Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Noobazzah]

After some testing, I've decided to try and fiddle with the toughness of the skin layer instead, and disabling all kinds of healing in all tissues. After I'm satisfied with my prototype, I'll read the wiki pages concerning tags (already read the tutorial on modding) and start working on producing a whole lot of mechanical pets. In addition to the larger, more combat-ready models, I'll make a couple of 'servant' variants as well, maybe even similar to the masterwork slaves (though more ethically correct). So, my last question for now is; how much can castes differ from each other? For instance, can I make a dwarf-like servant that's capable of speech with a subcaste that's, say, a human-sized construct with heavier 'plating' and a sword blade bodypart IN ADDITION to a completely different set of tags and descriptions? I've looked into ant men, but didn't get the answer I needed.

[smakemupagus]

Sure, castes can be as different as you want.  You can have a bronze colossus and a fluffy wambler as castes of the same creature if you want.  (They'll interbreed, and be able to share clothes, and other funny side effects.)

[Trapezohedron]

Sure, castes can be as different as you want.  You can have a bronze colossus and a fluffy wambler as castes of the same creature if you want.  (They'll interbreed, and be able to share clothes, and other funny side effects.)

What he said.

Seriously, castes are very flexible. Good luck using [SELECT_CASTE:X] and [SELECT_ADDITIONAL_CASTE:X] though.

One caste could have steam blood, the other, liquid blood, and be very fast. One could be flesh, and the other, metal.

[Noobazzah]

Alright, thanks for the advice. I'm thinking about making it like this once I get a solid grasp of the basics;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Brass Servant, a feeble yet fairly smart (has CAN_LEARN for instance) construct about the size of a dwarf. I'll see what kind of tasks it can perform, aside from making friends. It'll have one or two sub-castes, with more specialized traits but no intelligence. Then there's the Guardian. The cheapest will be a clumsy yet powerful wrestler, I'll make upgraded versions with weapons and additional armor as well. I may make a servant-copy of all the major races just for exercise, to familiarize myself with all the bodytemplate shizzle, and give them appropriate interactions once I get the hang of that as well. For instance, a brass skulker (kobold variant) could have a mist spraying ability that allows it to become hidden for a while.

For the sake of both balance and personal opinion, I'll make them so that they have next to no chance of performing dodges. I'll also make them at least slower than dwarves (the aforementioned skulker might be an exception). Does adding more skin layers affect combat? As in, will two skin layers offer extra protection, or will the game treat them as a single layer?

[Trapezohedron]

I haven't really tweaked layers around that much, but I think tissues in the same layer are treated separately? Not really sure about this though.

You could make the layer thicker though, and I think it's suitable enough for what you're trying to achieve.

Question, is that creature you're making a civ creature, or a pet?

[Noobazzah]

A pet, to keep things "simple". There'd probably be some weird breeding stuff and other problems with this many castes, right? Since the servants and guardians differ so much, I'll probably make them separate creatures anyway, with just their variants as sub-castes.

[Hugo_The_Dwarf]

to prevent "breeding" or cross breeding make the "normal" castes like dwarves have a very high POP_RATIO on their castes, then all the other "slave" castes have POP_RATIO:1 this makes it so they will be very unlikely to be born naturally. Also any transformations to these castes the syndrome should slap a STERILE tag onto them (note STERILE is a SYNDROME only tag)

The only oddity that can happen is if they aquire a relationship with the other castes "friend, or lover" the lover part can be avoided if the castes lack a MALE/FEMALE tag but then they are genderless which is also odd.

[Noobazzah]

I have another question now, so I tought I'd post it here to save posting a new topic. I'm trying to make a few experimental spells that only work in adventure mode, but [CDI:USAGE_HINT:ATTACK:SELF_ONLY] or alternatively just [CDI:USAGE_HINT:SELF_ONLY] won't stop humans using it in fortress mode. What am I doing wrong?

[Trapezohedron]

I assume they're spamming the skills on everyone?

A typical interaction is like this.

      [CAN_DO_INTERACTION:START:0]
         [CDI:ADV_NAME:Void - Banshee scream]
         [CDI:USAGE_HINT:ATTACK] <------
         [CDI:INTERACTION:BANSHEE_SCREAM]
         [CDI:TARGET:A:LINE_OF_SIGHT] <-
         [CDI:TARGET_RANGE:A:4]
         [CDI:VERB:scream:screams:NA]
         [CDI:TARGET_VERB:are caught in the sonic blast:is caught in the sonic blast]
         [CDI:MAX_TARGET_NUMBER:A:6]
         [CDI:WAIT_PERIOD:500]

The arrows are pointing to the proper usage of the hint tokens.

[CDI:USAGE_HINT:ATTACK:SELF_ONLY] is not a valid token, and as such, they will spam it. Usage hint puts a limit on how a creature should use an interaction. Putting ATTACK as the usage hint will limit them to use the interaction on the hostile foe.

CDI:TARGET is where or to whom the interaction should apply. LINE_OF_SIGHT, as you'd expect, targets creatures within its line of sight. Mixing ATTACK and LINE_OF_SIGHT makes the creature use the interaction as an attack to a visible foe.

And since I think I know what you plan to do with those interactions (race members can't use spells), what you'd want is to type it in the way it is showed in the example.

[Noobazzah]

Ok, thank you very much. So, I'd use [CDI:USAGE_HINT:ATTACK] and [CDI:USAGE_HINT:SELF_ONLY] as separate entries? Got it.

[Trapezohedron]

Ok, thank you very much. So, I'd use [CDI:USAGE_HINT:ATTACK] and [CDI:TARGET:A:SELF_ONLY] as separate entries? Got it.

Fixed. Basically, the AI never uses the interaction, because it cannot attack itself.

[Noobazzah]

Right, typo, sorry.