Expand More on Water

[Dakka]

Rivers, rain, storms... there's still so much potential here.

Rivers Now: Affect pawn movement until bridges are built.
Rivers Improved: In addition to the default river movement penalties...

   
• Rain causes rivers to flood periodically/seasonally, and could level your entire settlement in a particularly bad flood if you don't prepare for it
• Rivers are a major source of food, bringing in fish from upstream for your fishermen to catch
• Raiders can poison the river from upstream, so you may have to go out and deal with them from time to time
• Traders may travel to your settlement on boats

Rain Now: Not really an inconvenience, just messes with electrical equipment and makes certain people happy.
Rain Improved: Either a minor inconvenience or a major threat...

• Being closer to an ocean can bring in some nasty rains that may last much longer than normal
• A lot of rain in a tropic area will increase humidity by quite a lot and thereby increasing the heat across the tile
• Hurricanes, monsoons, large tidal waves, major flooding, etc...

Thirst Now: Is not/will not be implemented.
Thirst Improved: Pawns will need to keep themselves hydrated or suffer dire health & mood penalties...

• Allows for the construction of wells and the drinking of fresh water from rivers
• Death will occur shortly after not drinking water for days

Lakes Now: Is not/will not be implemented.
Lakes Improved: Lakes provide a source of nourishment for all life...

• Rivers feed water & fish into lakes
• Lakes are different per biome, with desert lakes being oases and tropical lakes carrying many pests & dangerous animals
• Particularly heavy rain may cause lakes to flood and could level your entire settlement if you don't prepare for it

Just water itself can change how you play entirely and could be the beginning to a great story or the end of it.

[O Negative]

I was thinking something similar to this just the other day. I was settled by a river, and thought it was a little silly that all of the fertile land had spawned on the opposite side of the map as the river.

I like the OPs suggestions, but would also like to add:

Fertile soil spawns by rivers on map generation, consequently making rivers agriculturally important.

[erdrik]

...
Rain Now: Not really an inconvenience, just messes with electrical equipment and makes certain people happy.
...

I am all for improving/ adding water based interactions.
But just FYI, Rain gives pawns walking in it the "Soaking Wet" negative mood thought, so it will contribute to making colonists unhappy.