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[Hannibal Barcalounger]

My current embark is mostly savanna biome, which grows very few trees. I've dug out and muddied around 700 blocks for underground tree-farming, but it's taking a really long time for saplings to appear and then grow to be trees. (I guess I could add my 250 or so blocks of underground pasture to that count as long as sheep, llamas, and pigs don't eat tree saplings. Do grazers consume saplings and shrubs or just moss?)

Most of the wood I've felled or traded for has gone to making beds, bins, and barrels. There's not much left over for steel (charcoal), potash (farming), pearlash (clear glass for a big window project), or ash (ceramic glaze). This brings up two questions:

1. in future forts, what would be the best storage material other than wood? Assuming that I have easy access to magma to power forges and kilns, do stone, metal, green glass, or clay-based pots have any drawbacks? Are they much heavier and therefore slow down my haulers? Does the weight of an alcohol container affect how long it takes a dwarf to drink from it?

2. is there any way to burn existing bins and barrels down to ash? I'm practically drowning in tetrahedrite, so replacing the existing stock with copper pots and bins would be easy. It would save me a lot of time (and wounded pride for not going the metal route in the first place) to avoid waiting on underground tree farms to reach maturity and instead 'reclaim' the wood in bins and barrels by making it into ash products. I'm not philosophically opposed to modding in a new reaction or workshop if that's what's required.

[Erkki]

Make rock pots instead of wooden barrels? You dont really need bins either if you just carve more storage room in the soil/sand layer...

[Ieb]

Animals don't eat trees, although they might trample some growing saplings or fungi trees leading to their death. Usually though they spend time on moss tiles to eat, so it's the newborn that aren't yet added to the pasture that'll end up walking all over, first eating and then heading to meeting zones that walk around a lot.

As for pots made of different materials, they aren't THAT heavy that they'd slow you down in any meaningful way. They don't really change how long it takes to drink from 'em either.

And without modding you can't burn down any wooden constructed items to ash. I'd use copper for bins and/or barrels if you already have steel-producing metals present. Silver, if you feel fancy and want some extra dorf bucks for trading silver bins along the crafts inside.

It takes a year or so before your saplings start to mature to trees though, so after you've dug up a treefarm area they'll really kick in later on and then you will have a whole lot of cutting down going on.

[Jake]

1. in future forts, what would be the best storage material other than wood? Assuming that I have easy access to magma to power forges and kilns, do stone, metal, green glass, or clay-based pots have any drawbacks? Are they much heavier and therefore slow down my haulers? Does the weight of an alcohol container affect how long it takes a dwarf to drink from it?

To the best of my knowledge, weight doesn't affect anything except hauling the barrel or pot to and from the stockpile. Pots are best made out of stone, because you'll never run short of it and it doesn't need fuel. Bins can only be made from either wood or metal, unfortunately, so use whichever metal you have in greatest abundance.

2. is there any way to burn existing bins and barrels down to ash? I'm practically drowning in tetrahedrite, so replacing the existing stock with copper pots and bins would be easy. It would save me a lot of time (and wounded pride for not going the metal route in the first place) to avoid waiting on underground tree farms to reach maturity and instead 'reclaim' the wood in bins and barrels by making it into ash products. I'm not philosophically opposed to modding in a new reaction or workshop if that's what's required.[/quote]
Sadly not, at least not without modding. There's a couple of existing mods out there that will let you do something similar, I think.

[Poindexterity]

Most of the wood I've felled or traded for has gone to making beds, bins, and barrels. There's not much left over for steel (charcoal), potash (farming), pearlash (clear glass for a big window project), or ash (ceramic glaze). This brings up two questions:

1. in future forts, what would be the best storage material other than wood? Assuming that I have easy access to magma to power forges and kilns, do stone, metal, green glass, or clay-based pots have any drawbacks? Are they much heavier and therefore slow down my haulers? Does the weight of an alcohol container affect how long it takes a dwarf to drink from it?

2. is there any way to burn existing bins and barrels down to ash? I'm practically drowning in tetrahedrite, so replacing the existing stock with copper pots and bins would be easy. It would save me a lot of time (and wounded pride for not going the metal route in the first place) to avoid waiting on underground tree farms to reach maturity and instead 'reclaim' the wood in bins and barrels by making it into ash products. I'm not philosophically opposed to modding in a new reaction or workshop if that's what's required.

i was gonna give a big long answer to the first 2 parts there, but then that bit about drowning in tetrahedrite there in the 3rd part told me you were on the right track.

use wood for beds, shields, coal, and ash, NOTHING else. (except maybe training weapons if you're into that sorta thing)
no more barrels.
rock pots from the craft shop dude.
never make another barrel again.
same goes for bins. Just hold it down until ya smelt a couple chunks of galena. Virtualy every map has it, and it gives ya silver and lead. use the silver for blunt weapons or spiked balls for traps, or even crafts if ya got a good metalsmith, you know all this already im assuming.
what YOU want is the lead. Just have someone churn out lead bins till you're flush, then toss pots, doors, and whatever else you're currently needing in the mix and let him work till he's legendary, which wont take long if your forts need as many bins as mine.

by that time, you should be needing nice rooms for some brand new nobles...

[Hannibal Barcalounger]

No harm in rock pots. Thanks! Will do.

Slight derail: Poindexterity, why wooden shields? I figured metal would be better. Is there some quirk of game mechanics that makes wooden shields the best option?

Edit: Thanks Girlinhat.

[Jelle]

Rock pots or, if you've got fire clay or kaolinite clay pots are just as easy to make with acces to magma and worth that much more.

[Girlinhat]

Shield material only matters for bashing attacks, and your dwarves should be using their weapons instead of bashes anyways.  Leather and wood shields work as well as adamantine.

Also lead is always a lovely metal to work with.  Galena is handy.

[Poindexterity]

Slight derail: Poindexterity, why wooden shields? I figured metal would be better. Is there some quirk of game mechanics that makes wooden shields the best option?

cause material doesn't matter for shields. Also shield use, ive found to be the most important skill for a surviving military, so i like to start training them in it EARLY.

[Noodz]

Wood is essential for: beds, ash/lye/potash/pearlash and some machinery (axles and windmills)
Wood is interesting for: bins and starting wooden shields

That said, i STILL insist on wooden barrels. I handwave it by declaring dwarves prefer to have their food/drink aged in the remnants of the elves' precious trees. Makes for a nice challenge.

[MadocComadrin]

I like to use lead bins if I have Galena or copper bins if I have a bunch of tetrahedrite and no need for bronze.