:
Is there a way to make a mist generator that will create mist in a well travelled area without job cancellation and dwarves dropping things from their hands?
Is booze cooking a good idea?
If a dwarf eats a booze cooked meal, does he also need a drink?
I've heard booze cooking is frustratingly complicated. How does one go about it effectively?
:
Mist generator: Yes. It's not that easy, though, as you may need to calibrate it, and, ironically, it's harder when using heavy aquifer than when using a light one.
Booze cooking: It was a very good idea before the latest release, because it was the only way to raise the number of dorfs who got their good food needs fulfilled above a very small percentage (because the extremely specific selection of favorite food items cause them to be extremely plentiful, with you having access to only a very small fraction of those, while the number of drinks that favorite drinks can be drawn from is much smaller). Now meal quality should allow food to fulfill that need.
Booze cooking 2: If you add wine to your dish, will that cause you not to need anything to drink with the meal? No. The magic here is that an ingredient that is a favored drink fulfills the role of favored food when in a meal. Meals are solid, and so do not affect thirst (until a potential future where recipes exist where a meal could potentially be more or less salty, and contain more or less water, affecting thirst).
Booze cooking 3: As far as I understand you set up an intricate web of linked stockpiles that link to kitchens if you use the vanilla way (I believe mikekchar has done that). I've used a script of mine to get orders into the kitchen in an automated way (as DF itself supports exact specification of the ingredients, but there's no UI for it).
Dwarf washer: This essential parts of this design was provided by one of the long standing very knowledgeable forumites, but I don't remember which one:
Top level:
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwww.ww.wwwwww
w Pp..w w..pP w
wwwww.w w.wwwww
wwwwww.ww.wwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
where:
w = wall
. = floor
= channeled hole
P = impassable pump tile
p = passable pump tile
Mid level:
wwwwwww..wwwwwww
wwwwww.ww.wwwwww
wrPp wwggww pPrw
wwwwwwwggwwwwwww
wwwwww.ww.wwwwww
wwwwwww..wwwwwww
where labels as as above, plus:
r = ramp (to ensure trees won't grow and block the pump stack)
g = grate
This provides a N/S path at the mid level, with the diagonals blocking water from flowing out into the path. This design assumes the level below is a heavy aquifer, so the pumps on the mid level draws water from an aquifer tile ramp below their holes, and the grates likewise have channeled out tiles into the aquifer beneath them. Missing from the above is the power train supplying the pumps with power, as well as the infrastructure you have to dig to actually be able to dig this out and build the pumps.
That design won't work with a light aquifer because the water won't be absorbed by the aquifer (or at least not at a sufficient rate), and thus the water falling on the grates will flow out into the path. It requires a fair bit of juggling with the aquifer level to get it to work without overflowing. I think it worked by having two diagonals before reaching the tiles the pumps drew their water from, but I'm not sure I remember correctly.