>The new version feels a bit nerfed, several users have pointed this out. But you can always increase the difficulty in several different ways.
I've always felt that it wasn't really so difficult unless you wanted it to be. My forts only ever fell to boredom or FPS, but I stuck to biomes where things stay dead. Goblins/undead/vampires/werecreatures are a pain, but usually manageable if you're not totally unaware. Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy if you don't want the circus to come to town.
> Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy
Actually, this is wrong. Rather, there are 'safe' candy tiles and 'unsafe' ones. You can take a unlimited[0] amount of safe candy, but taking even a single unsafe tile can potentially result in immediate circus. (That's what makes it 'unsafe'.)
0: Well, it's "limited" to however much [safe] candy is actually present, but that's not what "limited" means in the context you used it. You can safely take all of the safe candy that is there to take.
No, "limited" means the same thing in the context I used it, there is a limit to how much you can take, the limit being the safe tiles. If you really want to be pedantic, the amount is always "limited" because maps are finite.
The phrase "that you take a limited amount" implies that the amount taken is the primary determining factor. For example, that (at least approximately) taking four tiles is always safe, regardless of which four, and taking four hundred is always unsafe, even if each individual tile could have been one of the aformentioned four safe ones.
But (DF) candy doesn't work like that at all; each tile is either completely safe, or has a noticable (if not always large) chance of having a circus tent behind it, completely independantly of any safe tiles, and only dependant on other unsafe tiles in the minesweeper sense (ie, that you sometimes know there's a circus tent behind either tile A or tile B, but not which).
> Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy if you don't want the circus to come to town.
You can methodically dig your way past all the candy, not taking any, and if you get far enough down you meet a whole lot of clowns. Not an entire circus, but hundreds of clowns.
I consider partying with them a pretty advanced challenge.
Did a newer version change the magma sea to have more openings? I think you could do something weird with channelling to get through the bottom, but that's still actively seeking out trouble.
I've always felt that it wasn't really so difficult unless you wanted it to be. My forts only ever fell to boredom or FPS, but I stuck to biomes where things stay dead. Goblins/undead/vampires/werecreatures are a pain, but usually manageable if you're not totally unaware. Clowns only ask that you take a limited amount of cotton candy if you don't want the circus to come to town.