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[madjoe5]

I hope I don't regret this.
Potential reasons to use leather over plate, not all of which will be implemented next version:

Generally cheaper (not as much in the case of dwarves, though)

Requires less training to use effectively (for, say, militias)

Lighter (will be more important if thin ice, pit traps, and such get implemented)

Generally easier to maneuver in (I've heard of plate mail clad soldiers being able to maneuver unhindered, but I feel safe in assuming this is more true of ☼Steel Plate Mail☼, and possibly ≡Steel Plate Mail≡, than of Steel Plate Mail churned out by freshly grabbed cheese makers)

Possibility of non-standard leather (megabeast leather armor, depending on the megabeast, might be like wearing Kevlar)

What about kevlar's medeival cousin, lamellar?

That stuff was really strong and I also happen to plan to put it in my new mod in the next release, plus:

It is made from pieces of lacquered leather, iron, steel or horn held together with silk, leather thongs, or cotton thread.

..it can be made from some of the standard materials and is a great alternative/early armor that can be made without metals, yet it is almost as strong as scale or chain mail.

[x2yzh9]

Gunpowder.

In the 1400s, it was there yes, but it wasn't as widely used and thus, hard to acquire, and even harder to learn how to make. So in this sense i would say gunpowder should come in the pure form, with it being EXTREMELY valuable and only obtainable from traders or to take with you on embark, and then you have to have a philosopher find out how to make it, and then how to make it into dynamite. Though this philosopher's mood would have to be ecstatic for the duration of research.

[Christes]

Gunpowder has been suggested before in just about every possible configuration. (Though I hadn't heard the bit about the philosopher)  Oh, the flamewars...

[JoshuaFH]

This talk of materials has me giddy.

I heard there the material properties will be included in more detail in the next release... well, will the structural integrity of buildings and things be included? Like, say, if I were to build a 100-story tower of soap, would the weight of the tower eventually put so much pressure on the foundation that it would collapse?

[G-Flex]

This talk of materials has me giddy.

I heard there the material properties will be included in more detail in the next release... well, will the structural integrity of buildings and things be included? Like, say, if I were to build a 100-story tower of soap, would the weight of the tower eventually put so much pressure on the foundation that it would collapse?

Cave-in rules haven't changed for the next version at all, so no. Terrain/construction collapse will be as it is now.

[CobaltKobold]

TNT is extremely undwarfly.

Hmm...you're right, you take it from Coneria to the Dwarf Cave.

Gunpowder has been suggested before in just about every possible configuration. (Though I hadn't heard the bit about the philosopher)  Oh, the flamewars...

Well, gunpowder and flames, you know.

[JoshuaFH]

Hey! No FF1 references!

[smjjames]

Hey! No FF1 references!

Not getting ya......

[Neruz]

Gunpowder.

In the 1400s, it was there yes, but it wasn't as widely used and thus, hard to acquire, and even harder to learn how to make. So in this sense i would say gunpowder should come in the pure form, with it being EXTREMELY valuable and only obtainable from traders or to take with you on embark, and then you have to have a philosopher find out how to make it, and then how to make it into dynamite. Though this philosopher's mood would have to be ecstatic for the duration of research.

How about making it only obtainable by trading with the Humans? Which would sort of respresent how Europe got it's gunpowder by trading with the Chinese (mostly).

[JoshuaFH]

OH THAT REMINDS ME!

Will trading be made better? So, like instead of just saying "bring me more of *item*", I can specify how much, or some other system that's better than it is now?

What sort of changes can I expect? I LOVED trading back when I played seriously.

[smjjames]

OH THAT REMINDS ME!

Will trading be made better? So, like instead of just saying "bring me more of *item*", I can specify how much, or some other system that's better than it is now?

What sort of changes can I expect? I LOVED trading back when I played seriously.

That stuff is coming up on dev-next after this release with the caravan arc. There aren't any changes to the way that trading is done in this release. I think trade liasons will get replaced, but that is probably the biggest change to anything trade related for this new release.

[ManaUser]

Here's the list of tags that can't be used on the caste level:

The number of tokens that are creature rather than caste specific is very small.  Creatures handle the overall name, biome, whether the creature is considered fanciful/doesn't exist (for art), vermin information (so, no, Fault, sorry!... too much depends on that right now), whether groups hang together closely, whether it is mundane (from real Earth for age name purposes), population information including good/evil/savage, if it is equipment, sphere information (not sure how long that'll last, but there were annoyances), and that looks like it (they also have some general categories that have caste overrides, like child names and speeches for adv mode).  Everything else, including body information, is held in the castes.

So it looks like a creature CAN have sentient and non-sentient castes.  Don't know what kind of results you'd get using such a creature in Fortress Mode, but it'd be interesting.

Funny I was just thinking about this possibility. I bet you'd get some interesting (if not a bit perverted) results indeed. Though really, best case can't see this working any more smoothly than sentient pets do now. It seems potentially even more problematic. For instance, sentient babies are pretty much helpless right? Would an insentient mother have the proper AI to take care of them?

[Lord Shonus]

Gunpowder.

In the 1400s, it was there yes, but it wasn't as widely used and thus, hard to acquire, and even harder to learn how to make. So in this sense i would say gunpowder should come in the pure form, with it being EXTREMELY valuable and only obtainable from traders or to take with you on embark, and then you have to have a philosopher find out how to make it, and then how to make it into dynamite. Though this philosopher's mood would have to be ecstatic for the duration of research.

How about making it only obtainable by trading with the Humans? Which would sort of respresent how Europe got it's gunpowder by trading with the Chinese (mostly).

Huh? Europe didn't use gunpowder until Bacon cracked the formula, and, not only was it almost entirely domestically produced, due their refusal to wet the ingredients, it was usually mad on the battlefield.

[Aqizzar]

What's this, Gunpowder Argument #7 for Future of the Fortress?  I lost count.

[sproingie]

Alcohol explosions may be more dwarfy (but would they really want to waste the booze?), but widespread use of gunpower for war actually predates widespread distillation of alcohol for drink, which just barely squeezes inside the 1400 guideline.  But hey, whatever works...

You've got to be kidding me.  Ancient Egypt and Sumeria independently invented beer, the Romans and Greeks were swimming in wine, and they all distilled potent spirits typically for medicinal purposes (though no doubt also as a luxury).  Arabs were distilling alcohol (it's an Arabic word) en masse by the 6th century and it was all over Europe by the 7th.

Anyway these are Dwarfs.  They invented mining so they'd have cellars to store their ale.