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[Seraphim342]

I've been playing on savage biomes for a bit more of a challenge, and I like how there's more of a reward for playing them as well.  You get to catch Giant stuff, and there are whip vines, which make pretty good booze.  So, something of a balanced risk vs. reward.  I especially like Savage biomes bordered by Good, because then you get all that PLUS sun berries and featherwood. 

Still, I got a little bored the other day and tried an Evil embark.  Almost instantly shredded by Beak Dogs.  Kept trying, and holy hell is it hard.  The only problem though is, as hard as it is, there's no real reason to EVER set up in an evil biome apart from the challenge.  Don't get me wrong, I like to be challenged (I'm playing Dwarf Fortress aren't I? =p), but it seems like the evil-specific stuff doesn't really have any advantage whatsoever over the stuff you can get in normal biomes, and is crap compared to the bonuses from good biomes.  There's just not a lot of reward to balance the risk, aside from the extra fun (both kinds =p) and bragging rights.

Just seems to me like evil biomes should have some useful, unique stuff to reward you for the extra risk.  Not talking surface adamantine deposits or anything comepletely balance-breaking, but some useful stuff that's better than you can get in other biomes.  At least something better than purple wood that makes really heavy bins and marginally better wooden bolts. 

[keyreper]

werewolf duplicator?

[donald]

I agree - no great ideas off the top of my head though.  I enjoy the evil biomes too, though the initial embark is a bit too formulaic for my tastes - dig fast and seal off.  Doing anything else is near suicide.

I have found one bonus to the undead-raising biomes though: the surface can be turned into an endless shooting gallery for your marksdwarves.  Dig up from below into a small hill and fortify the sides, then station your marksdwarves there (burrows along the fortifications are usually the best bet, as they seem to force the dwarves to stay by the windows).  Just have a tree farm going fast or a supply of metal to keep feeding them bolts.  Also remember to turn off dwarves carry food and drink, or they'll drop seeds at their station and civilians will spam you with canceled tasks as they try to pop their heads up and recover the fallen seeds.

[VerdantSF]

A boost to the value multipliers for butchering creatures endemic to evil biomes could help.  Beak dog meat should be at least double the value of dingo meat, for example.

[Replica]

Good biomes are not dwarfy, you elf.

[Hyndis]

We choose to go to the evil biomes in this embark and do the other fun things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

[Willadie]

Good biomes are not dwarfy, you elf.

Ponies are not dwarfy, you bronie.

[Hyndis]

Good biomes are not dwarfy, you elf.

Ponies are not dwarfy, you bronie.

Are they war ponies?

A war unicorn can be a fearsome murder machine with its horn. Its a great piercing weapon.

[Buttery_Mess]

I don't even know what you're talking about op. I don't think you're fully invested in the spirit of dwarf mode.

[slowpokez]

Evil biomes are there so that every time some poor bastard says df is too easy we got somwhere to send him 
The challenge itself is the reward.

[Kaos]

Glumprog wood, very heavy wood
Sliver barbs, black dye and booze,  plus it can be farmed


If you embark on an evil forest you can get phantom spider silk


you could use the zombifing zone to raise raw skin, kill it again (severing parts) and get more skin from the extra skin parts, I made a thread about leather farming that describes the process (it was with a necro though)

[Replica]

Good biomes are not dwarfy, you elf.

Ponies are not dwarfy, you bronie.

Dwarves are not pony, you floating guts.

[Willadie]

Are they war ponies?

A war unicorn can be a fearsome murder machine with its horn. Its a great piercing weapon.

Don't even speak such Elvish! I should have you thrown into the circus for speaking such treason. And we're talking about Ponies, not Unicorns! Albeit Unicorns make delicious biscuits...

[Willadie]

Good biomes are not dwarfy, you elf.

Ponies are not dwarfy, you bronie.

Dwarves are not pony, you floating guts.

Modding isn't vanilla, you hacking scum.

[Friendstrange]

You mean the ability to have endless training dummies, a carpet of eyestalks and tendrills, and a plant that both makes for some good grizzled sea man hard liquor AND the ability to turn your dwarves into the Night´s Watch...not reward enough?

But I guess if one were to want to give more reward you could add some more plants.
Maybe sentient trees that can be milked for drinkable blood-booze and the meat-wood can be eaten, all at the cost of very unhappy thoughts.
Maybe some deadly thorn bushes that damage units that are in the same tile as them, allowing you to have a natural defense which can be a double-edged sword if you are not careful.
Maybe make night trolls a possible atacking unit so we can finally make something out of their bones.

I think they are fine the way they are now but I would welcome some more fleshing out of the biomes as the game advances and more features are added.