Bay 12 Games Forum

Hey everyone,

This is mod-related, but I'm a lot more likely to find what I need if I post it here, so I apologize for the slightly misplaced post. I'm working on my graphics pack, but my free time situation doesn't allow me to actually play a ton of Dwarf Fortress. I want to figure out how the graphics work for forgotten beasts and variant creatures (animal people and giant creatures which are not defined directly in the raws).

Can anyone please donate a save file or two to my cause?

What does it do?
Updating your mod for each release is a pain, right? Well hopefully not any more. I kept trying to solve the time problem with complex utilities, but this time I'm building something super simple. RawPatcher to the rescue. The utility goes through the DF raws and modifies the values that were changed in your Mod raws, and adds new entries where none previously existed.

The tool will attempt to intelligently merge raw objects according to this logic:

1. The first token in the tag is treated as the name of that "property".
2. If the property doesn't exist on the source object, it is added to the end.
3. If an exact match for the property is found in the source object, no changes are made.
4. If one instance of the property exists in the original and mod objects, the mod property replaces the original property.
5. If multiple instances of the property exist in either location, the mod property is added to the end of the object.

You can also force behaviour by using the following tag formats:

[ADD_TAG:METAL_ORE:IRON:100] will add the tag [METAL_ORE:IRON:100] to the end of the object, regardless of what is already there. If a tag is found which matches this exactly, it will not be added.

REMOVE_TAG removes a single property that best matches the provided tag. An error results if multiple tags ties for best match.
[REMOVE_TAG:METAL_ORE] will remove [METAL_ORE:IRON:100] if it is the only METAL_ORE on the object. There will be an error if it also has [METAL_ORE:LEAD:100]
[REMOVE_TAG:METAL_ORE:IRON] would remove [METAL_ORE:IRON:100] if both tags existed.

[REMOVE_ALL:METAL_ORE] will remove all METAL_ORE tags on the object. Only accepts a single parameter.

DFFD link: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3353

Installation
1. Install Adobe AIR
2. Double-click the AIR file
Should work on PC, Mac and Linux. Contact me if it doesn't, please

Usage
1. Create "mod raw" files containing ONLY your changes. (see below for example)
2. Point the utility to your mod files and a clean copy of the df raws
3. Point the utility to an output folder
4. Click "Do It"

Notes
- files in the source folder with no counterpart in the mod folder will be copied directly
- files in the mod folder with no counterpart in the source folder will be copied directly
- the order of objects in the raws don't matter. The tool is smart enough to match up tags to objects
- the tool is not smart enough to match things up well with hierarchical sub-tags at this point, so some of the more complex raws may not work well
- you can use this tool to combine several mods together by using the output from the first merge as the base for the next merge
- all comment text is completely stripped during this process

Roadmap
I'll eventually put up a poll to see what I should prioritize, but this is my personal order for now.
1. Eliminate the restrictions on sub-folders are raw file types
2. Save last selected folders
3. Generate a mod folder describing the difference between two sets of raws
4. Select multiple mods to apply at once, detect conflicts
5. Single file merge
6. Rule-based changes
7. Add support for init files
8. Retain comments

Example
In the DF Raw (inorganic_stone_mineral.txt)


In the mod Raw (inorganic_stone_mineral.txt)

In the merged Raw (inorganic_stone_mineral.txt)
inorganic_stone_mineral

Hey everyone, I just wanted to broadcast this out officially. I am taking a bit of a hiatus from Dwarf Fortress and modding while I get my business up and running. Hopefully I can return when 0.31 is more stable. I don't expect to be gone more than 3-4 months before I can start getting back into this.

I have a partially completed transition to 0.31 compatibility. If anyone wants to help me out by finishing that conversion off, just let me know and we'll figure something out. Apologies to anyone that's been waiting, I had hoped to get this done before I got pulled away but it just wasn't in the cards.

Now that I've learned to handle a decent number of dwarves, I'm considering my first megaproject. The design viewed in 3D will be relatively complex. Are there any good 3D sketching tools out there? I tried LEGO creator and it caused some really strange graphical problems whenever it was running.

There's also a few different auto-designation tools out there, which one is the best for megaprojects? This one is going to span a few embark tiles.

I'm considering setting a low pop limit in the init file for most of my fortress construction. In vanilla DF, would this generally make the game easier (lack of nobles, no need to expand food industry, etc)? Or harder  (I refuse to rely heavily on traps, so military pressure is likely to be high). I would prefer to have a dedicated corps of legendaries doing the job I need with some stat-boosted haulers supporting them, and a small, well trained military than a sprawling fortress full of dabbling incompetants.

I was considering a pop limit around 30 dwarves during construction.

Mainly I want to do this because I've noticed that when you're focused on construction and expansion, rather than generating wealth, the additional bodies end up idling or engaged exclusively in supporting each other's needs. Oh, and slowly torturing the FPS to death as well. I'd rather get my fortress built and prepared with a "work crew" and then open the floodgates once the fortress is ready.

Any thoughts?

I meant to get this done much earlier than this, but better late than never. I have applied my changes to the stones and ores, and used more symbolic tiles for them so that they fit in better with the vanilla tiles. I also adapted my levers and used my water tiles. I used the Guybrush-modifed version of Herrbdog's tileset as my basis. I also used a couple of characters from Nostalgia's 8x8 set for the Layer minerals.

This tileset requires the removal of accented characters (included) and is best viewed with one of the Natural colour sets.

DFFD: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=1694

Here is an explanation of the various stone tiles.


I have made a couple of improvements that I intend to port back to the graphical version:

Fuel ores and Magma-safe ores no longer share a tile.
Since it is the only mineral in which Diamonds can be found, I've given Kimberlite its own tile.

This is the colour scheme I am currently using:

Hi everyone,

I'm quite proud to present the first release of my modding tool for Dwarf Fortress.  This should be considered a beta release, and I have no documentation ready for it at all.  Back up your files before you use it, because I can only test so much on my own.

Download from DFFD


Here's a quick step-by-step to get you into the tile editor.

Step 1:  Make sure you have Adobe AIR installed (Go to http://www.adobe.com/ and click the "Get Adobe AIR" button)
Step 2:  Install the .air files from DFFD by double clicking it
Step 3:  Run Urist McModder
Step 4:  From the File menu, Select Mod Location.  Point this to the root of your mod.
NOTE: Urist expects the mod to be in DF structure; with a raw and data folder at the top level.
Step 5:  From the Editors menu, New Graphics Editor
Step 6:  In the new Graphics Editor window, go to File, Open and select one of the graphics.txt files you've created already
Step 7:  Enjoy.

There's a bunch of functionality in there, feel free to explore (but once again, back up your files, please).  It can't cause any damage until you Save.  You can create as many instances of Urist McGraphics as you like, to work on multiple tilesets at once.