This download applies to DF Classic Mode Only (Graphics have been removed)

Summary:

more consistent general gameplay
14 new and completely unique civilizations
better civilization-level gameplay
better systems and vertical progression

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Highfantasy is a mod layered atop of vanilla Dwarf Fortress that expand the vertical and horizontal scope of the game.

We incorporated elements of Tolkien-esque – and more modern – high fantasy, while remaining true to the vision of vanilla Dwarf Fortress. It’s balanced and bug-free, with each feature is designed to play well with every other feature.

Highfantasy focuses on 4 additions: Polishing, Balancing, Adding Horizontal and Vertical Progression Systems.

More of the consistent dwarf fortress gameplay you love, including 20 new semi/megabeasts
14 unique, balanced, different-feeling civilizations trading and competing in 4 fleshed-out factions
Better endgame hazards ranging from toxic materials and diseased creatures to siege machines to disguised impostors and powerful bloodlines
Balanced, rewarding vertical progression systems that D.F. hasn’t reached yet – guns, magic, and more

In total, the features are:
   1. "Raw changes you can't do without"
   2a 14 Classic high-fantasy civilizations with factions and distinct features
2.b More interesting underground civs
2.c Reorganization of the caverns; Dinos; Eldrazi horrors; More fantasy creatures everywhere
2.d Make animal-people above-ground more interesting/rarer
2.e A Divine civ to make divine language and materials see usage
2.f Yokai invasion and defense system, with mononoke (pokemon) training and evolution
   3a Flesh out existing civ gameplay
3.b lineage system for playable tieflings, aasimar, etc without ip-specific names
3.c Catapults, Gunpowder, Orc Sieges
3.d Better adventure mode (coming soon!)
3.e Hazardous materials, disguised creatures, and virulent diseases
   4. A complete and consistent magic system to complement Necromancy

Inspired by D.F., this mod feels a little more mysterious than others.

There are no I.P. based creature or ability names! You don’t “Cast the Fireball spell”, which is inherently DnD, you “stretch out your hand and project a ball of magical fire. You aren’t a “Tiefling”, you’re a “human with touches of fiendish ancestry.” There aren’t “Gold Dragons”, there are just Dragons, and you won’t know what they do until they’re eating your corpse. And so on. Dwarf Fortress eschews limiting I.P. based names in favor of procedural generation, so we eschew I.P based names until D.F. can out-do us. When D.F. adds procedural magic, we’ll take ours out. When D.F. adds procedural dragons, we’ll get rid of ours.

There’s one more thing. This mod promises to not invalidate the information you can get just by reading the wiki. There are almost no changes to existing creatures, items, or even systems that would make it so that reading a wiki article about that thing is not helpful to you. Short swords still have edged cuts, giant giraffes are still in the savage biomes, and candy still comes with the circus. (Two exceptions: animalmen have been moved to good biomes, and the third cavern layer has been squeezed up to layer two.)

A Balanced Magic System like No Other

Magic in Highfantasy takes inspiration mainly from the Dark Souls series and in part from popular fantasy ideas. Highfantasy divides magic into multiple “sources” and “schools.” When designing a new fantasy magic system, it’s important for there to be a reasoning or a mythos as to why the magic works the way it does, or how its schools have come to be.

If you want to actively follow the development of highfantasy, please join the dwarf fortress forum page at: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=178840.0