@Setharnas: Oh, no, I wasn't trying to say that choosing a pleasing backside makes you a jerk at all! I play World of Warcraft now and then, and I can't stand the super-buff, insanely muscular male models, so even though I generally prefer to play male characters I tend to find the female racial models on WoW more aesthetically pleasing.
(In a similar yet unrelated vein, I think I am the only person in the world who doesn't actually mind the female Worgen models. I think they were a lot neater pre-release and in their concept art—I loved those vulpine sketches—but eh, could be worse.)
But yes, at extreme risk of totally derailing the Genesis thread, I agree that having to stare at a butt for 50+ hours to be a perfectly good reason to go with what's most attractive to the player. In my experience,
especially with MMOs, if I hate the character model, I'm going to have a tough time enjoying the game, no matter how great the story/mechanics are. I'm sure there have been a few exceptions, but I can't think of any offhand.
That's not a great reason to pick for girls on succession games, but...
Edited to be slightly more on-topic: SirAaron, that trap diagram you gave me worked GREAT. I haven't yet gotten metalworking going yet in my current savage fort (the one where I ran a skeleton crew of 2 dwarves for a few in-game months, until the next shipment of
poor fools migrants) so I haven't lined the pit with spikes yet, but I've caught two kobold thieves so far—I never actually got an alert for them, either, so I was just idly checking it and found the remains...
Speaking of getting metalworking going—how DO I manage to make steel or iron? It's not coming up in my smelter, and pig iron says it requires iron bars, but they're not an available selection. Insofar as stone goes, I've found platinum, limestone, lignite/bituminous coal, kaolinite, jet, microcline, granite, magnetite, and gold so far. I didn't bring anything along on embark, though I'm open to suggestions for the next time (sounds like a good conversation starter, anyway: what do YOU bring along to a new fort?).
Edit the Second; LONG POST IS LONG