Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Poll

Should the monster in the story be in a mod?

Yes.
- 8 (88.9%)
No.
- 1 (11.1%)

Total Members Voted: 9


Author Topic: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...  (Read 2490 times)

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« on: November 25, 2016, 06:39:51 pm »

https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/5eso3f/the_thing_that_haunts_the_forest/



I want this thing in a mod.


(Also, I'm UristMcInternetUser on there. Shows up as Urist McUristMcInternetUser on there.)

HMetal2001

  • Bay Watcher
  • WipEout - CONTENDER ELIMINATED
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2016, 12:44:47 am »

By legendary beast, does he mean a titan or FB?
Logged
The giant louse is on the loose and some loser dwarf has blood to lose.

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2016, 12:45:22 am »

I think titan.

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2016, 02:30:20 pm »

Sure make a mod where this thing is a low population or even single population creature that spawns in evil forest biomes. If you want it to be a more universal threat then just make it a possible spawn in any non-good aligned forest with high savagery.

It sounds like you want to make it large, like the size of a rhino or bigger and give it unusually high strength stats, high level natural dodge skill, feel no pain, fearless, building destroyer 2, large predator, trap avoid, maybe prone to rage 3 and mischievous so it spawns invisible and has some natural skill in ambush.

Give it some nice big strong talons/claws and a beak and make it so it can climb and jump with a good deal of natural skill since a creature with a bird theme sounds like it would be quite viciously agile. If you want it to be much more hostile and less stealthy then you could give it the hostile to all life tag. You would probably get to see it leave a trail of carnage killing the other woodland creatures this way, but it could also get itself killed trying to pick on elephants or something.

Depending on how much of a threat you want it to be you can scale up or down it's size and abilities. If you want it to emulate the sort of threat level the original Titan presented you probably want it to be quite a large and formidable foe.

« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 03:14:51 pm by Melting Sky »
Logged

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2016, 02:31:24 pm »

If only I could mod creatures in good.
Oh, and I would want the thing to be intelligent.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 02:36:26 pm by Asin »
Logged

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2016, 02:48:44 pm »

If only I could mod creatures in good.
Oh, and I would want the thing to be intelligent.
Yeah, just giving it a can learn tag would make it intelligent.

I have done very little modding myself, but I am a programmer so if I put my mind to it I could probably create this thing. The story was pretty cool and I have been thinking about creating a minor mod that adds some greater threats to the natural world in DF. The skinless birdman of the haunted wood would be a pretty cool creature to have occasionally show up in evil or savage forests. No promises, but maybe I will try my hand at creating this thing. Like I said, my modding experience is extremely lacking so it may turn out to be tougher than expected, but if I have some free time I might take a crack at it.
Logged

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2016, 02:50:44 pm »

Okay.
Though if you are giving it a name, I'd just call it the Birdman.

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2016, 04:02:09 pm »

Hmmm, it looks like I am going to have to do quite a bit of research to make this happen. It might be better to make the Skinless Birdman a mega or semi-mega beast. But if I do that I believe it won't have the desired behavior of creeping around in the woods. You would get a big announcement it was attacking your fort like any mega beast and I think it would then make a B line path for the fort. It would also create lairs out in the world.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 04:10:09 pm by Melting Sky »
Logged

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2016, 04:08:21 pm »

You can do it.
I believe you can.

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2016, 09:46:52 am »

This has definitely been a learning experience. Digging through the raws has given me a greater appreciation of Toady's work and madness. He is truly and insane genius. As for modding this creature, I am still working on it and using it as a learning exercise on how the raws are set up which is something I have been meaning to do for ages anyway. No promises on whether this thing will work, but I'll do my best to make it so. My current hang up is trying to make it skinless. That is turning into a huge pain in the ass because it means I will have to create my own custom BODY_DETAIL_PLAN template which is going to be a time consuming headache. If worst comes to worst I might just have to settle for giving it featherless withered skin instead of making it skinless.

Asin, In the end I plan to make this a rare loner creature that only shows up in evil wooded biomes, but for testing purposes I am going to make it common and spawn everywhere there are woods. If I get this thing up and running can you give it a test and let me know what you think of it? It's modeled after a Titan so this thing is going to be quite large and nasty to fight. I have made it intelligent and given it the ability to learn quickly which will make it even more dangerous.

At this point this thread might be better off getting moved to the modding forum.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2016, 09:49:07 am by Melting Sky »
Logged

Asin

  • Bay Watcher
  • A short and sturdy creature fond of modding.
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2016, 09:48:50 am »

Alright. When it is running, I'll do an arena test with like, 20 dwarven soldiers in iron armor. Let's see how that will play put.

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2016, 12:54:26 am »

Sorry this took so long. I've been rather busy in the real world and as I mentioned this is the first time I have really modded anything beyond minor stuff like fixing grazers etc. Here is the raw to create this nasty critter. I named it Woodland Stalker since we already a have a large number of bird men in the game. If you like I can change that simply Bird Man if you like, but that comes off a little strange when it's a female. Anyway, let me know if you want it named something else. I tried to balance this thing to be about on par with how dangerous a medium strong Titan would be. This version I made it spawn in all types of woodlands and forests and I made it common for testing purposes. After you get a chance to test it I'll fix it so it only shows up in woodlands that are savage or evil and make it rare. Let me know if you think it's to over or under powered or want anything else changed about it. If I have some extra time I will try an make it properly skinless, but that involves creating a custom body template which is a new can of worms to open.

To add this to you game just open the Dwarf Fortress folder objects folder, then the raw folder inside it, and finally the object folder. In the objects folder choose any of the creature text files and copy and paste the text below into it. I used the creature_fanciful text file just because it was small and easy to remember. Make sure you paste it after the "[OBJECT:CREATURE]" tag that's at the very top of the page then save the file and fire up DF. The Woodland Stalker should now haunt the woods of whatever world you created.

« Last Edit: December 12, 2016, 02:33:41 pm by Melting Sky »
Logged

Melting Sky

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So... I found this DF story on Reddit...
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2016, 12:57:58 am »

Thanks to Putnam's help I was finally able to post the raw. It can be found in the spoiler below. Just copy and paste all the mark up tags into one of your creature raw text files in the object folder and it should work fine. Let me know if you have any issues. My apologies for the sloppiness of the formatting.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

« Last Edit: December 17, 2016, 05:44:56 am by Melting Sky »
Logged