throat moans about their injuries, alerting nearby people. the only way to get a silent kill is to tear the brain on the first hit, which may be difficult with smaller or duller weapons.

-Pick pocketing-

not necessarily a quest but a useful skill would be to snatch items off people without them knowing right away. you can still do this by wrestling pouches away from them but this isn't exactly stealthy.

maybe more difficult versions of the bandit quests could be given such as a grand heist, stealing a valuable trinket/artifact from a museum, snatch the kings crown, or something equally valuable.

-Blackmail-

If for some reason you leave someone as a witness, you can blackmail them if you know some dirty secret of theirs, stole a sock once? dont go blabbing now. sent steamy letters to an elf maiden? you'll be the talk of the town. Obviously the harsher the crime they saw you commit, the dirtier the secret you would need to hold against them. You could also blackmail a peeping merchant on someone elses behalf, just deliver a scroll to them and pickup a small sum of gold from the quest giver.

I’ve been thinking of the different ways the proposed transfer of workshops to zones (much like hospitals). I think this was mentioned in a podcast or future of the fortress.

[Item Placement]
Instead of just a “kitchen” you would designate a kitchen zone, then fill it with the appropriate items (I’d say a table or two, a bin, and a vat/barrel at bare minimum). You could possible add twice the amount of items and this would allow two dwarves to work in the zone instead of just one. There should also be a “free space” counter that works similarly to a taverns “dance floor”. The larger the free space, the more items it could hold before getting cluttered.


This next one may complicate things a bit but I think it would be a nice touch; when dwarves need to do a certain task, they use different items place on the zone. Say they’re cooking a meal, they use the table for meats/vegi, then they move over to the barrel if there is also powders/liquids in the reaction. Or for smithing a sword, they could start by standing near the coals/furnace (heating the metal) then move over to the anvil (shaping) then over to a vat/barrel of water (cooling) and then to a millstone (just for flavor) to sharpen the blade. These stages could be specified in the raws with a token to tell the dwarf what item they should be adjacent to like:
[STAGE:1:ITEM:ITEM_TOOL_BARREL]


[Tool use and Durability]
Tools such as the Boning knife, or carving fork aren’t really used, with the exception of angry citizens in adv mode. I want these to be implemented in fort mode as required reagents in reactions. For a kitchen, you would need slicing/boning/butcher knives when cooking meat, slicing when cooking vegi, and ladles when cooking with liquids (unsure about powders). Forges could require an anvil, tongs, a hammer, a firesafe barrel (for the hot coals) another barrel of any material (for the water) and perhaps a bellows or bin for the ingots. With tools implemented the hospital could also use a cleaver, bone saw, sewing needles, or mallet (for reshaping bones when broken or for diagnosis) the tools required could be specified in the raws as needed (i.e. only needing a ladle when liquids are being cooked/ if cooking a roast, you should need a carving fork)


As of right now, things such as pickaxes are indestructible (unless used in combat) no matter what material it’s made from. A copper pixaxe would probably break within the year, while a steel one might last for over a decade or more. This would incentivize using high quality materials and good smithies when making what would be normally unchanged by quality or material. I’d personally like it if tools slowly wore away (the time this takes could be calculated via item properties) including things like anvils and chains (causing mechanical malfunction if using poorly made items or with soft/brittle materials)


I know some of you are thinking “but if I use a steel knife, it shouldn’t break from cutting meat”
True, but even the hardest knives chip or dull overtime. If you’re using well made tools, they will need to be replaced far less often. Things with perfect values like adamantine or modded metals would last nearly forever.


I’d love to hear your suggestions or ways this could be reasonable implemented

This mod removes almost all fantasy aspects from DF. Replacing all civs with unique medieval era countries. (the game also is a bit faster with so many less creatures to load)

Download: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=13227

The following have been removed:
-fantasy animals
-fantasy plants
-fantasy metals
-animal people
-"giant" versions of animas (excluding a few irl ones like the giant tortoise)
--(Demons, FB, Boogeys, Curses, werepeople, vampirism, necromancy, and evil/good biomes are removed via a preset in advanced world parameters, please use it!)

The following have been added:
-new food types
-new dialog when talking to npcs
-several medieval countries
-replaced Kobolds with troglodytes
-my own custom ASCII (cherrywood)
-a few other secrets for you to find

Planned features:
-more civs
-historically accurate arms and armor
-realistic smithing and metallurgy
-irl plants to fill caves

known issues:
-caves are a bit monotonous and lack variety in plants and animals.
-civs need to be more fleshed out and differentiated (coming soon)
-many less beast quests (will be made up for with more bandit and fetch quests)

This is only the first version so let me know about any issues/suggestions