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Yes.  They need their own creature

9 (9.9%)

Yes.  But make them rare castes of the already giant creatures

44 (48.4%)

Neutral

9 (9.9%)

No

26 (28.6%)

Other

3 (3.3%)

Total Members Voted: 91

[FallenAngel]

I like the sound of "violent", "cowardly", etc. variations

I'll throw in "petrified" or "elemental" versions, that have different materials instead of basic. Like bones made of stone. That would make them tougher (a bit) while not messing around with size (as the previously linked thread shows, I've had enough troubles with BODY_SIZE).
Random HOMEOTHERM and FLIER tag changes might also be hilarious. (In Scorching biomes, a chance to spawn "Blazing" variants -> Homeotherm:14000)

Immunities and sizes get boring, speed, tags and personality changes are far more interesting.
Sonic variants of birds sounds especially evil. Raven flies in at lightspeed - harasses a bit (but is harmless because attack speed is seperate!) then wizzes away, only to come back and annoy the crap out of you later.

I also like the idea of alcoholic animals that deliberately go after your booze.

TL;DR: Less size variants, more everything else.

I agree. That's why my ideas (even the size-based ones) had something else to them, typically reasonable stat reductions or behavioral changes.

[StupidElves]

It is time to show my geekiness!

Dire creatures aren't just giant variations. They are bigger, yes. But they are completely different species that have a prehistoric/demonic visage. Like a dire bear looks more like a monstrous bear than a giant bear. A dire rat looks more like it belongs in the Ice Age and has the teeth to prove it.

Other than that, I support this.

[MDFification]

Yup.  Giant Giant Sperm Whales, cubed in their giant-ness, in fact weigh less than merpeople.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Way to integer overflow, man.

[ArmokGoB]

I like the sound of "violent", "cowardly", etc. variations

I'll throw in "petrified" or "elemental" versions, that have different materials instead of basic. Like bones made of stone. That would make them tougher (a bit) while not messing around with size (as the previously linked thread shows, I've had enough troubles with BODY_SIZE).
Random HOMEOTHERM and FLIER tag changes might also be hilarious. (In Scorching biomes, a chance to spawn "Blazing" variants -> Homeotherm:14000)

Immunities and sizes get boring, speed, tags and personality changes are far more interesting.
Sonic variants of birds sounds especially evil. Raven flies in at lightspeed - harasses a bit (but is harmless because attack speed is seperate!) then wizzes away, only to come back and annoy the crap out of you later.

I also like the idea of alcoholic animals that deliberately go after your booze.

TL;DR: Less size variants, more everything else.

TL;DR;TL;DR: Titan all the things

[k33n]

I feel like adding dire creatures would just be a way to stuff un-needed fantasy tropes into a game that has a very atypical fantasy setting.

[FallenAngel]

I feel like adding dire creatures would just be a way to stuff un-needed fantasy tropes into a game that has a very atypical fantasy setting.

Yeah; they should be atypical fantasy creatures with hints of common fantasy tropes, but most of them being heavily subverted.

[pisskop]

I added Some giant cockroaches, and they really like to wrestle. 
  I didn't give them any attacks, so they only wrestle unless they get incapped, in which they push with enough forced to shatter bone through iron.

[pisskop]

Spoiler: prefstring:rawr (click to show/hide)

[CREATURE:LION_MINIATURE]
   [COPY_TAGS_FROM:LION]
   [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:MINIATURE]
   [APPLY_CURRENT_CREATURE_VARIATION]
   [CV_ADD_TAG:BENIGN]
   [CV_REMOVE_TAG:MOUNT_EXOTIC]
   [CV_ADD_TAG:COMMON_DOMESTIC]
   [CV_ADD_TAG:PET]
   [GO_TO_END]
   [SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
   [DESCRIPTION:A small and ferocious predator found in grasslands.  It lives in groups of females and one male with a large mane.  They hunt together and are capable of felling larger prey.]
   [NAME:miniature lion:miniature lions:miniature lion]
   [CASTE_NAME:miniature lion:miniature lions:miniature lion]
   [CHILD:3][GENERAL_CHILD_NAME:miniature lion cub:miniature lion cubs]
   [CREATURE_TILE:'l'][COLOR:6:0:1]
   [PETVALUE:155]
   [POPULATION_NUMBER:6:11]
   [CLUSTER_NUMBER:1:7]
   [LARGE_PREDATOR][MEANDERER]
   [GRASSTRAMPLE:0]
   [PREFSTRING:rawrs]
   [BIOME:SAVANNA_TROPICAL]
   [BIOME:GRASSLAND_TROPICAL]
   [BIOME:SHRUBLAND_TROPICAL]
   [GO_TO_END]
   [HOMEOTHERM:10067]
   [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_QUADRUPED_GAITS:900:549:366:183:1900:2900] 48 kph
   [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_SWIMMING_GAITS:9000:8900:8825:8775:9500:9900] 1 kph, NO DATA
   [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_CRAWLING_GAITS:9000:8900:8825:8775:9500:9900] 1 kph, NO DATA
   [SWIMS_INNATE]

[StupidElves]

If we're going for D&D inspired funstuff, why not add Owlbears? Everybody loves Owlbears.

[Miuramir]

Further thoughts... We have "Savage" regions in DF.  What if they ended up with a lot more of creatures like Pleistocene megafauna?  The wolves aren't just wolves, they are dire wolves.  The tigers aren't just tigers, they are saber-toothed tigers.  The elephants become mammoths or mastodons, the moose are even bigger stag-moose, the beavers and condors are giant, and even the armadillos buff up to six-foot armored glyptotherium. 

This is an arguably realistic change; an entire sub-setting is simply full of enough larger and more dangerous capstone creatures that everything ends up larger, more dangerous, or both.  Historically, these settings tend to be on the cold side (which encourages more body mass), large areas (no island dwarfism effect, ability to roam), and without significant sapient hunters.  But DF can probably fudge those somewhat.  Savage Wilds should be, well, more savage and wild. 

Programmatically, everything would be 1.2x - 2x larger, and figure out a way to randomly significantly increase at least one combat-specific hard body part... horns, antlers, teeth, claws, hooves, armored shell, etc.  Plenty of real-world examples that can be turned up just a hair farther, then remixed.  Perhaps a mace-hooved horse?  Snapping mega-turtle?  Glaive-pronged rhino? 

For further ice-age flair, have a moderate chance that any furred animal becomes long-furred enough to shear for yarn, with a smaller chance for any mammal to do the same. 

[dwarobaki]

Further thoughts... We have "Savage" regions in DF.  What if they ended up with a lot more of creatures like Pleistocene megafauna? [...] 

That is great idea! I would prefer to replace most of giant creatures with their magafauna 'counterparts/analogues'.
For example:
DF Giant Wombat Adult: 377,750 cm3
Diprotodon (2 metres tall at the shoulder and weighing about 2,800 kilograms) ~ 2,800,000 cm3 in DF

[Ops Fox]

Rather than dire simply being a larger varient, why not have the dire modifier make animals more viscous; Like war training for dogs maybe even stick a syndrome in their bite. think forgotten beast lite, rather than bigger critter.

[PDF urist master]

Rather than dire simply being a larger varient, why not have the dire modifier make animals more viscous; Like war training for dogs maybe even stick a syndrome in their bite. think forgotten beast lite, rather than bigger critter.

I like that idea. we could also give them some natural skills to make them a little more threatening.

[Ops Fox]

Rather than dire simply being a larger varient, why not have the dire modifier make animals more viscous; Like war training for dogs maybe even stick a syndrome in their bite. think forgotten beast lite, rather than bigger critter.

I like that idea. we could also give them some natural skills to make them a little more threatening.

That's true squish worgs and direwolfs together into a nasty combination of Can_Learn, higher toughness, higher strength, and syndrome causing bite applied to any creature with the dire modifier. Direwolfs, Diretigers, Direlephants, Diredragons etc etc.

[Miuramir]

Here's a newly discovered historical critter that might be inspirational for dire creatures: Carnufex carolinensis.  A bit more detail, and an alamring-looking artist's impression, in this CBC article. 

This one is alarming in a "halfway to a crocodile man" sort of way.  Take a quadruped, make it larger, semi-upright and bipedal for greater speed and dexterity, and a major step toward possible tool-use...