I'm not actually sure if muddy constructions support farms.
Has anybody tested that?
They do. I'm growing various surface crops on muddied slate floors in my own game. EDIT: ninjaed
What does everyone else think?
Look I like the idea of dwarven hydroponics as much as any other guy, but whether you grow crops indoor, outdoors or wherever, it don't make too big of a difference to me at least.
So we want to argue over this stuff eh? Ok, let's see...
Subjectively, the issue is one of
potential fun vs food security. Don't really care to argue for or against that.
Objectively, the major hurdle to doing farms WITHIN the tower itself is that floor space is at a premium. Like Armok be damned if we were better tower builders I won't have a problem with this, but we have enough problems already trying to build enough floors to accommodate sufficient bedrooms, stockpiles, workshops and graves, not to mention freaking nobles rooms. So unless we are using QSP's, I don't really want to add another thing that demands space within the tower. Its just far easier to farm outside.
So basically, we can argue over this another time when we have more floor space to speak of. Until then, farms remain outside IMO.
Personally, I feel that if you want to achieve a medieval town vibe, where sieges can cut off the food supply, then you got to do it all the way, can't just do it by halves. Can't just grow food outside the tower but have a substantial supply of food inside that tower, in that case its no big loss to lose the farms in the short run.
MY suggestion would be that if we adopt growing food outside, then we must also adopt STORING food outside.
Store most, if not all food and booze outside of the tower, make a granary building or something. Have supplies within the tower last less than a year to encourage recapturing the farms and food supplies ASAP, to get that we are under siege and cut off from our food vibe.