So what happened to the Swarmy?

I noticed in the game files that there are seperate textures for a variety of different variants of the "swarmy" monster (which normally appears on floor 5) furthermore, the icon for dredmor is the "Swarmy".

It seems to me like the swarmy was the mascot of Dredmor until it was subverted by the diggle. Any Gaslamp developers want to tell the story?

 

But Drodmar dosent kno y this hppeend.

 

drodmar pls

 

I would like to know this. I always wondered why the task bar icon for Dungeons of Dredmor was a relatively obscure monster from the game and not either a diggle or the face of the hero or the face of Dredmor.

 

new game icon plz

 

I need to know this.

 

Is it a bad thing that I have never noticed this before?

 

Just a guess here.

It could be that the Swarmy was meant to be much more common than it currently is (especially now we're at CotW, meaning the monster table most have doubled at least since the start), but over time the Diggle became effectively the 'face' of Dredmor (or should that be the Rubbery Beak?). I mean even the name "Swarmy" implies there's many of them and that they come in swarms... which they currently don't.

Either that or it's Gaslamp and their sense of humour again.

 

I think the Diggle just became too iconic in the end for the Swarmy to shine through. Not that I mind, since Diggles as a concept are amusing.

 

Maybe the "Swarmy" name is purposefully ironic. I might even say they've been gradually making them rarer and rarer with each patch...At least, that's how it has felt for me.

This could be another one of those troll things, like Horse Armor and the Wizard's Sleeve.

 

Unless I just dreamed this, swarmies do occasionally swarm. There's a message along the lines of 'oh hey, you heard they like to swarm' and then half a dozen or so appear around you.

 

pretty sure that's an effect of a mod room somewhere.

 

Bergstrom's most excellent Interior Dredmorating adds the swarmy room, I believe.

 

Nope, that's stock. Expansion 2 has a room that does that.

Code:

expansion2/game/rooms.xml
<room width="17" height="11" name="Swarmy Swarm">
    <row text=" ###D########### "/>
    <row text=" ##...###########"/>
    <row text="##...6###......##"/>
    <row text="##.@..###^..3..P#"/>
    <row text="#.1..###........#"/>
    <row text="d...###.....5...#"/>
    <row text="#...P###..@.....#"/>
    <row text="#....####...4..##"/>
    <row text="#..^.####....2.##"/>
    <row text="##....###########"/>
    <row text="###D############ "/> 
    <flags minLevel="5" maxLevel="5" special="1" />
    <loot at="2" type="gem" subtype="Rune of Pillars" id="flag"/>
    <loot at="6" type="zorkmids" />
    <loot at="5" type="artifact" />
    <script repeat="-1">
        <condition condition_type="at" id="player" at="1" />
        <condition condition_type="at" id="flag" at="2" />
        <action on="success" action_type="remove" id="flag" />
        <!-- kill the gem! -->
        <action on="success" action_type="create" create_type="horde" name="Swarmy" at="3" />
        <action on="success" action_type="create" create_type="horde" name="Swarmy" at="4" />
        <action on="success" action_type="create" create_type="horde" name="Swarmy" at="5" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="6" targetY="3" sourceX="6" sourceY="3" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="7" targetY="3" sourceX="7" sourceY="3" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="8" targetY="3" sourceX="8" sourceY="3" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="5" targetY="7" sourceX="5" sourceY="7" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="6" targetY="7" sourceX="6" sourceY="7" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="7" targetY="7" sourceX="7" sourceY="7" />
        <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="Dig Effect" targetX="8" targetY="7" sourceX="8" sourceY="7" />
        <action on="success" action_type="ticker" text="Swarmies! You'd heard rumors they liked to swarm. Apparently, the rumors are actually true!"/>
        </script>
    </room> 

 

Expansion 2 being YHTNTEP, a collection of officialised/tweaked mods.

 

Yeah, I think most of YHTNTEP's rooms came from ID. I guess it is core content now, though.

 

Weird thing, my wife just had her first expirience with DoD today and gave it up rather quick - she just couldn't bring herself to attack the "poor cute little ducklings!".

Not that I care or anything, this is just random observations, but from the moment I first loaded the game, my thought about the diggle was - good lord, I really don't want to attack this, it so cute and harmless. I got used to it ofc, but seemed like a really weird design for something you have to kill over and over and over. The "death line" collapses into a pile about "pain mixed with love" always makes me cringe sort off, because it just plays upon the guilt of having harmed one of the cutest things I ever saw in a game.

Not saying anything, really, but did anyone else ever look at it this way? I'd never think that way about killing hordes of swarmies, and thrusty's are just asking for it

 

Well, sort of. Since I started with ASCII roguelikes, it was easy for me to see the diggle as "d" instead of the mascot-like something it is until I got used to it, but I agree that forcing players to hit cute animals is a tad cruel (though normal for games).

 

I often feel conflicted about killing Eelys. They are sort of cute also. Even Unfriendly AI make me a bit guilty because their lives are so meaningless and existentially sad.

But yeah, Thrusties are just easy.

 

Well I feel sorry for the Thrusties now that everybody is hating on them. They just wanna have fun! Eelys douse you in flesh-burning acid.