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[Neonivek]

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

[mickel]

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

A large amount of miasma for a negligible amount of water. That doesn't mean dwarfs wouldn't do it of course. Well, if it was a monumentally huge death still, engraved with masterful engravings of cheese.

[Neonivek]

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

A large amount of miasma for a negligible amount of water. That doesn't mean dwarfs wouldn't do it of course. Well, if it was a monumentally huge death still, engraved with masterful engravings of cheese.

Mind you all the Dwarves would be dead... but yeah it should work.

[SirHoneyBadger]

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

I don't see how they would be, simply because I'm assuming you'd have to heat the body to a very high temperature, and possibly reduce it to ash, which would probably kill any germs present (the highest temperature any known germ can survive at is approximately 100-130 C/212-266 F), and those are atleast rare outside of a deep sea hydrothermic vent (and possibly not dangerous to lifeforms living outside of their environment, especially in a desert).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strain_121

Aside from that, a desert is a fairly bacteriostatic environment.

[Mel_Vixen]

You forgot that this refers to alive germs. Many bacteria, fungy and some Viruses can produce highly resistant spores. And getting such high temperatures would also a problem cause you would need "some" mirrors and/ or lenses for a deathstill.

edit: or plain fuel but who would burn wood in a Desert.

Anyway mirror-focused sunlight can melt steel so ....

[SirHoneyBadger]

You're right. I actually had Botulism in mind, which can survive fairly high temperatures, but even in those kinds of cases, I don't think a "death still" would be more dangerous than, say, a dwarf butcher-shop, and probably easier to contain and reduce the dangers.

[Mel_Vixen]

Ok you are right there.

[Flashzom]

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

A large amount of miasma for a negligible amount of water. That doesn't mean dwarfs wouldn't do it of course. Well, if it was a monumentally huge death still, engraved with masterful engravings of cheese.

Negligible? I don't think any ammount of water is negligible in the desert. Assuming that the death stills only were able to extract say, fifty percent of the water in a corpse, a 150 pound male has about 40 L of water, so that would mean you would extract 20 L. And the miasma wouldn't form because the food is being cooked. In fact, if you had a race of cannibals, you could dehydrate the corpses and use them for like beef jerky AND get the water out of them for hydration... and use the bones for totems.

Next edition:
Dwarf Fortress: When did we become cannibalistic Indians?

[Granite26]

Some Hippy Site calls that (20L) the bare minimum per human per day.

I'm willing to call that negligible...

[scale_e]

Some Hippy Site calls that (20L) the bare minimum per human per day.

I'm willing to call that negligible...

Goddamn, I'm a human, living in woodlands, it rains every other day here. There is water everywhere, hell, parts of my country are FLOODING right now... and I don't think I would drink 20L of water in a week. Serious. Adding up coke, coffee, energy drinks AND water... I think I'd only drink about 2L a day maximum.
We are talking about the desert though, and I will admit, if you sweat more, you will drink more... but in the desert you would be working at night, and at night the desert gets bloody cold. In b4 'there is no day/night cycle in dwarf fortress', it wouldn't be that hard to arrange and I'm sure its been suggested 50k times before.

The major issue of Death Stills is that they are still a major source of disease anyhow.

If they were (which I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be), that would be another element you would have to manage. This is a good thing. Complicated is good.

I have to disagree and say that death stills ARE reasonable, but only to dispose of enemies corpses. To specifically breed animals for the purpose of extracting their water is obviously terribly flawed, otherwise if the energy transfer is from coal, then it really doesn't matter because that wouldn't be nearly as scarce a resource as water.

You wouldn't be breeding animals for the death-stills. You're right, the math just doesn't back that up. But you would be hunting, and murdering goblins. Which, hell, you'd be doing that anyway wouldn't you?

You forgot that this refers to alive germs. Many bacteria, fungy and some Viruses can produce highly resistant spores. And getting such high temperatures would also a problem cause you would need "some" mirrors and/ or lenses for a deathstill.

edit: or plain fuel but who would burn wood in a Desert.

Anyway mirror-focused sunlight can melt steel so ....

*looks out over the sand*
Hmm, now where am I going to get some glass to make some lenses...?

[Granite26]

I'm taking it that you're responding to the statement and not having read the article or anything....

You need water for more than just drinking...

[Heron TSG]

aye, but you only need magma and sand for glass making. (and giving to the elves to drink with bauxite flasks.)

[Flashzom]

Some Hippy Site calls that (20L) the bare minimum per human per day.

I'm willing to call that negligible...

Considering that death stills obviously wouldn't be the only source of water, it would be stupid to call an entire days worth of water for a person negligible especially if the corpses would otherwise just be allowed to rot in the desert...
Not to mention the fact that our dwarves only use water thus far for drinking. Therefore showering is out, which skews the figures of your reliable "Hippy Site"

[SirHoneyBadger]

Well, cleanliness/hygiene will hopefully be eventually in (I hope so, anyway), but with all that sand out there, our dwarfs could end up scrubbing themselves clean.

Oils/balms, for use as bodylotion, would be very useful in that kind of environment, too.

[profit]

Some Hippy Site calls that (20L) the bare minimum per human per day.

I'm willing to call that negligible...

Considering that death stills obviously wouldn't be the only source of water, it would be stupid to call an entire days worth of water for a person negligible especially if the corpses would otherwise just be allowed to rot in the desert...
Not to mention the fact that our dwarves only use water thus far for drinking. Therefore showering is out, which skews the figures of your reliable "Hippy Site"

Effort Compared to bringing in water on a caravan....  20L = Neglegable in any site within 100km of a water source... perhaps more.  And I bet you could find few places on earth that does not have a water source for 100km in all directions.

a couple camels and a wagon designed to cover desert terrain that is fairly flat, and each wagon could probably deliver 1000L a wagon load.  If they used the conestoga wagon design they could carry about 12000lbs or roughly 4000L/wagon or roughly 200 dead bodies worth of water in a single wagon)

Now I know this would require trade goods to balance the deal, but lets say your fort was the supreme supplier of glass in the region so it could afford the water and could afford the big wagons...

Now

If the wagon train was 5 wagons long (fairly realistic number I think for a trade caravan)... that is now 1000 bodies worth of water...

If the wagon train was able to do a run every 14 days that is now 26000 bodies a year.

if your dwarf fortress is like mine and is 33 years old,  I could have recieved 858000 bodies worth of of water on a caravan.   While I am sure it would have been expensive, I find it hard to believe that my few dwarfs that have died.. maybe 30 or so, would have made any real difference.

I don't care if they get added, but they are complexity for complexity's sake and have no real value.