I enjoyed having harder farming on, only because of the satisfaction once I got all my magma workshops up and running, making loads of potash out of slag in the slag pit. Suddenly booze isn't an issue and everyone is rejoicing.
The only problem I had was not knowing about the bug regarding workshops needing to have their supplies in the same burrow. I spent hours trying to figure out why I couldn't use my awesome magma blast furnace and my crucible, but I finally found the bug list in the manual and am now pumping out steel like crazy.
One of my favorite moments so far, not only for Masterwork but in years of playing DF in general, involved one of my veteran legendary marksdwarves. This lady dwarf had been serving her fortress since the first year, but during a particularly nasty fight with automatons who breached the melee defenses and charged the marksdwarves, she lost her grasp and had serious leg injuries that she never recovered from. I was constantly getting awful, sad messages about how she couldn't even store her personal items because of her injuries, and she just sort of hobbled around everywhere. She went from being a hero to a peasant who had no purpose.
Once I finally got a Fountain of Eternal Youth built, I set her to a burrow on the fountain and had the sorcerer repeat the healing ritual over and over. The message that popped up when she was healed was amazing. I swear I've never been so satisfied in a game, watching her go to the armory and put her armor back on so that she could rejoin her squad. So stupidly awesome, I love this stuff.
Just thought I'd share! Tomorrow night I'm going to get some guilds going and start producing firearms and turrets.