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Author Topic: How to make a dead or dying civilization?  (Read 1569 times)

mason531

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How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« on: March 25, 2020, 11:57:14 pm »

Is there a way to get this to happen?
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2020, 02:03:54 am »

47.x generate a world of a several hundred years
Necromancers will have killed everyone almost every time.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2020, 02:47:55 am »

"Struggling" civs are easy to get, as Shonai_Dweller pointed out. Just select a starting civ with as few sites and members as possible. The first criterion can be checked in vanilla (sites owned by the selected civ are marked in blue), while the latter requires Legends info, preferably exported to Legends Viewer.

Truly dead civs are a lot harder, firstly because DF culls them from the list of starting civs if there are any non dead civs, and secondly because DF's accounting is bugged so most civs that should have been dead (no members and no sites for hundreds of years) aren't registered as such. Also, I have to recommend against playing dead civs, as they're bugged: you can't raid, as squads leave the map but never progress from there (and thus never return).
Using vanilla, your best bet at getting a dead civ is to change the entity_defaults.txt entry for dorfs to have the max number of civs set to 1. This ensures the civ shows up in the list of starting civs even when dead. Having worlds with lots of megabeasts frequently leads to civs being squashed before they start any other sites. Keep generating worlds and discard the ones where your dwarven civ looks like it's been crushed. About one of 20 of those are registered as dead.
There are also a couple of scripts to increase the chances of getting DF to recognize civs as dead and allow you to select them when embarking respectively if you're using DFHack:http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=165084.msg7526484#msg7526484.
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delphonso

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2020, 06:26:17 am »

http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14879

Here's three truly dead civs.
Patrik is right, though. They're bugged and not actually very fun to play. Dying civs have better playability, and still make for an interesting narrative.

Sarmatian123

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2020, 07:09:59 am »

During world generation, do not select for all possible civilizations. I think looking for world with dead Dwarven civilization will take longer.
Watch for worlds where all living civilizations are non-dwarven. Embark!
You can try to embark on the failed old dwarven fortress then. Just do not hurry discovering it all, as FUN! may be lurking there still. :)

If you just want to disable imigrant waves, except scripted 2 waves, you can either edit d_init.txt to keep 20/40 population, or embark on an island, but you won't get caravans and I never got an island fitting even largest embark. Largest embarks are also map-bugged, so after year 5 you won't be able to dig or build anything on them.
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delphonso

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2020, 07:19:52 am »

Islands will continue to give you migrant waves and caravans if your civ is alive. Only dwarven caravans, though.

Sarmatian123

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Re: How to make a dead or dying civilization?
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2020, 09:31:57 am »

Islands will continue to give you migrant waves and caravans if your civ is alive. Only dwarven caravans, though.

Indeed. Though you'll get migrants from wild, if your civ is dead.
When whole island fits on your map, that is If all edges are water, then no caravan and no migrants.
You cant build on edges.You can't channel edges either.

You try to surround your embark with a wall, 5 tiles away from edge, then you will get hit with a massive punishing lag.
Even, if you leave entrance to your fortress accessible.
Even, if you leave access to all land inside the wall through your fortress.
Could it be animal spawns with their pathing? Birds? Wind? Temperature? Something?
I never figured that one out. There were very few animals. Mostly some animal peoples of sorts.
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