Nine brand new traits, designed to make each of your hearthlings unique: all traits come with unique cosmetic elements, in addition to abilities that make you rethink how you play. If anyone has any suggestions, requests, or thoughts on balance, please let me know!
Currently there are two limitations which I ran into building this mod. One is that appearance modifying traits, including the magnificent beard cannot be applied reliably in the when embarking on a new game. I believe this is why the magnicient beard trait is the only trait in the base game that cannot be obtained when embarking, only from new hearthlings joining the town. Unfortunately this means that the scarred and goblin traits likewise can only be obtained by new heathlings that join existing settlements.
My hypothesis is that when a hearthling is created, its appearance is first randomized and then it’s traits are applied. However, when hearthlings are randomized in the embark window (but interestingly, now when they are first created even in the embark window) their traits are randomized and then their appearance is randomized. This has the effect of undoing any appearance changes made by traits. If anyone finds a work around to this I would be very excited, perhaps by having a handler that triggers when appearance is modified, which can immediately set it back (although this could cause an infinite loop if two traits both affect the same element…)
The second limitation I have found is a general lack of event handlers, specifically I was unable to find a “when attacking an enemy” nor a “when killing an enemy” event, which were my first choices for the goblin. I find this very surprising, and it could be that there are implemented just hidden somewhere I could not find in the source. Either way I predict that modders cataloging the different listenable events and their quirks will be extremely useful for modders going forward.
Currently I only have two implemented. Currently I am at the stage where I am discovering the limitations of the modding environment, and with that experimentation comes bits of inspiration!
I was considering trying to create a “Cowardly” trait, which would do something like massively decrease courage, but have the hearthling rapidly regenerate whilst fleeing. Something along the lines of a hearthling who cares very greatly about their own survival. But it would create a hearthling who behaves in a very different way in combat that others, which could be fun. We’ll see
Honestly, give me a bit and I could come up with quite the list, but the first thing that came to my mind when reading this was this
Noble This Hearthling is of noble blood. Because of this, this hearthling is more difficult to please and requires higher quality food
It could be that a hearthling with this trait would walk around with a circlet on their heads, and are less affected by lower aesthetic levels, but more affected by higher aesthetic levels, as for food, they would get a debuff from eating anything that they don’t deem ‘worthy’, so they would only eat food that requires three ingredients or more
Barbarian This Hearthling is more of a barbarian than others. Their attacks are more harmful, but they don’t seem to care much about their own safety
This trait could give the hearthling a damage boost, but also take more damage upon being hit.
Tbh, I have yet to see a Gourmand trait in any of my games, so I didn’t know it existed xD
I honestly just liked the idea of someone walking around town with a circlet on their head acting high and mighty. So another idea is that this character then still would have the aesthetics level thing, but instead of the food thing, it would boost any soldiers fighting within a certain radius of her
I’ve seen the gourmand trait and it’s a PITA to please the little jerk early on.
@kaimonkey I’d like to recommend that the “scarred” trait eventually fades over time as the Hearthling gets used to the scar and realizes that it doesn’t actually change anything important.
100 seems like a lot in context of the game given we can grow crops in three days rather than wait all season. The death of a pet affects a Hearthling for something like 8 days. So I’d say, at worst, double that timeframe.
I really shouldn’t be trying to do this whilst also DM’ing xD
Flirter This Hearthling is a flirt. He enjoys being around the opposite sex, but dislikes his own
This trait would give the hearthling a happiness boost when around someone of the opposite sex, but a debuff when around someone of his own.
Hippie (couldn’t think of a more fitting name tbh) This Hearthling loves nature
This trait would give the hearthling a buff when outside, and debuff to happiness when inside (same goes for sleeping then). This Hearthling would also eat raw vegetables only, refuses to eat anything processed or close to meat.
The character could wear a flower in their hair, perhaps
Popular This Hearthling may not do a lot, but atleast he’s good at talking. And talking he does
This trait would make the hearthling talk… a lot. Basically, this hearthling would go out of his way to talk with other hearthlings, keeping them off of their job, but giving them a happiness boost after talking with them.
I feel like I would want it to take approximately the same amount of time as it does to build a tier 3 city: It should feel like an inconvenience and narrative arch, for balance as well as emersion. I agree 100 days might be excessive, I will do some thinking
) we had a thread a while back.
