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Merfolk Race
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Tags: mod, race
File Size
Posted
Updated
1.666 MB
14 Dec, 2022 @ 11:47am
9 Feb, 2023 @ 8:30am
5 Change Notes ( view )
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TheSquirrelofHuscurl
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Merfolk Race

Description
Adds a custom playable race of merpeople, called Merfolk. They are separate from, and unrelated to merpeople themselves. They are amphibious, making them capable of breathing on land and sea. As it stands, their civilization is forked off of dwarves with different values/ethics.

Currently Adds:
  • New Race
  • New Civilization
  • Clothes
  • Armors
  • Weapons
  • Plants
New Clothes
Chestwrap - Armor item, under layer. Simple roll of cloth strapped around the upper and lower torso.
Armwrap - Glove item, under layer. Simple roll of cloth wrapped around the hand, lower & upper arm.
Mersock - Shoe item, under layer. A covering of cloth protecting the tail as it drags along the ground. Covers lower torso & tail.
Merskirt - Pants item, over layer. Short skirt giving minimal coverage and minimal drag. Covers the lower torso.

New Armor
Chain Chestwrap - Armor item, under layer. Strips of chainmail wrapped around the upper & lower torso.
Chain Armwrap - Armor item, under layer. Strips of chainmail wrapped around the arms & hands.
Hand Plate - Glove item, armor layer. A single piece of plate strapped to the hand.
Tail Plate - Metal plates strapped to the tail, offering spotty but hardy coverage. Covers the lower torso & tail.
Chain Mersock - Shoe item, under layer. A wrapping of chainmail protecting the tail. Covers lower torso & tail.
Chain Merskirt - Pants item, over layer. A short chainmail skirt covering the lower body.
Chain Headscarf - Head item, over layer. A simple scarf made out of chainmail with spotty coverage of the head.


New Weapons
Trident - Spear weapon. Longer than the spear, with greater penetrative power, but longer min range.
Training Trident - Spear weapon. Used for training the spear skill, otherwise identical to the trident.
Atlatl - Crossbow weapon. Allows the user to throw javelins, a new ammo type specific for the Atlatl.

New Plants
Seaweed - Underground plant. Bread & butter of Merfolk civilization, capable of being brewed, eaten, and sewn into thread.
Kelp - Underground plant. Used exclusively as a dye. WIP.


Known Issues
none



Note: Merpeople were not intended to be on land. They move at a break-neck speed of 12kph (5kph unmodded) on land and 35kph on water. However, fortress mode pathing prevents citizens from pathing over water normally, meaning they will not actively use waterways or rivers for faster movement. Plan for this ahead of time - I am not sure if DF allows you to mod pathing behaviors.
Popular Discussions View All (1)
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25 Dec, 2022 @ 11:31pm
Feedback & Suggestions
TheSquirrelofHuscurl
5 Comments
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TheSquirrelofHuscurl  [author] 7 Mar @ 10:56am 
Hey! Sorry I'm a little late on this, but modding dwarf fortress is a bit harder than some other games. There's a lot of documentation on it, fortunately; the best collection is the Modding page at dwarffortresswiki (.org) . That page conveniently has a section on modding creatures, patching vanilla stuff without overwriting it, and also tells you where you can find base-game files to reference when creating races. To summarize, most things in dwarf fortress are made up of tokens that do various things and the game revolves around adding/changing/removing tokens from stuff you want to mod or create. There's also a Token page on the aforementioned wiki that lists all the various types of tokens and links to pages that explain those tokens in more detail.

You don't need to code every token manually, don't be afraid to copy and paste another creature and only change tokens you understand as you go along.
MountainKing772 4 Mar @ 3:55am 
I also want to ask on where did you learn how to make a playable race. I myself am trying to get a fortress playable race put in. But i'm looking through other peoples files to see how they constructed it. And would love a little direction. Much appreciated.
TheSquirrelofHuscurl  [author] 7 Feb, 2024 @ 6:39am 
Fake floors is an interesting idea, although it runs into a few issues. First of all, I don't know of any way to prevent other races from traversing the floors or slowing them down... or speeding up movement on specific tiles - from my understanding speed on land/sea is baked into the race itself. Secondly, on that note, is it even possible to have Merfolk move faster on the "water" floors and slower off of them? I've considered the idea of adding a semi-aquatic farm plot, specifically for farming Merfolk stuff, but I have no idea how to go about adding and restricting new farm plots, if it's even possible. Go ahead and send a friend request if you'd like to talk more.
wesleybruce 7 Feb, 2024 @ 5:13am 
I have a possible solution for the pathing problem but can't write code, dyslexia. We should have a chat somehow. This would mean your merkolk build 'canals' and sea rafts. Both are fake floors. These still look wet but actually exclude water. They can also build a system of buoys that have various functions. A new weapon, a harpoon,for hauling in big fish. I've also been thinking about coral & kelp farming.
Plort 16 Dec, 2022 @ 2:13am 
Great mod, dude! Got a little fort going right now, very inspirational with the current aquatic D&D game I'm running. Pathing used to be hardcoded and may still be, not sure as file structure has changed a bit. Maybe a [fish] tag or the like that could bypass? Maybe compare dwarf raws to aquatic species and fish raws and other data as needed, haven't modded much beyond map tweaking.