User talk:Teres Draconis

Hehe... FOUO huh? :p -Edward 22:34, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

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Huh? New here... "FOUO"?

- jaz

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Alot of the following is just for my own personal note taking stuff. Feel free to add or comment or whatever. I don't mind. Some of these questions may be answered in the forums. I'll go check at some point, until then, this is where I'm storing my questions so I don't forget what it was I wanted to ask. ... the personality tags aught to have one for forgetfulness... which would related directly to how long they continue to think about things that have happened. One who was extremely forgetful might not list "slept in the rain" for as long as someone who had a clear recollection of things long past.

I play three versions of the game, randomly... one, the pure, out of the box, only thing messed with are the init files. Another with minor modifications to things like, oh... domestic cats are spayed when captured (affected by the child tags being replaced with [NO_GENDER])... we'll just pretend that they continue to breed like crazy out in the wilds. I'm thinking about adding the [milkable:33333] tag to cows to see if that will let me milk them myself instead of having to buy from outprovince. I'm not ready to toss all my saves yet, though. The third version is in the process of heavy revision to remove all the fantasy and magical aspects and just have "real" creatures and such.

--- For my modding purposes (uh, I've turned the smelter into a store to "buy" stuff from) , if anyone knows the TYPE:SUBTYPE:MATERIAL:MATGLOSS tags for any of the following, please please pretty please share them.

ivory, pearl, coral (I don't care if the creatures still don't drop them. I can "buy" it from my smelter, once I figure out the values for them)

containers with stuff in them. (for example, the cage the cow is in, the bag the sand is in, etc.)

"plant cheeses"... like, say, tofu. ... how do I mod the

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For the game designers and those who speak to them (go ahead, claim credit, I'm ok with that)... things I'd like to see in future versions...

cobalt being used like crystal in glass making to make cobalt glass... you know, that pretty blue glass everyone loves?

a way to burn wooden items to get ash or charcoal the way you can melt a metal object to get the bars back.

a way to mod the workshops themselves. For instance, when I tell the manager I want to make 300 cheeses, I don't want the "make cheese" task to fill up the farmer's workshop I've dedicated to my spinner (making plant thread). I can dedicate /who/ works there. I'd like to dedicate the kinds of tasks that can be performed there, too.

I'd like to see a tag to put on things like sheep that allows for sheering. I want to make wool cloth without having to slaughter my sheep for them. ... and angoras, too. Poor bunnies. Not that I get cloth now... I get leather still, but...

I'd like to be able to make dyes from animal products. For instance, there are snails that produce a lovely purple color when crushed. No, I'm not with PETA, how did you guess?

I'd like to be able to dye worked cloth. The dress was made with undyed cloth? Should be easy to fix. I'd also like to be able to redye dyed cloth. In real life it would simply add color but I'd be ok with a "paint over" kind of effect.

Maybe mix dyes to make new colors? ... The only way I can think of right now to mod that in is to have a plant for each of them and then smelt two dyes into something else, red and blue make purple like iron and pig iron make steel.

Which brings me to paints. I think there should be a way to make paints. So-and-so likes the color lavender? Paint his room that color. I think that painting things should remove the preference bonuses for things that are made with a prefered material (if she likes oak and green, and all of her oak furnature is painted green, it gets the personal value bonus for green, but not oak.) I'm not sure I stated that clearly, but hey, whatever.

On a related note... clay. You have a perfectly good kiln and I can't figure what it's good for except making clear glass at the glass workers furnace... I wouldn't mind so much except that its a whole "workshop" with only 1 (sub)task that I don't use very much. Usually only 3 times if I even have sand (vials for the soaper), and otherwise not at all. Go ahead and add another workshop if you like (the potter's wheel) and then put that kiln to use. Suddenly you've got clay crafts (mugs, etc), bricks, etc.

I think bones (raw hides, skulls, shells) should be binable. I mean, really. I have 10 fishbones a cat's skull and a turtle shell that take up the same floorspace as 12 beds?!? Put them in a bin. On raw hides: it rots. Ok, two choices. One: don't let me bin this. I'll still be happy if I can bin the friggin' bones, shells, skulls. Or, two: The rot spreads to everything it touches, and, since it's "in" something, it produces miasma. Even if the bin is outside. I don't think that "rat remains" and "dog chunks" and such should be binable. I mean, ew. Also, those don't go into the workshop stockpiles for processing. At least, not in /my/ fortresses. ... again, ew.

... One or two last thoughts before I actually post this...

Is there a way to make a mixed group of creatures that spawn together? I mean, take your average herd in Africa. You're going to have zebras and elephants and girraffs and several other things besides, often all walking together. Sure, often you find a herd of just elephants, but often you'll find one or two in a mix of other things as well. And flocks of birds who travel with them, too.

I'm considering adding a new medium-heavy mod that accounts for things like mixed herds, beehives (worker bees, queen bee, guard bees), maybe beemen... though antmen could use this, too. Antmen could maybe have pet Giant Aphids (who, storywise they milk but who aren't tamable to humanoids)...

.. Also, there should be a way of saying "creature A and creature B can breed together to make creature C"? I mean, where do you think mules come from? I have several donkies of both genders, I have several horses of both genders... every once in a while, instead of getting a donkey foal or a horse foal, I should be getting a mule foal. .. and no, mules still can't breed.

But there are other such creatures.

And, thirdly (I know I said one or two)... feralization. I can keep my tame but unclaimed pets mostly in one area by defining it as a meeting zone... but if I don't... and if they wander off (even if they don't)... I think that if they don't see one of their caretakers for, oh, two seasons (maybe less... maybe a tag that says how quickly?)... they should feralize. Easy way is just to make them go back to being the wild version of that creature. If it's in the wrong biome... uh, oops? Might die sooner? Might get eaten by a grue, I mean, uh... Another way is to make a whole other classification (wild, tame, feral)... maybe it adjusts how aggressive it is. Maybe not. Maybe it adjusts how easily it goes back to being tame. Would this tag be passed on to it's young? Or would the young just be "wild" to start with? If you were near another outpost, city or whatever, would you have their feral creatures start wandering into your area on occasion? Just what you need, the neighbor's feral dragon has decided your keep is it's new home!

Ok, Done. I'll edit and such later, and reduce the noise as I get answers. Or, you know, you can if you like. Whatever.

-jaz

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again, for my benefit, because I never remember how to do this... --jaz ... on this day, at this time.