40d Talk:Creature

(Moved from "Creatures" to conform to naming conventions. --Albedo 16:39, 2 June 2009 (UTC))

Surviving Megabeasts

Hey, I've got the latest version of Dwarf Fortress, and I've been trying to improve the survival rate of Megabeasts by increasing their GENPOWER tags and their attack abilities, but for some reason, they keep dying out really early. I assume this means I have no chance of capturing and taming them, which is my intention. How would I go about better doing this, does anyone know?

Jwguy 19:20, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Try increasing the size and damblock values. Also the GENPOWER tag is apparently obsolete so increasing it does nothing AKAfreaky 19:57, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

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
d	Dog	Benign	5	None
r	Large rat	Neutral	4	Chasm

Aquatic

Symbol	Name	Type	Size	Biome
c	Coelacanth	Benign	6	Tropical ocean
~	Eel, conger	Benign	7	Arctic ocean, Temperate ocean

Amphibious

Symbol	Name	Type	Size	Biome
C	Cave crocodile	Predator	10	Subterranean water
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)

Magma Creatures

We really need a page just listing all the magma creatures and vermin. --RomeoFalling 22:52, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Fire imp, fire man, magma man, fire snake. That's it, according to the raws.--Maximus 18:48, 5 November 2008 (EST)

Think I should list that under the magma page. I was trying to search for "magma creature" and found nothing. --RomeoFalling 19:32, 5 November 2008 (EST)

Sounds good to me.--Maximus 23:34, 5 November 2008 (EST)

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 and Animal Offspring

Is there anything known about how creatures spawn naturally out in the "wild"? I guess they just randomly walk in from the edge of the map at the beginning of a season unless they are like special event spawning in groups of 3 to 7 maybe. Spawning might be different for animals and fish which have traits in common with vermin which spawn differently, I think. I'm wondering if over hunting animals affects what animals enter the map. I think extinction is only possible for megabeasts. It doesn't seem to matter if a creature is tamed or not to be able to make children, all it needs is a female and male of the same animal and some code which I should someday learn to fiddle with. I think there could be problems of making Megabeast children as they don't spawn as Megabeasts should.--Seaneat 12:17, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

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)

They don't appear to need to even be dangerous. I have quite the colony of cave swallowmen sharing the chasm with me, none of them have interrupted/attacked my dwarfs, but after about two seasons (right after the first dwarven caravan left) I got a whole swath of "The dwarves have given a resident Cave Swallowman the name ...". HeWhoIsPale 12:01, 13 November 2008 (EST)

I'd think that may have to do with the fact that they're [INTELLIGENT].71.194.101.232 03:34, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

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)

healing rates

is there anywhere that says how long it takes for a creature to heal? my poor marksdwarf managed to inflict some slight injuries to an iron man before the iron man beat the marksdwarf to pulp ... is the iron man gonna get better or not?

my postscript is, novices with obsidian short swords seemed more effective than marksdwarves against the iron man.GarrieIrons 23:27, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

That's because Iron Men have no vital organs to puncture, making piercing weapons all but worthless against them. 71.194.101.232 03:36, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

The dwarves have given a resident Cave Swallowman the name Ducim Isethilral.

They can do that now? What gives? Someone explain me. --GreyMaria 23:19, 28 September 2008 (EDT)

Basically, any creature near your fortress that is suitably badass can be given a name by the Dwarfs. For example, if the creature in question has a high kill count or something similarly infamous. HeWhoIsPale 09:12, 29 September 2008 (EDT)

But these cave swallowmen did nothing. Just flew 'round. --GreyMaria 14:38, 29 September 2008 (EDT)

He may be a historical badass, was he named on embark or have you been there for a while before it happened? Perhaps Urist just likes him for his coloration. HeWhoIsPale 20:24, 29 September 2008 (EDT)

I'll have to check the preferences of my original seven dwarves, then. I was there for like about 3/4 of a year before they were all named. --GreyMaria 20:37, 29 September 2008 (EDT)

As per my new comment above, it seems that dwarves may just decide to name wild creatures that don't migrate in and off site after a few seasons. HeWhoIsPale 12:10, 13 November 2008 (EST)

Any creature who kills another named creature gets a name. Some creatures have a history and start out with a name (I had a named tiger at my fort when I first started out). Any individual creature that your dwarves encounter often or long enough (not sure of the exact details) gets named by the dwarves, even if they do nothing special. I had a few zombie cave swallowmen and batman that were named by my dwarves, though they only did so about 4 years in. There were dozens more that were not encountered by my dwarves until I finally sent someone to kill them all -- none of them got a name.--Maximus 13:06, 13 November 2008 (EST)

Value of creatures

I'm rather sure the value of caged creatures must have something to do with it's modvalue. However, I don't see it stated clearly anywhere. Anyone help? (Probably a good thing to add to the page)

This was mentioned in the page cleanup section above. I think it's a great idea. Plus it might be useful to show the modvalue on individual creature pages. (I mean, who's to know that a Bonobo hide is worth less than Naked mole dog hide? That's news to me.) 3lB33 18:34, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Can't find the value of a wizards hide on the wiki, going to have to dig in the RAWs for the answer guess. 3lB33 20:54, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Metamorphosis

This is rather weird. I had 7 elks on my map when I started, just by the (frozen) brook (I remember for sur because I looked them up). I dig out stuff, make stockpiles, start to build farms and then I look around the brook again. At exactly the same spot, there is now 7 two-humped camels. No more elks on my map, at all (also checked on the units page). What the hell? For the info, my game isn't modded at all and I didn't leave the game meanwhile. Is it possible for wild animals to leave the map or am I facing some supernatural metamorphosis/bug here? Do elks become two-humped camels when they lose their horns lol? It's rather annoying because it seems elks are less violent then camels.

I have had animals come and go, so I am pretty sure that this is a normal happening. the number is probably just a coincidence. also, sign your posts with -- ~ ~ ~ ~ (without the spaces) --Destor 19:46, 5 November 2008 (EST)

Creature Skill Increases

I've been looking around for this, and I haven't been able to find it so far, figured this was the best place to ask. Do creatures gain skill increases? And, in the case that they do, do they show up on their general profile? I've seen Kobolds and Goblins with varying levels of strength, but I'm not sure if that's because they're one of the "civilization" species or not. I'm asking this because I've got a school of Carp in the river (and I'm carefully avoiding them right now, no casualties yet except one [possibly mentally challenged] puppy); I've been sending out migrants I don't want to fight them (to their deaths, of course... Forty Carp make the river run red with the blood of civilians).

While I plan to use a safer method to dispose of them than waves of trained Marksdwarves eventually, should I be worried about Carp strong enough to nudge mountains around and faster than your average Horse? Pariah 01:47, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I, too, would like to know if creatures have actual stat increases. I've never seen any evidence of it, as a war dog that survives many sieges tends to still have the same chances of being killed in the next one. And I've never received messages like "Musk Ox has become more skilled". Even so, I wonder if megabeasts become stronger over time or not. Personally, I think it'd be wicked if that were the case, because then, if megabeast population becomes really low, and a long time has passed, the remaining megabeasts would be INTENSE. Er... Sorry for the random speculation. I'm going to go see if I can mod something crazy now. --Kydo 10:10, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I think that stat increases are most likely linked to the [CAN_LEARN] token. 71.194.101.232 03:41, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Dragon Breeding?

I managed to capture first a female, then a male dragon, both in cage traps, and tame them both. Is there a chance that they will reproduce? And does the fact that the female has a broken neck/upper spine/lower spine going to make a difference? They're out of the cages now and locked in the same room, albeit on chains. Perhaps they just have a really long gestation period, but I've had them a couple of years now. BadBoris 02:39, 14 July 2009 (EST)

From what I'm reading of the object data, they don't have any information on any kind of young born, nor growth rate, nor gestation period. Also, they're megabeasts. They're just sort of created at the start of the world, and die off from there on out. If they did bear young, their population wouldn't decrease, or at least not as rapidly, and one of the major factors for the end of world generation would be made irrelevant. 's'what I think, anyways. --Kydo 10:06, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Aescula proposed an addition to the creatures_standard.txt file, under the dragon section. I haven't been attacked by a dragon yet so I have only her word to go by that it works. --FJH 06:46, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

It works, I've gotten many hatchlings. The proper mod is on my userpage. You will not need to generate a new world for it to work. As it is, dragons will not breed. Editing the file will allow it. It also doesn't mess with worldgen, oddly enough.--Aescula 12:02, 13 March 2010 (UTC)