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Author Topic: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions  (Read 6353 times)

Teneb

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2016, 03:07:51 pm »

Thing is, I wasn't talking about create-unit. I've seen some crashes happen when you try to target a non-worker with reaction-trigger. If it was just spawning the animalmen from thin air, it'd be pretty easy.
It works well enough for me. As I said, I created few animal men units and they are doing just fine.
They have names, they have personalities etc. Created unit is no longer tabula rasa as it was in 0.34.
Meph's personal shrine spawns items from the thin air. Why would it be any different?
Because I won't be using create-unit. Instead, it'll be transform-unit instead, and I've seen it crash a few times in very specific situations.
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Monstrous Manual: D&D in DF
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What if “slammed in the ass by dead philosophers” is actually the thing which will progress our culture to the next step?

LMeire

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #16 on: September 17, 2016, 06:07:23 pm »

I like the bit with the Wild Hunt, that's a nice mythological Easter Egg that I don't see nearly as much as I'd like. Should that be the only faerie lord appearance, or can there be a few others like say, Baba Yaga and Oberon?


For the cannibalism, I was thinking maybe corpses could be used as a build-mat in a workshop. Then the "Feast Hall" or whatever could have some free-but-slow reactions that produce food until the workshop destroys itself as the corpses rot away. It's not exactly butchering, but it should be close enough to count thematically.
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"☼Perfection☼ in the job puts pleasure in the work." - Uristotle

Teneb

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2016, 07:39:08 pm »

I like the bit with the Wild Hunt, that's a nice mythological Easter Egg that I don't see nearly as much as I'd like. Should that be the only faerie lord appearance, or can there be a few others like say, Baba Yaga and Oberon?


For the cannibalism, I was thinking maybe corpses could be used as a build-mat in a workshop. Then the "Feast Hall" or whatever could have some free-but-slow reactions that produce food until the workshop destroys itself as the corpses rot away. It's not exactly butchering, but it should be close enough to count thematically.
The thing about Oberon and Co is that they don't have generic names. And as I said before, corpses of intelligent creatures cannot be used for anything, ever, period, even itemcorpses. This is a bug, but one only ToadyOne can fix.
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Monstrous Manual: D&D in DF
Quote from: Tack
What if “slammed in the ass by dead philosophers” is actually the thing which will progress our culture to the next step?

LMeire

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2016, 08:54:26 pm »

I like the bit with the Wild Hunt, that's a nice mythological Easter Egg that I don't see nearly as much as I'd like. Should that be the only faerie lord appearance, or can there be a few others like say, Baba Yaga and Oberon?
...
The thing about Oberon and Co is that they don't have generic names. ...

How about the Headless Horseman? Before the more popular tale of Sleepy Hollow he was known as Gan Ceann, a powerful Unseelie that wielded his own moldy head as a flail. In most stories he functioned as a sort of psychopomp, visiting the homes of those next to die- though there was some confusion as to whether he was the cause of death or if he just liked visiting old and sick people.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2016, 09:03:34 pm by LMeire »
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"☼Perfection☼ in the job puts pleasure in the work." - Uristotle

Rekov

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #19 on: September 17, 2016, 10:03:04 pm »

I've wanted elves for so long, you don't even know. I will love you if you pull this off!

I love me some Seelie/Unseelie lore. You could also go the norse route, with álfar, ljosálfar, svartálfar, etc.

They should be a mostly above the ground race, but they should still be able to dig soil and stone. Just give make is to that the longer they spend underground, the more unhealthy they get. A ticker that goes up fairly quickly when they're underground, and goes down fairly slowly when they're above ground. The higher the ticker is, the more sick/insane/dead the elf becomes.

Maybe give them some kind of tattoo magic? They can 'armor' themselves by applying magical tattoos. I don't even begin to understand if that's possible, or how difficult it would be to implement though.

Also, I'm just going to post this here as art inspiration for DF style elves. It's veeeery slightly NSFW, hence spoiler tags.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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urmane

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2016, 10:11:20 pm »

Random thoughts:

Maybe elvish gems are not made from polished rocks, but rather complex combinations of natural materials and magic.  Input recipe, output gem.

Can they live in those big trees?

Have their kitchen turn all/most plain inedible plant materials into meals, without additional muss or fuss.

Remake the mages from Ye Olde Masterwork.
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LMeire

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2016, 01:42:03 am »

...

Maybe give them some kind of tattoo magic? They can 'armor' themselves by applying magical tattoos. I don't even begin to understand if that's possible, or how difficult it would be to implement though.

...

I like this idea, it could provide another reason to get a dye industry besides trade. Though I think body-paint would make more sense, since armor degrades with use now. An injected ink design wearing out and getting discarded doesn't make as much sense as facepaint doing the same.
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"☼Perfection☼ in the job puts pleasure in the work." - Uristotle

jason0320

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #22 on: September 18, 2016, 02:47:36 am »

Some random ideas:
Amber might fit the nature theme of elves, since they are solid tree resin. Make them grow from workshop or something else.
And Elf as a surface-only race will not be able to reach the fun stuff. Maybe add some workshop that can dig a shaft to invite the clowns?
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Evans

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #23 on: September 18, 2016, 04:22:45 am »

Because I won't be using create-unit. Instead, it'll be transform-unit instead, and I've seen it crash a few times in very specific situations.
It seems you have your mind set already.

But why create unit is that wrong here? From what I see, small chance to create a single friendly beast man or accidentally summoning a pack of hostile ones doesn't sound that bad.

Also:
Quote
And as I said before, corpses of intelligent creatures cannot be used for anything, ever, period, even itemcorpses. This is a bug, but one only ToadyOne can fix.
After they are raised by necromancy and killed they become usable. I just got over 1k bones from harvesting de-re-animated succubi corpses from tower siege.

So there is a workaround for usage of corpses, even tho it is ugly one.
Logged
getlost.lua # How to get rid of tavern guests
function getlost ()
   local unit = dfhack.gui.getSelectedUnit (true)
   unit.flags1.forest = true
end
getlost ()

Teneb

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #24 on: September 18, 2016, 10:15:54 am »

I like the bit with the Wild Hunt, that's a nice mythological Easter Egg that I don't see nearly as much as I'd like. Should that be the only faerie lord appearance, or can there be a few others like say, Baba Yaga and Oberon?
...
The thing about Oberon and Co is that they don't have generic names. ...
How about the Headless Horseman? Before the more popular tale of Sleepy Hollow he was known as Gan Ceann, a powerful Unseelie that wielded his own moldy head as a flail. In most stories he functioned as a sort of psychopomp, visiting the homes of those next to die- though there was some confusion as to whether he was the cause of death or if he just liked visiting old and sick people.
This could work. I'll have to think of a way to fit him in, but I'll give it a shot.

They should be a mostly above the ground race, but they should still be able to dig soil and stone. Just give make is to that the longer they spend underground, the more unhealthy they get. A ticker that goes up fairly quickly when they're underground, and goes down fairly slowly when they're above ground. The higher the ticker is, the more sick/insane/dead the elf becomes.
While this is possible, the bug that keeps intelligent creatures from using interactions out of combat would get in the way. If it gets fixed, I'll weight if it's worth it or not.

And Elf as a surface-only race will not be able to reach the fun stuff. Maybe add some workshop that can dig a shaft to invite the clowns?
They can dig. And just because they can't use adamantine doesn't mean they can't still dig it and face what lies below.

Maybe elvish gems are not made from polished rocks, but rather complex combinations of natural materials and magic.  Input recipe, output gem.
Some random ideas:
Amber might fit the nature theme of elves, since they are solid tree resin. Make them grow from workshop or something else.
Amber is actually in vanilla DF, along with coral and pearls. They never appear because there is no source of them. If you check the idea dump above, you'll see I already am going to do amber "gems".

Maybe give them some kind of tattoo magic? They can 'armor' themselves by applying magical tattoos. I don't even begin to understand if that's possible, or how difficult it would be to implement though.
Tatoos seems more like a kobold thing. At the very least, it used to be such in old!masterwork.

Can they live in those big trees?
I'm afraid it is just not possible unless the player gets somewhat creative (build constructions around trees themselves). Nothing I can do on my side.

Remake the mages from Ye Olde Masterwork.
I'd rather go with a more passive magic thing, with certain exceptions (wild hunt, for one)

Because I won't be using create-unit. Instead, it'll be transform-unit instead, and I've seen it crash a few times in very specific situations.
It seems you have your mind set already.

But why create unit is that wrong here? From what I see, small chance to create a single friendly beast man or accidentally summoning a pack of hostile ones doesn't sound that bad.
It's not exactly in the wrong. I'll use it for quite a bit of stuff, it's just that I think transforming animals into animalmen is more interesting than just spawning them.

Also:
Quote
And as I said before, corpses of intelligent creatures cannot be used for anything, ever, period, even itemcorpses. This is a bug, but one only ToadyOne can fix.
After they are raised by necromancy and killed they become usable. I just got over 1k bones from harvesting de-re-animated succubi corpses from tower siege.

So there is a workaround for usage of corpses, even tho it is ugly one.
I imagine it may be because reanimated corpses are not considered intelligent.
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Monstrous Manual: D&D in DF
Quote from: Tack
What if “slammed in the ass by dead philosophers” is actually the thing which will progress our culture to the next step?

Evans

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #25 on: September 18, 2016, 02:45:33 pm »

Because I won't be using create-unit. Instead, it'll be transform-unit instead, and I've seen it crash a few times in very specific situations.
It seems you have your mind set already.

But why create unit is that wrong here? From what I see, small chance to create a single friendly beast man or accidentally summoning a pack of hostile ones doesn't sound that bad.
It's not exactly in the wrong. I'll use it for quite a bit of stuff, it's just that I think transforming animals into animalmen is more interesting than just spawning them.
Perhaps. Elves as immortal race would have time to perfect mutagenic magic through the millenia.
Just keep in mind that in this case world was just created and they are still in an early stage of experimentation ;)
Perhaps add some failure rate with consequences (spawn hostile giant version instead of friendly beast man?) to make it more exciting?   :D

Quote
Also:
Quote
And as I said before, corpses of intelligent creatures cannot be used for anything, ever, period, even itemcorpses. This is a bug, but one only ToadyOne can fix.
After they are raised by necromancy and killed they become usable. I just got over 1k bones from harvesting de-re-animated succubi corpses from tower siege.

So there is a workaround for usage of corpses, even tho it is ugly one.
I imagine it may be because reanimated corpses are not considered intelligent.
Well its still a solution of a sort. Reanimate and infuse with instant death syndrome? Who knows when the bug will be fixed.
I leave it to you tho.

Just one more thing.
When you will play with spawning beast men, keep in mind they might be more bugged than people expect.
I have seen two birdmen visitors to my tavern getting stuck mid-air between the trees and not moving for a year.
Had to slam them out of the sky to get rid of them.
Perhaps - for now - it would be better to avoid transforming flying creatures.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2016, 05:28:39 pm by Evans »
Logged
getlost.lua # How to get rid of tavern guests
function getlost ()
   local unit = dfhack.gui.getSelectedUnit (true)
   unit.flags1.forest = true
end
getlost ()

Meph

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #26 on: October 06, 2016, 07:08:11 am »

A: Is this dead? No post in 3 weeks...

B: I have a present for you:

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::: ☼Meph Tileset☼☼Map Tileset☼- 32x graphic sets with TWBT :::
::: ☼MASTERWORK DF☼ - A comprehensive mod pack now on Patreon - 250.000+ downloads and counting :::
::: WorldBicyclist.com - Follow my bike tours around the world - 148 countries visited :::

GhostDwemer

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #27 on: October 07, 2016, 01:05:39 am »

I've been thinking about core game play mechanics for elves for a while now and came up with some ideas.
Water: Elven workshops use water underneath, like the dwarven steam engine.
Elven Sacrifice: Elder elves become trees, it's why they hate tree killing so much. So have reactions that sacrifice an elf to upgrade a workshop, elf "becomes the tree."
Time: Growing takes time, and has stages like the pottery workshop creating green items that then need to be fired. Elven items need to be dried or cured, or infused, or shaped or something like that, there are multiple steps involved.
Magic: Elves can create spells out of plant ingredients, which are ammo for elven wands, which are grown ranged weapons.
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Teneb

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #28 on: October 07, 2016, 06:16:14 pm »

On phone so can't elaborate, not dead. Just tired.
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Monstrous Manual: D&D in DF
Quote from: Tack
What if “slammed in the ass by dead philosophers” is actually the thing which will progress our culture to the next step?

Teneb

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Re: ☼Elves☼ - Discussion & Suggestions
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2016, 04:44:50 pm »

Thanks to a break this week, I was able to do quite a bit of progress here. What's left is setting up DFHack stuff with the onLoad.init file, which is fast, making sure creatures and items are all finished and testing. If I don't find any problems, I'll put up a test (and ASCII-only) version here in a few hours.

One thing of note is that I decided to cut animal, giant animal, and animalmen stuff from this release because they'll take a LOT of work to do. They'll come, mind you, but not in this one.
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Monstrous Manual: D&D in DF
Quote from: Tack
What if “slammed in the ass by dead philosophers” is actually the thing which will progress our culture to the next step?
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