40d:Modding guide

A NEW UPDATE HAS MADE MOST OF THIS INFORMATION REDUNDANT IN REGARDS TO NEW CIVILISATIONS

This is intended to be an easy guide for general newbies on how to both edit and add civilizations, creatures, objects, and so on in Dwarf Fortress, both adventurer and fortress modes, without breaking anything too much. Generally breaking stuff is fine! Just always back up your work + the originals, and be patient at having to generate new worlds over and over.

Basics of DF modding

All of the data you can edit are stored in the \raw\ folder wherever you saved your DF executable. The raw folder contains two subfolders: graphics (where you insert graphic packs to make custom tiles), and objects, which contains all the data for generally everything in the game that is not hardcoded. Quite a lot is not hardcoded, so you can edit a wide variety of things in the game.

Essentially, everything that can be modded uses text files to determine how they interact with the world or with other objects. With a bit of know-how you can tinker with just about everything.

Every text file uses what are called "tokens", also called "flags". They are essentially attributes that you can add or remove or edit for any particular object in the game, that change the way the object works or acts. Most of the actual effects are hardcoded: for example, giving a creature such as a moose the [EVIL] creature token will make it only appear in evil maps, or giving it [BONECARN] will make it chow down on bones.

A few key things to remember when modding the text files:

• Always back up the default text files you plan on editing. This way, if your game crashes (due to say, a typo that you can't find) you can simply copy-paste it back in for a 'vanilla' DF.
• When you edit any of the text files in the raw folder you must do the following: go into the \data\save folder and delete everything in it, including subfolders. Just do a ctrl-A and hit delete. If you try to play a game of DF with edited text files without making a new world first, bad stuff will happen.

++[EDIT 05/01/08] It seems you do not need to delete old saves; simply create a new world using your modded files and things should run just fine. Should you desire to go back to your old sites, just make sure you revert to the raw files used for the creation of that world. I have not had any trouble "swapping mods" using this method, but would still like verification before this section is deleted.++

• In general it's better to make whole new text files for new stuff you're adding rather than editing the existing ones by tagging them onto the bottom. This allows you to keep track of them easier and keeps them all in one place so there's less messing about with tons of files.

In addition, if you rename the any of the \raw\ files themselves (such as 'creature_insects.txt' to 'creature_bugs.txt'), you must find the same filename in the \data\objects\ folder and delete it. This is required because once the world is generated it creates the new files and saves them for use next time the world is needed; without deleting the file you will get duplication errors. This is not necessary if you just don't change any of the filenames.

Modding the civilizations

The civilization entries are stored in entity_default.txt. They are quite simple files that are in the following format:

[ENTITY:ENTITYNAME]
    [CREATURE:CREATURETYPE]
    [TRANSLATION:LANGUAGETYPE]
    [BIOME_SUPPORT:BIOMETOKEN:FREQENCY]
    ...[OTHER NONESSENTIAL TAGS]...

At the top of the file you'll see an 'entity_default' all by itself, that must be at the top of the file only. All game files require those markers at the top. You can safely ignore them for now.

Now what do these mean, exactly? For one, where the tags are located don't generally matter quite a lot. You can add them in any order as long as they're underneath the "[ENTITY:]" token, which is the 'header' of the civilization and lets the game know that everything underneath deals with that civ. The entity token can be anything as long as it's not the same as another one.

'[CREATURE:]' links the civilization with a certain creature defined in a different file. This is the creature you play in adventurer or fortress mode, or that wanders around their towns when you explore them. For example, if you wanted to do something silly you could switch the "DWARF" entry in entity_default.txt with "ELF" and you would be marching elves around in fortress mode.

'[TRANSLATION:]' connects the civ to a specific language file that determines things like their natural (untranslated) creature first + last names and city names. The valid ones are HUMAN, DWARF, ELF, and GOBLIN.

'[BIOME_SUPPORT::]' defines biomes that civs will appear in.

You can find many details about the rest of the civilization tokens here. The important ones are the CIV_CONTROLLABLE token, which lets you control the civ in dwarf fortress mode (by random chance if you have more than one set controllable) and the INDIV_CONTROLLABLE and ADVENTURE_TIER tokens which lets you play the civ in adventure mode via the PLAY NOW! command.

Any token that has to deal with weapons, armor, clothing, etc. are all the items that the civ can build, not necessarily the ones they can wear. For example, you could create a species with no clothes specified, but then rob a clothes shop in adventurer mode and wear everything you want.

[SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:] and [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:] are the words that can be randomly generated in names, civs, cities, artifacts, engravings, etc. "SELECT_SYMBOL" means that the civ is far more likely to use those, and CULL_SYMBOL means they never will. You can find a list of every symbol type here.

An easy method of creating a civilization is just to copy-paste a similar one to the bottom of the entity_default.txt file and edit things to your liking.

NOTE: With version 32a and higher, if you use [NUISANCE] or [BABYSNATCHER] with older mods then you will get things like wyverns sneaking into your fort knocking everything over, as they're set buildingdestroyer. Just remove the line (nuisance, babysnatcher, sieger) entirely.

Modding the creatures

Creature modding is great fun. Essentially you can change nearly any aspect of a creature or completely make your own from scratch. You can either add a new creature to the bottom of an existing creature_thing.txt file or make your own file; just be sure to add the name of the file (without the txt) to the top of it. For example, I tend to use a 'creature_newbies.txt' file myself.

Modding creatures is exactly similar to modding civs: just a matter of editing, adding, or removing tokens, enclosed in square brackets underneath the creature's [CREATURE:] header. The creature entries contain all the information about each specific creature in the game, from animals to dwarves to goblins to even caravan wagons. Much of the data of a creature is quite self-explanatory; you can find a list of every creature token here.

There're some tokens which use temperature values. Dwarf Fortress has it's own temperature scale for this. DF temperature scale.

Note: If you add a butcherable creature to the game such as a domestic animal, people will automatically wander around wearing its fur or skin as leather items when you are in the game, assuming the creature comes from the civ's biome (natural area). So don't be surprised to see 'duck leather armor' or something if you add ducks.

Modding items

Items come in several flavors: 'crafted' items, and 'natural' items. Both are the same in most ways, but are stored in different places: most crafted item data are stored in the item_blah.txt files (such as item_armor.txt), while things like plants, gems, food, and ore are stored in "matgloss" files, ie. matgloss_plant.txt. Both are easily editable just like a creature or civ, but the problem is that there is no definitive list of what most of the tokens for these quite do yet. In any case they are usually pretty self-explanatory and you can guess what they do by checking out similar entries.

For example, let's look at the entry for, of course, the thong:

[ITEM_PANTS:ITEM_PANTS_THONG]
[NAME:thong:thongs]
[WEIGHT:10]
[VALUE:10]
[BLOCKPOWER:5]
[LAYER:UNDER]
[COVERAGE:25]
[LAYER_SIZE:10]
[LAYER_PERMIT:30]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:1]
[SOFT]
[LEATHER]

Most of these are pretty obvious if one compares them to the other entries. Now, if you wanted to mod these to turn them into metal thongs (ouch!), you would simply have to add [METAL] to it somewhere, and probably [HARD] instead of [SOFT]. Simple!

Weapons work largely the same way; but remember that in order to actually use any of these things you'd have to add the ITEM_THING item flag to the civilization's 'useable items' list in entity_default.txt. For example, if you're fond of Scots and decided to make a 'claymore' sword that's even bigger than the two-hander already in the files. It might look like this:

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_SWORD_CLAYMORE]
[NAME:claymore sword:claymore swords]
[DAMAGE:160:SLASH]
[WEIGHT:120]
[SKILL:SWORD]
[CRIT_BOOST:1]
[TWO_HANDED:0]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:7]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:5]

Tada! Yes, it's that easy. Then you just add it to the civ entry so a civilization can actually use and craft it, and it's done.

Modding language files

Let's say you added a whole new species. Sure, you could just swipe one of the existing translation files and steal their language for your species, but that's the lazy way! If you want to create a whole new language, it's very simple.

First, you'd need a whole new language_RACE file, such as language_LIZARDMAN.txt, along with "language_LIZARDMAN" at the top of the file proceeded by [OBJECT:LANGUAGE] and [TRANSLATION:LIZARDMAN]. After that, it's just a matter of copy-pasting one of the existing language lists and editing the finished 'translated' word. That's it! Then just add the translation link to your civ in entity_default.txt and it'll be added to the game on worldgen.

Modding body parts

Imagine you have this fantastic idea for a multi-tentacled winged spider-monster. Sounds great! But in order to make this a reality you may need to create a new set of body parts for it. That's no problem! Making body parts is easy, though it may look complicated at first.

All body definitions are located in body_default.txt and then linked to a creature in the creature's entry. For example, the dwarf creature has: [BODY:HUMANOID:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:HUMANOID_JOINTS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:5FINGERS:5TOES:MOUTH]. All of these are seperate bodypart definitions in body_default.txt. You can mix and match them in the creature entry and it makes no difference, as long as they're there: each bodypart will link itself to the appropriate connection automatically when the creature is first created. This means that if you don't add the appropriate bodyparts, hilarious things can happen: if you forget to add a throat or lungs your new creature will suffocate after taking a few steps (unless you make it a nonbreather).

Body parts work by sections: you can add as many sections as you want to a bodypart definition, but generally you should keep it fairly low for ease of use. Each body section entry is in the very simple format:

[BODY:BODYNAME]
[BP:ID:name][TOKENSGOHERE]

You can add as many sub-parts as you want to an overall section. The most important tokens are 'CONTYPE' and 'CON': CONTYPE means the bodypart in question is connected to a certain *type* of bodypart, while CON means it's connected to a *specific* one. Let's break down a few entries:

[BODY:BASIC_HEAD]
[BP:HD:head][CONTYPE:UPPERBODY][HEAD]

This is a very simple one: a head. It connects directly to an upper body. All the stuff inside the head are seperate entries that call up the head as a different contype in turn:

[BODY:THROAT]
[BP:THROAT:throat][CONTYPE:HEAD][THROAT][EMBEDDED][SMALL]

The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone..

If you wanted someone to be able to break someone else's throat (like breaking a joint) and suffocate them, just add the [JOINT], [BREATHE], and possibly [NERVOUS] to the throat object's tokens.

A 'BODYGLOSS', which you can sometimes find in the creature entries, are simply replacement words for certain defined words in a creature. For example, you'll find the bodygloss [BODYGLOSS:CLAW_HAND:hand:claw] in the body_default.txt, and then you can use this in a creature with '[BODYGLOSS:CLAW_HAND]' and it will replace all instances of "hand" with "claw" in that creature.

Note that only creatures with the [EQUIPS] token (and possibly [INTELLIGENT]) and a civ that can create clothes/armor/weapons will be able to actually wear stuff.

Example one: dark dwarves

These examples will go over the details for creating several new things as well as editing some old ones.

Remember: delete the contents of your \save\ folder before editing any of the game text files, and always back up the old ones so you don't have to download a new copy of dwarf fortress if you messed something up and can't remember how to fix it.

First, we're going to create a new, evil civilization of dwarves called, unsurprisingly, dark dwarves. This will be quite easy, though with a few fundamental differences. Mainly, that dark dwarves are evil and more warlike than regular dwarves.

First, back up your stuff and delete your saved worlds. Yes, I'm saying that again.

Now, open up entity_default.txt. All your species civilizations will be in there. We're going to make a whole new one for our dark dwarves. In many ways it'll be a simple copy-paste job of regular dwarves, then tweaking some things.

Add this to the bottom of the entity_default file:

[ENTITY:DARK_DWARVES]
   [CIV_CONTROLLABLE]
   [CREATURE:DARK_DWARF]
   [TRANSLATION:DWARF]
   [START_BIOME:MOUNTAIN]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_WETLAND:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_DESERT:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_FOREST:3]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:MOUNTAIN:3]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_GRASSLAND:4]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_SAVANNA:4]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_SHRUBLAND:3]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_RIVER:1]
   [DIGGER:ITEM_WEAPON_PICK]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_AXE_BATTLE]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_WHIP]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_FLAIL]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_SCOURGE]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_DAGGER_LARGE]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_MACE]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_SWORD_SHORT]
   [WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_CROSSBOW]
   [AMMO:ITEM_AMMO_BOLTS]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_PLATEMAIL:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_CHAINMAIL:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_LEATHER:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_COAT:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_SHIRT:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_CLOAK:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_TOGA:UNCOMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_VEST:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_DRESS:COMMON]
   [ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_ROBE:COMMON]
   [HELM:ITEM_HELM_HELM:COMMON]
   [HELM:ITEM_HELM_HOOD:COMMON]
   [GLOVES:ITEM_GLOVES_GAUNTLETS:COMMON]
   [GLOVES:ITEM_GLOVES_GLOVES:COMMON]
   [SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_SHOES:COMMON]
   [SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_BOOTS:COMMON]
   [SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_BOOTS_LOW:COMMON]
   [PANTS:ITEM_PANTS_PANTS:COMMON]
   [PANTS:ITEM_PANTS_GREAVES:COMMON]
   [PANTS:ITEM_PANTS_LEGGINGS:COMMON]
   [SHIELD:ITEM_SHIELD_SHIELD]
   [SHIELD:ITEM_SHIELD_BUCKLER]
   [SIEGEAMMO:ITEM_SIEGEAMMO_BALLISTA]
   [TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_GIANTAXEBLADE]
   [TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_ENORMOUSCORKSCREW]
   [TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_SPIKEDBALL]
   [TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_LARGESERRATEDDISC]
   [TOY:ITEM_TOY_HAMMER]
   [TOY:ITEM_TOY_AXE]
   [TOY:ITEM_TOY_MINIFORGE]
   [INSTRUMENT:ITEM_INSTRUMENT_TRUMPET]
   [INSTRUMENT:ITEM_INSTRUMENT_DRUM]
   [SIEGER]
   [CLOTHING]
   [SUBTERRANEAN_CLOTHING]
   [CURRENCY_BY_YEAR]
   [CURRENCY:COPPER:1]
   [CURRENCY:SILVER:5]
   [CURRENCY:ELECTRUM:10]
   [CURRENCY:GOLD:15]
   [CURRENCY:PLATINUM:30]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:EVIL]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:EARTH]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:VIOLENT]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:DEATH]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:NEGATIVE]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:UGLY]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:UNTOWARD]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:DOMESTIC]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:FLOWERY]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:HOLY]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:PEACE]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:NEGATOR]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:GOOD]
   [METAL_PREF]
   [GEM_PREF]
   [STONE_PREF]
   [INDOOR_FARMING]
   [USE_CAVE_ANIMALS]
   [USE_EVIL_ANIMALS]
   [USE_ANIMAL_PRODUCTS]
   [COMMON_DOMESTIC_PACK]
   [COMMON_DOMESTIC_PULL]
   [COMMON_DOMESTIC_MOUNT]
   [COMMON_DOMESTIC_PET]

The fun part is that your dark dwarves will, thanks to the specified symbols, have some crazy names that you'd never see with regular dwarves (one of the fortresses it generated was called "Crowanus", for example). If you dislike having bad language, just remove the [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:UNTOWARD].

The main differences you'll see here compared to the dwarf entry is that they have different weapons, toys, instruments (thanks to their warlike nature, they build less of them) and [USE_EVIL_ANIMALS] is turned on: this will do nothing in dwarf fort mode but you'll see tamed trolls and ogres in their fortresses in adventurer mode.

Now, we need to build the DARK_DWARF creature. Create a new text file called 'creature_new.txt'. Immediately, add the following:

creature_new

[OBJECT:CREATURE]

That'll make this text file recognized as a creature file. Now, we simply add our dark_dwarf creature:

[CREATURE:DARK_DWARF]
   [NAME:dark dwarf:dark dwarves:dark dwarven]
   [TILE:1][COLOR:3:0:0]
   [GENPOWER:3]
   [BUTCHERABLE_NONSTANDARD]
   [INTELLIGENT]
   [TRANCES]
   [CANOPENDOORS]
   [LIKES_FIGHTING]
   [PREFSTRING:beards]
   [PREFSTRING:violent tempers]
   [BODY:HUMANOID:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:HUMANOID_JOINTS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:5FINGERS:5TOES:MOUTH]
   [STOUT]
   [MAXAGE:150:170]
   [ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:GRASP:punch:punches:1:2:BLUDGEON][ATTACKFLAG_WITH]
   [ATTACK:SECOND:BYTYPE:MOUTH:bite:bites:1:1:GORE][ATTACKFLAG_CANLATCH]
   [CHILD:12][BABY:1][MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
   [DAMBLOCK:1]
   [FAT:3]
   [SIZE:6]
   [EQUIPS]
   [CAVE_ADAPT]
   [NOCTURNAL]
   [CRAFTSMAN_NAME:craftsdwarf:craftsdwarves]
   [FISHERMAN_NAME:fisherdwarf:fisherdwarves]
   [HAMMERMAN_NAME:hammerdwarf:hammerdwarves]
   [SPEARMAN_NAME:speardwarf:speardwarves]
   [CROSSBOWMAN_NAME:marksdwarf:marksdwarves]
   [AXEMAN_NAME:axedwarf:axedwarves]
   [SWORDSMAN_NAME:swordsdwarf:swordsdwarves]
   [MACEMAN_NAME:macedwarf:macedwarves]
   [PIKEMAN_NAME:pikedwarf:pikedwarves]
   [BOWMAN_NAME:bowdwarf:bowdwarves]
   [SPEECH:dwarf.txt]
   [STANDARD_FLESH]
   [HOMEOTHERM:10067]
   [LAYERING:50]
   [EVIL]

This is largely a copy of the regular dwarves, but with several differences: [LIKES_FIGHTING] will give them happy thoughts when they have fought something, [NOCTURNAL] means they like nights rather than days, and [EVIL] means on the adventurer map their fortresses will tend to end up on evil tiles rather than good ones. Otherwise, they are exactly the same as regular dwarves. To make them extra evil, add [BONECARN] somewhere in there and they can eat bones (they'll actually haul them from your refuse pit to the dining table, yum), but will sometimes (though rarely) choke to death on them. Also, they do not require booze to stay happy (though will happily drink it anyway if they have to).

There! That's all we need to do in order to add our civilization. Just create a new world and they'll be there: however, when you go to adventurer mode, all (or none) of your dwarf entries might be replaced with dark dwarves, so it's really a matter of luck. When you start a new fortress, there will be a 50-50 chance of playing either as dwarves or dark dwarves.

Example two: "Arachnid" playable creature

This time, we're going to add a new playable creature to adventurer mode, but not playable in fortress mode. An 'arachnid' is a large, powerful, evil half-elf, half-spider (no copyright violations here!): they are too big to wear standard equipment and are quite nasty enough without it anyway. The downside to playing them is that since they do not form standard civilizations, you cannot start them at a specific location nor will they have any weapon, armor, or wrestling skills to start out. Oh well.

First off, we need to add a civilization entry in entity_default.txt. Open it up and add this to the bottom of the file:

[ENTITY:ARACHNIDS]
   [MOUNTAIN_SETTLEMENTS]
   [CREATURE:ARACHNID]
   [INDIV_CONTROLLABLE]
   [ADVENTURE_TIER:4]
   [TRANSLATION:ELF]
   [CLOTHING]
   [SUBTERRANEAN_CLOTHING]
   [ITEM_THIEF]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_WETLAND:2]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_DESERT:3]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_FOREST:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:MOUNTAIN:4]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_GRASSLAND:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_SAVANNA:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_SHRUBLAND:1]
   [BIOME_SUPPORT:ANY_RIVER:2]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:EVIL]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:VIOLENT]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:DEATH]
   [SELECT_SYMBOL:ALL:UNTOWARD]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:DOMESTIC]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:FLOWERY]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:HOLY]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:PEACE]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:NEGATOR]
   [CULL_SYMBOL:ALL:GOOD]

This will give us some fun random names. As a 'nuisance' race they may appear and try to steal stuff from you in fortress mode (like kobolds), but I have yet to see that actually happen. The nuisance token also makes them not appear as regular civilizations, which is the entire point. Arachnids are solitary and do not form civilizations (though they WILL be found in caves). However, the INDIV_CONTROLLABLE and ADVENTURE_TIER tokens allows us to use ARACHNID: PLAY NOW! in adventurer mode, which is exactly what we want. They'll be powerful enough to use without gear anyhow.

Next, we open up creature_new.txt (if you haven't made one, check the above example) and add the new creature to it:

[CREATURE:ARACHNID]
   [NAME:arachnid:arachnids:arachnid]
   [TILE:'&'][COLOR:7:0:0]
   [MODVALUE:20]
   [INTELLIGENT][CANOPENDOORS]
   [LARGE_CHASM][FREQUENCY:1][DIFFICULTY:4]
   [SPEED:700]
   [STOUT]
   [EXTRACT:giant cave spider venom:7:0:0]
   [EXTRACT_VALUE:100]
   [EXTRACT_PARALYZE][NATURAL][PET_EXOTIC]
   [EXTRACT_ANTIDOTE:giant cave spider antivenin:7:0:0:100]
   [WEBIMMUNE][AMBUSHPREDATOR][PARALYZEIMMUNE]
   [GENPOWER:4]
   [BLOODTYPE:W][CHITIN]
   [PETVALUE:2500]
   [GRASSTRAMPLE:10]
   [CARNIVORE][BONECARN]
   [EXTRAVISION][NOSTUN][NOEXERT][NOFEAR]
   [BUILDINGDESTROYER:1]
   [PREFSTRING:terrifying presence]
   [BODY:ARACHNOBODY:8EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:MOUTH:5FINGERS]
   [SIZE:10]
   [MAXAGE:20:30]
   [ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:MOUTH:bite:bites:1:6:GORE][SPECIALATTACK_INJECT_EXTRACT:50:100]
   [ATTACK:SECOND:BYTYPE:GRASP:punch:punches:1:2:BLUDGEON][ATTACKFLAG_WITH]
   [FAT:2]
   [CHILD:12][BABY:1][MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
   [DAMBLOCK:4]
   [ALL_ACTIVE]
   [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_CHASM]
   [STANDARD_FLESH]
   [HOMEOTHERM:10067]
   [LAYERING:50]

Now, what does this all mean, exactly? Well, compared to dwarves they are big, bad, as fast as elves, as sturdy as dwarves (hard to knock over), they have white blood, can eat bones, are immune to fear, stun, and never get tired, see twice as far, and are almost totally immune to most small-damage attacks. In addition I copied the giant cave spider paralyzing bite attack, so when you bite and hit, you'll sometimes inject a paralyzing poison fairly often that'll knock your prey unconscious in a few combat rounds. Not only is the bite very damaging, but you can even knock out creatures like ettins or giants and rip them up as they sleep at your leisure.

However, we're not done yet. Notice the BODY: token has a few tidbits that we need to take a closer look at- 'ARACHNOBODY' and '8EYES' in particular. These are new to our species and we need to add them. So, close that and open up body_default.txt. Add the following to the bottom:

[BODY:ARACHNOBODY]
[BP:UB:upper body][UPPERBODY]
[BP:LB:abdomen][CON:UB][LOWERBODY]
[BP:HD:head][CON:UB][HEAD]
[BP:RUA:right upper arm][CON:LB][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LUA:left upper arm][CON:LB][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RLA:right lower arm][CON:RUA][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LLA:left lower arm][CON:LUA][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RH:right hand][CON:RLA][GRASP][RIGHT]
[BP:LH:left hand][CON:LLA][GRASP][LEFT]
[BP:RA1:right first leg][CON:LB][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LA1:left first leg][CON:LB][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RF1:right first claw][CON:RA1][STANCE][RIGHT]
[BP:LF1:left first claw][CON:LA1][STANCE][LEFT]
[BP:RA2:right second leg][CON:LB][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LA2:left second leg][CON:LB][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RF2:right second claw][CON:RA2][STANCE][RIGHT]
[BP:LF2:left second claw][CON:LA2][STANCE][LEFT]
[BP:RA3:right third leg][CON:LB][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LA3:left third leg][CON:LB][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RF3:right third claw][CON:RA3][STANCE][RIGHT]
[BP:LF3:left third claw][CON:LA3][STANCE][LEFT]
[BP:RA4:right fourth leg][CON:LB][LIMB][RIGHT]
[BP:LA4:left fourth leg][CON:LB][LIMB][LEFT]
[BP:RF4:right fourth claw][CON:RA4][STANCE][RIGHT]
[BP:LF4:left fourth claw][CON:LA4][STANCE][LEFT]

[BODY:8EYES]
[BP:REYE:first eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL][RIGHT]
[BP:REYE:second eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL][RIGHT]
[BP:REYE:third eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL]
[BP:REYE:fourth eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL]
[BP:REYE:fifth eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL]
[BP:REYE:sixth eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL]
[BP:REYE:seventh eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL][LEFT]
[BP:LEYE:eighth eye][CONTYPE:HEAD][SIGHT][EMBEDDED][SMALL][LEFT]

Voila! Now you have your complete arachnid. They are very fun to play in adventurer mode, yet still a challenge. You can tear through unarmed civilians like a knife through butter, armed soldiers pose a minor challenge (much bigger if you are getting ganged up on), elite spearmen are devastating, and archers still rip you to shreds unless you close in on them quickly and poison them. However, thanks to your multiple eyes and legs you can take quite a few direct hits and still keep going (I once had an arrow smash straight through my head, taking out 5 eyes and wounding the throat, brains, and both ears, and survived the encounter).

In any case, you're now done! Create a new world and you will now be able to use arachnids as a playable creature in adventurer mode.

Written by Teldin.