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[Urist Tilaturist]

That seems wrong to me. Why would turning undead allow something to grasp when it could not before? A decayed hoof cannot grasp any more than an intact one. This should really be removed, undead yaks are bad enough already.

[The Bard]

Until the emotion fix, Missing Cousin Dodok was the deadliest creature in the world, capable of leveling fortresses without ever stepping onto the map.

[Bumber]

The only dwarf I ever had injured by a tree was a woodcutter who was standing under one when it was felled and had his arm crushed. I do not understand why they are considered so dangerous.

I would still consider a tantrumming dwarf to be the most dangerous creature.

Trees can sometimes trigger cave-ins, and everything that entails.

[Ancalagon_TB]

Don't underestimate giant capybaras... A good military squad will murder them, but don't do it half ass... otherwise they will run away from your military, encounter a civilian and rip him limb from limb. 

[pisskop]

Guys, guys guys.  Giant wolverines.  Berserked 'enraged' status guarantees a fight, and even hunters and unlucky lumberdwarves will lose.  I've even seen military lose 1v1.

[Thisfox]

Werebeasts. One bite, and next month it will be five bites, and next month it will be twenty, and by then the whole fort is in tantrum spiral decay, and they all blame everyone else.

[utunnels]

Sometimes the bite caused only bruises and the dorf didn't change next month.
Yeah, but you can never be sure.

[Psieye]

I'm entirely new to the game and the ease of starting out surprised me, too.
DF has a reputation of being extremely hard and unforgiving, but so far I didn't actually lose a game.
I usually go 1-3 years in experimenting with different things before abandoning and starting fresh.
In the first few games I didn't even know how happiness works, still never seen a tantrum spiral.
I still don't know how military works and didn't create any traps, all the action I've seen was a weremongoose attack in ~15 games.
The embark sites are mostly untamed wilderness, didn't have any problems with wild animals.

The only comparable game I'm familiar with nowadays is Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. That one has a ridiculous
learning curve, too (new players could take months or even years to actually win their first game, if ever).
I remember getting my ass kicked to hell and back starting out, took me a week to even reach the temple, an early point of interest.
That's why it's extremely rewarding when you can win 1 in every 3-4 game (some guys got so good they can
win ~95%, going on 15-20 game streaks).

I first got into both games years ago. Both of them have become easier to start in over the years. To take DC:SS's history, one of my earliest deaths was to eating poisonous chunks because the game didn't conveniently tell you which corpses were poisonous. Mechanical traps are gone, various items ID themselves easier, training your skills is now trivial. That last one was big, I don't think new players knew to 'victory dance' when they amassed a pool of skill points. I remember finding some secluded space and casting Magic Missile 50 times to train conjurations after killing a big source of EXP to streamline growth. Granted, there were some exploits you could take advantage of that have gone now (summoned creatures gave real EXP, corpses and items - I once levelled up twice in a single fight).

Similarly, my first death in DF was to carp back in the 40d days. A lot of my early fortress ends were due to being insufficiently prepared for the near-guaranteed Year 2 Spring ambush. Now that ambushes don't get pulled out of thin air, it's much rarer to get one 'on schedule'. The rarity of wood and magma didn't help.

The other thing to point out is the community support for newbies. Both games have certain things you just have to know to get started right. I think DF makes it more obvious to newbies that they need some outside help (like the wiki) to get started. DC:SS doesn't make it terribly clear you're not going to get far without learning how to move in a tactically correct way.

[Naryar]

Werebeasts. One bite, and next month it will be five bites, and next month it will be twenty, and by then the whole fort is in tantrum spiral decay, and they all blame everyone else.

Yeah, I've run into some werebeast fun for the first time in 0.40 as well.

Though, they are not especially terrible since if you take a few precautions. I just got taken by surprise when I was building an outside wall.

But really during the goblin invasion I've seen a dwarf swim through my 3-tile wide moat, and THEN he climbed my 2z-level wall. fml.

I think magma moats will be definitely needed.

[omg_scout]

So, the game got easier with new release? That is disappointing for me, as I was the "terrifying glacier one pick challenge" kind of players.

Maybe I should wait a month with starting new fort, as things will probably get refined in incoming short releases.

Thanks for answers!

[Psieye]

So, the game got easier with new release? That is disappointing for me, as I was the "terrifying glacier one pick challenge" kind of players.

Maybe I should wait a month with starting new fort, as things will probably get refined in incoming short releases.

Thanks for answers!

A good time to look into Masterwork DF and other mods that spawned during the 2 year wait before .40.01

[escondida]

I'm inclined to go with trees as well, since I definitely lost a lot of dwarves to their random collapses, and because they should be innocuous.

As was pointed out in the New King Of Beasts thread over in the General Discussion board, the reason that zombies, or giant monsters, or dragons, or werebeasts don't qualify for the title is that they're meant to be terrifying and dangerous! Elephants in real life are not super aggressive. Carp are not superpowered killing machines, and sponges aren't invincible avatars of rage. The King of Beasts is something you'd think would be harmless, but that unexpectedly wrecks your fort due to the game's awesome insanity, not something that you'd think would be dangerous, and oh hey look it is, surprise surprise.

[Naryar]

So, the game got easier with new release? That is disappointing for me, as I was the "terrifying glacier one pick challenge" kind of players.

Maybe I should wait a month with starting new fort, as things will probably get refined in incoming short releases.

Thanks for answers!

Terrifying glaciers should still be exceedingly fun, especially with climbing and jumping into action.

And zombie polar bears and invulnerable-to-blunt icicle men.

I remember my glacier embarks in 0.31.25, they were pretty fun because yetis beelined for your fortress entrance as long as they appeared on the map.

[Max™]

Big part of the tree !!Fun!! was when dorf pathing first encountered them and they would run up a tree, jump out, injure themselves, become terrified as they injure another dorf doing so, both run up and jump out of a tree, and so forth.

[utunnels]

Big part of the tree !!Fun!! was when dorf pathing first encountered them and they would run up a tree, jump out, injure themselves, become terrified as they injure another dorf doing so, both run up and jump out of a tree, and so forth.

Your avatar explains it.