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[Grek]

Personally I wouldn't expect you to do it. If only because it kinda gets to rediculous degrees once people start chopping off heads like no tommorow.

Especially with elf swarms during worldgen. 10000 elves vs. a named hydra, the hydra kills all of them and ends up with about fifty billion heads.

[DG]

Thanks for the answers, Toady. 

[Mel_Vixen]

Well toady could set a limit for heads on a hydra. 255 for example. It would be amazing thought if you could chop the neck of a hydra away as renewable food source like in oots.

[Footkerchief]

3.  Can we determine which castes can mate with which others?  In this way, we could give antmen a male breeder caste plus a few rare queens.  We might even make pseudo-multiracial forts, where the "male dwarf" caste can mate with the "female dwarf" cast, and the "male human" caste with the "female human" caste (assuming we even need separate castes for each gender, which is probably untrue), but dwarves and humans can't intermingle (and ideally dwarves wouldn't beget humans and viceversa).  And this would all be considered a single creature type, so we could build a fort with them.

From what I remember (couldn't find a quote), any castes with the MALE and FEMALE tags will mate, and their offspring's caste will be determined solely by the creature caste ratios, not the parents' castes.  So you can't do separate breeding populations with a single creature yet. 

[Tormy]

Well toady could set a limit for heads on a hydra. 255 for example. It would be amazing thought if you could chop the neck of a hydra away as renewable food source like in oots.

There must be a cap...but seriously, how could an andventurer kill a hydra, which has 200 heads? Hell...even an army of champions should have problems with slaying a beast like that. 

[Toksyuryel]

Well toady could set a limit for heads on a hydra. 255 for example. It would be amazing thought if you could chop the neck of a hydra away as renewable food source like in oots.

There must be a cap...but seriously, how could an andventurer kill a hydra, which has 200 heads? Hell...even an army of champions should have problems with slaying a beast like that. 

A true megabeast should be a problem for an army of champions.

[Leafsnail]

I'm guessing a small squad of spearmasters would have a good chance of getting a stuck in and twisting till bloodloss death occurs.  Still, this update would turn the hydra into a fearsome mass of biting heads, rather than the current fearsome mass of vulnerable necks and heads.

[Peewee]

An arrow could kill that hydra.

Seriously. All it needs to do is poke out the heart.

[Dakk]

I dunno if its been asked already, but hell: Any ideas to incorporate siege operators in the military, and making siege weapons more useful overall? Well, siege weapons should have a role in the military, at least its what i believe in. Making them more useful and incorporating the new squad system to siege operators and maybe linking them to levers and pressure plates would make them a blast to use.

I know they probably won't get any real use before you get to the advanced parts of the army arc, but i personaly would love to make over complicated traps composed of loaded ballistae and pressure plates

...Not like they don't have their uses right now. A single ballista bolt flying down a long and narrow hallway can reliably kill a few rolls of SoFs, well, at least when your siege operators aren't too busy drinking/socialising/eating/sleeping.

[Techhead]

The main one would actually be the lack of two heads growing back to replace every one lost, and I'm not doing that either.  Hopefully it's understood the sense in which my previous comment was made.

Sorry to disappoint everyone, but Hydras won't be growing back heads, according to Toady.

[Sean Mirrsen]

They could, if the entire game was switched to Lua...

It'd probably become slow as hell though. But still... flowers that spawn magmamen when you pluck them... among other things...

[Im_Sparks]

Wow toady, you totally cleared up every doubt I ever had. Also, Bill Nye is a douchebag.

But being totally serious, having burrows will make my meta-project of a family/caste oriented Dwarven underground city possible.

Lowest castes would live in the outermost parts of the city; exposed to both goblins and megabeasts. Farming, brewing and feeding the masses, they are often killed in sieges, as the defenses are somewhat weak beyond the grand wall. Then comes the warrior caste, who train day and night; their mighty armories and arenas stand testament to the dwarven might. They are seperated by a wall  from the lowest caste, with marksdwarves standing upon a gatehouse to to the entrance. Then, Next comes middle class of crafters smiths, and tradesdwarves. The smiths are the closest to the warrior caste, as they supply them with their equipment. Next come the craftsdwarves, mostly made up of women, they toil and labor to supply the nobles' every whim.

Speaking of nobles, that's the next caste(With the notable exception of the broker, who lives with the craft caste, the dungeonmaster, who lives with the warriors; training the mightiest of beasts for the arena and the clerk, who is the only dwarf who travels freely from caste to caste, gathering info and basically making sure it doesn't go to shit. He has his office in the nobles' quarters.) The noble quarters feature only the finest of each caste, along with all the nobles. They are the top 10%, for a reason. Yes, there are almost no deaths or tragedies in this place, and it is coveted by all. These nobles are guarded by the fiercest of warriors, who are sent into the arena to prove their valor. It is considered an honor to be amongst the noble caste, as the royal guards are treated as such.

Hell, I could do enough writefaggotry on this idea that I could just write until the update came out. Good on you, toady!

Highlights and locations:
Untouchables -
The great fields, which even though is in the mountain, is said to glow like day from all the plants
The Legendary feast hall, which is the only real luxury the poor chaps have
The great wall, which is really the smoothed wall of the mountain.
The pit of petulance, which is where pretty much all the trash in my fort ends up

Warriors -
The sparing halls, which have gutters for all the blood that is spilled
The grand arena, which is the one place the nobles are not allowed to go, other than the dungeonmaster
The armory, which is filled to the brim with every weapon and armor in the world.
The proving grounds, which is a section of the arena where all new warrior migrants have to go to prove themselves. I do this immediately so if they die(which is more than 50% of the time), no one gets a bad thought.

Crafters -
The great drinking hall, which is said to have every ale available in the world
Thors' Forge, fueled by magma, is where all weapons of the fort are made
The halls of gold, decorated by every craftsdwarf in the bloody caste, is truely the object of plunder for the goblins, as it consists of every wealth among multiple floors. It is also where coins are stored.

Nobles -
The Royal Barracks, which consist of the forts' mightiest warriors
The champions' hall, which has plundered loot and war trophies from every civilization. It is here that the champion resides.
The nobles' quarters, self explanatory
The Kings' castle. Wow. Engraved, adamantine throne, bauxite moat with lava. The champions' hall is located inside.

[Thndr]

Also, Bill Nye is a douchebag.

Not to totally derail the thread (which happens several times, and which is what I'm doing now >_>), but howso?

[Christes]

On the hydra issue: 

If you chop a head off and the hydra survives, will the removed head grow back later?  Actually, let's broaden that.  With new creature stuff, can there be creatures that regrow limbs?

[Im_Sparks]

Also, Bill Nye is a douchebag.

Not to totally derail the thread (which happens several times, and which is what I'm doing now >_>), but howso?

He was a douche on the new cloud thing.

TIME TO GET THIS MOTHERFUCKER BACK ON THE RAILS BY WRITEFAGGING ME UP SOME OF MY CASTE-FORTRESS

Upon sight of the fortress you notice a few log cabins located OUTSIDE the fortress. These belong to the external farmers breeding cows and growing sunberries, and the woodcutter's lodge. These buildings are easily sealed in the event of a siege, but casualties are an inevitability. As one approaches the entrance, one will notice the absurdly large gate, with fortifications and marksdwarves standing ever watchful over the surrounding countryside. As you walk across the drawbridge and across the moat you will notice a few decomposing bodies floating in the water, as well as possibly seeing mounds of weapons and narrow armor littering the bottom. These stand as a warning to all looking to cross the moat.

As you enter the grand fort, you see something you did not expect; A fully luminated city in this mountain, but it is impossible to tell the height of the hollow cavern carved, because quite opposite of the world you just came from, it is lightest at the bottom, and darkest at the top. You see alot of improvished people wandering the streets, carrying food from one stone house to another, and as you bump into one, he yells furiously at you. You wonder why for such an impressive outside, this fort has such a meager inside. You then discard this thought, thinking there must be some wealthy part of the fortress, and travel towards the source of the luminescence. It shines from a large stone doorway, and emanates through several square windows higher up.

As you make your way through crowds of people carrying ever so faintly glowing fungi, you see it; Rows and rows of fungi, trees, and glowing grass. It's like looking into a fairy tale. This, you are informed by a stout dwarf clad in iron, is the "great harvest". The light shone so bright that it was like day time, and the hard, cold stone melted into dirt-ish, moist clay; Almost like mud or sand. You fall to your knees, almost stunned by this phosphorescent beauty.

Then, it happens. You hear a very faint, rhythmic pounding on the ground. You look into the nearby stream, full of smalls olms, and notice them scattering, and the water shaking and vibrating. The Dwarves start to shout and run about, and the guard grabs you by the forearm and drags you up a flight of stairs with him, shouting "Ye dunno' look like these slag piles, and ye're pretty tall. Could use a lanky 'un like yew teh help us." With this he almost breaks into sprint, running up the brightly lit staircase. The only indication of where you're going is indicated when you come up to a faintly green window, and look out. You see that beyond the poor shantys and scurrying peasants there is, in fact more. Looking west more, You see a rather large wall, with dwarves scurrying up the battlements, wielding what you imagine to be some sort of bleached wooden crossbow. Beyond this wall you see multiple buildings with pyres outside them, and in the distance a circular pavilion. Possibly some sort of coliseum. As you're adjusting your eyes, and trying to gain balance through the rhythmic pounding, which at this point is incredibly rough, though, you're almost tossed down another spiral flight of stairs, scattering and trying your hardest to gain traction.

It's when you reach the bottom that you find out what all the fuss is about.