Kobold Camp
Kobold Camp is an ultra-primitive variation/mod of Dwarf Fortress, characterized by a combination of mods and personal restrictions. Due to the inherent issues with playing kobolds, the intentional disuse of specialized jobs such as metalsmithing, and guidelines regarding types of structures and mining, Kobold Camp is intended to be a challenge for advanced Dwarf Fortress players looking for something new.
Installing Kobold Camp
Kobold Camp can be modded into an existing Dwarf Fortress installation by downloading this RAR and using its contents to replace the raw/objects folder's contents. If you do not already have a copy of 40d or want to preserve your current version, simply unzip the full contents to another directory and play from there.
Changes
- Kobolds have been heavily modified into a playable race, and are almost completely functional (see Known Issues). They have been given the required professions to get a camp going, though certain professions may have been intentionally left out (see Challenges). Kobolds have multiple children per litter, and grow into adults faster.
- Various items have been fixed that make them usable by kobolds. Shovels and choppers replace picks and axes, respectively.
- Kobold Camp uses a modified version of the May Green tileset, as seen in the thumbnail above.
- Elves no longer ambush. Kobold camp is difficult enough without their rather bugged ambushing behavior, which apparently caused them to spontaneously appear in the dead center of your camp. They'll still attack, but at least you'll get to see them coming.
Challenges
Kobolds are simple creatures, eking out primitive but happy lives without the need for massive sprawling stone feats of engineering. Players attempting Kobold Camp should follow these guidelines to keep in the "spirit" of the game and challenge:
- Kobolds do not mine. Picks have been replaced with shovels, and players should never dig into rock layers. They should never dig more than one z-level down. If you choose to live in a cave instead of above-ground mud or wood huts, make it look as organic and natural as possible, and do not alter or expand it once complete. Kobolds likewise do not make tunnels or specialized underground room structures.
- Kobolds do not smith or smelt. Almost of their necessary equipment is made out of wood, and some new items have been created to make kobolds playable (e.g. shovel and choppy to replace pick and axe).
- Kobold engineering and architecture is primitive. They mostly dwell in above-ground wooden huts only one floor tall, with the occasional two-story longhouse or other larger endeavor. Rarely will a kobold build a structure taller than two z-levels, such as a small guard tower or other highly-specialized structure. Low-tech is key.
Mechanical changes and other general information about kobolds include:
- Many jobs have been removed, including farming, smelting, masonry, jewelcrafting, etc. Copper weapons and armor must be traded for. Players will be living on an animal-goods economy, meaning food, leather, tallow, shell, and bone.
- Kobolds can eat bones, meaning food lasts longer. This is a good thing, but it also depletes bones which can otherwise be used for armor and trade goods.
- Kobolds are very weak creatures, meaning most any kind of combat encounter, even with mild, natural animals, is a life-or-death experience every time until they get some decent skills.
- Elves will wreck your shit and attack on a fairly frequent basis. They're normally very easy to defeat, but kobolds aren't particularly tough, so their weakness is more than compensated for.
- The kobolds of Kobold Camp feature different ethics, meaning different interpersonal behaviors than vanilla kobolds.
- Names are untranslatable, as kobolds still use the [UTTERANCES] tag.
Survival in Kobold Camp depends primarily on making good use of the natural landscape and living off the land. The primary source of food is through plant gathering, hunting whatever isn't too dangerous, and trading. The best option for creating a camp is the "Use Kobolds" option on the pre-emark screen (Play Immediately, Plan Carefully, Use Kobolds), as it pre-selects the necessary jobs and equipment that suit the mod.
Known Issues
- A bug in 40d causes the items taken away by kobold caravans to be considered "stolen" when they leave the map. However, this benefits the difficulty of the game, since the lack of exported wealth will greatly reduce the number of immigrants you receive, forcing you to rely on birth rates to keep your population stable.
- To change the windowed resolution to something else (e.g. 1024x768), open data\init\init.txt in Notepad, locate [GRAPHICS:YES], and modify the values like so:
[GRAPHICS:YES]
[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:1024]
[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:768]
[GRAPHICS_FONT:mayday.bmp]
[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENX:1280]
[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENY:1024]
[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:mayday.bmp]
[GRAPHICS_BLACK_SPACE:YES]
and below that:
[GRID:64:48]
[FULLGRID:80:25]
Links
Download for Kobold Camp - MegaUpload
Download for Kobold Camp - sup/tg/ mirror
AnonIB for Kobold Camp