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Topics - Jeoshua

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16
DF Community Games & Stories / Nightjar?
« on: May 01, 2011, 05:25:42 pm »
Code: [Select]
A huge eyeless nightjar.  It has an enormous shell and it moves about
carelessly.  Its blue feathers are long and narrow.  Beware its poisonous sting!

What in the ever-loving hell is a nightjar.

I swear, Titans are getting weirder every day.

17
DF Suggestions / Entity level ethnic groups
« on: April 30, 2011, 11:11:15 am »
I've been doing a bit of modding recently, and I have found myself wanting a few things to be implemented into the game.  One of the biggest is ethnic groups.

I made several different "cultures" which all have differing languages, governments, and reactions.  They all have the same creature type - human.  For the most part this works very well.  Adding the correct tags to their governments makes it so each culture can take another over easily and naturally.  It makes the world much more dynamic.

But I am experiencing some problems.  Namely, the tissue layer markers.  Since all the human cultures are based on the human creature, when generating a random culture, the game chooses a random skin and hair color from the basic creature file.  This often does not jibe with the real-world culture I am trying to emulate.  I have seen Black-skinned "Asians", pearly-white "Arabs", and Sepia "Nords".

If one were able to set an Entity-level token that would allow an entity to have a specific kind of skin or hair color, as we are now able to set their hair-styles, this process would be made much easier.

Also, when a creature moves from town to town, and settles in a different culture, they keep their name and coloration.  However, when they marry and have children, those children are invariably a member of their adopted culture in all ways: name, color, and tissue.  It doesn't even seem to matter what cultural group their mate is from, either.

I would imagine that Toady's wish is to make ethnic groups possible, but have them be more procedural than pre-set.  This is good, but these kinds of entity-level tags would make it easier to set up "hints" in the files, allowing the produced procedural cultures to have several sets of pre-generated data from which to choose and adapt FROM.

In summary:
Entity level skin and hair color tags
Tracking of a family's actual ethnic heritage
Better genetic model

Also, not so much a suggestion but a question: Has anyone done any research on the genetics tags that are already in-game? There appears to be two tags, Appearance and Tissue Layer.  There are also three types of genetic model found in the string dump.  I have yet to find any information on how to use these, and/or what the different types mean.

18
DF Suggestions / Legends mode: Debug export
« on: April 22, 2011, 01:02:50 pm »
I've noticed that when one creates a world with "all history revealed", that is not actually the case that all of the information in Legends mode is actually revealed.  Underground Regions are hidden, certain historical entities are not shown, and many various things are not exported.  Underground civilizations are not even mentioned, for example, even tho they can be found.

It would be nice, for us modders and world tweakers out there, if there were an option to export ALL information.  Every last bit of it would be useful for debugging a world, or mod, or what have you.

Especially annoying is the lack of the exporting of the reasons for a war, even tho this is revealed in Legends mode, it is not in the XML. And when trying to make a race which gets killed off every time in worldgen, it would be extremely useful to know why such-and-such a race attacked them in the first place.

19
I say this because I always turn off Night Creatures.  They quickly overrun the entire world, take out every King, Queen, Baron, and Duke around them, and NEVER DIE.  They can be killed, but in the time it takes for one worldgenned adventurer to kill one, they spawn 10 more... who also don't die.

If they were able to die off from old age we wouldn't have this problem

And I could go back to having boogiemen.

20
General Discussion / Windows 7 Antivirus: Punked!
« on: April 20, 2011, 08:28:55 pm »
That bitch ain't got NOTHIN on me!

My friend just "accidentally" was infected with the spyware program "Windows 7 Antivirus".  He proceeded to try to run it and became concerned when it asked him to register.  So I calmly informed him it was a virus, and I could fix it for him.  He didn't think it would work, and tried installing an antivirus program he had bought but never installed.  It failed to do the trick.

He thought his computer was dying.  So I bet him I could fix the computer up before the virus scan even finished.

10 minuites and literally 3 regedit searches later (shitty coding), he now owes me money.

Seriously, Scare-ware ain't got nothin on me.

21
DF Suggestions / [NEEDS_POWER] and [GENERATES_POWER:x]
« on: April 18, 2011, 10:11:45 pm »
I searched, okay.  It's been mentioned but theres never been a dedicated thread for it, so far as I can tell.

This would be a great tag for custom workshops.  With it, whole new kinds of devices could be generated.  Treadmills, Water Reactors, NUCLEAR reactors (requires pitchblende, maybe uranium, and water).  But that's not all.

It could be used as a balancing mechanic on other workshops, requiring that they be linked up to some mechanical power source, in order to function.

And the beautiful part is, it wouldn't be all that hard to implement.  The mechanics are already in the game, so to speak.  All that's required is the tags and a way to check whether a workshop is powered, and the last part is already there as Mills clearly indicate.

What do you all think?

22
DF Modding / Hell Civ
« on: April 17, 2011, 01:42:50 pm »
If I add [UNDERGROUND_DEPTH:5:5] to a creature, then make their Entity [LAYER_LINKED], will they only show up in hell?

23
DF Modding / I need more megabeasts
« on: April 14, 2011, 07:03:02 pm »
I mean good ones.  Not ones taken from some other game (unless that game took them from fairly standard fantasy), or unkillable beasts (Death/Terrasque/Galactus, Devourer of Worlds).

Anyone know a good source?  I have Genesis already and I'm tired of all the megas ONLY being dragons.  Plus... they're pretty hard to kill for the Worldgenners.

I like my worlds generating through various stages.  Age of Myth is ok, but when it's the year 1050, there are 10k people in the world, and still it is not the Age of Legends, I feel like something is wrong.  Those badass Dragons will still be there when I want to adventure or play fortress mode, since they're so badass, but in the meantime I want to have some killable stuff out there.

Bonus points if they breed.

Megabonus if they have multiple castes.

Ultrabonus if they hunt vermin, too.

24
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / She left me to die
« on: April 13, 2011, 10:04:38 pm »
So here I am, a Drow.

Asithi Ferrena.  Swordsdrow.  Nevermind my heritage as an albino.  The others never understood, called me names.  They called me "Elf".  More than a few suffered my wrath at that abominable name.  To call me that is to see your teeth on the ground, I can assure you.

Even my surname is a joke. "Shadedeeps" is what they told me it means.  "Ghost one" is what they mean when they say it.  I can see it in their eyes.  Instead of taking it as an insult, it is instead, my pride.  Never do my enemies see me comming.  And neither did my people see me leave the caverns.  I had enough of their sniveling - their jeering - their staring.  I would make a name for myself.

Off I set, to the wilds of the caverns.  I happened upon a chute leading upward, and followed the smell of fresh air upwards into the light.  Only a scant few yards away, I found a road.  Leading to a human town.

Surely, this is my chance! A chance to make it.  Why, with my skin, they won't even suspect my Droven herritage.  None of the ridicule.  None of the taunting.  Finally, I will be a hero to someone.

I inquired about work, and was told of a particularly dastardly individual: Athene Quickwaters.  She was a bandit who had been giving these good folk a bit of trouble, and an elf, to boot! Not one of those High Elves, but a Sylvan.  Forest rats.  The very kind that drove my ancestors away oh so long ago.  I was going to enjoy this

------

I set out in the morning.  My blade glistened with oils, sharp and ready for the kill.  I arrived in her camp around nightfall.  Stopping to drop my goods, I crouched low and approached silently.  Never since childhood had anyone been able to see me comming.

Well this time, I never saw her comming.

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by Athene and her cronies.  Oh, they didn't know what kind of Drow they were messing with, I tell you.  A couple of her lackeys were Naga.  This is why we Drow have no love for the Sylvans, even after these long millenia of separation.  They mix too easilly with the other races.  No matter.  Four arms just means double the targets for my blade to bite into.

Long we fought into the night, until finally it was just me.... and Athene.

"You have done well, but now... you should prepare to die, youngling.", she said with a wry smile on her dirt smeared face.

"You know nothing of me or who I am!" I bellowed. "It is YOU who will die this night!"

"You know, once I might have believed you.  You certainly seem to believe it yourself.  But you Drow - yes I know what you are, dear - have been underground too long.  The Dwarves have made some surprising advances recently." she said.

And pulled out a large cylinder, black and ruthless looking.  A picture of a dragon was engraved on it's length.  The dragon was laughing.  A village was burning.  It menaced with a smell of saltpeter and sulfur.

"Say goodnight, sweet drow"

There was a great explosion.  Pain seared through my entire lower half.  My sword, constant companion and my only defense, fell to the ground... and soon I followed it, sinking into a black abyss that knew no bounds.  A restless, dreamless sleep enveloped me.

--------

When I awoke, she was gone.  I got up to find my things scattered about the glade.  Dead body parts were everywhere, and I remembered the night before.  I tried to stand up and pain wracked my body.  I passed back out, I know not for how long.

When I awoke for the second time, I knew she had left me for dead.  That bitch.  And that weapon.  I must have it.  I must find her and take it from her... I will make her suffer the indignities that she heaped upon me

But I will not be so merciful.

I have taken a new name, now.

Asithifama Nula
The Terrorcovered of Burials.

The next grave I see, I swear will be hers.

------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

25
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Cave-a-lanch
« on: April 13, 2011, 11:46:13 am »
So I just started an adventure, went out and killed a few high elven bandits for fun, and what do my wondering eyes find when comming back into town?

CAVE-A-LANCH!

All of a sudden my FPS fell to 0.0001, and it took about 20 minutes for this computer to finish it.  The smoke still hasn't cleared in the lower areas, but it looks to go at least to the first cavern layer, maybe lower.

I've heard about this kind of thing happening often, so why do I even mention it?

I have a save file from 2 seconds before it happened.  It's repeatable.  What should I do with this save?

26
DF Modding / Time Travel?
« on: April 12, 2011, 04:48:07 pm »
This is why I love LegendsViewer.  Without it, I would have never known that demons could travel through time in order to rule over not one, but two civilizations.  Slippery Scorpion, indeed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

27
DF Modding / "Real" Language files
« on: April 06, 2011, 06:17:19 am »
So far the only two language files I've found in any mod that are representative of real earth languages are English (from Hunter's Moon) and Finnish (from Genesis).  Does anyone know of any real languages that have been translated into the language_*.txt files?

Sounding real doesn't count for much more than cool points (see the "orcish" language file for an example of that.  Xinglingwanchinlantonwaitonfal is NOT freaking Chinese).

28
DF Suggestions / Baby dwarves should take their mother's surname
« on: April 05, 2011, 09:29:35 am »
As it is, we can never be sure who is related to whom based on their names.  Due to the fact that Dwarves reproduce seemingly by spores once they're married, the true parentage of the baby dwarf cannot be known any more specifically than who it's mother is.  For this reason, I suggest that baby dwarves take their mother's last name as their own, instead of having one generated from whole cloth.

29
DF Suggestions / A few thoughts for the new city maps
« on: April 05, 2011, 05:10:33 am »
I love them, first off, but there are a few things that would make them much better.

Take Terrain into account: Organically grown cities grow up with the terrain underneath them greatly affecting the outcome of their street plan.  Roads encountering hills should do one of two things: Go up the hill, or go around it.  No middle ground.  Same with rivers (bridge or parallel).

Named features:  King's road or The Silk Gate.  Generate names for different things in town, people give you directions based on that.

Districts: It would be nice if there were ways for cities to grow larger during worldgen and "swallow up" neighbooring towns.  They would become a district (like how Brooklyn was once it's own town).

And some things this thread has brought to light for me:

Starvation causes exodus: Instead of people waiting around for their inevitable deaths, inhabitants of a town that has no food should have a choice to move on to another, already established town, or stay.  The chances for each person should be based on their personalities, maybe Adventurousness making them leave more often and Dutifulness making them more likely to stay.

Pets become food to hungry people: Speaks for itself.  When you have 1000 useless canine meatbags wandering around a city that starved to death, it's hard to imagine nobody looked at those dogs and thought "hmm, I could eat that".  Elves may have an exception to that.

Pets of fallen cities go feral: I really believe this is what is happening with all those forts which have 1000 dogs in them, but no people.  Pets should go walkabout once their owners are gone for any substantial length of time.

30
DF Modding / Slowing down growth in Worldgen
« on: April 04, 2011, 11:36:18 am »
I'm trying to make a world with 1000 years of history, no population or site caps, and yet NOT have humans take over every square inch of land they can get their grubby little hands on.  So far I've tried the following:

Extended baby/child stage: Under the assumption that creatures who are not yet adults cannot breed, I attempted to make human children turn into the toddler stage at age 3, and only become seen as adults at age 15.  This has seemingly no effect in worldgen, and unless handled carefully can lead to cities overrun with children.  They are smaller and easier to kill, however, so in a high megabeast environment, it does seem to cut down on the growth a little bit.

"Sterile" castes: Female for all purposes except for a [LITTERSIZE:0:0] token.  Presumably these frigid women, whom I have making up 10% of the female population, should get married normally to otherwise fertile males, lowering the population count somewhat.  It doesn't seem to have any effect on the humans' eventual domination of the world.  I do, however, like this idea.  Not everyone is a breeder.  Some people might be gay, others genetically sterile, and still others simply uninterested in having children.

The biggest problem with the sterile castes is that they are considered a separate gender, so I can't make sterile males.  [MALE] implies impregnation.  There is no [LITTERSIZE] equivalent tag to make them not generate babyspores.  And they're called "it" which I don't like on anything except the elves (who are pretty androgynous in my imagination)

Lower max civ sizes: Doesn't seem to work at all past the initial generation of the civ, since civs will still accept immigrants into their populations and ignore this cap.  I am not sure where those immigrants are coming from, but in Legends mode they report as "Human" in all ways except birth (which I can't find listed anywhere... spontaneously generated?).

Limited Biomes: Doesn't work how I want it to at all.  Civs will still use up every available inch of space surrounding their cities, up to the point that they do not support the next biome over.  I did find out something interesting, in that an entity with

[BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_DESERT:3]

is actually less likely to spread than one with

[BIOME_SUPPORT:DESERT_SAND:1]
[BIOME_SUPPORT:DESERT_ROCK:1]
[BIOME_SUPPORT:DESERT_BADLAND:1]

Am I missing anything here?  I'd like to be able to keep the artificial population caps off and be able to generate an organic, living world with 1000 years of history.

Oh, I've also tried changing the volcanism settings just in case, so "MAGMA" is not a proper answer ;)

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