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[NW_Kohaku]

I have no problem with quarry bushes being a fungus. There are many unicellular molds that produce significant quantities of lipids and other oily hydrocarbons, and many larger fungi can assume complex and fanciful shapes; just substitute "lamillus" for "leaf" and "basidium" for "nut".

But that's because you're looking for them to be mushrooms, and trying to find any way that they could be mushrooms, not because there's anything in the game that implies such a thing. 

I'm saying that we've been doing quite a bit of this sort of thing over the years, where we assume that a feather tree is actually just a very low-density tree, and that "feather" is just a metaphor for the tree being very lightweight, and then when we get more details, nope, it literally has feathers.  A fluffy wambler is literally nothing more than pudge and fluff.  Bubble grass literally has bubbles.  Rope reeds have a prefstring for their precise lines, and pig tails have one for their twisting stalk - the pig tails probably look exactly like a pig tail, and rope reeds may well look exactly like a rope with a braided set of ridges in it. 

There is no evidence of mushroom-like behavior in quarry bushes, people just assume they must be mushrooms because they are underground, but for every indication Toady has given, they're just as much running on arbitrary magic as the Nethercaps that are always at 0 Celcius, and are just magic underground shrubs. 

[Courtesy Arloban]

I think I may have been misleading, I imagine quarry bushes to be a boulder, with lichens growing on it, as the leaves, regardless of what the game might lead me to think.  It really doesn't make sense for an underground organism to have leaves, so I ignore it.

Also Sweet Pods are similar to Sugar Beets.  Dimple Cups are similar to Roccella fuciformis.  Pig Tails similar to LiverWorts.  Prickleberries may actually exist, if not the Prickle Ash has berries and thorns.  Blade Weed is similar to Sisyrinchium chilense, with a different color dye Buckthorn for the correct dye.  Bloated tuber is similar to River Bulrush.  Fisher Berries are similar to Black Currants.  Kobold bulb is similar to Nodding Onion.  Longland Grass is similar to Crabgrass.(it has been made into flour, I assume it is possible to ferment then)  Hide Root is similar to Alkanna tinctoria, Dandelion(Other uses), or Canaigre(Mustard Colored Dye).  Rope Weed is similar to Jute(Or Hemp, but I got sick of bing adding marijuana to every single weed search {not just having it as a result; I mean actually correcting my search} that I specifically filtered it out before I got around to this)  Silver Barb is similar to Carob. Sunberries are similar to Semillon Chardonnay Grapes.  Valley Herb is similar to Fragrant orchid.  Whipvine is similar to wild Buckwheat.

[NW_Kohaku]

Well, I don't believe many of those are correct...

Sunberries, for starters, are supposed to have a little "liquid sunshine" inside of them.  Like the feather trees and bubble grass, they're not really supposed to make sense and are quite magical.  They're berries with a little literal sunshine inside them that can be fermented.

I don't know why you'd think bloated tubers are a type of grass, when they almost certainly refer to more simple potatoes.  Longland grass is just any generic wild breed of wheat, at that.  Toady didn't take the time to make very specific types of plants, they're just generic potatoes and wheat. 

I would expect rope reed to be more like papyrus (and maybe blended in function with flax), which is a reed itself.  However, as I said, it has those lines that probably mean it physically appears similar to rope.

Kobold bulb exists for purely magical/alchemical purposes, and as such, relating it to an onion seems a little strange - it could be almost anything that produces a liquid, and it's a magic liquid at that. 

For the underground plants, he pretty clearly was going for more fanciful things, and didn't particularly care for realism.  He has cave wheat that is apparently just literal wheat that grows in caves. 

He also lists in the raws plump helmets as "MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP", and "MUSHROOM_CUP_DIMPLE", but then, "GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE" and "GRASS_TAIL_PIG".  Pig tail is a type of grass, like wheat is (cave or otherwise).  It's also a curly type of grass, apparently curled like a pig's tail. 

Incidentally, quarry bushes (listed as "BUSH_QUARRY", not "MUSHROOM_BUSH_QUARRY") have [PREFSTRING:gray leaves].  Not "musrooms that look like leaves", but "leaves". 

Again, every indication is that it's a literal bush that looks gray and has rock-like nuts and grows underground. 


And that's why you shouldn't use Bing - it's seriously made to return the results that gave Microsoft the most money, so you're always going to have things that give you the information you want, like Wikipedia articles on the topic you searched for, below results that sell you something unrelated.

[Niyazov]

Well, I don't believe many of those are correct...

Sunberries, for starters, are supposed to have a little "liquid sunshine" inside of them.  Like the feather trees and bubble grass, they're not really supposed to make sense and are quite magical.  They're berries with a little literal sunshine inside them that can be fermented.

I don't know why you'd think bloated tubers are a type of grass, when they almost certainly refer to more simple potatoes.  Longland grass is just any generic wild breed of wheat, at that.  Toady didn't take the time to make very specific types of plants, they're just generic potatoes and wheat. 

I would expect rope reed to be more like papyrus (and maybe blended in function with flax), which is a reed itself.  However, as I said, it has those lines that probably mean it physically appears similar to rope.

Kobold bulb exists for purely magical/alchemical purposes, and as such, relating it to an onion seems a little strange - it could be almost anything that produces a liquid, and it's a magic liquid at that. 

For the underground plants, he pretty clearly was going for more fanciful things, and didn't particularly care for realism.  He has cave wheat that is apparently just literal wheat that grows in caves. 

He also lists in the raws plump helmets as "MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP", and "MUSHROOM_CUP_DIMPLE", but then, "GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE" and "GRASS_TAIL_PIG".  Pig tail is a type of grass, like wheat is (cave or otherwise).  It's also a curly type of grass, apparently curled like a pig's tail. 

Incidentally, quarry bushes (listed as "BUSH_QUARRY", not "MUSHROOM_BUSH_QUARRY") have [PREFSTRING:gray leaves].  Not "musrooms that look like leaves", but "leaves". 

Again, every indication is that it's a literal bush that looks gray and has rock-like nuts and grows underground. 

I'm gonna fall back on my default "medieval analogue" argument; the difference between fungi and plants was not recognized until fairly recently. Things were classified by characteristics that we would not use today; e.g. calling fleas "reptiles", etc.

[Courtesy Arloban]

Even many of the aboveground crops are fictional as well,  I think of many of them as being related to real plants, and the only difference being where the raws differ from the plant I think they are.

I think they are similar, not that they are those types of plants as to why:

River Bulrush
A stout, perennial herb from a thick rhizome with
tuber-like enlargements. The stems are sharply triangular and leafy, growing to
a height of 2 m. Leaf blades are 8-12 mm.River bulrush is a persistent emergent found in deep and
shallow marshes; wet shores and riverbanks; in fresh and mixosaline waters. It
is a common dominant in Mississippi River backwaters. River bulrush is a
favorite food of muskrats.

Nodding Onion
Bulbs are utilized by bears and ground squirrels. Elk and deer graze the early spring herbage. Attracts haistreak butterfly.
Warning: All parts poisonous but causes only low toxicity if eaten; can be safely eaten in small amounts, large quantities not recommended. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Toxic Principle: Sulfides.

Jute 
It falls into the bast fibre category (fibre collected from bast or skin of the
plant) along with kenaf, industrial hemp, flax (linen), ramie, etc. The
industrial term for jute fibre is raw jute

The main thing keeping the crops from identifying with real world plants is that they are almost all plantable in all seasons, and seem to be a blend of plants that grow within those seasons.

[Niyazov]

River bulrush is rhizomatic and does not produce a tuber.

Jute is not a reed, and it produces a very coarse fiber that is rarely used in clothing.

ED: hah look at me I can take both sides of an argument

[Sus]

Also Prefstrings would be good too.  Dwarves already like certain minerals, it would be intersting to know why.

"Urist McMason likes anhydrite for its perfect cleavage."

Yeah, descriptions and prefstrings for mineral would be awesome, as well as adding the species of a corpse to its description (e.g. "Stozu's troll corpse").

[Uristocrat]

Also Prefstrings would be good too.  Dwarves already like certain minerals, it would be intersting to know why.

"Urist McMason likes anhydrite for its perfect cleavage."

Yeah, descriptions and prefstrings for mineral would be awesome, as well as adding the species of a corpse to its description (e.g. "Stozu's troll corpse").

That would be awesome, actually.  I might just add a bunch of those to my mod.  I have a couple more interesting prefstrings to use:

Tin - [PREFSTRING:the sound it makes when bent] (Google "tin cry")
Zinc - [PREFSTRING:needle-like crystals]

[NW_Kohaku]

Zinc is traditionally used as a non-organic white pigment.  Both zinc and tin are used in glazing ceramics as a background white and as a way to overcome the porousness of earthenware.  In fact, zinc's what is used to reflect light in suntan lotion, as well.

I wouldn't say "prefstring:for its shininess", exactly, but it would be a good place to start, rather than its needles.

Also, I'd like to chime in now with

Copper - [PREFSTRING:for its warm earthen tones]
Bronze - [PREFSTRING:for its rich history]
Iron - [PREFSTRING:for its simple, utilitarian functionality]
Steel - [PREFSTRING:for its might]
Black Bronze - [PREFSTRING:for its deep, rich patina]
Silver - [PREFSTRING:for its unassuming ability to reflect back unto ourselves]
Gold - [PREFSTRING:for being all that glitters]

[Courtesy Arloban]

River bulrush is rhizomatic and does not produce a tuber.

Jute is not a reed, and it produces a very coarse fiber that is rarely used in clothing.

ED: hah look at me I can take both sides of an argument

Bloated Tubers grows in wetlands like River Bulrush, Unlike River Bulrush they prefer dry to being submerged.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/mnplant/scfl.htm
Potatoes grow wild in Mountain Biomes(High Mountain Biomes), they are a cold season plant, and any part of them that turn green are poisonous.  They are also a very difficult crop.

Marble - [PREFSTRING:for its gleam]
Granite - [PREFSTRING:for its hardness]
Sandstone - [PREFSTRING:for its softness]
Chalk - [PREFSTRING:for its softness]
Chert - [PREFSTRING:for its resistance to weathering]
Emerald - [PREFSTRING:for its hue]
Plutonium - [PREFSTRING:for its fissability]

[IT 000]

I'd really like to see descriptions on metal, weapons, armor, and tools. Doing so would really allow modders to create more abstract equipment, but also allow players to quickly discern which equipment is better / worse at a glance.

Descriptions for all the things.

[scamtank]

With all the properties and uses that are just inconvenient to show at a glance anywhere else, a Dwarfopedia would go a long way.

The wiki is currently holding that weight, but come on.

[Jeoshua]

Yeah, is an external website really any replacement for being able to hit a few buttons in-game to see a description of an item?

This suggestion, to me, goes far beyond the stone descriptions.  If the pref-strings and descriptions are added to enough things, the game becomes more enjoyable in every way.  Toady can put descriptions on objects that currently we can only imagine what they are, and modders can add descriptions to their hacks that describe their function and form much better.

Imagine loo'k'ing at a wall and getting a detailed description, not only of the engravings that may be on it, but what it's made of, the color of it's inclusions, and all that.  Anything would be preferable to the data we have now which tells you what?  Basically, "It's a wall..."

[Courtesy Arloban]

I'd like a description of the minerals too, that is veiwed when you hit the v button.  It would also help if it described some of the physical properties, things that can be made from it,  things that it would be a waste to use it on.

It's not that I need it so much for a vanilla game, but it would be most helpful to me playing mods, where you have custom metals, gems, and magical elements.  Also for that matter mod plants could use descriptions too.  The wiki doesn't help much there.

A description could also add a level of gameplay from many rouge-likes; Namely the description could be hidden until you analyze the object.  "That's an ore of Gold?  We just been throwing them on the refuse pile."

[catoblepas]

I support the idea of metals, minerals (stone, ore, gems) getting descriptions. It would be absolutely vital if Toady adds in randomly generated minerals etc.