Corrosion is more of a modern era, I try to avoid Fallout-esque stuff as that's mostly Wasteland territory. So no robots more advanced then what we readily have today. Nor am I willing to crack open DF to tangle with it's inner workings. I doubt Toady would smile on that 
. The power idea is a good one, but not possible through modding.
Again, as soon as gas masks are possible they'll probably go in. But it doesn't seem likely in the near future.
Once .26 comes out, you can make some kinda potion ("Disposable Gas Mask") that turns the human into the immune class.
But we have to wait for that.
I hope so, more important if its possible to retain "genetics" into your new trasnformation then it would be like putting a normal gasmask...
What you can mod into Dwarf Fortress depends on what's in the RAWs. Things like siege engines, water wheels and what-have-you are hard-coded, and cannot be altered. However, a reaction that takes a bucket of water and has a chance of giving out some ore *might* be able to work. But I don't think there is a way to get the water into the bucket. As far as I know, dwarves only fill buckets to clean wounds, fill ponds and water patients.
Well as I said before, I dont even read them, as I dont understand how to mod at all, so I was hoping it to be that way, but well I think this leaves it with the last option...
However, a reaction that takes a bucket of water and has a chance of giving out some ore *might* be able to work. But I don't think there is a way to get the water into the bucket. As far as I know, dwarves only fill buckets to clean wounds, fill ponds and water patients.
There's a trick involving cancelling the order while they're carrying it you can do.
Maybe another trick could be like "fishermen" things, I will explain at the end of the post...
Corrosion is more of a modern era, I try to avoid Fallout-esque stuff as that's mostly Wasteland territory. So no robots more advanced then what we readily have today. Nor am I willing to crack open DF to tangle with it's inner workings. I doubt Toady would smile on that . The power idea is a good one, but not possible through modding.
Again, as soon as gas masks are possible they'll probably go in. But it doesn't seem likely in the near future.
Man there must be a "vanilla" way to make mining work normally in your mod! there must be one! I cant stand longer without metal! im starting to... ahhgg.. (brain starts to turn into a troglodyte one that doesnt know what is a metal)...
Now seriously... I think there are some robots or things like that in our era which serves to do those ways of mining? or... maybe acids? that i know in some quarrys people uses rfrequently an acid to melt stone? maybe its possible to do that? like a tool that combines the crossbow and the pick nature? so that new machine would consume per strike to the stone a unit of acid? but more importnat there is a way to detect or assign a tool that when mines makes the tile do not produce gas? if so, then you could make a "special" pickaxe? or maybe a short of "water wheel" building? like this:
The new building its based on the water wheel one, this one must be the put near water or in a brook, as you are in the water there you could extract from there sediments from the river? like the miners of africa with the blood diamond thing? once you get the sediment someone gets it and its processed at another site like the lab? these sediments always have a 5% of probabilityes of giving a iron nugget or another metal? thats a viable method of minery, not modern as others, but its the unique that I know that could be made in DF as it its today? unless mechanisms and water wheel are hardcoded into the EXE? then the building would be a normal one and only placeable into clay or a normal soil/buildable tile and the reaction would consume a water bucket?
you have SERIOUSLY overdone what can be modded into DF. BUT. as far as i can understand it, the dust from digging is inhaled through breathing. so a caste of humans, that (as i mentioned in one of my previous posts) that DOES NOT BREATHE, named either gas-mask humans or respirator humans (description: has a respiratory device/gasmask with him all the time and uses it when needed) it does not need new body parts as it weares the gasmask on his belt etc. i personally believe taht respiratory device would be better cause the fact that they don't breathe means that they won't drown. but anyway, this would be the best way.
and another question, if you are so bothered by the more realistic approach to digging (in mining, if you mine by yourself, you NEED a gasmask or at least a face mask of some sort, believe me, i know this) you could just disable the toxic rock. and disable the use of it. really. and there is the second option: make some clay statues, that are nice, put them up everywhere, make A LOT OF CASKETS and sacrifice a whole immigrant wave to mining.they will dig out enough ground, and you'll strike metal. then the caskets come in handy. the statues are there so that everyone remains happy. trust me, i have been using this technique on every fort that is not by a cliff or a major river.
and TECHNICALLY solar pannels ARE possible. you make a building that produces energy as long as it is OUTSIDE, but that is a copy of the windmill, so why bother?
As I said before, I dont know much of modding, so I was throwing a bunch of ideas to see what was possible and what not, so I think the gasmask idea its the most reliable until 31.26 comes out, I know that miner need in real life gasmask, even if down there arent toxic gasses cuz the low level of oxigen and pressure, but seriously, who would in real life go and sacrifice a bunch of people to do that? thats why i was thinking on alternate methods which dont include those things... my point of making a "vanilla" method of mining its dont disable one of the major features of corrosion which its toxic gas on mining in that way, then I started on thinking alternate ways which can be done without altering the gameīs feature!
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Ranged digging isn't possible, water wheel is hard coded. If you want vanilla like mining there's a safe stone mod in the optional files. Just open up your raws, replace inorganic_stone_layer_di with inorganic_stone_safe_stone. Or you could just open up your init option and turn temperature off.
Once .26 comes out, you can make some kinda potion ("Disposable Gas Mask") that turns the human into the immune class.
But we have to wait for that.
Fascinating idea that I would be happy to look into. Assuming that the gas mask 'wears off' it's a very plausible idea. Making it is probably going to take tires, plastic, maybe some metal. Cloth for a makeshift filter.
When I said a crossing with crossbow and picks, I mean a weapon that which every strike consumes a "acid" unit which its then depleted, but I didnt mean ranged mining, I knew about the RAW things to make mining like in the original DF 31.25, but when i meaned "vanilla" I refered to the mod, in the way that you dont have to quit the wonderful poison gas feature, it just feels a bit unrealistic, in the way taht you need a gasmask in real life to mine at certain depth, whatever sorry if I bothered everyone with the bucn of ideas, I didnt knew much about the RAWs and those...
I got a mutated gaint desert scorpion that if you want i can you give the raws for it.
It is HUGE, biulding destroyer2, has chitin the strenth of copper, huge ass claws, and 11 tails each with a different vemon with a few of them lasting for a mouth(anyone want to be narcoleptic:D) If you want i can give you the raws that you need to add to make it work.
I do belive you helped me do some troble shooting on it.
You could also add to it the "glows in dark" tag in it? if it exist or isnt hardcoded into the EXE or other files? In adv mode it could be a good way of detecting in the darkness, it would fit more like the real scorpions which glows during night?
Edit. I forggot somethings:
Honestly when I saw that beast my first thought was 'What would happen if that thing faced a Gloomapeck?'. I'd be happy to take a look at the finished product. I'll probably put it in the caverns because it fits, and it does seem deadly enough. Send it over! 
By the way here's the checklist for 1.0.9
(v) Batteries
(v) Domestic Graphics
(partial) Exposed
(partial)Graphics for exposed creatures.
Pneumatic Rifle/Pistol (kerlc)
Make Bullets more difficult to make in adv mode. (smasher89)
(partial)More maces and Hammers (Ulit1mera)
Gloomapeck silk -> something useful
The three biggies are almost complete. Exposed are mostly on paper, but will be implemented soon.
Hurray! I hope it comes soon, by the way you could give me a more detailed description of how you "see" some mutants? I was about to drawn more concept art for the comic but some creatures just are a bit "ambigue" in the sense that much of the infecteds seems to be very similar in some body parts or even completely...
About my new idea of mining: it would work this way:
You need:
*some fishermen
*a river
*some luck
*A especial workshop
Fishermen will start to fishing soon as you arrive the new site, here goes the fun thing; a new creature called "sediment" it would be like a fish, but with the cant breathe and cant feel pain tags, it would be made of mud, like FB and other demons, it only has the body part and its very slow, has no gender and doesnt attack, in fact its more like a vermin, once fished, it drops a "sedimentary soil" item (if its possible to assign what drop a fish in its RAW) if so, them the new sedimentary soil its taken by a furnace operator to the cleaning workshop and it gives you a new ore or nugget and you can process it into a metal in the forge!
The possible inconvenients:
*RAWs can define what a vermin or creature drops after being "fished"
*fishermen doesnt catch a existant creature or vermin? they instead generate a random item based on the biome they are? or based in both the biome and their skill?
*If traped from a existant vermin, its possible to define what a vermin can do or not? like hateable or classified as fish?
I think that if those are possible, then we could mine metals from the river like some peopel do in south america and in africa? here in venezuela some artisanal and native methods do that! search in google it would be possible to do that!
Can't wait to see the comic when it starts!