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[Urist Imiknorris]

I switched the names of dwarven wine and rum in my game.

[NW_Kohaku]

Speaking of booze, does dwarven wine really fit for dwarves? Perhaps it could be named whiskey or something similarly more liver terrifying.

When I go out to one of those Japanese Hibachi restaurants, they always insist on calling things odd names, like Soy Sauce is "Japanese Ketchup".  (What? No it isn't.  It's nothing like ketchup, other than the excessive salt!)

I always assume that "Dwarven ____" is just a euphamism dwarves have for things that are far too disgusting to really call a truly descriptive name. 

"Dwarven Cheese" is made by milking a giant maggot instead of a cow, for example.

So basically, "dwarven wine" is something that dwarves call their booze to get humans to drink it so they can watch their reactions.  It's made from fermenting magic mushrooms, after all.

[Urist Imiknorris]

What do you mean it wasn't made on from drugs?

[G-Flex]

I've always felt a little weird about the booze naming conventions because... well, there are none, so things don't make a lot of sense. For instance, "wine" being made from whip vines and plump helmets is a little silly since "wine" refers to things brewed using their natural sugars. On the other hand, sake is sometimes called "rice wine", so you could just chalk it up to colloquialism (although I'd rather have terms that make a bit more sense).

Of course, it's a rather pedantic complaint, but in a game with this much detail, why not?

[scriver]

Kobolds: Yes: More by accident than anything else, but they can travel by fallen tree express (1-3x1x1).

It's the ship's kobold!

[Thundercraft]

...just because they are dwarves, I see them sailing in massive vessels composed of anything from wood to stone to bones to bones/flesh to ice. These massive vessels would possess extensive fortifications and excessive quanitites of weapons, not to mention the onboard plump helmet farms and the endless supply of booze.

Although it sounds impractical, it is theoretically possible to make ships out of stone. Of course, certain types of stone could be preferable for having less mass while still being watertight. (To be realistic, chalk should be excluded because it's porous and would leak water. It's also too brittle.)

Stone may be heavier than water, but so is steel. It's just a matter of the boat displacing enough water. The real problem would be forming such a close fit between joints that a bit of cement of some sort would make it watertight and hold it together. (I've read that the joints between stones in the pyramids in Egypt are so close that one can not fit a knife blade between them. But then, some claim the Ancient Egyptians used some form of super concrete. Apparently, material testing seem to suggest this.)

Making huge sailing ships out of ice? Now that's very dwarfy! It is also 100% possible.

In fact, towards the end of WWII the Allies were building a prototype for a battleship made almost entirely of ice and wood pulp (called "Pykrete"). In order to make such ships bomb and torpedo-proof they planned on making the hulls 35 feet thick. And one of their science advisors said such ships could be made fast and cheap at about 4,000 feet long and 600 feet wide.

Link: Pykrete & Ice Ships

[Kogut]

Concrete is also dwarfy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_ship
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:SS_Faith_launching_First_Concrete_Ship_Service_Studio_Photo.JPG
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Betonowiec_kz.jpg

[NW_Kohaku]

If we go all the way to making concrete ships, then I have only one thing to say:  "Forget the catapults, man the magma canon! We burn 'em out!"

Having a literal floating fortress could be a quite dwarfy experiment.

In some hypothetical future version of DF, we could create some sort of oceanside embark, create a concrete fortress in the ocean, and then sail it into the ocean, to where there are resources that you cannot reach from land, and we could set up a dwarven "oil rig" that sails into position, "drills" into the crust, sets up oceanic mining expeditions, loads up on ores and magma, then pulls up anchor, and sets sail once again in search of new material wealth to plunder from the briney deep.

[Thundercraft]

...we could create some sort of oceanside embark, create a concrete fortress in the ocean, and then sail it into the ocean, to where there are resources that you cannot reach from land, and we could set up a dwarven "oil rig" that sails into position, "drills" into the crust, sets up oceanic mining expeditions, loads up on ores and magma, then pulls up anchor, and sets sail once again in search of new material wealth to plunder from the briney deep.

Nice idea. Though, if we have dwarven ships of stone, steel, and cannons, we'd also have to have pirates! Dorf pirates might find it preferable to sink ships, rather than fight on deck. Then they'd scoop up any cargo that floats on water and retrieve the treasure heavy valuables from the wreckage. Then again, I think some dorf pirates might opt to raise a bunch of pet sea monsters to do the dirty work.

On the subject of grasses on evil biomes:

I embarked in an evil area and a lot of the ground is covered in, um, eyeballs on stalks. Will this actually work for animal feed or will I have to break a cavern?

At the moment, grazing animals will eat staring eyeball and wormy tendril grass as if it were normal with no ill effects.  I'm hoping this will change in the future, but at the moment it's just cosmetic.

Perhaps grazing animals that eat those should make the milk and cheese taste funny? 

Urist McCheeselover: Yuck... Why does this cheese taste of onion? And why is it rubbery and tough like leather?
Urist McObservant: Well, I guess there are consequences to living off this cursed, forsaken place. Maybe it had something to do with all those eyeballs and worms the goats were eating?

Seriously, though, I hope it does not make grazing animals sick or dying. That'd really limit the options for animals on evil biomes. Instead, you could have milking give some other substance, which has much less food and material value. It makes sense, too, because what cows and goats eat does affect the flavor of milk. If a cow eats a sizable quantity of wild onions, you can taste it.

[Sowelu]

Personally, I'd imagine that this would be resolved with non-herbivorous grazers.

Though I wonder what would become of non-grazers when they discovered fields of flesh and eyeballs.  Wouldn't the place be, like, engorged with ravens that swoop down and peck the eyes out of the grass?

[Urist Imiknorris]

Wouldn't the place be, like, engorged with ravens that swoop down and peck the eyes out of the grass?

Don't forget the worm grass.

It would be like something out of a Hitchcock movie.

[Thundercraft]

Don't forget that goats will eat all kinds of garbage, including paper.

Besides, I have a suspicion that if it smells and tastes plant-like and edible, most grazing animals would not care what the grass looks like. Although, grass that wiggles like worms or tentacles should certainly spook them. At least until they either get used to it or get hungry enough.

Truth be told, if cows are starving enough they will even eat stuff that's pretty poisonous - such as raw poke weed.

Also, animals can be more adaptable than some people give credit. For example, there is a certain species of butterfly that is attracted to the bloody wounds on the back of cattle in Africa, where the tick birds have pulled the ticks out. Some scientists speculate that we might be seeing the beginnings of a new vampire species of butterfly!

I even seem to recall some wild predictions that kangaroos might evolve to become carnivorous some day. This was years ago, but the magazine article I read even had a 3D model of what the killer roos might look like. They had fangs. (Though, by itself, fangs do not a carnivorous animal make. There is such a thing as "vampire deer" with fangs instead of antlers, but they are herbivores.)

[G-Flex]

Don't forget that goats will eat all kinds of garbage, including paper.

Besides, I have a suspicion that if it smells and tastes plant-like and edible, most grazing animals would not care what the grass looks like. Although, grass that wiggles like worms or tentacles should certainly spook them. At least until they either get used to it or get hungry enough.

To be fair, the eye and worm grass are literally made out of eye and muscle tissue, respectively. They aren't grass at all, so it is pretty damn weird that herbivorous grazing animals can eat them just the same.

[NW_Kohaku]

It's not just that - good-aligned areas has grass made of feathers.  The other grass is "bubble bulb", but actually is made of plant matter, whatever the heck it is.  Feathers would probably be harder to digest than eyeballs, at least, even if you get up the stomach to eat it in the first place.  Between that and the pudge-monsters, I think "good" biomes are frankly getting just a little scary.

The idea of growing magic meat grass to feed your pack of tame tigers might be amusing, though.

[JohnieRWilkins]

Man, I seriously hope that if worm and eyeball grass becomes toxic that some sort of meaty non-plant and toxin-free tissue grass will be available for cats and chickens to graze on. It'll make them fat, lazy and not care about vermin.

Thanks for the answers footkerchief. I don't think that the question on seafaring races has been answered by toady though. I'm looking through all of the boat threads in existence now.

E: I think that DF might be in dire need of a new dominant seafaring race. The vikings basically. Because having seafaring humans would detract from landlubber quests. Ships just sort of make land adventuring obsolete in a way since it would lessen the focus on that. If a new race is added, you'd still be able to adventure as the human, but then you pick the vikings to sort of float around and yarr at people.