40d Talk:Creatures

Here kitty!

What are the triggers for semi- and megabeasts? Is there any way to encourage them? Runspotrun 16:47, 11 November 2007 (EST)

Pretty sure semimegabeasts don't attack in fortress mode. Don't know what triggers megabeasts in this version. On my current fort, I saw my first (a hydra) after 100 pop, don't know if that's the trigger or if it was just a coincidence.

Megabeasts used to attack based on your total fortress value. Semi-megabeasts are found in caves and such. --Nitem4re 17:23, 13 November 2007 (EST)

Reason for ordering?

Is there any particular reason why these aren't alphabetised? --Nunix 17:20, 5 March 2008 (EST)

You could put each group of creatures into a table, such as:

Name	Biome
Dog	Common domestic
Rhesus macaque	Temperate shrubland, Temperate savanna, Temperate grassland

If this is acceptable, I can begin changing them to use this format (perhaps a template would be useful?). --SeiferTim 13:53, 7 March 2008 (EST)

Page Cleanup

Okay, so I've begun a mission to clean up the creatures page. So far, I made a couple of templates for the sortable table, and I've started converting the currently existing lists into tables. Phase II will be to alphabetize the tables. Would it make sense to change the way the creatures are categorized? It seems less helpful (at least to me) to have them grouped by Neutral, Benign, Evil, etc, then to group them by type or biome?

For example, would it be better to have the table look like this:

Natural

Symbol	Name	Type	Size	Biome
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000;padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:6:0:0;" | d	Dog	Benign	5	None
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000; padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:0:0:1;" | r	Large rat	Neutral	4	Chasm

Aquatic

Symbol	Name	Type	Size	Biome
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000;padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:1:0:0;" | c	Coelacanth	Benign	6	Tropical ocean
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000; padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:7:0:0;" | ~	Eel, conger	Benign	7	Arctic ocean, Temperate ocean

Amphibious

Symbol	Name	Type	Size	Biome
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000;padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:7:0:0;" | C	Cave crocodile	Predator	10	Subterranean water
style="font-size: 200%; background: #000; padding: 0.1em 0.25em;color:Template:COLOR:2:0:0;" | f	Frogman	Predator	5	Subterranean water

--SeiferTim 04:50, 8 March 2008 (EST)

Perhaps it would be easier to automatically convert the raw data to wikitext than do this all by hand. That way we can avoid errors like listing dogs as benign. If you tell me what creature properties and format you want, I can start doing that. Although if you really prefer doing it by hand, I guess that's fine, too. VengefulDonut 11:48, 9 March 2008 (EDT)

If you can do that, it would be a lot easier ;)

The format I have for each row is this: {{Creature table row|symbol= |color= (format X:0:X) |name= |type= |align= |size= |biome= }}--SeiferTim 12:13, 9 March 2008 (EDT)

Also, I'm curious to know what you would do to convert the raw data... --SeiferTim 14:38, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

Wrote a c++ program to do it. What do you mean by type? What values can type have? Also, you can see what it's currently producing here. VengefulDonut 19:11, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

I haven't used C++ in like 8 years... I've been meaning to brush up on it.... Anyway, I think what you have looks brilliant (and here I was using Copy/Paste like a sucker!) I was planning to use 'Type' to be able to group different creatures, such as Aquatic, Fliers, Natural, etc... but as I dig deeper into the various creatures, I'm seeing that it's very, very hard to split them up in a way that would make sense to someone who just wants to browse a list... we can't very well say "Type: Aquatic, Natural, Predator" and "Type: Flier, Intelligent, Evil", etc, it would end up being too cluttered... unless you can think of anyway to catogorize them in a sensible fashion, I say we just throw that column out... --SeiferTim 23:22, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

Hmm. Right now sorting by alignment doesn't mean very much. Perhaps we should split it into a good/neutral/evil column and a benign/neutral/savage column. With what I have now, adding more properties to pull and format won't take much effort. Is there anything else you think we could use? Maybe modvalue? It would be nice if we could have hideable table sections that would have other misc properties to sort by. Without that I guess we need to stick to those common to most creatures. VengefulDonut 01:52, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

It looks great! I'm going to go through and try to add in the missing creature pages. I realized that we could probably use the name of the file to determine the creature type... for example: creature_reptiles, creature_large_tundra, etc, could drop the "creatures_", and convert the remaining "_" into spaces... I don't know that it would be particularly necessary... --SeiferTim 16:23, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

Creation

Is there any way for you to make your own creatures for use in the game? You like messing around with the files and stuff? I really want to make Triffid you know from 'Day of the Triffids' Hoborobo 11:52, 9 May 2008 (EDT)Hoborobo

You can try the Modding Guide. Hex Decimal 12:36, 9 May 2008 (EDT)

Spawning

is there anything about how creatures spawn naturally out in the "wild"? like if you hunt too much of them they will go extinct or disappear but if you leave them alone, more will be available or something?

Named creatures

I think it should be noted that any creature that kills a dwarf receives a specific name. I noticed this a while back when wolves would kill my marksn00bs. My friend also concluded that this might be the case (All the elephants in his fortress had names. ;-) --PrettyGrizzly 05:46, 15 July 2008 (EDT)

Yes, this can happen in both fortress and adventure mode. I guess hunters often give nicknames to dangerous/well-known animals that have been harassing local citizens. Note that your own wolves can get names as well. Also, I think that mass killings will cause even more names to appear, and possibly even a nickname as well? --AlexFili 05:36, 16 July 2008 (EDT)

Tamed Dangerous Creatures?

If you train a dangerous creature like a Tiger or alligator or Megabeast will they help you defend your fortress?

I believe tamed creatures will attempt to run from danger, just like civilian dwarves, although I expect they'll fight to defend themselves if cornered. Trained creatures (e.g. War dogs) will attack, though. However, IIRC only dogs can be war trained at the moment. I believe it's possible to mod any creature to be trainable though - probably a simple operation if you learn the basics. MMad 17:57, 31 July 2008 (EDT)

Yes but on the wiki page for creatures it says that tiger's will help defend the fortress, and I can't really imagine a hydra running from a kobold archer...

Missing Creatures pages

Several creatures lack even a basic page, leaving their entry red-linked. This includes such interesting monsters as gremlins and nightwings. Would any enterprising editors that know their way around the raw files be interested in creating these pages and filling them with the basic information? MMad 17:57, 31 July 2008 (EDT)