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Total Members Voted: 148

[Taffer]

If you're upset with the above cleaned version because I removed your favourite module or fix or something, have a consolation prize: DF Wanderer and the Modest Mod for 0.43.05, aka the Modest Wanderer. Finally properly merged and updated after a lengthy cleaning process for both mods. All of the fixes and combat improvements of both mods, along with Wanderer's adventure mode crafting and some of Grimlocke's combat improvements. (Not Grimlocke's weapons or metallurgy or anything, just the idea of removing nail scratch attacks, reducing the velocity of unarmed attacks, and a few very minor edits to improve combat).

EDIT: Last updated on November 15, 2016.

[Igfig]

Sure, that's cool. By all means, make it your own.

Seeing a list of changes and reverts like that makes me want, more than ever, to get a proper gui for opting in or out of the everything. If only there were more time...

I was frustrated by the large number of changes made to the files, with a few notable minor changes generating a LOT of diff noise for little gain. This made me not want to use the Modest Mod for a while, because I just found it tedious to update it or merge it into other mods. I view Modest Mod as a base for further modding more than anything, so some changes were reverted for no reason other than to make integration easier.
[...]
 • Every "changed by modest mod" comment has been removed. If you want to know what has been changed, download DF 0.43.05 and compare the RAW folders yourself in a diff utility. Not only do the comments generate a lot of extra diff noise, but the comments are inconsistent: Modest Mod already made many "undocumented" changes.

That's a good point about the diff noise. I started the Modest Mod before I knew diff utilities were a thing; I suppose that the "changed by" tags aren't needed any more. And yeah, like you said, being a base for other mods is one of the major uses of the Modest Mod, so ease of use is significant.

• Helmets are no longer shaped, deferring to the vanilla RAWs. This seems to have been a deliberate change, and it was the only item_* file being edited: unnecessary conflicts with mods that edit items (such as Grimlocke's work).
 • Giant creatures now live just as long as their originating species again as all MAXAGE changes have been removed. These changes are pervasive and, due to a bug, difficult to apply, for very little gain. This was also inconsistently applied across the Modest Mod already: some giant creatures removed the original MAXAGE tag, some did not.

Huh, those are pretty strange changes we made. I guess I can sort of see the point of us lengthening the lives of very short-lived creatures, but how often do those even get used?

• Pandas now graze normally again: I couldn't find this bug in the bug tracker nor did I find discussion of it anywhere.

It's mentioned in the wiki, and there's some old discussion here. Maybe it's less of an issue now? I remember Toady changed grazer behaviour recently...

• Broken finger/toe bones should not make people pass out, so these bones have been removed. This is borrowed from DF Wanderer.

The drawback to having no bones is that people's digits get chopped off really easily, if I remember correctly? Plus, didn't Toady fix this a while back?

[Taffer]

Sure, that's cool. By all means, make it your own.

Seeing a list of changes and reverts like that makes me want, more than ever, to get a proper gui for opting in or out of the everything. If only there were more time...

Thank you. I'm hoping to see my version adopted as the "new version" as it should be much easier to maintain and easier for people to integrate into other mods, otherwise I'll probably keep things up to date separately. If nobody wants to maintain the Modest Mod anymore than I'm willing to step up, but I'm just trying to help Button out.

I don't see why a GUI is necessary: I admit to disliking them. It's more points of failure, extra code to maintain, and also guarantees that you only support Windows (I use Linux), all for little gain. The Modest Mod is already not being updated regularly, likely in part because of the need to maintain all of the modules. Adding more complexity on top of that doesn't sound like a great idea to me. That's not my decision though. I'm thankful for the Modest Mod either way.

It's mentioned in the wiki, and there's some old discussion here. Maybe it's less of an issue now? I remember Toady changed grazer behaviour recently...

I don't know, but as mentioned it's not in the bug tracker. It also makes sense to me: pandas eat a lot of bamboo. Feeding them with grass wouldn't work IRL from what I understand. It was also simply a lot of changes in that file for what didn't seem like a bug.

The drawback to having no bones is that people's digits get chopped off really easily, if I remember correctly? Plus, didn't Toady fix this a while back?

Right you are. Reverted in my Wanderer upload, my Modest mod upload, and the combined version. Thank you for the feedback!

[gchristopher]

Here is the Modest Mod updated for DF 0.43.05 and put on a diet. ...

That's awesome work, thank you!

[Maltavius]

The leather changes have been removed,

Is this where there is only one type of leather? If so, It's the only feature I really wanted from this mod...

[Taffer]

The leather changes have been removed,

Is this where there is only one type of leather? If so, It's the only feature I really wanted from this mod...

I'm not the maintainer, I just made a variant for myself and decided it was worth posting. If Button decides to adopt it I can help get Accelerated working again, but right now I have no motivation to do the extra work. I'm also not sure what leather changes you meant: this is going to be a long answer because I don't know specifically what you're asking about.

There's the more leather tweak in regular Modest Mod, where creatures give more or less leather based on their size. I removed that mostly because it conflicts with Wanderer, but also because I worried it was unbalanced: is it not? Pigs never need to eat and give my fortress plenty of leather without this tweak, so giving them more sounded unbalanced. It's not hard to add this feature back in, though.

I assume, though, that you're referring to the Accelerated Module, which merges all leather types into one generic leather type. If so, then yes, I removed the module because it was a lot of work to update it to the new version and, as mentioned, I mostly made this for myself. The official modest mod still supports Accelerated. There's a large warning to avoid Accelerated on the first page, so you probably shouldn't be using it anyways. Masterwork has this feature working well. To be honest, I don't understand the appeal of Accelerated: much of the FPS gain is just turning off temperature and reducing how many items are created. It has a separate goal of reducing the variety of stone, leather, bone, and more, but that has nothing to do with making the game faster.

Might I suggest my Wanderer patch? It might be worth noting that DF Wanderer adds in classes of leather, so that dragon leather (dragonscale) is much stronger than chicken leather, unlike vanilla (where they differ in name only) or Accelerated (where there's no difference at all). This is why I like Wanderer. Taming large or rare beasts to set up a leather industry ought to be rewarding, but Accelerated (and, I assume, Masterwork) remove the only real reward the game offers: seeing "roc leather armour" rather than just "leather armour". Wanderer at least scales the quality of the leather output as a reward, so you'll get better leather.

[Maltavius]

The leather changes have been removed,

Is this where there is only one type of leather? If so, It's the only feature I really wanted from this mod...

I assume, though, that you're referring to the Accelerated Module, which merges all leather types into one generic leather type. If so, then yes, I removed the module because it was a lot of work to update it to the new version and, as mentioned, I mostly made this for myself. The official modest mod still supports Accelerated. There's a large warning to avoid Accelerated on the first page, so you probably shouldn't be using it anyways. Masterwork has this feature working well. To be honest, I don't understand the appeal of Accelerated: much of the FPS gain is just turning off temperature and reducing how many items are created. It has a separate goal of reducing the variety of stone, leather, bone, and more, but that has nothing to do with making the game faster.

Might I suggest my Wanderer patch? It might be worth noting that DF Wanderer adds in classes of leather, so that dragon leather (dragonscale) is much stronger than chicken leather, unlike vanilla (where they differ in name only) or Accelerated (where there's no difference at all). This is why I like Wanderer. Taming large or rare beasts to set up a leather industry ought to be rewarding, but Accelerated (and, I assume, Masterwork) remove the only real reward the game offers: seeing "roc leather armour" rather than just "leather armour". Wanderer at least scales the quality of the leather output as a reward, so you'll get better leather.

Yes it's the Accelerated part I'm after.

I'm not at all concerned for FPS gains, I just don't want to have to deal with loads of different leather, and it also makes my life easier, just make "leather armor" instead of "alpaca leather armor" or something like that.

[Malrone]

Good to see the good work, Taffer. I've been waiting for some movement on Modest, and you've provided a fair deal here. Much appreciated.

[Dwarf_Fever]

Does that also include the accelerated changes? :O

[Taffer]

Does that also include the accelerated changes? :O

Assuming you're talking about my cleaned version, read the last few posts or read my original post more carefully:

• The only remaining two modules are Everything is Tameable and Accelerated. I have no interest in supporting these, as it's a lot of extra work (particularly Accelerated!). If you want these updated, note the changes they make to the modest mod and apply them to my files. I remain skeptical that this does much for FPS apart from disabling temperature and the smaller default embark.

[Thundercraft]

Here is the Modest Mod updated for DF 0.43.05 and put on a diet.

I do appreciate the effort. Thank you for sharing it. I like many of your changes. Though, there are those that I dislike:

Every "changed by modest mod" comment has been removed. If you want to know what has been changed, download DF 0.43.05 and compare the raw folders yourself in a diff utility.

Programmers are taught the importance of comments. A lack of comments makes modifications and debugging more complicated. Also, as the readme.txt in the raw folder states:

Please consider attributing yourself or an alias if you distribute your own modifications so that they aren't confused with vanilla DF (it helps us in bug reports).

May I ask what diff utility you use? Because when I compare files with WinMerge, the extra 'diff noise' from comments like "changed by modest mod" seem downright inconsequential to me.

...And yeah, like you said, being a base for other mods is one of the major uses of the Modest Mod, so ease of use is significant.

Being a base for other mods is all the more reason to leave the comments in. Comments can be useful, especially when code is expected to be worked on by multiple programmers.

Anyone who uses Taffer's Modest Mod as a base for their own mod is creating a mod of a mod of a mod of the vanilla raws. (Actually, considering that Button took over from Igfig, it'd be more like a mod of a mod of a mod of a mod...) Are they expected to keep a diff utility open constantly to compare vanilla raws with the offical Modest Mod and compare with Taffer's version and compare with their own changes?

The Giant Desert Scorpion has been removed. If Toady decides to add it to DF again, it can be re-added...

Why remove it? This was in "file changes.txt" for 0.42.04:

removed redundant savage_tropical file -- will add replacement scorpion later

The other savage_tropical creatures were restored. GDS was probably skipped (for now) because, unlike the rest of them, there is no non-giant version. Many players add the GDS back, anyway, and I guess that's what I'll need to do.

Pearls have been removed from mussels again. Having a pearl in every mussel seemed sillier than having no pearls in them at all.

For the longest time, there's been no way to obtain pearl, despite the rare strange moods that demand it. Then pearl was fixed. And you removed it because it 'seems silly'? I disagree that having abundant access to pearl is worse than none at all. I'd rather not lose a skilled dorf or chance a tantrum spiral from a lack of pearl.

There were a few creatures that had newly laid eggs that seemed large enough to be useful: two of them were large bugs, though, so I can't picture anybody eating them.

Dwarves already eat some strange stuff. For example, how about Purring Maggot milk or cheese? If starving Dwarves really want to eat giant bug eggs, why not? For all we know, they might be tastey. IRL: In some parts of the world, eating live insects is considered a delicacy and ant eggs are treated like caviar:

12 Delicious Edible Insects

If you dislike eating bamboo, choosing a panda adventurer is unwise.

I suspect the grazer tag should have been left off the Panda Man for the sake of leaving it playable and preventing them from starving to death. Maybe some players want to play as a Kung-Fu Panda?

The Pedestals module has been removed, because the next version will have them anyway.

I do not think this is a good reason to remove it. Pedestals are very nice. And I wouldn't hold your breath for the next version. I'd be shocked if it arrives before 2017.

Giant creatures now live just as long as their originating species again as all MAXAGE changes have been removed...

I guess I can sort of see the point of us lengthening the lives of very short-lived creatures, but how often do those even get used?

Granted, not everyone captures or raises short-lived giant creatures. But I think it would be nice for the times when MAXAGE could play a role.

...have a consolation prize: DF Wanderer and the Modest Mod for 0.43.05, aka the Modest Wanderer.

Again, I appreciate you doing this and sharing. Thanks.

[Taffer]

I do appreciate the effort. Thank you for sharing it. I like many of your changes. Though, there are those that I dislike:

Thanks for the nod and for your comments. I apologize in advance if I inadvertently offend: your tone seemed harsh in places, but I tried to explain my choices. You're welcome to just not use my version, if the changes bother you.

Programmers are taught the importance of comments. A lack of comments makes modifications and debugging more complicated. Also, as the readme.txt in the raw folder states:

Well, I am a programmer. Comments explain the logic of a program where it might be unclear from context: this doesn't really describe the modest mod comments. Most simply indicated "this is a change", something your diff utility already tells you. What would have been helpful is if the comments explained why the changes were made. Finding out why some of these changes were made took a bit of digging, and I would have absolutely kept comments that clarified this. Some of the comments indicate what value something had before it was edited, or where a tag was removed, and I agree that those were helpful. I removed the comments long before I thought to post this, however. I'd be happy to see the helpful comments added back in, but I lack the time to do so myself.

I did keep comments in the entity_default file, as I do find those very helpful. My own mod folder is essentially Modest Wanderer with Appearance Tweaks, dozens of data/speech improvements culled from various sources (and some written by me), silk eggs, the fantastic mini-mod microreduce, and a few other mods. I lack permission to distribute it all, but the comments in entity_default are absolutely helpful in clarifying which changes were made by which mods. In my experience cleaning and merging them all, however, this was the only place where it was unclear what mods contributed which changes.

I sympathize with Toady's request, but it would be a mistake to rely on comments to indicate changes in any DF mod. Especially when debugging. Many mods that I've examined inconsistently apply DF updates and raw edits, and many don't clearly mark all changes. It's often quite clear to me what mod authors rely on diff utilities and which ones don't. The Modest Mod's comments were also not consistently applied, leading to a false sense of security: "there's no modest mod comment, therefore this is vanilla".

May I ask what diff utility you use? Because when I compare files with WinMerge, the extra 'diff noise' from comments like "changed by modest mod" seem downright inconsequential to me.

The program I use isn't really relevant, but I rely on diff or Meld in Linux/BSD, DiffMerge in Windows. I agree that the diff noise isn't that big a deal, but removing them also seems "downright inconsequential", as you say. "Number of lines changed" becomes a meaningless measurement with the comments added, when it could be (and is, in my version) a very useful way of seeing, at a glance, what files had more meaningful edits than others. It also cleans up the visual display on the graphical diff utilities: it makes it easier to see that a change only adds or removes one tag.

You're welcome to add the comments back in if you like: I lack the time to add the useful ones back in. I'm still confused why people like them, to be honest: none of them clarified anything beyond what a diff utility can provide. If I can't think of a useful comment to add to a program I'm coding, I don't add one.

Being a base for other mods is all the more reason to leave the comments in. Comments can be useful, especially when code is expected to be worked on by multiple programmers.

Anyone who uses Taffer's Modest Mod as a base for their own mod is creating a mod of a mod of a mod of the vanilla raws. (Actually, considering that Button took over from Igfig, it'd be more like a mod of a mod of a mod of a mod...) Are they expected to keep a diff utility open constantly to compare vanilla raws with the offical Modest Mod and compare with Taffer's version and compare with their own changes?

More comments about the comments. I do consider keeping a diff utility open at all times to be useful. You're modifying a game, and every line you add and remove is meaningful. Why would you not want to keep track of this? I've been tweaking mods almost as long as I've played Dwarf Fortress, and many of them differ from vanilla in odd and inconsistent ways. I'm not really sure why anybody would need to compare "vanilla raws with the official modest mod" AND "the modest mod with Taffer's modest mod". Surely you'd pick one or the other, then compare that version to vanilla. Once you're content with the base that you've chosen, you only need to track changes between your mod and your base (until DF updates).

The modest mod comments don't affect anything, so I'm a little surprised that it was a controversial change. This was probably the most meaningless of my changes.

Why remove it? This was in "file changes.txt" for 0.42.04:

The other savage_tropical creatures were restored. GDS was probably skipped (for now) because, unlike the rest of them, there is no non-giant version. Many players add the GDS back, anyway, and I guess that's what I'll need to do.

Why keep it? This is my minimalist bias again, but I would prefer to defer creative decisions to Toady. I know he said he would add it back in again, but he hasn't. This doesn't seem like it's a bug fix to me, but a creative decision: perhaps this is best kept as a module. In any case, you can just copy and paste the old file back over. Part of it was that it conflicted with Wanderer.

For the longest time, there's been no way to obtain pearl, despite the rare strange moods that demand it. Then pearl was fixed. And you removed it because it 'seems silly'? I disagree that having abundant access to pearl is worse than none at all. I'd rather not lose a skilled dorf or chance a tantrum spiral from a lack of pearl.

Apologies that I upset with this change. I've personally not had a dwarf demand a pearl in vanilla Dwarf Fortress in recent memory: wasn't this fixed, so that dwarves will only demand things you can easily get? Perhaps I was too vigorous with the cleaning, but yes, it did seem "silly" that all mussels had pearls, that this fix required several additional files alone, and that from my understanding it was fixing a bug Toady had already fixed. It seems odd that "it seemed silly" is an unacceptable reason to remove this, but an acceptable reason to remove mussel leather.

I've added it back in after some thought.

Dwarves already eat some strange stuff. For example, how about Purring Maggot milk or cheese? If starving Dwarves really want to eat giant bug eggs, why not? For all we know, they might be tastey. IRL: In some parts of the world, eating live insects is considered a delicacy and ant eggs are treated like caviar:

This isn't a bug fix though, and it's probably one of the noisiest changes in the entire Modest Mod. To quote the OP:

This mod doesn't add anything new. It doesn't do anything controversial. It's just like vanilla DF, but a little better.

This doesn't fix a "bug", can drain FPS by adding tiny eggs everywhere, and dramatically adds to the number of lines people need to worry about when copying changes from the Modest Mod. My understanding is that the egg changes also dramatically change insect populations from vanilla, and I found no evidence that these changes were tested for balance.

Perhaps I've misunderstood? If it's just my reasoning for keeping hydra eggs but not the other two insects, then I agree that my reasoning was flawed. I just removed Hydra eggs for you, as this was an unnecessary creative change. The bigger reason I removed the large insect eggs was because it conflicted with Kazoo's Silk Eggs mod, and I forgot to state this. Why differ from vanilla at all in regards to egg laying, if no bugs are being fixed?

I suspect the grazer tag should have been left off the Panda Man for the sake of leaving it playable and preventing them from starving to death. Maybe some players want to play as a Kung-Fu Panda?

In retrospect I agree about the panda man in particular, assuming that it really is difficult to keep them alive at present. The bigger reason I removed the grazer tags was because removing the following three tags for all animal men seemed invasive and something likely to have side effects. SPECIFIC_FOOD can probably be removed safely, however, so I've split the difference and done so. In my opinion grazers really should need to graze, but at least they won't need to eat anything specific. I don't know if this means that Panda Men can eat anything or will just need to graze on grass: I don't have time to test that.

[CV_REMOVE_TAG:GRAZER]
[CV_REMOVE_TAG:STANDARD_GRAZER]
[CV_REMOVE_TAG:SPECIFIC_FOOD]

I do not think this is a good reason to remove it. Pedestals are very nice. And I wouldn't hold your breath for the next version. I'd be shocked if it arrives before 2017.

They're just not included in the archive. I've added them back in and integrated them. I'm not sure what you mean by "holding my breath for the next version": the modest mod, by its name and description, is about modest changes and bug fixes: pedestals just didn't seem in-scope when I uploaded my work.

Granted, not everyone captures or raises short-lived giant creatures. But I think it would be nice for the times when MAXAGE could play a role.

The MAXAGE bugfix is, in my opinion, the modest mod feature most in need of removal. It's not that I don't see the utility: some giant creatures really do die quickly. A vanilla bug means that the MAXAGE changes can stack though. This was inconsistently avoided within the modest mod: some giant creatures removed MAXAGE before adding the new tag, some did not. Even the creature variation expressly removed MAXAGE, which means that any giant creature that didn't have a new one added was immortal. I'm not sure if the modest mod added a new MAXAGE to every giant creature or not, but it's an unpleasant side effect for anybody adding in new creatures.

It was also one of the noisiest bug fixes in the entire mod, making it very tedious for modders to copy over. The modest mod itself didn't seem to know how to consistently apply this bugfix, so I erred on the side of removing it. If Toady fixes the linked bug I'd happily make some of the unusually short-lived giant creatures live longer (but perhaps not all of them, as the Modest Mod did).

Again, I appreciate you doing this and sharing. Thanks.

You're welcome! Hopefully the adjustments I've made meet with your approval.

[Taffer]

Updated my version in response to Thundercraft's post: SPECIFIC_FOOD is now removed from animal people again, the pedestals module has been integrated (needs to be removed next update), and the hydra eggs are removed (like vanilla).

[Thundercraft]

...your tone seemed harsh in places, but I tried to explain my choices.

I just wanted to provide feedback. My intention was not to be critical for the sake of being critical. I thought you explained your choices well. A lot comes down to personal preferences. And I can see how leaving out the comments would save you time.

You're welcome to just not use my version, if the changes bother you.

As I said, I like many (most, even) of your changes. So I plan to use your version as a base.

...this doesn't really describe the modest mod comments. Most simply indicated "this is a change", something your diff utility already tells you.

That's a good point. I was merely trying to argue my perspective that even comments which merely indicate "this is a change" have value.

The Modest Mod's comments were also not consistently applied, leading to a false sense of security: "there's no modest mod comment, therefore this is vanilla".

I was not aware. That is a good reason to leave them out.

Why keep it [the GDS]? This is my minimalist bias again, but I would prefer to defer creative decisions to Toady.

I agree with keeping Modest Mod close to vanilla. But I don't share your minimalist bias. Toady wrote the GDS in the first place. And it's been in Dwarf Fortress for ages. Further, he plans to bring it back in one form or another, anyway. So how can the GDS not be considered "vanilla"?

Whether bringing it back (until Toady gets around to fixing it, himself) should be considered a bugfix seems controversial. But I think him leaving it out was a practical decision instead of a "creative" one. Perhaps we can agree that this could be considered a temporary workaround and a matter of taste?

Part of it was that it conflicted with Wanderer.

That's a good reason for leaving it out of your Modest Wanderer. I merely thought it would have been nice to leave it in for your updated Modest. Though, I guess it's easy enough to add it back.

...and that from my understanding it was fixing a bug Toady had already fixed.

According to the bug tracker, it sounds like this is still broken:
Bug 0004108 : "Mussels and oysters lack any material based on PEARL_TEMPLATE, despite having the [PEARL] token"

The status of this bug is "new" and still "open".

...but yes, it did seem "silly" that all mussels had pearls

It seems odd that "it seemed silly" is an unacceptable reason to remove this, but an acceptable reason to remove mussel leather.

Mussels that give leather is unquestionably, downright silly. But mussels that give pearl is to be expected. A lack of pearl in DF is a bug. Incomplete or not, the game has code to support a pearl industry. This indicates that Toady intends for mussels to give pearl.

The issue of having every mussel give pearl is merely one of quantity. It does markedly differ from reality. And this may not be ideal. But I doubt one could change the bugfix so, say, only 1 in 10 mussels give pearl. And I doubt Toady intends for it to work like that.

Why differ from vanilla at all in regards to egg laying, if no bugs are being fixed?

I think we can agree here. I've stated before my reasons why any changes Modest Mod makes to egg clutch size should only be done as an optional module (if at all). On thinking about it, I realize that I feel similar about turning non-egg layers into egg layers.

Perhaps I've misunderstood? If it's just my reasoning for keeping hydra eggs but not the other two insects, then I agree that my reasoning was flawed.

That, and I did not agree with the "I can't picture anybody eating them" reasoning. I was not trying to argue for making any creatures egg layers beyond vanilla. Though, if one was to add new egg laying, limiting it to the Hydra and the two insects you mentioned makes sense to me.

The bigger reason I removed the large insect eggs was because it conflicted with Kazoo's Silk Eggs mod, and I forgot to state this.

I wish you had mentioned this as that is a good reason. Actually, broadly speaking, this is an excellent reason to keep Modest Mod close to vanilla - only fixing bugs and such: The more Modest Mod differs from vanilla, the more likely it is to conflict with mods.

I'm not sure what you mean by "holding my breath for the next version"...

I think we misunderstood each other. I was referring to the next official Dwarf Fortress release. I was trying to say that it will probably still be a while before we see Toady's version of the Pedestal.

The MAXAGE bugfix is, in my opinion, the modest mod feature most in need of removal. It's not that I don't see the utility: some giant creatures really do die quickly. A vanilla bug means that the MAXAGE changes can stack though. This was inconsistently avoided within the modest mod...

Okay... I had no idea the bug you mentioned was so serious. That is a good reason to revert the failed bugfix.

Hopefully the adjustments I've made meet with your approval.

Thanks again. And for your reply.

[Taffer]

I just wanted to provide feedback. My intention was not to be critical for the sake of being critical. I thought you explained your choices well. A lot comes down to personal preferences. And I can see how leaving out the comments would save you time.

No worries! I was rather unwell and fatigued last night, so I might have taken things the wrong way. The feedback was/is genuinely appreciated. Thank you!

I agree with keeping Modest Mod close to vanilla. But I don't share your minimalist bias. Toady wrote the GDS in the first place. And it's been in Dwarf Fortress for ages. Further, he plans to bring it back in one form or another, anyway. So how can the GDS not be considered "vanilla"?

Whether bringing it back (until Toady gets around to fixing it, himself) should be considered a bugfix seems controversial. But I think him leaving it out was a practical decision instead of a "creative" one. Perhaps we can agree that this could be considered a temporary workaround and a matter of taste?

Right you are. I've re-added a cleaned up version of the giant desert scorpions and also fixed up the Modest Wanderer's version of them.

Not that it's related to this this at all, but while I was at it I re-added Deon's griffon to my Modest Wanderer and Wanderer mods.