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[kenji_03]

I saw "The Ark Project" and want to help, but I have no idea how to mod.  Well, I get the basic idea of modding (thank you starcraft) but I don't understand all the tags and stuff.

I know it's kind of a lot to ask, but can someone explain (comprehensively) how to mod a new creature?

What are all these odd tags for?  I'm trying to make some of the turtles for this upcoming arc, so any help on that would be appreciated.

Code: [Select]

[CREATURE:TURTLE]
[NAME:turtle:turtles:turtle]
[TILE:151][COLOR:2:0:0]
[VERMIN_FISH][FISHITEM]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:25:50]
[AMPHIBIOUS][SMALL_REMAINS][NO_WINTER]
[SPEED:2900]
[PETVALUE:10][NATURAL][PET]
[NOT_BUTCHERABLE][HASSHELL]
[PREFSTRING:beauty]
[DIURNAL]
[BIOME:ANY_POOL]
[STANDARD_FLESH]
[SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:250:500]
[MUNDANE][color]

[CREATURE:TURTLE]
   [NAME] - why three names?
   [TILE:151][COLOR:2:0:0] - I get Color, but is tile the image icon it uses?
   [VERMIN_FISH][FISHITEM] - I get that these are the attributes of the creature, but are there any other tags I should know of?  Can I find a list of them?
   [POPULATION_NUMBER:25:50] - what does this mean, why two numbers?  Is this the local area population max?
   [AMPHIBIOUS][SMALL_REMAINS][NO_WINTER] - Again, attributes but are there other tags and is there a list of them?
   [SPEED:2900] - I guess this is movement speed?
   [PETVALUE:10][NATURAL][PET] - I get the tags, but what is the value range and are there other tags?
   [NOT_BUTCHERABLE][HASSHELL] - I get these tags, they involve cooking/eating but why can't you butcher a turtle?
   [PREFSTRING:beauty] - ... what?
   [DIURNAL] - ... what?
   [BIOME:ANY_POOL] - Biome: where it lives.  Again, is there a listing of these tags?
   [STANDARD_FLESH] - as opposed to carapace, undead, or other flesh, I get it.
   [SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500] - would love an explanation
   [POPULATION_NUMBER:250:500] - again, what is this?  Total pop possible?
   [MUNDANE] ... what?

[Doomshifter]

You should check the dwarf wiki's page on creature tokens for fuller explanations. I know I use it like all the time. I can't mod without it open ^^;
Creature Tokens

Also, if you give me one moment, I'll explain the turtle for you :3

Code: [Select]

[CREATURE:TURTLE]
[NAME:turtle:turtles:turtle] Singular name, plural name, adjective. So, dwarf, dwarves, dwarven.
[TILE:151][COLOR:2:0:0] Tile is what symbol it uses. The colour corresponds to a colour chart that is also on the wiki.
[VERMIN_FISH][FISHITEM] Vermin_fish means that it is a vermin creature that shows up from water. It also shows that it is something that can be fished up. (Fishitem)
[POPULATION_NUMBER:25:50] Min/Max numbers of area population
[AMPHIBIOUS][SMALL_REMAINS][NO_WINTER] Amphibious, can go in and out of water
Small remains, it makes an item on death 'Turtle Remains' rather than 'Turtle Corpse'. No winter means you'll never see a turtle during winter.
[SPEED:2900] How fast it moves. Contrary to popular belief, the lower this is the faster you go.
[PETVALUE:10][NATURAL][PET] Petvalue: How much it is worth as a pet.
Natural: it is a natural animal.
Pet: It can be adopted by your dwarves.
[NOT_BUTCHERABLE][HASSHELL]
Not_butcherable: You can't carve it open at a butcher's shop.
Hasshell: It drops a shell item.
[PREFSTRING:beauty] Dwarves like them for their beauty. You could put anything here, and dwarves would like them for their athletic skill if you wrote it.
[DIURNAL] Sleeps during the night, is awake during the day.
[BIOME:ANY_POOL] They spawn from murky pools.
[STANDARD_FLESH] They have normal flesh. All creatures have this.
[SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500] It can swim naturally without having to learn.
[POPULATION_NUMBER:250:500] How many of them there are in an area. (between the numbers)
[MUNDANE] Perfectly boringly ordinary turtle.

[3]

   [NAME] - why three names?

Singluar/plural/descriptive. The most obvious example of the latter being used is during description of sites - when you see, say, "the goblin dark fortress of goxasnodub" the third name in the creature entry is being used for "goblin". If I were to change the goblin entry's third name to "grotesque", it would show up as "the grotesque dark fortress of goxasnodub", etc. I'm not sure what else it's used for in the current version.

  [TILE:151][COLOR:2:0:0] - I get Color, but is tile the image icon it uses?

Yes, either a character in inverted commas (eg 'c') or a specific tile from the tileset currently in use (data\art).

   [VERMIN_FISH][FISHITEM] - I get that these are the attributes of the creature, but are there any other tags I should know of?  Can I find a list of them?

List of modding-related pages on the DF wiki. Anything else you need you'll probably be able to find there.

   [POPULATION_NUMBER:25:50] - what does this mean, why two numbers?  Is this the local area population max?

You're close. The number of generated turtles per pass in worldgen, and the maximum number that can spawn on your map (in fortress mode) in a given year, is always between those two values.

   [AMPHIBIOUS][SMALL_REMAINS][NO_WINTER] - Again, attributes but are there other tags and is there a list of them?

Answered above

   [SPEED:2900] - I guess this is movement speed?

Specifically land/air movement speed; swim speed uses a seperate tag. Standard (unspecified) speed is 900; lower values are faster (this is different to the displayed speed value in adventurer mode). For a poor comparison, elves are 700.

   [PETVALUE:10][NATURAL][PET] - I get the tags, but what is the value range and are there other tags?

Value range? The value's whatever it is. It can be set to anything that isn't ridiculous and causes an overflow. It can even be set to negative values if you need to do that, for whatever reason.

   [NOT_BUTCHERABLE][HASSHELL] - I get these tags, they involve cooking/eating but why can't you butcher a turtle?

It's a vermin. Vermin aren't hunted or killed as such; therefore they have no need for butchering. The equivalent values with fish vermin (see the FISHITEM tag above) is that they need to be cleaned. I don't know about large water creatures, but they're bugged in the current version anyway so you're unlikely to see them unless they exist directly on the map when you embark.

[PREFSTRING:beauty] - ... what?

This controls how the creature is described in an inidvidual's preferences ("Urist likes turtles for their beauty"). Add as many lines as you want and they'll get picked randomly when someone likes the creature. There's a more general "description" tag in the next version.

   [DIURNAL] - ... what?

Diurnal as opposed to nocturnal; the creature is active in daylight hours. Not very important right now, but better to put it there anyway.

   [BIOME:ANY_POOL] - Biome: where it lives.  Again, is there a listing of these tags?

Again, the wiki.

   [STANDARD_FLESH] - as opposed to carapace, undead, or other flesh, I get it.

Nobody really knows what STANDARD_FLESH does - it might determine some default values for ignite points, boiling points, freezing points, etc, which are fairly realistic. Removing it seems to make a creature reasonably immune to freezing and the like unless you specify another value (with the COLDDAM_POINT tags and such). Don't take my word for it though.

   [SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500] - would love an explanation

SWIMS_INNATE as opposed to SWIMS_LEARNED; the creature has an innate ability to swim. SWIMS_LEARNED means the creature needs skill in the "swimming" skill to swim; this naturally requires either CAN_LEARN or SLOW_LEARNER. I mentioned the mechanics of speed above.

   [POPULATION_NUMBER:250:500] - again, what is this?  Total pop possible?

Why is there a duplicate of this? Odd. This value is more appropriate for vermin creatures; the earlier one would've been better for herds and such. Note that you won't be seeing them all in one large group; as I said, this is the number of creatures generated per pass. There's a seperate tag to help control "pack" numbers - CLUSTER_NUMBER.

   [MUNDANE] ... what?

Not really used for much at the moment. You'd probably do well to add it to anything that isn't fantastical.

Edit: Ninja'd - and I was so close as well.

[darkflagrance]

[Natural] means that things at peace with nature like elves will not be attacked by it.

[kenji_03]

you guys, all of you, rock!  I'll start hammering away at some of those creatures on the mod list as soon as I can!  (Also, if someone searches "how to mod animals" this should come up, as when I searched it I got nothing...)

[Sean Mirrsen]

[DIURNAL] is one of six tags determining creature activity. The others are NOCTURNAL, CREPUSCULAR, MATUTINAL, VESPERTINE, and ALL_ACTIVE. These mean, in order, that the creature is not asleep during: Day, Night, Twilight(dawn/dusk), Dawn, Dusk, and its entire life.

You won't notice these in Fort mode because Fort mode doesn't have day/night cycles. However, in Adventure mode, these determine when you can encounter these creatures. I haven't seen any creatures asleep in the game yet, but I suspect it's because they're generally hard to find unless they ambush you.

STANDARD_FLESH sets default values for the generic flesh material, including all temperature points and properties like hardness and weight. This can be overriden with [MATERIAL:] and any temperature tags that exist.

MUNDANE is basically the opposite of MAGICAL and FANCIFUL - as such, it has little to no effect since magic doesn't really exist. Mundane creatures are less likely to appear in symbols and engravings, that's about all I can determine.

[3]

Last I checked MATUTINAL and/or VESPERTINE generated error messages. I'm not sure why.

[Sean Mirrsen]

MATUTINAL and VESPERTINE are both in the exe as of .40d11, so they shouldn't throw out errors.

[3]

Strange. I must've been doing something wrong.

Also, the wiki suggests that MUNDANE may have a hand in whether or not an age is named after a creature or not. Thinking about it, it might not have much sense to call every age "the age of worms" or "the age of flies" just because of their overwhelming numbers (which is what I'd expect would happen without that tag if propulations started to decline).

[Rakonas]

[DIURNAL] is one of six tags determining creature activity. The others are NOCTURNAL, CREPUSCULAR, MATUTINAL, VESPERTINE, and ALL_ACTIVE. These mean, in order, that the creature is not asleep during: Day, Night, Twilight(dawn/dusk), Dawn, Dusk, and its entire life.

You won't notice these in Fort mode because Fort mode doesn't have day/night cycles. However, in Adventure mode, these determine when you can encounter these creatures. I haven't seen any creatures asleep in the game yet, but I suspect it's because they're generally hard to find unless they ambush you.

If you go into a town at night you'll definitely see sleeping villagers.
Has anyone done any testing with changing around the sleep tags to see if it changes when villagers sleep? Also, it would be pretty nice to see a civ that sleeps most the day be pretty much eliminated during world gen, though I doubt world gen would take that into account yet.

[soul4hdwn]

related to the last comment above me, it would also explain how my nocturnal civ keeps killing half the world on generation...and they're only on mild terms vs everyone