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[helmacon]

I noticed that other than upsetting dwarves, vermin don't really do anything.

I think that vermin should be able to more things, or even have goals. So a rat or roach in your food stockpile may ruin food, and small snakes may seek out your chicken's eggs and eat them. this would add some actual usefulness to the job of trapper, and make cats more valuable. this adds a new challenge to the game, maintaining a level cat population. also, once other features are added and it is necessary to build your own sewers, vermin may breed and move through the sewers, and once more diseases are added they would demand a bit more attention. I'm rambling a little bit, but my point is that vermin don't do enough in the game as it is.

[Vargas Gray]

+1

I really do like this idea and it makes vermin a challenge, as they should, to be dealt with.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Vermin do eat food--that's why everyone takes a male cat along, to put in their food stockpile.
That said, more diverse vermin would be nice, like if bats ate flies, or if vermin-sized snakes actively tried to eat eggs, or if birds made nests in trees (which could be raided by athletic or ingenious dwarves).

[Vargas Gray]

Yes, vermin do eat food but it would be fun, as you're idea with the nesting birds, with a more diverse behaviour of vermins as a whole. Damn it would be fun to even breed vermins and use them as a food source. !crunch-crunch-crunch!

[dwarfhoplite]

Vermin could spread diseases. Then hospital would have a use other than being a hotel for wounded

[Canageek]

Some more variety would be nice at least, even if it was mostly colour. More ways to deal with vermin (Small traps, poison) would also be nice.

[Rakushun]

Yes, vermin do eat food but it would be fun, as you're idea with the nesting birds, with a more diverse behaviour of vermins as a whole. Damn it would be fun to even breed vermins and use them as a food source. !crunch-crunch-crunch!

Except dwarves already use vermin as a food source - when they're starving, and it causes bad thoughts.

[Vargas Gray]

Yes, vermin do eat food but it would be fun, as you're idea with the nesting birds, with a more diverse behaviour of vermins as a whole. Damn it would be fun to even breed vermins and use them as a food source. !crunch-crunch-crunch!

Except dwarves already use vermin as a food source - when they're starving, and it causes bad thoughts.

Cultural causes I argue that vermin/insects causes bad thoughts. There should be ways to create a situation(s) where dwarfs doesn't experience bad thoughts by vermins/insects - I myself don't care much about killing them but to rather study their behaviourism, the little they have that is.

I don't believe peoples that usually eats vermin/insects feel bad about it, it's quite common around the world. It's quite a western thing to not eat vermin/insects at all, a stupid thing come to think of it since vermins/insects are very nutritious.

So in dwarf fortress you should be able to farm them in abundance!

!crunch-crunch-crunch!

[GreatWyrmGold]

Yes, vermin do eat food but it would be fun, as you're idea with the nesting birds, with a more diverse behaviour of vermins as a whole. Damn it would be fun to even breed vermins and use them as a food source. !crunch-crunch-crunch!

Except dwarves already use vermin as a food source - when they're starving, and it causes bad thoughts.

The idea was to be able to breed vermin, specifically for use as food.
Which leads to an image of a dwarf-bred rock beetle, which feeds on rocks and can be cooked into dwarven bread.

[Rakushun]

I don't believe peoples that usually eats vermin/insects feel bad about it, it's quite common around the world. It's quite a western thing to not eat vermin/insects at all, a stupid thing come to think of it since vermins/insects are very nutritious.

So in dwarf fortress you should be able to farm them in abundance!

!crunch-crunch-crunch!

You're being a little too broad. It may be true that some insects may be very nutritious, but I would need some proof that they're actually super-nutritious before I'd believe it just because "people say so". Not only that, but it's unscientific to just say, "all insects are very nutritious!" Some may be more and some may be less nutritious. There are probably insects that are not only not nutritious but would be detrimental to your health to eat. You also include vermin in your statement, which is even worse. Rats are not especially nutritious in relation to other animals and they tend to carry all kinds of diseases. So no, I wouldn't say that vermin are very nutritious.

[Vargas Gray]

Well if I wish to be hardcore scientific about it I would so, but I didn't say ALL vermins/insects are. Even though I'm being a generalist grammatically and so. The reason behind why I writes it like this "vermin/insects" are because DF doesn't make any distinctions between them two, as it seems. I'm well aware of the fact that not all insects and vermins, in RL, are nutritious. I'm not that dumb to believe that eating rats and whatnots which is known to carry diseases are good foodstuff. But they can be if breed properly.   

Peoples doesn't just "say so", as you put it, but they're actually proving it everyday throughout our world by actually eating insects and being healthy even though insects in general might spread diseases. Take the common cockroach as an example of a very common and sometimes dangerous vermin, because of diseases, that can be eaten and is nutritious. Again if breed properly in a safe and toxin free environment they're a viable food source.

So if I should carry on and post under this thread should I grammatically cover all my flanks and carry a tower shield of correct scientific terminologies relating to this subject? Since I usually believe in common sense and that peoples, in general, has one which means that I don't have to explain everything in detail. 

We should, instead of being a hassle to each others, spend time and energy on this subject since it's quite kewl!

[GreatWyrmGold]

Another thing to consider about farming vermin is that they're hard to keep in one spot, and you need a LOT to feed anyone. The first problem is especially important, because no insects (well, pretty much no insects, and who wants to eat bees?) can be tamed and few other vermin-sized animals can be. And, considering the sanitary conditions of both RL medieval European nations and DF dwarven fortresses, it might be hard to raise uncontaminated vermin, especially ones that naturally feed on "filth."

[Vargas Gray]

Perhaps the dwarves should be able to construct boxes with nets, or a thin cloth, that keeps the insects from escaping. Then the dwarves has to drop in food for the insects that's being farmed so they can multiply. The sanitary conditions might be simulated through insects and vermins from outside the fort coming in contact with those that's being farmed. So if a infected insect or vermin in some way gets into the farming area and gets close to a farming unit it then might spread the disease it carries.