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[Batgirl1]

Has anyone considered the fact that OP's suggestion is a simple tweak that could probably be squeezed into the next update, while re-writing how farms work is complicated enough to be a whole arc?  There's no reason why we couldn't have a mud designation in the interim, is what I'm saying.  Either have dwarves haul water, or make them haul water and soil.  It may even come in handy for non-farm things if/when farms get redone.  Heck, have you all seen the random injury thread?  We could combine this with that to have deliberately muddied floors to trip invaders, sending them sliding into pits of spikes.  Good suggestion is good, and potentially useful even if farms *do* become more realistic.

[pisskop]

I think it should be brought up that a dusting of mud grows quality crops . . .

[Deboche]

I agree with BatGirl1 as well. Having the option to wet a tile without having to do it from a pond in a different z-level just makes sense and will probably be useful when farms get redone

[BoredVirulence]

Yes, this is a good suggestion for a hopelessly broken system.

Whoever thought that dwarves being unable to pour water onto a tile, but being able to build a scaffolding so they could dump it down another Z-level, all the while micromanaging the designations manually, was a good work-around? This, and other versions of this, are a good interim solution.

Feel free to continue arguing about the energy source of the caverns. I have yet to see a good solution to the problem.

Personally, I would like to see an ability to place various cavern moss onto bare stone, and after a few seasons produce some soil. Hopefully it would be a part of a much greater farming arc, which includes various levels of soil exhaustion as well as an explanation of the energy source of cavern plants. I'm not against transporting soil, but it seems quite likely that above ground soil would be substandard for cavern plants, and cavern moss could help reinvigorate exhausted soil.

[Deboche]

The answer to energy in the caverns might come when Toady implements lighting. Perhaps some crystals are light emiting.

There's also geothermal energy and chemical energy. If we assume the DF world to be as old as Earth, surely there'll be huge storages of energy underground from dead creatures since the beginning of life.

And the magic solution is also good. Underneath all those layers is HFS after all.

[LordBaal]

Perhaps you could designate a "soil gathering zone" just like water and clay, and pour that dirt over the designated "put mud here". Then build a farm over it and be done with it for the time being.

It's a compromise between the wet rock=soil and the hyper-realistic, yearly replenishment proposal.

Eventually whenever Toady gets to hit soil quality to output ratio and depletion of nutrients, crop rotation and all that (if he ever gets to that) then a more realistic/complex mechanic would be done.

[Batgirl1]

I've Got It!

Have a "Coated Floor" Zone, selectable under the zones (i) menu with a sub-menu as follows:
1. Water (or mud)
2. Poison
3. Miscellaneous (choose substance from fortress's liquid stocks).

Or similar.  Dwarfs will then maintain a coating of that substance on every floor in the zone -- I'm not sure how the measurements work, but definitely no more than 1/7 of the square --much in the same way as they fill ponds.  In the case of mudding floors for farms, the zone can be deleted after the work is done.  For other uses, such as booby-traps, decoration, or more authentic pig-farming, the zone can be left in place and Dwarfs will replenish the coating if/when ever it evaporates.