Print

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

[AceSV]

Real life honey badgers have several special powers that are not represented in DF.  I'm looking for advice about how to add in these abilities, both for honey badgers as the animal, and for a honey badger men civilization for Furry Fortress. 

• Immunity to poison - Honey Badgers are more or less immune to poison.  This is mostly a defense against honey bees, but it also gives them the ability to eat poison snakes.  A snakebite that would kill a lion just puts a honey badger to sleep for a few minutes.  This is probably the easiest one to, just remove the [GENERAL_POISON] token. 
• Thick Skin - Honey Badger hide is incredibly thick and resistant to damage, reportedly capable of resisting arrows, spears and machetes.  I assume this would require creating a special tissue for honey badgers, which I don't really understand how to do. 
• Stink Attack - Honey Badgers are related to skunks and have a similar stink attack for those moments when incredibly strength and immunity to poison and sharp implements is insufficient.  I think this could work as a breath attack that inflicts a dizziness/nausea syndrome. 
• Running Backwards - This is rarely listed on animal fact sheets, but in videos, honey badgers often gallop backwards almost as fast as they go forward.  At first it seems like a bad idea, but if you're impervious to everything, it starts to make more sense. 
• Intelligent - They are smart enough to use tools and can open doors:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c36UNSoJenI

Some fun documentaries: (not the viral video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45EbX3XPuqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Avu43B6Xw

[Henny]

Wolverines are another member of Mustalidae that isn't badass enough in this game.

[Ultimuh]

The 'can open doors' part should not be so difficult to mod in.

[Vattic]

For thicker skin you should be able to add:

Code: [Select]

[SELECT_TISSUE_LAYER:SKIN:BY_CATEGORY:ALL]
[TL_RELATIVE_THICKNESS:2]
Skin has a default relative thickness of 1.

[Grimlocke]

I doubt just making the skin that bit thicker will do all that much, its volume is still close to negligible and its material properties are not actually stronger than that of muscle.

[Eldin00]

In addition to making it thicker, you could add a new material, call it [TOUGH_SKIN] or something of the sort, which is more resilient than normal skin. This could be used for other animals with thick, damage resistant hides.

[Vattic]

I doubt just making the skin that bit thicker will do all that much, its volume is still close to negligible and its material properties are not actually stronger than that of muscle.

I had some success testing making chitin layers thicker, but it was a long time ago and my methodology was likely flawed; You know your DF material science better than me.

[Grimlocke]

You can simply alter the existing skin material with this [SELECT_MATERIAL:SKIN] which is going to be easier than adding a whole new set of templates and such when your doing this for just one creature.

Increasing the shear values would be the sensible way to do this I think. A quick-n-dirty explanation of material strength: The first value is the point where the material starts to deform permanently (higher is stronger), the next is where it breaks entirely (higher is stronger, should be equal or higher than the 1st) and the 3rd is how much the material can bend without being damaged (higher is more elastic, not always 'better or worse').

Setting the shear values to that of bone for instance should give it some protection to biting, though you will probably need the thickness increase Vattic posted. Badger are fairly small and will likely still not do well against being hit with a sword, but it should protect against a glancing blow at least.

[IndigoFenix]

Instead of trying to redesign their biology, just boost their physical and mental attributes where appropriate.  DISEASE_RESISTANCE will make them take less negative effects from poison (without making them completely immune, which is unrealistic), TOUGHNESS will reduce damage from physical implements, and WILLPOWER will let them keep fighting even when in extreme pain.  Might also want to boost some of their personality values like BRAVERY (which will make them more willing to fight larger enemies instead of running away).

[AceSV]

I like IndigoFenix's solution because it sounds the easiest.