Bay 12 Games Forum

I need some help in terms of modding in order to try and recreate Noah's Island in Dwarf Mode. For those that haven't seen the show here is the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Island (TLDR: A magma powered island run by speaking animals).

So firstly I'll need a volcanic island map, then I'll somehow need to get a selection of skilled animals of various species on the island - the bit ill need help with most.

So far my thinking is thus:
1. Mod dwarves into Polar Bears and so that i can have Noah the Polar Bear in my embarking 7 then kill off the other six so I am left soley with him on a magma powered island.
2. Mod various animals with [can_learn] and [can_speak] and then somehow trade for them or perhaps embark with them so that I have the Polar Bear as mayor and the other animals doing various other jobs.
3. Sit back and enjoy.

Seeing as I've never done any modding before I will likely need plenty 'o help from you modding pros out there.

Can dwarves autoclaim tombs if I have them assigned to nobody just like dwarves autoclaim rooms?

Apart from the fact that the gameplay is second to none, the randomly generated names are what truly make this game great. I just had a bowyer go fey and i was hoping for some epic crossbow when he started demanding some gems and other cool stuff, i was so determined to get the artifact  I had to kill a dwarven caravan that was leaving my depot just to get some turtles to eat and get their shells. I was bloody pissed off when it turned out to be a blowgun, however the fact that the artefact had an image related to the rising of the giant desert scorpian "Wheelslapped" made me laugh so damned hard, all the annoying micro management was worth it.

So i loved the obsidian monolith map that magua uploaded but i didnt like the location. I want to start a segregated fortress where the dwarves arrive to find a huge obsidian monolith - maybe the gods made it? But since it just appears to have been made by gods/ aliens or w/e i might aswell use cheats to make it, since doing it otherwise takes ages and is boring. So far ive been making water and magma in alternate layers using 'for each tile' in tweak. However ive hit a snag, ive been using traffic designations to designate where to create the magma and water but now that ive got above all the features of the terrain i can't designate traffic areas. Is there any way i can designate where i put the magma and water? I have built a staricase next to the monolith but that doesnt let me designate the whole thing. Is there some way i can designate any tile in the map with traffic designations?

After playing DF for a few months now and having my fort run along nicely with a population of 180 atm i finally did something dwarfish. Up until now i sort of had a big courtyard with a big wall and towers at all four corners with a moat and drawbridges and inside that a complicated entrance with shooting galleries either side (and also a nice waterfall through my legendery dining room), and thats as dwarfish as it ever really got. Until now!

I noticed i had the incoming king in my nobles screen so i decided to build his rooms before i fulfilled the demands for his arrival. after designing nice big rooms with magma and water channels fo decoration and pillars and such i started looking around for an epic spot to put his tomb - then i realised that directly below my circular pit of doom (so called cos thats where i chuck the captured gobbos to be shredded by a dragon) there was a circular space encircled by the moat of water and then the moat of lava which goes around the pit of doom. So i dug the circular area out and put my nice Artifact coffin in the center so that when the king is laid to rest he will know that only a few feet above, goblins are being torn limb from limb in Armoks name. - pretty good i thought!

However now i think about it there was a massive missed oppurtunity-the coffin should have a floor grate above it so the it would be soaked in the blood of my sacrifices but i cant get to the pit of doom because: a) theres a dragon running loose inside and b) its completely sealed off by a moat of lava. Is there a utility that will allow me to change that one tile to be channeld out and have a grate on it?

i have a champion marksdwarf with a copper crossbow and i want to give him a nice high quality steel one. how do i get him to drop the copper one and pick a new one up. i forbided it but he still carried it around, just didnt use it.