I tried this mod out yesterday and I'm really liking it so far! It works perfectly with the Lazy Newb Pack, which makes me happy.
Here's how my fortress is standing:
- I'm 1 year in with migrant waves turned on, which puts me at 37 dwarves right now.
- I have 2 planters who are maintaining 20 spaces of underground farms.
- I have 1 woodcutter/herbalist who switches between collecting logs and harvesting plants aboveground.
- I have 4 chickens, but I'm not eating their eggs, just trying to breed more.
- I have been slaughtering the large animals the migrants bring with them for meat.
With this setup, I haven't had any food shortages yet, though I have had to actually pay attention to food production and make sure it's running smoothly. This is why I added that second planter with the first migrant wave, and why I've been slaughtering the migrant animals - without those, I would have started running out of food.
All of this is a welcome change from vanilla DF, where I would usually have a single planter feeding my entire fortress at this point, who would still produce enough extra food and drink to buy out entire caravans!
There are a couple things I noticed that are still a little weird, though:
- You still get 5 booze per 1 plant when brewing, which makes brewing->cooking a phenomenal way to multiply your food stockpiles. Same goes for sweet pods and quarry leaves. Maybe this could be reduced to 2 or 3 products per reaction?
- I don't have any ponds on my map, but IIRC fishing is probably still a fantastic way to get a ton of food.
- Merchants still offer large quantities of very cheap food, which can feed your fortress until the next caravan with food to spare. I don't know if you can do anything about this, I suppose players can always just chose not to buy any of it.
- Due to the seasons bug, the only above-ground crop I can actually grow on my map is lettuce(planted in the spring only, with a 2 month grow cycle), which sucks.