Bay 12 Games Forum

alrighty, in order of those questions!

when it's found as a layer on embark, or when you buy it from caravans (or on embark), shimmering sand acts just like any other sand. it's actually designed for the savage desert equivalent of evil weather for lfr. it'll potentially blind those caught in a cloud of it. most of us will only be introduced to it as layer material or from caravans or such

vines of xanadu, i've seen, but may have been from my altered versions of the plant-creation reactions. although, honestly, i haven't played df in a while (waiting anxiously for the new update!). do know i've gotten access to their products from caravans before, though.

the ritual tree stuff was already answered, and i pretty much do exactly what greycat does. although, i tend to give my alchemist and priest dwarves custom titles so i can easily figure out which one(s) get access to what workshop

and, for the 'legendary savant' dwarves, that just means they're the alchemy savants. since any other savants will show up as legendary whatever their savant skill is, but alchemist won't show up as a profession

not really a bug, but with the drowspiders you have the cat-sized regular drowspiders as wagonpullers and trade-hauling beasts of burden instead of the larger giant version. noticed that while changing their names to 'umbragen spiders' since 'drowspider' just seems so...bleh

from nar's changelog:

 The meowkin can now use and manufacture iron products.

i'm glad, although they'd always been my only source of brass anything

i'd suggest making sure moghoppers are found all four seasons and possibly adding the [UBIQUITOUS] tag (found in flies). that should have them show up in any savage biome with murky pools

with demon rats, it's not that they're [EVIL] that'd make them untamable. if they have [PET] or [PET_EXOTIC] then you can catch and tame 'em if you've got an evil area in your embark (i usually do embarks with good, evil, and savage areas all together)

and, on the subject of flies...i've found that they will show up on rotting food even if it's underwater or burning away in magma. same with lizards and rats, actually. yay for teleporting vermin

the remedy and cheeses (there's two kinds of them) don't turn dwarves into them, they're just a new soap and new cheeses that you can make with the proper items involved. i *think* the remedy is supposed to help with burns or the like, that come from various accidents at the alchemist's shop. cheeses are just cheeses, but need a specific building that requires a rare component. and they're made without animal products, which is always fun

narhiril, you seriously are the crazy goddess of interactions.

narhiril, i really want to thank you for the added effort you put in on making all of those fire-immune and temp-immune templates, instead of just the ones you needed immediately. they've helped a ton with two of the entirely too many spiders i've designed. especially the silk templates. one spider lives in and around the magma sea, the other in glaciers. i'm...sort of a silk addict, i suppose

i've got exactly one emberlight in my fortress. she's started several large fires while out after webs in the forest and being surprised by various fauna (mostly giant birds) that she decides to lob fireballs at. then she calmly walks through the fires, ignoring the now flaming birds running about in panic, starting more fires, and grabs her web, then walks back through the smoke and fire and mayhem.

so, yeah, they seem to be unaffected. but i should really take her off weaver duty...