Bay 12 Games Forum

'v'iew them to see their skills. They will do jobs associated with those skills. Unless I'm totally wrong.

Quote from: MonkeyHead on March 04, 2012, 08:01:37 am

Boundaries and filters would be needed though to prevent "stupid" behaviours - things like conflicting ethics tags, or cultures devoted to fishing in the desert.

So do a ton of work to implement procedurally generated cultures, and then another ton of work to filter out the ones that don't make any sense, so that we can have basically the cultures we already have. The stock, hardcoded DF Elves are already more interesting than whatever this algorithm would vomit up, but they're not proceeeedural!

(They're also the same for everyone, which means we can talk about them and have a common reference point. I think the value of this is badly underestimated.)

Okay, first off, why would" not morbidly stupid" equate to "exactly what's in DF right now"? Personally, I like the idea of differences between worlds or between nations of the same world. If nothing else, wars would be more frequent. And I really don't get the idea of "generic tree-hugging cannibals are more interesting than one of a wide variety of dictatorships, fishing cultures, nations where pride is based on the number of chickens and cavies you own, etc."

Alchemy just might save this idea from the refuse stockpile. Once alchemy is implemented, I imagine that a few alchemal processes would be discovered during worldgen. After that, maybe moody alchemists would invent new formulae.

Propaganda may just have a cost to perform for one thing.

In Jared Diamond's Collapse, one of the great Native American cities of Mexico (whose name I can't really spell, and isn't all that important to the story), actually destroyed its own environment because it would continuously update the plasters that displayed propaganda along the walls of its city.  Boiling down the materials for the plaster took wood for fuel that eventually led to them deforesting their area to such a degree that soil erosion destroyed their farms. 

Ah, yes, excellent book. I believe you're talking about the Mayans. Of course, the issue with that idea is that not all propaganda requires physical materials. (And that erosion typically happens on a timescale too slow to really be modelled in DF...)

The other thing may be an unruly or jingoist populace that arises over time.  If you tell people that elves are the source of all your troubles as a society for long enough, they may think that you're "soft on elves" if you don't spend what resources you still have left invading an elven retreat.  They may try to take your more reasonable leaders out to establish someone who is qualified by having the most irrational hatred of elves ever seen, to the point where the dwarves grow out of your control and act without you.

Heh. That would be entertaining. Another possibility could be the opposite--dwarves who spend time with elves, for whatever reason, are in danger of talking to--or at least hearing--elves. Either you'd need to spread some more rumors about the words of elves causing dwarves to lose their senses (which would require more labor, incite more "jingoist" movements, and worsen the problem I'm describing), or the dwarves would probably listen, and some might hear what the elves say about them not being horrible monsters that eat babies. ("Are you confusing us with goblins again? They're the ones who rape the land with their metal weapons--OW! That whip really hurts!") If the elves' attempt at convincing the dwarves of their non-monstrosity succeeds, then that dwarf might be able to convince others (or at least get them to listen), leading to a group of dwarves who believe that their government is a horrible group that exists to harrass elves and oppress the dwarves. This could lead to revolution, or at least revolt. This would lead to Fun...

So...strange moods, but better in every way.

No.

Just stand there until they get a bite in. Then...deal with them. Or not, I've had people trying to kill me after I killed a werewolf. It was kinda annoying.

Just what it says in the title.
Here's what I have so far:
[CREATURE:BEETLE_GIANT_MARBLE]
[DESCRIPTION:A massive insect that can be found in the caverns. Its shell is made of marble, which it occasionally sheds from its back.]
[NAME:marble beetle:marble beetles:marble beetle]
[CASTE_NAME:marble beetle:marble beetles:marble beetle]
[CREATURE_TILE:250][COLOR:7:0:0]
[NATURAL]
[BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_CHASM][UNDERGROUND_DEPTH:1:1]
[FREQUENCY:250]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:50:75]
[SPEED:1500]
[PREFSTRING:protective shells]
[ALL_ACTIVE]
[NO_SLEEP][NOT_LIVING]
[PET]
[HOMEOTHERM:10071]
[SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:3000]
[NOBONES]
[BODY:INSECT:2EYES:HEART:GUTS:BRAIN:MOUTH:2WINGS]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_MATERIALS]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_TISSUES]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:EXOSKELETON_TISSUE_LAYERS:CHITIN:FAT:MUSCLE]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:STANDARD_HEAD_POSITIONS]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SINEW:SINEW_TEMPLATE]
[TENDONS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[LIGAMENTS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[HAS_NERVES]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:ICHOR:ICHOR_TEMPLATE]
[BLOOD:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:ICHOR:LIQUID]
[CREATURE_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[GETS_WOUND_INFECTIONS]
[GETS_INFECTIONS_FROM_ROT]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:PUS:PUS_TEMPLATE]
[PUS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:PUS:LIQUID]
[BODY_SIZE:0:0:1000]
[BODY_SIZE:0:168:3000]
[BODY_SIZE:1:0:7000]
[CHILD:1]
[MAXAGE:2:3]
[CASTE:FEMALE]
[FEMALE]
[CASTE:MALE]
[MALE]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:CHITIN]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:RED:3:YELLOW:1:ORANGE:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:chitin:SINGULAR]
[TISSUE_LAYER_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:LENGTH:0:0:0:0:0:0:0]
[APP_MOD_NOUN:wings:PLURAL]
[APP_MOD_RATE:1:DAILY:0:300:0:0:NO_END]
[APP_MOD_DESC_RANGE:10:50:100:150:200:300]
[SHEARABLE_TISSUE_LAYER:LENGTH:300]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:EYE:EYE]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BLACK:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:eyes:PLURAL]

This will make it a beetle that appears in the first cavern layer, and be tameable, but be shelled with chitin and not marble. What would I need to do to make the shell be marble? (Actually being able to use the marble ideal but optional.)

That being said, most of the FD races fit with the DF universe. Great fiend spiders are evil GCSs, war elephants are steel-armed elephants, ferric elves are elves with iron, beak wolves are clever beak dogs...

My main point is, maybe you could add a low-power enemy that comes, starting right after embark. Something like some sort of wild animal, but eviler (kinda like dark stranglers and beak wolves from FD, but maybe less fantasy-ey). Something like a race of worgs (e.g. evil wolves)? They'd lack [INTELLIGENT] and [CAN_SPEAK], most likely, so they'd be a useful food source later on. Hm...maybe I should do a mod like that...