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[Fedor]

DESCRIPTION:

This is the Wonderwork sub-mod for Masterwork V6.1. It rethinks minerals, gems, and DF geology, metals, metal smelting and alloying, and  currency and trade. The races that see substantial changes in how they play are Dwarves, Humans, and Orcs. Gnomes and Hermits see smaller changes. Succubi and Warlocks are least affected.

Its inspirations are the Minerals Mod by Sean Mirrsen, the Wonderment Mod by Fedor, and some very hard thinking about how Meph and collaborators' Masterwork Mod has re-imagined the DF cosmos and every race in it.

VERSION: 0.2 DOWNLOAD: DFFD page

Wonderwork is currently in BETA.


INSTALLATION:
1. Copy the enclosed object files into \MasterworkDF V6.1\Dwarf Fortress\raw\objects\; replace all files with the same names.
2. Double-click on \MasterworkDF V6.1.
2a. In the Civilizations tab, you may choose any playable race.
2b. In Workshops and Furnaces, turn everything on (should be the default settings).
2c. In Misc. Features, Simple Gems, Simple Stone, and Simple Minerals should now have no effect (they're effectively always ON).
3. Play Dwarf Fortress!

Please post issues in the forum, and I'll do my best to fix them!


CHANGES:
Minerals, gems, and Dwarf Fortress geology:
Something like a third of all DF minerals, and a larger fraction of the DF gems were removed. In their place has arrived a diverse assortment of metal ores, ornamental minerals, all of the inorganic gemstones of greatest importance in the ancient and medieval worlds, and a few missing rocks of particular geologic or economic importance. Every retained or new mineral or rock type is either economically important, decorative, or dangerous, or serves as an independent host presenting a unique variety of mineable substances that are are at least one of these things.

Metals, metal smithing, and alloying:
There were three major techniques employed in the pre-modern world to extract iron from its ores and turn that iron into steel: Bloomeries and hand-hammering, Crucibles, and Blast Furnaces and puddling. Each are now offered in the game within suitable workshops, using more correct reagents, and allocated to races according to level of metallurgical savvy. Several advanced alloys of iron exist, culminating in the superalloy Kordamakest. Whatever your choice, if you go with iron rather than bronze you can expect to burn down forests or mine deeply into vast coal seams to win the fuel and coke your thirsty forges need!

Gold has doubled in value. It is slightly rarer now, and you'll find it dangerous to extract more than a trickle from its ordinary ores, but its purchasing power is the highest of any metal used in trade.

Every boring metal in the game is gone. If it didn't have a unique part to play in Masterwork DF, it got the axe. In the place of the missing and unmourned are several new alloys, offering kobolds, iron-poor Dwarven sites, orcs, and the most luxurious palaces and mountainking's thronehalls new character and richness. Gnomes have gotten a few extra metallurgical goodies, as they're the only race with access to the electic-fired Arc Furnance.

Money and trade:
Currencies got rethought. Then they got rethought again. After about three rounds of edits, we have complete, named currencies for Humans, Dwarves (presently still using human names), Orcs, and Gnomes. The first three of these retain their large-scale Masterwork trade economies. Although Gnomes are not yet active traders, I propose to Meph that this race would logically be vigorous wheeler-dealers within the confines of their hidden communities.

For more details, see next post.

Every trade reaction is revised at least to the extent of using named currencies and to accomodate the following progression of coinage metal values:
Copper, rusty iron, lead (3); tin, brass (6); silver, aluminum (12); electrum (24); platinum (40); gold (48)

Here are the currency units for each race:
# Default names and metals (Humans): copper Deniers, tin Groats, silver Shillings, electrum Crowns, gold Sovereigns
# Dwarves: Use the standard coinage metals. Have no special names yet, but eventually should have a unique set.
# Dwarven Legion: copper Denarius/Denarii, brass Bravus/Bravi, silver Argenteus/Argenti, electrum Solidus/Solidi,
#       gold Imperus/Imperi.
# Gnomes: lead Bits, brass Glintings, aluminum Evershines, (possibly titanium-chromium Coronas).
#      The native value of aluminum for Gnomes is 6, half that of this metal for any other race. A purse of Evershines
#      is made with 2 bars, and therefore Evershines have the same value for gnomes as Shillings do for humans.
# Orcs: lead Gobs, rusty iron Gurushs (2x weight), silver Skillinga (singular skilling), platinum Hothwrai (singular
#      Hothwrain), gold Tyrans.
#      Skillinga and Tyrans are both loan-words, from trade with humans and the Dwarven Legion respectively.
# Goblins: The orcish currency, but perhaps not the Tyrans and/or the Hothwrai
# Kobolds: The human or orcish coinage, as they have no native currency. They might use their own names, or just use
#      barter internally.
# Succubi, Warlocks: Not sure (they're more about souls, anyway). For outside trade, they use the human coinage
#      metals and names for now.


There are a bunch of other alterations and tweaks, but I'll let you discover them! have fun! Or !!FUN!!, whichever.

[Fedor]

OUTSTANDING ISSUES:

No showstoppers; report any bugs here.


------------------------------------------------

COINS IN DF

# Some notes on the behavior of coins (and all other stacks) in DF v34:
#  1. Coins are created as one stack per PRODUCT line. If you run a reaction with the line
#     [PRODUCT:100:3:TOOL:COIN_SOVEREIGNS:INORGANIC:GOLD], you will get one stack of 1500 coins.
#  2. Stacks of any size will be taken to satisfy the number of coins requested in a REAGENT line. No change is
#     provided; entire stacks are consumed.
#  3. Workers never combine stacks - on the floor, in stockpiles, or in bins.
#
# Some notes on the behavior of coins in DF v40 (release 10):
#  1. Unchanged.
#  2. REAGENT lines properly adjust the number of units in the stack; change is provided.
#  3. Unchanged.

These observations bring us to an exchange of views about coins in DF.

Arguments in favor of keeping coins as ITEM_COIN:
1. Don't have to rewrite all the trade and building purchase reactions!
2.  ITEM_COIN has its own special stockpile, which makes moving and storing coins more straightforward than the alternative below.
3. Coins have special descriptive text. Flavor is fun!
4. In the most recent version of the base game, stacks are consumed correctly in reactions and change is provided.

Mixed argument - but mostly in favor of coins (at least in the long term):
5a. Coins, as of DF v0.40, can be practicably subdivided. A remaining problem is that small stacks are (still) never combined, so attempts to use 10 or 100 coins to buy something runs the risk of multiplying small stacks, especially if you have a coin stockpile.
5b. A non-stack item can only be subdivided by exchange into smaller units of currency. This also is not ideal.

Arguments in favor of creating new types of ITEM_TOOL for all coinage (in either DF v0.40 or DF v0.34):
1a. The new types of tool don't just use 1 bar of metal to make, they weigh the same as 1 bar, and cost the same as 1 bar. This makes possible a true-to-life representation of pre-modern era commodity money, which typically had the same value as the metal itself (small change excepted). A remaining issue is that these items only melt into 9/10ths of a bar, so custom reactions are provided.
1b. A stack of 500 coins, by contrast, are almost weightless, yet magically melt into more metal than it takes to make them, and cannot be made to cost less than twice a bar. If you split up a stack of coins into single units (in a danger room, say) and then melt them, you end up with 50 bars for what cost you 1 bar to make. Pretty funny money.
2. ITEM_TOOL production entirely relies on custom reactions - less hard-coding. Why do we care? One reason: coins often have improved quality, which radically changes their value. This makes no sense for commodity money. Custom reactions, however, can have the [SKILL:X] token omitted, which means only items of base quality, and therefore base value, are produced.
3. We don't get tripped up by any quantity "gotchas". If you sell something for 5000 gold Sovereigns, you don't have to add 9 extra PRODUCT tokens to avoid creating some weirdly huge stack.
4. We can avoid having the most valuable unit of currency - a sovereign - be worth a disappointingly small value in either trade or exchange. The value of each unit of a gold stack of ITEM_COIN, as minted and without quality modifiers, is [MATERIAL_VALUE:48]*[item multiplier=10]/500 = 0.96. That and a buck-fifty'll get you a cup of coffee.
5. They (new ITEM_TOOL types) can be freely named. Every currency unit, for every civilization, can have its own name. This is particularly valuable for Masterwork DF, in which trade is so salient a part of the game experience for many races.

In an argument otherwise finely balanced (after update to DF v0.40), #5 casts the deciding vote. Until coins can be named, and until they're a little less physically implausible and exploitative, I propose we use tools to represent coinage.


------------------------------------------------

CHANGES TO WORKSHOPS:

Ore processor:
1. The ore processor no longer works with most ores. Instead, it allows certain races (Dwarves) to comb through ordinary rock for disseminated coal, mineral, and gem occurrences, permitting total value extraction from the subsurface.

Coin Mint:
1. Makes coins very quickly without need for fuel.

Cold forging:
1. A couple of more complex ores yield fewer bars, and tin requires 1 fuel to smelt. Several other minerals - native aluminum, native copper, native silver, native gold, and meteoric iron - can now be cold forged, and tend to yield at least two bars.
2. Weapons can longer be cold forged using less metal than it takes to smelt them.
3. Fixed the hotkeys for the copper item-making reactions

Merchants:
1. Merchants expect more of a profit on most things, especially for Dwarves (work in progress)
2. Bulk and weight factor into prices.
3. The clothing merchant uses vouchers, and Dwarves can trade with this merchant.

Smelter:
1. Every alloy that could be made reliably by ancient technology has been put back in the smelter, regardless of the value of the alloy. If the ancient Greeks or the Incas could do it, it doesn't really count as high tech.
2. Dust, slag, and violent reactions have been adjusted to reflect the ease or difficulty of the alloying. Alloying noble metals, for example, yields little slag.
3. Everything yields substantially less fuel, but given the greater abundance of coal in this mod, you won't be hurting on most maps as long as you can dig, or live in a forest. You may, however, need to treat coke as an important resource again.

Screw Press:
1. The basic coin-making reactions went here, mostly to avoid further cluttering up the smelter.
2. This workshop should always be available, as long as #1 is true.

Transmutation chamber:
1. New rules: 2 obsidian gems, 1 orichalcum, and 1 stable warpstone boulder create 5 piles of warpstone dust. Each dust pile allows one bar to be transmuted to one bar of the metal next in the cycle.
2. New metal cycle: tin, zinc, copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, kelshinral, aluminum, titanium, chromium,  wolfram, lead, bismuth, and back to tin.

[smakemupagus]

Looks interesting and I will keep an eye out, and hopefully play a few games when I have time!

I'm interested to see what you did with the exchange rates for rusty iron "Gurushs" and platinum "Hothwrai" -- as you probably know the idea that is supposed to be modeled is that the orcish caravanserai operates it's above-board business using common human-style coinage metals, but there are also parallel black economies. The Freelancer's Guild pays its operators in the traditional orcish coin that they value most (Gob and Gurush?) while the Shadowbroker's agents smuggles in embargoed goods and ransoms prisoners using a supposedly untraceable premium currency (Hothwrai) which few forts have the capability to mint locally in any real quantity.  The exchange rate you mention in the post would considerably devalue both of these currencies relative to common silver/electrum/gold.  I'm sure your rebalance treats it thoughtfully; I just wanted to remind you that perhaps it's reasonable to think that the Freelancer's Guild or Shadowbroker would take a pretty substantial vig rather than exchange coinage at the fair market rate.

Aside, and just a personal preference, I always felt "ITEM_COIN has its own special stockpile, which makes moving and storing coins more straightforward" greatly outweighs the other points.

[Fedor]

I'm interested to see what you did with the exchange rates for rusty iron "Gurushs" and platinum "Hothwrai" -- as you probably know the idea that is supposed to be modeled is that the orcish caravanserai operates it's above-board business using common human-style coinage metals, but there are also parallel black economies.

I definitely want to respect this. For the Shadowbroker, platinum has even greater value than elsewhere, where it remains among the most valuable commodities. I also agree with the Shadowbroker not exchanging currency at par, and have (re?)implemented this.

I am almost certain that platinum is not devalued in trade with the Shadowbroker relative to standard Masterwork.

Aside, and just a personal preference, I always felt "ITEM_COIN has its own special stockpile, which makes moving and storing coins more straightforward" greatly outweighs the other points.

Good thought. We always need to balance gameplay practicality with game atmosphere. There remain some unexplored ways to alleviate this weakness of objects of ITEM_TOOL versus ITEM_COIN. The one that springs to mind is to add some fake inorganic types, and make them easily text-matchable using the df hack -enhanced DF interface.

[Meph]

The reason I never made custom coins is because I cant delete vanilla coins. People can always go to the forge and forge 500 coins for 1 bar.

[Fedor]

The reason I never made custom coins is because I cant delete vanilla coins. People can always go to the forge and forge 500 coins for 1 bar.

However, they cannot use these coins in any of the proposed merchant (and building purchase) reactions, so that eases the pain considerably. :-)

In fact, I even deliberately retain vanilla-style coins in a few reactions, like looting and treasure-finding, and then leave it to the player to convert alien or ancient money to their own currency.

[Samarkand]

PTW

[Fedor]

New version available for download. Changes fix various bugs and missing changes - thanks to those who contacted me (you know who you are).

I agree: It might be time to start working on some manual edits.

[Fedor]

Improvements continue on the Wonderwork project. One thing I figure I should share now is that DF v34+ (and Masterwork DF) both have a problem with endless amounts of metamorphic and ig. intrusive rock being generated at the expense of sedimentary and volcanic rock. This unbalances the availability of a bunch of minerals, some important.

So, here's a modified world gen that gives you a more even mix of rock types. You'll see very diverse ecologies and geologies it's like a combination of the "Diverse" and "Medium Region" maps, plus more volcanoes and stuff.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[WORLD_GEN]
   [TITLE:Geo Diverse]
   [CUSTOM_NAME:The Realms of Gold and Iron]
   [DIM:129:129]
   [EMBARK_POINTS:1274]
   [END_YEAR:100]
   [BEAST_END_YEAR:100:80]
   [REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
   [CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:1]
   [ELEVATION:0:400:1200:1200]
   [RAINFALL:0:100:1200:1200]
   [TEMPERATURE:35:65:100:400]
   [DRAINAGE:0:100:400:400]
   [VOLCANISM:0:100:1200:1200]
   [SAVAGERY:0:100:1200:1200]
   [ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:3:1:2:2:2:1]
   [RAIN_FREQUENCY:3:1:1:2:2:2]
   [DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:2:2:1:1:1:1]
   [TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:5:1:1:1:1:1]
   [SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:2:3:1:1:1:3]
   [VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:2:4:1:1:1:3]
   [MINERAL_SCARCITY:500]
   [MEGABEAST_CAP:18]
   [SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:37]
   [TITAN_NUMBER:9]
   [TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
   [DEMON_NUMBER:28]
   [NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:14]
   [BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:14]
   [VAMPIRE_NUMBER:14]
   [WEREBEAST_NUMBER:14]
   [SECRET_NUMBER:28]
   [REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:14]
   [DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:14]
   [EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:4]
   [EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:12]
   [GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:100:500:0]
   [EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:100:500:0]
   [PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:0]
   [PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [VOLCANO_MIN:3]
   [EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
   [RIVER_MINS:0:100]
   [PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
   [OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:0]
   [SUBREGION_MAX:25000]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:30]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:70]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:5]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:20]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:20]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:50]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:6]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:6]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
   [LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
   [CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
   [CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
   [MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:25]
   [NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:100]
   [ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
   [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
   [TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:40]
   [TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
   [SITE_CAP:1040]
   [PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
   [REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:0:0:0]
   [ELEVATION_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [RAIN_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [DRAINAGE_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [VOLCANISM_RANGES:0:0:0]