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[Fikilili]

So it has been pretty much confirmed last January that the next update will include a generator for dragons that work somewhat in the same way as the one for Forgotten Beasts to the exception that, of course, it only generates lizards that breathe fire. For those who aren't aware (and I highly doubt that there are such people here) Dragons in Dwarf Fortress are much more akin to Drakes than the flying lizard we all love to hate.
So I was thinking, what could be the randomized elements that could be used in this generator?
I've got some ideas regarding all of this, since I am extremely interested into mythologies from all around the world, as well as fantasy, and I've come up with some ideas for tags. Well, not really accurate, but you get the idea.

• Size : Minuscule, Horse-sized, Human-sized, Big, Huge, Giant, Garguantuesque
  
  Nature : Flying, Earth, Water, Underground, Magical, Hell Dragon
  
  Skin : Scales, Feathers, Skin, Skeletal, Fairy-like, etc.
  
  Body : Long, compact, Serpent-like, Quadrupedal, Bipedal, Uses wings to walk, doesn't have any legs, tail, no tail, many tails, one head, two heads, three heads
  
  Color : (I mean you know the drill)
  
  Fire Breathing technique : Spray, Spark, Fire-ball, Magma spitting, dragon literally made of fire
  
  Other elements he could breathe : Thunder, Freezing breathe, Repulsive smell (miasma), blood, etc.
  
  Personality : Greedy (will attempt to reach your zone with the most treasure), Angry (Will kill anything in sight), Compassionate (is not looking for fight), Sage (implies he's intelligent), Savage (behaves like an animal), etc. Hates/Loves a specific object/metal/person/race/place/civilization/culture.
  
  Intelligence : Animalistic, Intelligent but untamable, Intelligent and tamable.
  
  Finding : In an egg, Lives in a lair, owns a castle/nobility title, has an owner, etc.
  
  Race name : Dragon, Drake, Wyvern, Salamander, Long-Dragon, Serpent, Giant Fae, etc.
  
  State : Can fly, cannot fly, lives exclusivly in water, lay eggs, does not lay eggs, may use magic, can transform, cannot use magic, not/is a building destroyer etc.
  
  Wings : No wings, one pair, two pairs, three pairs

I'm sure this is off to a good start as of now. You can pretty much come up with anything with that. With such options the generator could come up with things such as;

Smu-Hog has arrived! A giant quadrupedal flying greedy intelligent dragon that particularly hates dwarves! His scales are red, his tail is long, his claws are long and his fire spreads! Beware his thundering roar!

King Kadora has arrived! A Gargantuesque three-headed bipedal angry dragon who's foul mouth brings thunder! His scales are yellow, his roar is ear piercing and his heads have their own personality. Beware their magnetic shuffles!

The Sorceress Mal-Afikant has transformed into a dragon! She is humongous in this size! Her scales are black and purple, and her fire goes in a straight line! Beware her foul smell!

The Zmey Goronych has arrived! A three headed dragon that can transform into a man! He particularly hates Urist Dragonslayer the dwarf. Beware his fireballs!

The dwarf Urist McLovesDragons has found a salamander egg! When it hatches, it shall release a small yet compassionate creatue that breathe a small, unharming spark.

I mean, I know it's pretty much confirmed we'll have it, but this should give a taste of what could be achieved with such a concept.

[Pillbo]

Dragon randomizer sounds cool, where did you hear about it?

[Fikilili]

Dragon randomizer sounds cool, where did you hear about it?

First I heard about it on the wiki, as Toady mentioned an idea he had in mind regarding dragons. And the whole generator has been confirmed in the development log. Look up 'dragon' in the key-word search bar.

[FantasticDorf]

Dragon randomizer sounds cool, where did you hear about it?

First I heard about it on the wiki, as Toady mentioned an idea he had in mind regarding dragons. And the whole generator has been confirmed in the development log. Look up 'dragon' in the key-word search bar.

Sorry, that development goals page is kinda only periodically updated by Toady and follows a color key. Its still marked as 'Future Goal' and not anything for next ver.


Dragons haven't been mentioned on the DF front page except offhand once as a example of multi tile creatures it could theoretically support multi on the fourth of august. As nice as the suggestion is i wouldnt take it as fact.

Just to clarify that i followed your instructions

[Fikilili]

Dragon randomizer sounds cool, where did you hear about it?

First I heard about it on the wiki, as Toady mentioned an idea he had in mind regarding dragons. And the whole generator has been confirmed in the development log. Look up 'dragon' in the key-word search bar.

Sorry, that development goals page is kinda only periodically updated by Toady and follows a color key. Its still marked as 'Future Goal' and not anything for next ver.


Dragons haven't been mentioned on the DF front page except offhand once as a example of multi tile creatures it could theoretically support multi on the fourth of august. As nice as the suggestion is i wouldnt take it as fact.

Just to clarify that i followed your instructions

Better megabeasts

    Variety and randomization within constraints (e.g. various dragons)
    Reproduction
    Share any intelligent/diplomacy behavior that other hist figs have when appropriate

I mean I found it. And my bad, it's not in the next update, but rather in the development list.

[Pillbo]

that's too bad, still a good suggestion.

In the long-term dragons as civ/religious leaders would be cool too. I could imagine a greedy dwarf civ devoted to gold growing up around the leadership of a dragon in a similar way to demons leading goblin civs.

[voliol]

In the end, they reconciled with Smaug by allowing the dwarves to swim in the gold-and-jewelry-sea every now and again, if Smaug himself was given absolute dominion, and Erebor was born anew as a dwarven civilization. The humans and elves were dealt with by Smaug liquidating them, literally, !melting! their tissues.

[Thunderforge]

This means we might get Swamp Dragons (a la Discworld); small dog-sized dragons with a dim-witted temprament liable to spontaneously combust!

[thompson]

I once nodded a dragon that turns everything it touches into gold. Good !!!FUN!!!
I wanted to make a contagious version of the interaction, but could never get dwarves to touch each other. Still, if you’re looking for “outside the box” ideas, something like this makes for an interesting encounter. A beast that increases the value of your fortress while it destroys it.

Essentially, a dragon should be a beast that is:
- Interesting
- Difficult to deal with
- Weaponizable, but extremely dangerous to its handlers

[Fikilili]

I once nodded a dragon that turns everything it touches into gold. Good !!!FUN!!!
I wanted to make a contagious version of the interaction, but could never get dwarves to touch each other. Still, if you’re looking for “outside the box” ideas, something like this makes for an interesting encounter. A beast that increases the value of your fortress while it destroys it.

Essentially, a dragon should be a beast that is:
- Interesting
- Difficult to deal with
- Weaponizable, but extremely dangerous to its handlers

That's what I imagined when I said "Magic dragons"! I really wish that magic in DF will be as ubiquitous as all heck and rules regarding it's acquisition and usage could vary from game to game. So that we could get something that could have been in a fairy tale, to something as ridiculous Xanth's magic powers, to something more grounded and mystical as LOTR's magic.
But anyway, yeah, I'm really interested into mythologies from all around the world, and I've noticed that dragons are always different in many different names; back then they didn't even cared if they called a two-legged dragon a wyvern or not, "dragon" was mostly a stock name like "demon" is. But it would be very cool to have dragons that are completely different from your average DnD fire breathing lizard. One that can transform himself into anything, one that can make others levitate, one that creates earthquakes when he passes by, that would bring extra levels of !!FUN!!

[Pillbo]

Using the same materials as FBs for a procgen 'Midas touch' effect would be really funny. A dragon that might turn anything it touches into gold or maybe vomit.