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[Lycaeon]

Never forget the past…

My Little Darkness: Memories of Harmony

Version 1.04b (Phoebus Graphics)

Version 1.04b (Jolly Bastion ASCII)

Version 1.04b (Jolly Bastion ASCII, pony free)

Soundtrack v1.00

Development thread

Features

The Dark Presence is an ancient and malevolent force that has existed throughout the land since time immemorial, older than even the immortal elves. Though there once was a time when it was imprisoned deep within the bowels of the earth; now it travels wherever the night exists, stealing the bodies of ponies, dwarves, humans, elves, and goblins alike and twisting them into murderous, mindless puppets as it consumes the world in shadow. Already there are regions twisted completely into eternal night, where shadows permeate the sky possessing all who come in contact with them, yet the Dark Presence continues, choosing sentient mortals as vessels for its incorporeal form, so that it may infiltrate untouched lands and bring the darkness to them.

Taken, remnants of sentient beings fully possessed by the Dark Presence, they fight viciously and without mercy. Now only hollow puppets controlled by the Darkness, they cannot be saved and must be avoided or killed.

All Taken are cloaked in a blurry shadow which renders them nearly impervious to physical harm.

Only the Light can harm them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Taking a piece of coal or cloth and a log of wood at the well-lit workshop creates a fiery torch for your citizens to carry, which they will use to attack Taken with bursts of light. Taken exposed to the light will be paralyzed and lose their shrouds, rendering them vulnerable to physical weapons. Once struck down, they vanish and will not return. Particularly powerful sources of light will destroy them instantly. Note: Due to the lack of a day/night cycle in fortress mode, Taken are perpetually active once they appear (No vanishing in the daylight).

Any sentient corpses that come into proximity of the Taken or the Darkness, whether they are the bodies of your fortress citizens or invaders defeated by your defenses, will be stolen and turned into new Taken.

Five Types of Taken

Flankers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Foot-soldiers of the Darkness, Flankers are the most common type of Taken you will encounter, with no special capabilities apart from what skills and memories their host possessed in life. However, the invulnerability their shroud provides still makes them a serious threat.

Teleflankers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 A variant of the Flanker Taken able to attain bursts of unnatural speed. While on the move, they appear just as a blurred outline, as it is almost impossible to keep the eye trained on them. Their supernatural reflexes make traps useless against them.

Stealth

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 These Taken are nearly impossible to perceive before they strike. Furthermore, once revealed, they are capable of hiding in the shadows again should they choose to flee. They are the infiltrators of the Dark Presence, avoiding traps and shifting through locked doors in order to strike deep behind a fortress’s walls.

Assault

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Shock troops in the service of the Darkness, these man-mountains are incredibly strong, and are shrouded in more thick layers of shadows that cannot be fully removed by light. Capable of destroying wooden doors and structures, they do not retreat from weak light sources and will continue to advance relentlessly upon your citizens.

Changelings

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Unlike ordinary Taken, the changelings consist purely of their nightmarish shrouds, not needing the bodies of others to assume physical form. Predators of positive emotions, their formless nature allows them to assume the shapes of friends and loved ones alike, with which they consume the love of your citizens.

New Evil regions, where Taken roam freely under an eternally dark sky. Here the Darkness travels the land, and will steal even your living citizens away from you should they be caught in the open.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“The Touched”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

are victims that have fallen under the influence of the Dark Presence sometime in their lives without becoming fully Taken, retaining semi-independent thought. Difficult to distinguish from your other citizens, they will unknowingly act to further the aims of the Dark Presence as they live within your fortress.

“The Nightmares”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While fighting for an uncertain future, never forget the past...lest it return to haunt your waking dreams...

But not all hope is lost. Legends tell of the Dark Presence’s escape through the exploitation of its prison deep beneath the earth, a surreal underworld both conceptual and subjective – that flows instead of holding solid form, where imagination becomes otherworldly reality. Now, fleeing from the shadows smothering the land, the brave denizens of Equestria must unite to find and fight their way into the bowels of earth…to even hell itself…in search a way to stop the Darkness once and for all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Note: The Taken are intended to complement the procedurally generated evil regions and undead, as well as the bogeymen, vampires, and night creatures in adventure mode, through reduction of those settings to 10 or below in worldgen settings so that the custom interactions may appear. It is, however, recommended that you lower procedurally generated demons to 0.

Completed Special Talent and Cutie Mark Functionality

60 career family talents and associated cutie marks. Possession of a talent boosts skill gain rates and reductions in rust rates for a select few skills within its family, along with minor boosts to less closely associated skills. (Boosts to attributes are planned but have not yet been implemented) Furthermore, many talents are limited to specific castes, or have a caste alignment which leads to greater numbers of that caste possessing them. Examples include;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hunters, with boosts to sneaking, observation, trapping, tanning, and butchery (Earth aligned)

Farmers, with boosts to growing and herbalism (Earth unique)

Comedians, with boosts to comedy, speaking, flattery, persuasion, and conversation. (Universal)

Surgeons, with boosts to surgery, suturing, wound dressing, and diagnosis. (Unicorn unique)

Cheesemakers, possessing the secret mastery of…umm…, making cheese (Earth unique)

And many more!

Over twenty prestige-tier talents with unique combinations of skills and better boosts to mental/physical attributes, at the cost of being rarer than ordinary talents. Examples include:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Warrior Monk (Earth aligned)

Fashion Designer (Unicorn unique)

Ninja (Pegasus aligned)

Sheriff (Universal)

Adventurer (Universal)

Master Smith (Unicorn and Earth unique)

Priest (Universal)

Rare caste-unique prestige talents. While all Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn Ponies all possess the innate abilities of their caste, the select few possessing these cutie marks are able to take full advantage of their tribal heritage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Cloudlords and Skylords alone may learn the secrets of wielding the greater cloud formations and weather patterns, Chain Lightning and the Sonic Rainboom, respectively.

Master Sorcerers capable of learning the adept-level spells of their particular school of magic, as well as being able to easily grasp the apprentice-level spells. Time Dilation and Paralyze are currently the only available adept-level spells out of the examples listed below.
Necromancers (Conjuration): Dead Thrall
Alchemists (Alteration): Time Dilation, Paralyze, Self-Levitation
Espers (Illusion): Psychosis, Fury, Terror
Clerics (Restoration): Circle of Protection, Greater Ward, Greater Healing
Warlocks (Destruction): Implosion, Torment, Affliction

Earthlords attune completely, becoming one with themselves and their surroundings, the resulting self-discipline and external awareness dramatically increasing their physical and mental capabilities.

While talents are innate, the cutie marks which are the only outward indicator of talent do not appear until a foal becomes an adult.

Credits:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nidokoenig for the legendary My Little Fortress Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80240.0 which provided the base framework for the improved ponies.
AlexanderOciasfor the Jolly Bastion ascii tileset. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104261.0)
Phoebusfor the Phoebus graphics tileset. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57557.0)
Dwarfu for the butter mod. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91065.0)
Warlord for the bonfire mod. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=58806.0)
Shukaru for the anatomical theatre. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60853.0)
bdog for the wheelbarrow. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=96088.0)
Deon for candy, flour, and custom milling/brewing reactions. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=52988.0)
RavingManiac for the Seasonal Crops Mod. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61293.0)
Meph for the crematorium and magma-safe workshop.(http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98196.0)
Vherid for the optional warm colorset.(http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=89856.0)

Concepts and songs from Alan Wake are the property of Microsoft and Remedy Entertainment.

[Lycaeon]

Changelog

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

v1.00
-Nightmares added.
-Typewriter word ecosystem expanded to subterranean level 3.
-Taken enemies expanded, and will assault fortresses in all lands.
-Reduced natural skills and attributes of special Taken classes.
-Reduced taken griffons to lion size.
-The special classes of Taken will now drop globs of darkness, which may be purged the well-lit room for a chance to salvage the various makeshift armors, tools, and weapons they carried in death.
-Fixed some major errors in the light interactions.
-Torches are now distributed by means of a gas interaction that allows the worker to give surrounding citizens within a 5 tile radius torches.
-Citizens who have received torches will flash a yellow tile momentarily.
-Searchlights may now be purchased from the mountainhomes for a considerable fee.
-Humans, elves, and orcs now can use torches.
-Magic research system added.
-Fixed clothing problems from 34.07.
-Crematorium and magma-safe workshop added from Masterwork mod, credits go to meph.
-Artifact reactions added to various buildings.
-Reduced age of maturation to 8 years for ponies.
-Fixed a few pony caste errors.
-Credits go to arclance for the reskin of the Sawmill.
-Gold thread can now be made at the smelter.
-Alicorn-tier spells temporarily disabled.

Hotfix v1.00c
-Returned [USE_ANIMAL_PRODUCTS] to pony entity after noting it was missing in the previous version.
-Reduced surface Nightmare frequency.
-Reduced the frequency of Taken kobolds.
-Removed whirlwind from shadowbolts and taken wonderbolts and increased gust recharge period.
-Removed requirement of cloth for the production of flares and torches.

v1.02
-Three new Nightmares and associated Artifacts.
-Performing arts system revamp and musical/leadership/comedian cutie mark talents.
-New light weapon: Flashbang grenade. Light production and distribution revamped.
-Steadfast Ward added.
-Vherid's warm colors added as optional tileset.

v1.04
-Changelings added.
-Repaired light expiration bug.
-Edits made to pony entity.

[Lycaeon]

My Little Darkness v1.00 updated features.

The Nightmares …in death, they refuse to be forgotten…

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Taken Wonderbolts...

Taken Prometheans...

And more...

The Dark Place

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

    Typewriter word ecosystem expanded.
   
   Moved features up to subterranean cavern 3 (Do not remove this in worldgen)
   Variety of taken enemies expanded.

Taken changes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Small groups of Taken will occasionally assault your fortress in all lands.
   Removed ability to ambush from all Taken except stealth varieties.
   Reduced natural skills and attributes of special Taken classes, among other adjustments.
   Reduced taken griffons to lion size.

Darkness Purging

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  The special classes of Taken will now drop globs of darkness, which may be purged the well-lit room for a chance to salvage the various makeshift armors, tools, and weapons they carried in death.
   Assault: Densely shadowed sludge
   Teleflankers: Blurry sludge
   Stealth: Faded sludge
   Unique: Possessed sludge

Light combat changes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Fixed some major errors in the light interactions.
   Light combat system has been revamped (again). Torches are now distributed by means of a gas interaction that allows the worker to give surrounding citizens within a 5 tile radius torches, so it’s advised to place the well-lit room in your barracks or meeting hall.
   Citizens who have received torches will flash a yellow tile momentarily.
   Citizens whose torches are running low will flash a red tile for a couple of days. Get them new torches as soon as they stop flashing.
   Searchlights may now be purchased from the mountainhomes for a considerable fee. Containing mirrors capable of focusing firelight into searing beams that quickly destroy most Taken and severely weaken the remainder, they are indispensible weapons for those fortresses under constant siege by the darkness.
   Humans, elves, and orcs now can use torches, hopefully protecting their caravans, ambushes, and sieges from falling easy prey to the local Taken wildlife.

Magic Research
   Arcane research will provide access to the wide range of spells available to the unicorn tribe, but is only practical in well-established, fortresses. However, even novice unicorns may now quickly learn the apprentice level spells, making the necessary resources well worth spending in the end for a magic-using military. Warning; most of these reactions will produce arcane fumes that will poison any non-unicorns nearby.

   Lenscrafter’s Workshop – Here precious gems are carved into lenses, one of the basic components of research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Precious Gem Schools and Tiers
Restoration
        Low tier
                Citrine
                Light yellow diamond
                Yellow grossular
                Yellow quartz
                Heliodor
        Medium tier
                Yellow zircon
                Rubicelle
                Golden Beryl
                Yellow topaz
                Yellow spessartine
        High tier
                Faint yellow diamond
        Max tier
                Yellow diamond
Alteration
        Low tier
                Blue quartz
        Medium tier
                Blue garnet
                Aquamarine
                Blue zircon
                Blue topaz
                Indigo tourmaline
                Tanzanite
        High tier
                Sapphire
        Max tier
                Star Sapphire
                Blue Diamond
Destruction
        Low tier
                Rose quartz
                Kunzite
                Morganite
                Pink tourmaline
        Medium tier
                Red zircon
                Red topaz
                Pink garnet
                Red Tourmaline
        High tier
                Ruby
                Red Beryl
        Max tier
                Star Ruby
                Red Diamond
Illusion
        Low tier
                Green quartz
                Chrysoberyl
                Heliodor
        Medium tier
                Green zircon
                Tsavorite
                Green topaz
                Green tourmaline
                Demantoid
                Peridot
        High tier
                Emerald
        Max tier gems
                Green Diamond
Conjuration
        Low tier
                Violet spessartine
                Amethyst
                Black quartz
        Medium tier
                Black Zircon
                Rhodolite
                Alexandrite
        Max tier
                Black Diamond

   Arcane Research Facilities – Used for the purification of magical essences from Taken dark sludge as well as the research and production of scrolls of arcane knowledge.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sludge purification (requires clear glass vials)
        10x blurry sludge – produces 1x essence of alteration
        10x faded sludge – produces 1x essence of illusion
        10x densely shadowed sludge – produces 1x essence of destruction
        1x possessed sludge – produces one of each type of essence.

Scroll research
        X essences for a particular school, purified from dark sludge.
        X lenses associated with that school, needed to refract the magical essence.
                Higher quality lenses suffer lower rates of fracture and can be used in lesser quantities, and are required for master-tier research and above.
        1x blank scroll. Plant paper scrolls are sufficient for apprentice-tier knowledge, while higher tiers will require silk parchment scrolls.
        1x jar of ink.
        Higher levels of research than apprentice require one scroll from the preceding level.

Essence and Lens requirements
        Apprentice (Scrolls of basic arcane knowledge)
                4x low-tier lenses, 2x essence of magic (20% chance of fracture)
                2x mid-tier lenses, 1x essence of magic (10% chance of fracture)
                1x high-tier lenses, 1x essence of magic (5% chance of fracture)
                1x max-tier lenses, 1x essence of magic (2% chance of fracture)
        Adept (Scrolls of advanced arcane knowledge)
                4x mid-tier lenses, 3x essence of magic (20% chance of fracture)
                2x high-tier lenses, 2x essence of magic (10% chance of fracture)
                1x max-tier lenses, 2x essence of magic (5% chance of fracture)
                Requires one scroll of basic arcane knowledge
        Master (Scrolls of pristine arcane knowledge)
                4x high-tier lenses, 5x essence of magic (20% chance of fracture)
                2x max-tier lenses, 4x essence of magic (10% chance of fracture)
                Requires one scroll of advanced arcane knowledge

   Arcane Scriptorium - Here, the scrolls of arcane knowledge are transcribed into tomes for spells. One scroll of knowledge may be transcribed into a single tome for that level of magic.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tome transcription
        1x scroll of arcane knowledge
        1x blank tome cover
        1x stack of paper, either plant paper or silk parchment.
        Silk or plant thread to bind the tome.
        1x jar of ink
        Blueprint tomes for second-level spells or higher.

   Magic Archives – Once a tome is produced, it may be practiced and eventually learned here. Novice unicorns will suffer the direct effects of any spells they attempt to learn.

Performing Arts and Talents

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Theatre – Here, ponies talented in music, comedy, or leadership may put on musical performances, stand-up routines, and rousing speeches for the patrons of your dining hall.
   Bar – excess drinking may lead to drunken antics on the part of your citizens, amusing for everyone but the unfortunate drunk.

Paper Industry
   The paper industry produces the paper, tomes, scrolls, and ink necessary for magical research and other endeavors.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Sawmill – Logs are ground into wood fibers (collected with a large cauldron).
   Paper mill – The wood fibers are suspended in a paper slurry along with cloth. Plant cloth produces low-quality slurry while silk cloth produces high-quality slurry. The slurry is then molded, pressed, and dried into stacks of paper.
   Scriptorium – Here, tome covers are prepared from leather skins, ink is produced from ash, and stacks of paper are processed into two scrolls per stack.

Minor changes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

          Fixed clothing problems from DF 34.07
        Crematorium and magma-safe workshop added from Masterwork mod, credits go to meph.
        Artifact reactions added to various buildings.
        Reduced age of maturation to 8 years for ponies.
        Fixed a few pony caste errors.
        Credits go to arclance for the reskin of the Sawmill.
        Gold thread can now be made at the smelter.
        Alicorn-tier spells temporarily disabled.

[Lycaeon]

Re-uploaded after removing [NOTHOUGHT] from taken, so they can be killed by brain injuries. Also removed an automatic testing reaction and somewhat buffed torch duration.

Some more balancing with light is still in the works, mainly newer weapons as well as distribution mechanics. All in all, combat between torch-wielding soldiers and Taken is now much more even, with about 3 times as many Taken necessary to take down a well-trained squad, depending on the number of special Taken (Except for the Nightmares, most of whom can cripple full squads by themselves).

[agertor]

I don't suppose there is a Taken without the ponies, don't get me wrong. I just want to put the taken into the dwarf fort world

[Lycaeon]

I've uploaded a version which adds only the Taken and other minor additions to vanilla DF.

As the main development arc is pony-driven, I can't guarantee consistent storyline updates to this version, though all other changes should take place as normal.

[agertor]

~Thank you~

[Lycaeon]

Hotfix version 1.00c

Returned [USE_ANIMAL_PRODUCTS] to pony entity after noting it was missing in the previous version.
Reduced surface Nightmare frequency.
Reduced the frequency of Taken kobolds.
Removed whirlwind from shadowbolts and taken wonderbolts and increased gust recharge period.
Removed requirement of cloth for the production of flares and torches.

Also, in the reaction_light raw file, please change [REACTION:MAKE_TORCH3] to [REACTION:MAKE_TORCH2]. It shouldn't affect any games in progress as there's another reaction for torch making, but it does reenable the making of torches in bulk.

[Lycaeon]

Updated to version 1.02 with some additions and adjustments.

Three new Nightmares and associated Artifacts.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Artifact purification reactions are now automatic.

Performing arts system revamp and musical/leadership/comedian cutie mark talents.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now all citizens are able to give speeches, play music, and perform stand-up comedies at the theater with speech, musical, and stand-up compositions.
     Musical, stand-up, and speech notes may now be written at the scriptorium using a stack of paper and ink. (1-4 notes created per stack)
     Compositions are also made at the scriptorium using four notes, a scroll, and ink.
Compositions have a 25% chance of being consumed during the performance reaction, reflecting your citizens becoming bored from hearing the same routines multiple times.
Certain performances will now have talents in parentheses next to them. This means that only ponies with that talent (indicated by cutie mark) will be able to use the reaction properly. This includes masterwork performances (which only require notes instead of compositions) as well as Artifact performances. (except Vinyl Scratch's turntable, which can be played by ordinary ponies with notes alone)

New light weapon: Flashbang grenade

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Grind aluminum, saltpeter or potash, and charcoal at the grinder to produce pyrotechnic flash powder.
     Use this powder with a log to make flashbangs at the well-lit room.
Your citizens will only use flashbangs against Nightmares, however, they are highly effective.
Flashbangs can be used at most 3 times, or before a month runs out.

Flares now require pyrotechnic flare powder made from charcoal and saltpeter (or potash) at the grinder, in the same manner as the flashbang.
Citizens can carry flashbangs or flares, but not both (Though they can still carry torches).
Light distribution system revamp.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now only a maximum of 2 citizens will receive a torch or flare with each distribution reaction.
     1) The worker breathing the reaction gas.
     2) One citizen standing within 10 squares.
     3) Light-equipped citizens will occasionally flash their light token for reference.

New Spell: Steadfast Ward (Apprentice level spell which renders user immune to apprentice level spells as well as reducing physical damage)
Ink requirements for arcane research reduced.
Spells will now have their level (apprentice, adept, master) listed next to them in the archive. Probabilities for learning spells are listed below.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Apprentice Level Spells:
     Novice: 10% (Average 10x tries needed)
     Apprentice Sorcerers: 20% (Average 5x tries needed)
     Adept Sorcerers: 40% (Average 3x tries needed)
     Master Sorcerers: 80% (Average 1x tries needed)
     Alicorns: 100% (1x tries needed)
Adept Level Spells:
     Adept Sorcerers: 10%
     Master Sorcerers: 20%
     Alicorns: 40%
Master Level Spells:
     Adept Sorcerers: 1%
     Master Sorcerers: 10%
     Alicorns: 20%

Included Vherid's warm colors as an optional colorset.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Pokon]

We might need

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

changelings

now. Buggers who sneak into fortresses looking like a normal pony: priceless.

[Lycaeon]

We might need

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

changelings

now. Buggers who sneak into fortresses looking like a normal pony: priceless.

Just finished watching the new episodes. I've been thinking about a way to implement a civilization embodiment of the darkness for a while now...a changeling variant of Taken would be perfect.

[thetyler101]

This mod is... just... wow.    You sir have gone above and beyond on this one.  I'm reluctant to just call this a pony mod.  It just goes so much farther than that.
Why are there not 500 replies on this page!

[Lycaeon]

Thank you kindly.

I hope you enjoy playing, though I'm always looking for feedback and suggestions. The beta version was plagued by quite a few bugs which I managed to iron out in time for v1.00, leaving some the features I had planned pushed into future updates.

For the changelings...they seem to me like pure embodiments of darkness not needing the bodies of others to assume a corporeal presence. In such a form, their shrouds' illusory capacities are increased, allowing the bending of light and their subsequent visual transformation, as well giving them a vast, almost alien intelligence. However, without a physical anchor, they are more reliant upon belief and emotions to not only maintain their form and appearance, but to also fill the void within their hearts. In short...it's going to be quite the challenge to mod them in.

[Edmus]

This looks awesome, Downloading now.

[Tecknojock]

This sounds great. Subscribing.