I have to say, I like what Phoebus has done with his newer stuff. The thing is, i've always seen is as basically three options for DF visuals:
ASCII: The old, the tried, the true... the confusing. Guaranteed not to make a goblin look like a goblet, because they don't look anything like what they're supposed to in the first place
IRONHAND: That's you, Llama! Your set has always been the snazzy "realistic" option for me. Things look as they should, pretty and vibrant (or horrifying and disgusting, as the case may be).
Phoebus: His set has always been, for me, an iconic graphical redux of the ASCII tiles. things are easilly distinguishable even zoomed out because of this iconic nature.
I think, if anything, that's what you should shoot for. The clusters of mushrooms are one example of a good idea that is both graphically realistic (you don't grow one mushroom to eat, do you), and iconic as well.
ALSO! I personally have been playing around alot with worldgen, and I'm starting to get annoyed with the "vertical axle" or "pipe" or whatever icon that is that is part of the rivers. It breaks the look and feel something awful from the twisty little rivers you see in every other orientation. What is that icon supposed to go to in Dwarf fortress, and is it possible to recenter it without breaking how it looks over there?
UGH! The blue background doesn't bother me at all, I can overlook that. But it just BREAKS the map for me, you know? The section could even be straight, so long as it was centered in the same way as the other tiles. If you can't fix that one tile because it MUST look like that, then what about recentering the OTHER river tiles?
Either way, I already fixed that bug so it should be fine next release.
Ninja'd while replying. YAY! Thanks Baughn. Love ya for this.