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Author Topic: Alien Creature Behaviors and Myth  (Read 14708 times)

NW_Kohaku

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Alien Creature Behaviors and Myth
« on: April 27, 2011, 02:45:16 pm »

In the development postings, Toady and Three Toe have been talking about generating catacombs with new types of Night Creature-like creatures which are suitable for living in sewers and other subterranean zones.  In the Future of the Fortress thread, this has led to a spin-off discussion about mythology, and new creatures and powers that creatures can have.

So, this is a "brainstorming" thread, where posters are encouraged to come up with stories of creatures from myth or fiction that have very unusual logic or goals. 

I don't mean just another bizarrely-shaped critter that just likes to eat dwarves like all the Forgotten Beasts or most other cavern creatures, I mean creatures that have truly strange habits, and feed upon or behave by very strange rules.  The purpose is to create a list of creatures that would be radically different in the way that they actually would pose a challenge to the player... if they are actually even hostile to the player at all. 

Here was what we were discussing before:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

By the by, I searched for existing night creatures or strange monster topics, and the only threads I got were about specific types of creatures, like dragons or golems, the Underground Diversity thread (already implemented), and a thread that was on this exact topic whose OP was edited to say "Screw it, someone else start a new topic."  So I figured I would.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2011, 11:48:15 am by NW_Kohaku »
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freeformschooler

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2011, 02:53:22 pm »

I'm going to be the first one that says it: randomly generated undead/other creatures that kill not to feed, but to equip themselves with the weapons and armor of their prey. They're just intelligent enough to see that power comes in belongings. Just to provide a contrast to the generalized "hoarder" night creatures we have now.
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Vactor

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2011, 03:05:14 pm »

I'll be bold and suggest a multi-tile creature:

An immobile creature that grows into adjacent tiles, it would work like creatures do now, leaving the tile passable to crawling, and able to attack adjacent squares.

I would imagine this being some kind of disease (possibly from forgotten beasts) that causes the body of the deceased to continue to grow and spread like an undead moss.  It could have randomized body parts from its  hosts body type, with procedurally generated connectivity.

Imagine a catacomb passageway with gnarled arms hanging from the walls and ceiling, assorted eyes and mouths and other parts scatter across its surface.  If you wanted to get through you could make a run for it, or start hacking off limbs to clear a way.
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EmperorNuthulu

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2011, 03:17:10 pm »

I'll be bold and suggest a multi-tile creature:

An immobile creature that grows into adjacent tiles, it would work like creatures do now, leaving the tile passable to crawling, and able to attack adjacent squares.

I would imagine this being some kind of disease (possibly from forgotten beasts) that causes the body of the deceased to continue to grow and spread like an undead moss.  It could have randomized body parts from its  hosts body type, with procedurally generated connectivity.

Imagine a catacomb passageway with gnarled arms hanging from the walls and ceiling, assorted eyes and mouths and other parts scatter across its surface.  If you wanted to get through you could make a run for it, or start hacking off limbs to clear a way.

That sounds absolutely horrific and terrifying...

It probably would fit into dwarf fortress though, considering the other horrors we have.

Also do we know if these sewers will have running water in them? if so then we could have something like swimming blobs of filth that ambush you and drag you under water.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2011, 03:19:59 pm by EmperorNuthulu »
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loose nut

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2011, 05:18:41 pm »

This is more modern and less mythological, but what about Alien style parasites whose larval form eats a living host? Or one who paralyses the host and takes them back to their lair first, like a wasp?

More broadly, what about creatures with multi-stage life cycles?
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Fieari

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2011, 05:23:38 pm »

I am reminded of "firebirds"* in Dave Duncan's "Lord of the Fire Lands".  In that, firebirds are a cross between earth and fire elementals mixed with an animal of the wizard's choice.  It's utterly invincible to anything but water, and incapable of seeing even large quantities of the stuff.  You basically have to lure it into the ocean to kill it.

That's a good example of the "Unable to see" style weakness, I think.

*Not always a bird
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Vactor

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2011, 06:06:47 pm »

I'll be bold and suggest a multi-tile creature:

An immobile creature that grows into adjacent tiles, it would work like creatures do now, leaving the tile passable to crawling, and able to attack adjacent squares.

I would imagine this being some kind of disease (possibly from forgotten beasts) that causes the body of the deceased to continue to grow and spread like an undead moss.  It could have randomized body parts from its  hosts body type, with procedurally generated connectivity.

Imagine a catacomb passageway with gnarled arms hanging from the walls and ceiling, assorted eyes and mouths and other parts scatter across its surface.  If you wanted to get through you could make a run for it, or start hacking off limbs to clear a way.

That sounds absolutely horrific and terrifying...

It probably would fit into dwarf fortress though, considering the other horrors we have.

Also do we know if these sewers will have running water in them? if so then we could have something like swimming blobs of filth that ambush you and drag you under water.

Just as a follow up to this, i do think this would be the easiest type of multi-tile creature to implement, as it could effectively be an individual immobile creature in each square, each independently killable.  This could also show up in fortress mode, where a catacomb that has fallen into disuse could become infested. (could be sphere/biome specific, or as a result of forgotten beast effects) It could also be a source of miasma.
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harborpirate

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2011, 06:07:47 pm »

Creatures that turn things to stone and/or metal, and/or creatures that eat [loose] stone and/or metal would be interesting additions (if they aren't already included, I'm not too familiar with the entire roster of monsters and monster powers, since I mostly play fortress mode and build megaprojects).

Imagine coming across what appears to be a half eaten stone statue of a dwarf, that turns out to be the corpse of an ancient dwarf turned to stone long ago.

Or a creature that attacks you in adventurer mode, but only because it wants to eat your sword (and not necessarily you).
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loose nut

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2011, 07:18:24 pm »

Monsters that appoint themselves guardians of a wood, a river, a battlefield, a vein of ore, an artifact.

Monsters, or crazy hermits, or cults!
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Acanthus117

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2011, 08:50:55 pm »

Monsters that appoint themselves guardians of a wood, a river, a battlefield, a vein of ore, an artifact.

I like this idea. Imagine if in worldgen some epic hero is slain and they make a temple for him, and then a random spirit thing manifests as the 'protector' of the temple. Due to the fact that the hero was a really cool guy and everyone liked him and stuff, there'll be loot in that temple to sell/use.

Then, the civ that made the temple crumbles, leaving the temple (and its protector spirit monster) relatively unscathed.

Hundreds of years later, a wandering mercenary hears tales of the haunted temple filled with gold...

I'll be bold and suggest a multi-tile creature:

An immobile creature that grows into adjacent tiles, it would work like creatures do now, leaving the tile passable to crawling, and able to attack adjacent squares.

I would imagine this being some kind of disease (possibly from forgotten beasts) that causes the body of the deceased to continue to grow and spread like an undead moss.  It could have randomized body parts from its  hosts body type, with procedurally generated connectivity.

Imagine a catacomb passageway with gnarled arms hanging from the walls and ceiling, assorted eyes and mouths and other parts scatter across its surface.  If you wanted to get through you could make a run for it, or start hacking off limbs to clear a way.

That sounds absolutely horrific and terrifying...

It probably would fit into dwarf fortress though, considering the other horrors we have.

Also do we know if these sewers will have running water in them? if so then we could have something like swimming blobs of filth that ambush you and drag you under water.

Just as a follow up to this, i do think this would be the easiest type of multi-tile creature to implement, as it could effectively be an individual immobile creature in each square, each independently killable.  This could also show up in fortress mode, where a catacomb that has fallen into disuse could become infested. (could be sphere/biome specific, or as a result of forgotten beast effects) It could also be a source of miasma.
I love this idea. It fits into the whole feel of DF, and who wouldn't want to see tons of disembodied eyes and arms and stuff?
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Ale and Axes

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2011, 09:31:29 pm »

Shape-shifting is quite a common mythical monster trait. Vampires turning into bats or mist, Ghouls can take the form of hyenas in their original Arabian myths. There's a German zombie called a Nachzehrer that can take the form of a pig.
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Light forger

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2011, 12:01:53 am »

"A strange creature struggles towards a man in the distance it is flayed and mutilated. It does not breath but there are gasps of pain as it walks looking at the horror-stuck human with great loathing in it's eyes it bows to hims and says "We will honorably duel for your fate." The man draws a small dirks as it raises a blood-stained longsword of a ancient make and with a few clear strikes slays the man as he falls to the ground and his blood covers the ground it seems almost sad."


Razzorth or Damned Ones are soldiers of old who did terrible deeds in combat battle failing to honor those who they had slain the god of combat and honor cursed to be flayed and mutilated like there victims. To end the curse they must do honorable combat with soldiers until one beats them honorably. They are know to haunt catacombs.


Notes: Damned Ones have to honor ALL requests so if you are on a quest you can make it wait for you to finish before it can attack you. When formals greetings for cultures are made it will have to honor them too.They are needless to say very patience and will let you go hoping you will grow strong enough to end there suffering.  There weapons are masterwork as even more of a curse as they can't let someone kill them and can't use another weapon this dooms many that could have killed them to there deaths. They both hate and love the as living they can end there curse but they are free to be unhonorable and die.

       
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Geneoce

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2011, 12:51:06 am »

On the subject of multitile "creatures" some form of elven M.A.D spell/curse/whatever would be pretty cool.

Thinking something along the lines of an elven retreat gets torched by humans to make room for expansion, then a few years later toxic vines/plants/fungi bloom in the area. Something akin to a badass, maleviolent, semi-intelligent version of cordyceps that enslaves the inhabitants or feeds off them.

I can imagine an overgrown village full of plant-infested human parodies of elves slaying all intruders into this new "forest"

It would have to be civ dependant though, like maybe just for more fanatic/corrupt version of elves or something.
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Fidna

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2011, 06:13:20 am »

I'd like to see some things more akin to traditional Gaelic and some Brythonic faeries. They were often not so much outright malicious (though they often could be) so much as possessed of a very warped sense of ethics that lacked the remotest sense of empathy for others. And a lot of them just looked weird. There's a Scottish creature that had a head the size of a whale on a man's body, with translucent skin and an enormous grin. He'd wander up on beaches sometimes and consume people with his massive maw. In one story, a priest gets it to stop by offering him hospitality (he gave him a cask of wine), and asked why it did such awful things. "I'm hungry." Then it went back into the sea. Some are pretty nebulous creatures, too. Like a kind of giant hairy man in some Manx and Scottish myths is seen, sometimes, but disappears into fog, and leaves a person with a sense of unnatural dread that drives a person mad with terror, often to the point of suicide. Hill-women were some kind of vampire like being that moved in groups. One would convince a lone traveler they needed assistance. If they followed, they'd be torn limb from limb by the rest of the group and their blood consumed from the wounds, and the creatures were revealed to be the dessicated phantoms of deceased women. I use these specific examples because they all had the same severe weakness to worked iron. Touching it would cause them to die. I find it funny because it's such a plain metal. I'd like some very bizarre, dangerous, or just gross things that could die by such bizarrely simple means (given, at least in said cultures, iron wasn't exceedingly hard to come by; considering the Gaels' view of how their people came to be, with invading Ireland and all with superior weapons, it was probably just a commentary on that, but it still lead to some hilarious and weird myths).

I'd really like to see catacombs and such offering creatures specific to the cultures that built them. Think of a civilization resembling the old Norse peoples; tombs could sometimes be guarded by something akin to a draugr in certain cases. But similar beings don't exist in all other mythologies. It'd be a good chance for some dynamism culturally, giving a region more direct character in relationship to the peoples who live in it. It'd really be nice when cultures are themselves more dynamic.
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Vorthon

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Re: Strange Creatures and Myth
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2011, 07:57:43 am »

Hey, NW_Kohaku, that was my thread you found, wasn't it?

I was having some trouble with formatting. (My carefully formatted summary/list kept getting screwed up by the forum. >.<)

Also, Domovoi.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2011, 09:47:12 am by Vorthon »
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