So, there's a lack of a big "What have you learned modding" thread active. I think that should be a thing, for both comedy and genuine interaction, so here goes. Feel free to add your own, be them serious moding tips, or tips for the real world based off modding.
Some things I learned;
If youre a night creature, and you raise zombies, those zombies will target you.
Being completely fireproof and being able to eat are mutually exclusive.
You may be able to completely overhaul the game, but forgotten beasts are eternal.
When you want something to be a harmless "fluff" creature, it will be an unstoppable engine of destruction. Conversely, when you want to make an unstoppable worldbreaker, a single unarmed dwarven infant will take it out without being damaged at all.
Even though it's simple text editing, modding DF is like programming; If things work, you don't know why, and when they inevitably experience errors, you also don't know why.
Cheating is okay, if you're doing it for the sake of reaching a certain fortress level to further test for bugs.
Of all the parts of the object testing arena, you're almost guaranteed to only use one or two. (I mean, does anyone actually use more than the center and bottom right portions, unless testing hyper specific scenarios?)
Losing is fun, unless that loss comes in the form of an unprecedented game crash.
Flying sentients are good on paper, but then you realize theyre always stuck in trees.
One small tag can completely change how modding works (just look at how [ANIMAL_CLASS] and related tokens have made so much more possible)
It's seriously impractical to try and change giant animals as opposed to just remaking them from scratch.
There's always one error in your raws you just cant fix.
It's more practical to just use vanilla weaponry than to add your own custom arsenal.
Put yours down here~