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Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion  (Read 44479 times)

Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #30 on: August 11, 2008, 10:54:27 pm »

I second that motion. That thing is going to give me nightmares.
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Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #31 on: August 12, 2008, 12:26:00 am »

This is a rough draft of the races page. It needs a lot of editing. Feel free to comment on it.

Dwarves:

The Nobles Dwarves live in halls of stone deep beneath the ground. They are rarely seen above ground, and tend to get so adapted to the dark that the very sun makes them nauseous. As is tradition, when a city gets too large a small team of brave young dwarves who have not yet adapted to the dark may be sent out over land to find a suitable place to settle. The parent fortress will then send out immigrants in small groups until the new fortress is a decent size, and the cycle will begin again, forever insuring that Dwarfkind has a place in the mountains.

Dwarves are significantly short and rounder than humans, generally standing between 3 and 4 feet in height. They are virtually androgynous to other races, mostly due to their impressive beards which are common to both genders, yet somehow they manage to tell the difference with nearly 80% accuracy.

Dwarves are a particularly honorbound race, and marry for life. If a dwarf's lover dies, he or she will truly never love again. As honorable as they are, they are equally stubborn. Oftentimes a dwarf who is incapable of finishing a particularly engrossing project will go insane.

All of them, even the children, cannot function without a steady supply of alcohol. In fact, unlike humans, they have no need for water unless they are deprived of alcohol. Drinking water is both embarrasing and unhealthy for a dwawrf.

It is requested that you only play this race, as this is the race upon which the entire game focuses.

Humans:

Humans are the "average" race. They stand slightly shorter than an elf, yet taller than a dwarf. There are vast differences between the male and female individuals of this race, and most other races have little difficulty telling the difference. Their male members generally fall somewhere between 5 and 6.5 feet, while their female members are generally slightly shorter. They are not as industrious as dwarves, and tend to live aboveground in wooden dwellings. They only drink alcohol in celebration, though a small percentage of their population are addicted to alcohol. These are called drunks. The behavior of a human while intoxicated is similar to that of a dwarf while sober.

Elves:

Elves are frail, forest-dwelling creatures. They stand a few inches taller than a human, and their sexes are slightly more difficult to tell apart. whereas most female dwarves look male, most male elves look female. Elves live in harmony with nature, reviled by the butchering of animals and cutting of trees. While they do not like dwarves to eat meat and use animal products (such as leather, bone, etc.) they themselves will eat their slain enemies. Once, when asked why he did this, an elf replied: "It would be a worse sin to let good meat go to waste than to eat it." Dwarves tend to consider elves hypocritical and pansieish.

Goblins:

Contrary to the belief of most "civilized" races, goblins are actually quite intelligent. Brutal and lazy, they will kidnap the children of other races to serve as slaves for them. Little is know of actual goblin culture, as every kidnappee that was ever rescued was only capable of babbling incoherently and biting at its rescuers, and the goblins themselves tend to be considerably less tactful. They make a habit of sending wave after wave of troops against the larger, more lucrative dwarven fortresses, apparently hoping to wear them down gradually. Throughout history, a number of fortresses have been taken by the hordes.

Kobolds:

Small, fast, and frail. These are all commonly used adjectives to describe the lizard-like kobolds. Of all the intelligent races, kobolds are known the least about, perhaps because no one has ever really bothered to study them. Their language largely consists of yipping and growling sounds, that no other intelligent race can likely make. They will ocassionally show up at fortresses to steal small trinkets, and it has been theorized that they do this because they have no normal sense of ownership. This is a hotly-debated topic in the academic circles of the dwarven empires, as it is sometimes considered the final piece of evidence as to whether or not morality is inherent inintelligent races, while some would argue that Kobolds are not actually intelligent and merely run on instinct. Other still would argue that the behavior of the goblins flatly contradicts any claims that a race cannot be intelligent without being moral.
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Aqizzar

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #32 on: August 12, 2008, 01:28:40 am »

You know, considering the name is "Dwarf Fortress" and people are encouraged to play no other race, isn't it rather pointless to consider humans the "average" race?  I think it would be refreshing to see a fantasy milieu primer that uses another race (dwarves here) as the average, and compares humans against them the way other games would compare dwarves to humans.

It would good to move the physical description of dwarves above the society description.  Some mention of the frequent conflicts between elves and humans (and other races) would also help establish this as something other than a rote high-fantasy setting.  Elves have turned into something akin to badguys after all.
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Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #33 on: August 12, 2008, 10:16:49 am »

That is an interesting point. My use of the term "average" race, nowever is due to that the fact that Humans are kind of right in between all the other races as far as weight and stature. However, I might change it to compare everything to dwarves.
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PTTG??

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #34 on: August 12, 2008, 10:38:14 am »

I like the descriptions, but remember that Kobolds are the literal scum of the earth, a big reptilian cockroach. Getting smote into gore in the name of Armok is the best thing that can happen to them.

I'm working on some doodles for a map. I'm thinking of having a 2D style terrain area, with the same basic structure. To make it more interesting, I'd have the cave river flow out from the mountain an become a creek, and possibly have the chasm reach out too. But I'll see what looks good on paper.
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Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #35 on: August 12, 2008, 11:16:12 am »

I was kind of trying to write it from an "unbiased" view, but I guess it would be good to make it from the dwarven viewpoint, as that is what we shall be playing. I'll revise it eventually.
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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #36 on: August 12, 2008, 11:23:08 am »

Is there anything interesting going on in this fortress? About what size is the population?
what are some things that MUST be in?
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Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #37 on: August 12, 2008, 11:30:31 am »

I want it to be a fresh fortress, young. I don't want there to be more than a few rooms when we begin. Probably just a trade depot, entrance hallway, hub, food stockpile, and whatever else is aboslutely necessary for a fortress that's just getting off the ground. And I just added aboslutely to my dictionary. Damn you, Firefox and your spellchecker.
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Helmaroc

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #38 on: August 12, 2008, 12:07:18 pm »

If this actually happens, I may never leave my desktop again.
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PTTG??

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #39 on: August 12, 2008, 12:48:00 pm »

Well, here's what I have so far:

-Edge of Fortress Territory: The starting point. Later paths can lead to trading partners and so on. A path East goes to the Road.

-Road: Traverses the area. Exits to Forest, Creek, Entrance.

-Creek: Water supply. Exits to Forest, Road, Creek Cave.

-Creek Cave: Point where Cave River becomes Creek. Exits to Creek, River Passage(Not mapped yet), Forest.

-Forest: Surrounding terrain; source of lumber and plants. May be jungle or other terrain, and may be split into quadrants. Exits to Creek, Creek Cave, Road, and Uphill.

-Uphill Slope: Scree-strewn rocky slope. This is climbing up into the mountains. Exits to Surface Chasm, Lower Mountains(Not mapped yet), Forest.

-Surface Chasm: The place where the Chasm meets the edge of the cliff. Exits to Upper Chasm, Uphill Slope.

-Upper Chasm: The highest reaches of the Chasm. Exits to (rest of chasm)(Not mapped yet), Surface Chasm.

Going back to the Road:

-Entrance: An ordinary hole in the cliff surrounded by a few workshops. Exits to Depot, Trapped Corridor.

-Depot: The trading post. Perhaps until shops open up inside, players can trade here too. Exits to Forest, Entrance.

-Trapped Corridor: Narrow passage, gently downward. Close inspection reveals latches and doorways in the stone that conceal rockfalls and a few cruel blades. Exits to Entrance, Main Hall.

-Main Hall: Starts small, but grows more ornate as fortress is improved. Also a good meeting area for players. Exits to Trapped Corridor, Hub, Barracks.

-Barracks: Place where newbies and "peasants" sleep, and where some sparring can take place. "peasants" being NPCs to liven up the place and get blown into gore by megabeasts. Exits to Main Hall (as guards should be close to any invaders entrance).

-Hub: Abstract-ish area. A tangle of corridors to the east of the Main Hall, connecting most areas of the fortress. Dropped items should move to the Main Hall, as this is not a room in the normal sense. Exits to Main Hall, Food Stockpile, Workshops Room, Quarters, Mines.

-Food Stockpile: Later to be the Dining Hall. Exits to Hub.

-Workshops Room: Mason's Shop, ect. Exits to Hub.

-Quarters: A hub devoted to private rooms. This is the hallway which all the Dwarve's quarters connect to. There is always an empty room and a generic occupied room, as well as each player's room. Exits to Hub, (player rooms), Empty Quarters(Not mapped yet). Dropped items stay here.

-Mines: The active digging area and source of ores, gems and stone (although most rooms start with a pile of loose stone in them, too.) Exits to Hub.

There you go. That's about the spring of the second year; we might just have gotten a few immigrants, everybody has a room or two, and we still have some areas that need expansion; particularly we need underground farms, more internal workshops, a well for the wounded, connections to a the features...

Also, presume that we have a few dozen stone trinkets and that the elves will visit in a few weeks.
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LeoLeonardoIII

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #40 on: August 12, 2008, 01:04:15 pm »

My god.

What have you done?

*Leo has been struck down by a Grue*

(Now I'm going to spend several hours fooling around with this)
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Lord Dullard

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #41 on: August 12, 2008, 01:57:25 pm »

If you can all manage to either a.) export a map from DF that fits your specifications using the paint tool or b.) simply give me a detailed description of the area using cardinal directions, I'll do an ASCII map for you that we can put into the MU*.
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Tahin

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #42 on: August 12, 2008, 02:11:25 pm »

Well, I finally figured out how to use @odrop to create an "enters from" message, so I think I have all the basic concepts of building figured out. That's good. I think the current goal is to train enough people that they can train each other and everyone can build intelligently. I say we get some of the map done and then do the ASCII map.
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Fualkner

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #43 on: August 12, 2008, 06:04:50 pm »

Hah, I code. When you get right down to it, RPG's are all equations and lists. Not exactly brain-busting work. Just alot of it, plus deciding how exactly how you want the equations to work, tweaking, updating, etc.

Let me show you the code for my virtual inventory program sometime...

Well, I do use python, may be easier then in whatever you're using.
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PTTG??

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Re: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion
« Reply #44 on: August 12, 2008, 06:51:39 pm »

regarding the general structure of the map, I propose that we don't have a hub, but rather an expandable grid of intersections. In this way, you go to the intersection you are interested in and dig there, allowing for more structure ("my quarters are in the northeast corner, by the butcher's shop") and easier navigation (instead of "you are in the hub exits are N, nne ,ne ,ene ,e ,ese ,se ,sse ,s ,ssw ,sw ,wsw ,w ,wnw ,nw ,nnw ,up ,down ,door ,my door ,+felsite door,...). I'll try some doodles to see what looks good.
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