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[forgotten_idiot]

Hi guys, first time poster here (also apologies in advance for my poor english).
I've been playing 34.11 all this time, but now I want to move on to the latest release. I know, however, that "new" dwarf fortress is significantly easier to play, with
the lack of sieges and whatnot.

So I want to just slightly mod the game to make it a bit more challenging, but don't even know where to start.

Things I want to change:
1) Decrease crop yeild and make the crops grow slower (kinda like in masterwork 34.11). Also, eggs.
2) Make invaders' fighting skills higher and also give them steel armor and weapons (and maybe higher morale)
3) Make the dwarves more prone to psychological breakdowns and tantruming.

Little changes, but they'd make game perfect for me. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Meph]

1. Plants generally have a farming duration of 300. See [GROWDUR:300] in plant_standart.txt and others. If you want it slower, increase the number. A season is around 1000.
2. Open creature_standart.txt and find the elves, human, kobolds and goblins. You can give them natural combat skills. The ones are could add are:

Code: [Select]

[NATURAL_SKILL:AXE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:SWORD:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:MACE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:HAMMER:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:SPEAR:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:CROSSBOW:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:SHIELD:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:ARMOR:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:PIKE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:WHIP:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:BOW:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:BLOWGUN:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:MELEE_COMBAT:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:RANGED_COMBAT:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:WRESTLING:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:BITE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:GRASP_STRIKE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:STANCE_STRIKE:0]
[NATURAL_SKILL:DODGING:0] Numbers go from 0 to 15.

3. Add to the dwarf creature in creature_standart.txt:

Code: [Select]

[PERSONALITY:DEPRESSION_PROPENSITY:75:90:100]
[PERSONALITY:ANGER_PROPENSITY:75:90:100]
[PERSONALITY:ANXIETY_PROPENSITY:75:90:100]
[PERSONALITY:STRESS_VULNERABILITY:75:90:100]
[PERSONALITY:VIOLENT:75:90:100] That should make them more volatile.

Or you can just download this: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=13407 and open the launcher. It's vanilla DF with graphics, utlities and a lot of balancing options in the included launcher.

[Sver]

Sieges in the latest version seem to work just fine. As a bonus, you can even piss off more civs than ever with raids, resulting in a near-permanent state of warfare.

1) I don't know much on the subject, but the food returns in DF were always exploitably high. One way to make it harder is either make very small farms that only work for one season (say, summer) or don't farm at all and gather plants from the outside/caverns. Another fun way is to make your fort run on milk and hunting only (or as an addition to gathering). It's actually surprising how little food an 80 dwarf fort really needs.

2) Add [NATURAL_SKILL:skill tag:skill level number] to goblins, trolls and whatever other races you wish. I don't recommend adding exact weapon skills like Swordsman (it may screw their roles and equipment), but giving them high levels in Fighter, Dodger, Shield User, Armor User, Observer and Discipline will make a huge difference. Discipline, in particular, makes them more brave; if you want something really hardcore, you might just give them [NOFEAR] instead.
You can also add the [SKILL_LEARN_RATES:percentage] tag with a high value (like 300) to make the invaders catch up to your legendary militia quicker; some historical-figure-invaders may also become more skilled.
To give a civ steel just add [PERMITTED_REACTION:PIG_IRON_MAKING] and [PERMITTED_REACTION:STEEL_MAKING] to the reaction list in their entity file (goblins are [ENTITY:EVIL] in entity_default.txt).

3) The dwarves have [PERSONALITY:STRESS_VULNERABILITY:0:45:100] in their creature raws, the values are min:median:max and should be between 0 and 100. Raising the min and median to a decent level should make the dwarves more nutty. If you are particularly interested in tantrums, also add [PERSONALITY:ANGER_PROPENSITY:min:median:max] with some high values. Just don't go overboard with it.

[forgotten_idiot]

Thank you guys so much for your help!

[forgotten_idiot]

Hey, it's me again.
So it seems that giving goblins steel made things a bit more difficult, but only mid-game. Fully trained axelords still cut through the sieges like knife through butter. No casualties, nobody even gets wounded (and some of my dwarves only wear bronze and copper).

I hate that axelords are demigods that could kick Kratos' ass without breaking sweat.   So, any ideas how to mod goblins so they can give a fair fight to an axelord? Just raising skills? Sver gave a great answer, but what would be the actual numbers here? Just max them all out? Also, is there a limit on how high dwarves can raise their fighting skills?

Or maybe give them immunity to pain, steel skin, poison blood and firebreathing?

[Meph]

I'd give them level 3-5 in the combat skills. Remember, not only enemy champions get that, but everyone.

[Hugo_The_Dwarf]

I normally add in some rarer castes that are better at combat than the rest like NORMAL_GOBLIN, ELITE_GOBLIN, and HERO_GOBLIN then I adjust POP_RATIOs of these castes so I get a percentage I like (heros are 15%, elites are 30% and normal goblins are 55%) then each ambush/seige is always a random mix of all goblin types Hero goblins being close to legendary (rank 10 in combat) with interactions to "boost" the stats of nearby goblins, so when leads the command of a squad it makes that regular rabble into not so regular rabble.

Also another thing to do is to tweak weapon attack settings, Axes at the moment (of vanilla) are 800cm³ with a contact area of 40,000% (which is 400 times it's area) which is 320,000cm³ of area to cover. with a 6,000% (60 times) penetration factor which idk the math for penetration because material properties also take effect here. And also whatever force is used to do the attack (Strength and size? of creature) multiply that by 1.25 (25% more)

Compared to a Short Sword which is 300cm³ with a contact area of 20,000 (200 times) lets it cover only 60,000cm³ with a penetration boost of 4,000% (40 times) since it's got a lower contact the penetration boost doesn't need to be so high (more area to contact, the more the weapon can be resisted)

Also the fact that a Warhammer is smaller with a more targeted contact area of 10% makes them better than maces which are twice the size (400cm³ compared to the mace of 800cm³ and contact area of 20%) makes warhammers much better as blunt weapons and lighter than a mace (since they are smaller and thus weigh less, they still have a spear like attack)

Weapon stats are all over, and not very balanced. Leaving the fact that Bows the better ranged weapons (lighter but same shoot force/vel) War Hammers the best Blunt, and Axes the Best Edged (for cutting, best staby edged is spears) so really if possible outfitting your army with just War Hammers, Spears, Axes, and Bows would have you with the best weapons

if anything attack prepares and recovers and even some Velocity boosts, contact, and sizes need to be adjusted to better fit the weapons so that using a short sword would allow for faster and more attacks, at the cost of being not that good at cutting parts off, but good for cutting down to the bone. But having the axe be a bit slower but more fatal if it lands.

[forgotten_idiot]

Thank you guys, it's really helpful!

[forgotten_idiot]

Just wanted to thank Meph for his amazing launcher. Now finally I'm having battles worth singing about in taverns!

[Sver]

Also another thing to do is to tweak weapon attack settings, Axes at the moment (of vanilla) are 800cm³ with a contact area of 40,000% (which is 400 times it's area) which is 320,000cm³ of area to cover. with a 6,000% (60 times) penetration factor which idk the math for penetration because material properties also take effect here. And also whatever force is used to do the attack (Strength and size? of creature) multiply that by 1.25 (25% more)

Compared to a Short Sword which is 300cm³ with a contact area of 20,000 (200 times) lets it cover only 60,000cm³ with a penetration boost of 4,000% (40 times) since it's got a lower contact the penetration boost doesn't need to be so high (more area to contact, the more the weapon can be resisted)

Also the fact that a Warhammer is smaller with a more targeted contact area of 10% makes them better than maces which are twice the size (400cm³ compared to the mace of 800cm³ and contact area of 20%) makes warhammers much better as blunt weapons and lighter than a mace (since they are smaller and thus weigh less, they still have a spear like attack)

Weapon stats are all over, and not very balanced. Leaving the fact that Bows the better ranged weapons (lighter but same shoot force/vel) War Hammers the best Blunt, and Axes the Best Edged (for cutting, best staby edged is spears) so really if possible outfitting your army with just War Hammers, Spears, Axes, and Bows would have you with the best weapons

if anything attack prepares and recovers and even some Velocity boosts, contact, and sizes need to be adjusted to better fit the weapons so that using a short sword would allow for faster and more attacks, at the cost of being not that good at cutting parts off, but good for cutting down to the bone. But having the axe be a bit slower but more fatal if it lands.

I'm fairly certain that contact area and penetration depth properties in the weapon raws are not percentages from the weapons volume, but rather defined values.

Otherwise, I agree. My mod (in the sig), in particular, was motivated by these issues and addresses the weapon balance, including attack properties, speed and velocities, making different weapons more distinct from each other, to the point that it is possible within the game's mechanics. You can check it out if you'd like, although, it has a somewhat different approach from the one you proposed.

[Hugo_The_Dwarf]

Yeah I was chatting on the modding server about this, and it seems it lets you set the MAX contact area it can hit, and how deep it can go by Area + Depth(only for edged) where as creature attacks are percentage based