Sorry to pile on the "ceramics" questions, but I just rejoined the forums after a three-month absence.
I was trying to get up to date on the updates, and came across the ceramics post that was put up on the sixteenth, and I was at first a little concerned, but then became very excited.
One of the things that I really love about Dwarf Fortress is that it lets me start getting very technical, and I start learning some things about, say, the difference between mafic and felsic magma. And one of the conversations I really learned a lot about was when Gazz taught me about pottery in one of the suggestion threads I participated in.
Essentially, the question I want to ask is
will the ceramics be like the one in this thread on ceramics? Will we have just "clay" as a soil type to work with, or can we fire up any kind of soil to make terra cotta, so that it is (rightly) a material everyone with access to most types of dirt can make? Can we wood glaze pots? Do we need sand or crushed feldspar to glaze? Are glazes necessary to make a water-tight storage jug? Are we going to be crushing a single metal ore unit to make, say, 50 pots worth of glazes which can then be used to make decorations? I hate to think we have to use an entire metal unit for one pot's decoration.
Honestly, the attention to realism on this one really makes or breaks my hopes and dreams. If this is actually very similar to what was discussed in the suggestion thread, I will love you forever... foreverer than I already do, at least.
edit: to be more precise