On further reflection, please do make separate sprites for different material types. I've just embarked on chert and I hate it.
Re: forge - I'm still heavily in opposition to Patrick's idea for it. To me it doesn't make sense visually or from a gameplay point of view.
My forge looks like this (just with the furnace made thicker):
Yeah, this is way better.
Re: view - I was specifically proposing a 3/4 top-down view, but Tarn decided to go for 100% top-down for the initial release.
However, the only thing the game needs to support 3/4 top-down is giving an offset to the layers in multilevel view. So that's not totally off the plate (my personal opinion).
It would be cool if there was something powerful like a customizable offset on both axes so people could make pseudo-isometric and other cool stuff.
Re: workshop borders - the stone path makes sense above ground, not so much underground. It's purely a visual cue for new players that this is something special, not a bunch of constructed furniture. Since workshops as they are now are ultimately going to be replaced with a system much like the hospital one, I believe this is a good interim solution.
I mean, is that happening before the Steam release? If the interim solution is the one that's going to be at official launch, it shouldn't be treated as a placeholder. Therefore it's probably preferable by default to use a visual indicator which is less wrong and misleading, at least by default.
The problem here is that the diagonal floor tiles were used to reinforce that cue (to make the workshops stand out from other rooms). If we get rid of them and just leave normal grass underneath, the borders don't match the rest anymore.
They don't really have to. The borders only represent a cordon indicating the workshop area. Coloring them according to material might be good but I don't think it's strictly necessary.
I don't have a problem with the size of the cat. It between the size of a bunny and a horse.
It's also bigger than the duck, chicken, turkey, and even goose.