Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarf Fortress => DF Suggestions => Topic started by: Hyndis on March 23, 2009, 04:05:52 pm

Title: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Hyndis on March 23, 2009, 04:05:52 pm
I know we've had a lot of threads about digging enemies, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is requiring that the fort always have a path to it. Even outside of siege situations this could be somewhat important.

A dwarf that is trapped underground with no path to the surface is essentially buried alive. Even if he has a masterwork adamantine barrel of amontillado, he's still buried alive.

This should produce some seriously unhappy thoughts, and they should stack, such that if too many attempts to reach the surface have failed the dwarf will go insane.

Perhaps every time the dwarf goes on break he checks to see if he can escape the fort. He doesn't actually have to go outside, he just checks to see if he can reach the edge of the map. If he cannot, he gets a severe negative thought about being trapped, cut off from the outside world, or so forth. This would be enough to make a content dwarf be unhappy.

Then the next time he goes on break, he checks if he can escape. If that check also fails, he gets another equally serious unhappy thought. I'm thinking after 3 of these, the average dwarf will go insane. Maybe 4 failed checks for ecstatic dwarves.

This would mean that a siege that forces the player to bottle up their fort and seal it off from the ouside world cannot simply be ignored forever. A siege will stick around for a very long time, just camping outside. If the player attempts to wait out the siege until they get bored and leave, they could very well have a bunch of dwarves that go insane from being sealed inside the fortress.

Also the reason for checking for a path to the edge of the map every time the dwarf goes on break is both to save CPU cycles, and to give the player a little time to reopen the fort, so if you need to block off a siege until your military can grab their gear, its okay, but you can't wait for years underground.

Historically sieges often lasted for years, but the conditions for the besieged were utterly horrendous. Disease and starvation were common, eventually weakening the defenders so much that they simply surrendered. Assaults against castle or city walls were quite rare. However, as a single plump helmet farm can feel a 200 dwarf fort just fine for all eternity, because there is no disease in game, and because its trivial to feed them booze or pipe water underground, there is no reason for dwarves to come up for air.

There should be! Air shafts would be an interesting requirement, as would allowing creatures to climb down the air shafts, but thats a helluva lot more complicated than just adding in a new negative thought.

This would sort of simulate the general nastiness of being under sieges for months or years, and if the siege is not lifted somehow or other, the fortress will eventually be driven completely insane, ending in an orgy of murderous trantrums and dorfs flinging themselves into the chasm.


Also, using this you could rig up an insane asylum. Purposefully trap dwarves in rooms until they go insane, then build an arena and unleash them on each other or against caged opponents.  ;D

I'm pretty sure the most common visitor to the arenas would be nobles.  :D
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: PTTG?? on March 23, 2009, 04:49:29 pm
I like the elegance of it, though Dwarves, of course, may have more tolerance to being locked underground than humans would.

Other than that, this is a sterling suggestion!
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: ThtblovesDF on March 23, 2009, 04:54:11 pm
Sieges overall could be a little more complex, like;

-Sieging army eats/drinks from its stock (and nature) and leaves once´s out of stuff
-Emotions (Bombing them with dead stuff would do something for example)
-Building of siege items.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: SirHoneyBadger on March 23, 2009, 05:21:06 pm
---As an aside, I think it's high time that somebody, somewhere, mods in an Amontillado reaction.

For the love of Armok, Montresor!
(Yes, Uristnado, for the love of Armok.)
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Onlyhestands on March 23, 2009, 05:52:39 pm
I really don't think that Dwarves would mine being trapped underground if the fort was nice enough.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Fossaman on March 23, 2009, 06:03:30 pm
I'm rather against this. I'd like my dwarves to be permanent denizens of the underworld: Shunning the evil daystar and living completely underground. If a dwarf has everything he needs to survive in his nice safe mind/cave/fortress, why would he want to leave?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: AncientEnemy on March 23, 2009, 06:29:21 pm
I'm against this. I think dwarves should feel quite at home underground, and be happy to stay there are long as their various needs are being met.

Making a dwarf freak out when he can't get outside (especially just -because- he can't go outside, even if he doesn't need to go there) doesn't make much sense as a way to do it.

Now sieges definitely need to be harder, but I don't think this is the way to go about doing it. The problem as you said is that you can keep a fort completely enclosed and still have all the resources you need to survive. Making -that- harder to accomplish is what aught to be changed, and I believe is already in the works.

I agree about the air shafts, I believe one of the eternal suggestions says something about them.

Quote
thats a helluva lot more complicated than just adding in a new negative thought.

while adding the thought my be a bandaid solution to the current state of sieges being incredibly weak, there are (IMO) better and more satisfying ways to go about it.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 23, 2009, 06:40:09 pm
I like the idea, but there should be various circumstances.

It should be a medium unhappy thought, and it should be stuff like "was unable to communicate with family members abroad," "was unable to order xliked item" - not just "was stir crazy lately."

Basically, it should be implemented so that if you seal up a fort full of ecstatic dwarves, they will become merely happy.  After a few generations, the ecstatic number would rise again (of course that would take years).
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Vattic on March 23, 2009, 06:45:49 pm
I mostly support this, I can see why a Dwarf would dislike not being able to leave your fort even if everything they need is supplied. "Has felt trapped lately." or similar.

Then again I like the idea that being under seige generates an unhappy thought if it goes on too long and even having the thoughts get worse. I cant imagine Dwarves would enjoy having an enemy at the gate.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: PTTG?? on March 23, 2009, 06:59:02 pm
Perhaps it should be tied to emigration; if a dwarf is unhappy and might emigrate, but can't get out, they'll get a small bad thought.

But this should more be in place for later and in a more general sense.

Consider dwarves getting negative thoughts because they're trapped overground, or humans that are sieged into a Man Fortress.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 23, 2009, 07:28:48 pm
[CAVE_ADAPTION] = Trump this

Well, unless they like working outside...  But they will adapt, quickly.

As for other races who don't have this...  >.>  Going stir crazy is the way to go.

(Does Toady plan on allowing multi-racial forts later on?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actually, certain personalities should affect this too, like adventure and excitement seeking... sitting around and getting bored to death = melanchony
and/or
The extra social butterflies who also like 'contact' with the outside world.

Would work the other way too for those not adaptable to caves...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 23, 2009, 07:46:55 pm
[CAVE_ADAPTION] = Trump this
Not really.  Can you imagine being a guard, locked in a fort, with little more than the occasional beating to keep things interesting?  Dwarves aren't automatically cave adapt.  If one gets enough of the outside world, they might like it.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Warlord255 on March 23, 2009, 08:01:17 pm
---As an aside, I think it's high time that somebody, somewhere, mods in an Amontillado reaction.

For the love of Armok, Montresor!
(Yes, Uristnado, for the love of Armok.)


Someone's been reading Poe, I see. :P
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: SirHoneyBadger on March 23, 2009, 08:04:15 pm
Yes, and for quite a number of years at that.

'The Casque of Amontillado' has always been my personal favorite of good Mr Poe.

Nothing like revenge.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: winner on March 23, 2009, 08:20:08 pm
If it was a binary situation, where being cave adapted made it so you couldn't go stir crazy. Then cave adaption would have more interest and strategy to it.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 23, 2009, 08:24:12 pm
[CAVE_ADAPTION] = Trump this
Not really.  Can you imagine being a guard, locked in a fort, with little more than the occasional beating to keep things interesting?  Dwarves aren't automatically cave adapt.  If one gets enough of the outside world, they might like it.

Thats why I said personality may also have something to do with it... 

Quote
Actually, certain personalities should affect this too, like adventure and excitement seeking... sitting around and getting bored to death = melanchony
and/or
The extra social butterflies who also like 'contact' with the outside world.

Would work the other way too for those not adaptable to caves...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Idiom on March 23, 2009, 10:26:38 pm
In tears, he picks up the remains of his adamantine barrel of amontillado and sobs, "That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was all the time I needed... ! It's not fair!"

Could we have claustrophobia and agoraphobia in dwarven personalities? And possibly phobias in general?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: SirHoneyBadger on March 23, 2009, 10:43:20 pm
And monomania?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Hyndis on March 23, 2009, 10:47:49 pm
This sort of negative thoughts for being stuck underground is a gimmick, yes, but its a gimmick designed to prevent cheesy defensives for a fortress. While right now a channel one tile wide is enough to defeat even the mightiest of zombie dragons and goblin armies, locking down the fortress in such a way really ought to cut both ways.

So while you can keep all enemies out, eventually your population will become very unhappy for being locked in, to the point where they'd eventually go insane and start killing each other if they're locked in for too long, which means that you can't simply lock away the outside world and ignore it.

Really, its just an anti-cheese gimmick, an alternative to having goblins with pickaxes who turn the entire mountain into a sponge within a few years. Same sort of effect; you can't hide behind a channel and retractable bridge, just different method of getting the effect.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 23, 2009, 11:09:22 pm
My dwarves live for cave adaptation, being outside is a form of sacrilege...
Although if the broker was sad if no trading happened for a long time it might be an issue, and trading really helps with mandates...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 23, 2009, 11:26:49 pm
There's a huge difference between being locked inside a chamber barely big enough to sit down in, and locked inside a luxurious fortress.  I posit that the main difference, at least for a dwarf that cares little for sunlight, is size.  And I think there's a pretty easy way to find the size -- the game can track the size of map areas during the connected-component rebuilds that it already does during map changes.  This would allow any dwarf to know how large of an area they can traverse at any given time.

The unhappy thought associated with being "trapped" could scale with the size of the accessible area, so that a small area would result in claustrophobic madness, a larger area in depression, and a sufficiently large area in no unhappy thought at all.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 24, 2009, 01:07:36 am
Ah that sort of gimmick...  just doesn't seem right to me, unless its some sort of carp-hole or if they have been idle for far far too long...

Them dwarves need to keep busy or go crazy?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Luke_Prowler on March 24, 2009, 07:50:01 am
There's a huge difference between being locked inside a chamber barely big enough to sit down in, and locked inside a luxurious fortress.  I posit that the main difference, at least for a dwarf that cares little for sunlight, is size.  And I think there's a pretty easy way to find the size -- the game can track the size of map areas during the connected-component rebuilds that it already does during map changes.  This would allow any dwarf to know how large of an area they can traverse at any given time.

The unhappy thought associated with being "trapped" could scale with the size of the accessible area, so that a small area would result in claustrophobic madness, a larger area in depression, and a sufficiently large area in no unhappy thought at all.
Soooo...legendary dinning room?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Shurikane on March 24, 2009, 08:22:42 am
Cave adaptation already does the job.

It's also neat to see that the road leading from my entrance to my trade depot consists entirely of vomit.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 24, 2009, 08:27:51 am
Cave adaptation already does the job.

The OP is basically talking about claustrophobia.  Cave adaptation is more like claustrophilia.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 24, 2009, 09:21:48 am
Cave adaptation already does the job.

The OP is basically talking about claustrophobia.  Cave adaptation is more like claustrophilia.

As an 'acquired' trait?  >.> 
From that perspective.... its even worse of a reason to give to dwarves... as for non-Dwarves...  that is fine.

I'd say its more of a go stir crazy cause you are stuck in the same hole for a long time with no way out?

Either way... make
A: legendary/masterpiece dwarf fortress
B: very little idling dwarves
C: very drunk dwarves
A+B+C= negate?

Just can't fathom this being Dwarven...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 24, 2009, 09:41:31 am
As an 'acquired' trait?  >.> 
From that perspective.... its even worse of a reason to give to dwarves... as for non-Dwarves...  that is fine.

Acquired?  Which one?  If you're talking about cave adaptation, I was only saying it's closer to claustrophilia than phobia, not that it's the same thing.  It makes plenty of sense that dwarves could develop cave adaptation while still being prone to claustrophobia -- cave adaptation is obviously a physiological reaction to protracted darkness, while claustrophobia is a psychological reaction to protracted confinement.  They're practically orthogonal.

I'd say its more of a go stir crazy cause you are stuck in the same hole for a long time with no way out?

"going stir crazy cause you are stuck in the same hole for a long time with no way out" definitely falls under the umbrella of claustrophobia.

Either way... make
A: legendary/masterpiece dwarf fortress
B: very little idling dwarves
C: very drunk dwarves
A+B+C= negate?

I really can't tell what this ABC thing means.  What's being negated?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 24, 2009, 10:09:46 am
As an 'acquired' trait?  >.> 
From that perspective.... its even worse of a reason to give to dwarves... as for non-Dwarves...  that is fine.

Acquired?  Which one?  If you're talking about cave adaptation, I was only saying it's closer to claustrophilia than phobia, not that it's the same thing.  It makes plenty of sense that dwarves could develop cave adaptation while still being prone to claustrophobia -- cave adaptation is obviously a physiological reaction to protracted darkness, while claustrophobia is a psychological reaction to protracted confinement.  They're practically orthogonal.

I'd say its more of a go stir crazy cause you are stuck in the same hole for a long time with no way out?

"going stir crazy cause you are stuck in the same hole for a long time with no way out" definitely falls under the umbrella of claustrophobia.

Either way... make
A: legendary/masterpiece dwarf fortress
B: very little idling dwarves
C: very drunk dwarves
A+B+C= negate?

I really can't tell what this ABC thing means.  What's being negated?

Blegh, guess I'm not being clear enough...   to negate this claustrophobia thing...


In a gist, my problem with this:
Cave Adapt: Urist McDwarf learns to love living in a 'small' dark hole.

(A cave is considered a 'small' dark hole right?  Or what do you define it as...?  Cause the way you just described it sounds more like 'Darkness_Adapt'...)

Claustrophobia: But, oh no... game mechanic rears its head, Urist McDwarf has gained a fear of living in said 'small' dark hole...

You and I clearly arn't seeing the same thing...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 24, 2009, 10:24:02 am
In a gist, my problem with this:
Cave Adapt: Urist McDwarf learns to love living in a 'small' dark hole.

(A cave is considered a 'small' dark hole right?  Or what do you define it as...?  Cause the way you just described it sounds more like 'Darkness_Adapt'...)

Claustrophobia: But, oh no... game mechanic rears its head, Urist McDwarf has gained a fear of living in said 'small' dark hole...

You and I clearly arn't seeing the same thing...

Caves don't have to be small.  Dwarves get cave adaptation whether they're living in a gigantic cavern or a tiny cellar.  The common factor is darkness.  So yes, by all indications it could be called "darkness adaptation."
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Zangi on March 24, 2009, 10:58:12 am

Caves don't have to be small.  Dwarves get cave adaptation whether they're living in a gigantic cavern or a tiny cellar.  The common factor is darkness.  So yes, by all indications it could be called "darkness adaptation."

Can't say I care to argue this any further... but, I believe I see your reasoning.  Simply, I still don't like it.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Derakon on March 24, 2009, 01:40:03 pm
No, I'd say there's a difference between claustrophobia and knowing that it's impossible to leave where you live. I wouldn't feel claustrophobic if I lived in a village surrounded by unclimbable cliffs, but I'd still be pretty pissed that I couldn't reach the outside world.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Sunday on March 24, 2009, 01:55:11 pm
I agree that there needs to be some way of making sure that dwarves aren't completely cut off from the rest of the world - dwarves can drown, after all, which means (presumably) that they need to breathe, which means they shouldn't be able to wall themselves off underground.

This suggestion would be far less CPU intensive & far simpler than tracking air loss/flows, so I think it's a good idea.

In any case, I think the idea that more space equaling a smaller chance of going crazy isn't necessarily the only logical solution.  You're assuming that dwarven psychology matches human psychology closely (which isn't true in the case of DF dwarves - see dwarven reaction to socks, their happiness with dining rooms, &c. &c.) - perhaps it is the 'unable to leave' part that makes them go crazy rather than the 'enclosed space' part.  In other words, it doesn't matter how much space there is underground, if a dwarf can't leave the fortress and strike out for some distant outpost to start afresh, he goes berserk.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: bjlong on March 24, 2009, 02:13:08 pm
While I don't see dwarves being stir-crazy, I do see them regretting not being able to trade, to show off their masterpieces, to send letters, and all the other things that come with being connected to the dwarven empire. Perhaps every time a caravan comes, but doesn't reach the Depot, dwarves get some negative thoughts.

Perhaps these thoughts would scale with time, so after a few decades of not being with the empire, the dwarves stop caring and start in-breeding.

Seiges would count doubly, I would think.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Hyndis on March 24, 2009, 04:15:54 pm
I agree that there needs to be some way of making sure that dwarves aren't completely cut off from the rest of the world - dwarves can drown, after all, which means (presumably) that they need to breathe, which means they shouldn't be able to wall themselves off underground.

This suggestion would be far less CPU intensive & far simpler than tracking air loss/flows, so I think it's a good idea.

In any case, I think the idea that more space equaling a smaller chance of going crazy isn't necessarily the only logical solution.  You're assuming that dwarven psychology matches human psychology closely (which isn't true in the case of DF dwarves - see dwarven reaction to socks, their happiness with dining rooms, &c. &c.) - perhaps it is the 'unable to leave' part that makes them go crazy rather than the 'enclosed space' part.  In other words, it doesn't matter how much space there is underground, if a dwarf can't leave the fortress and strike out for some distant outpost to start afresh, he goes berserk.

Yup. While tracking air would be an amazing addition, I'm just not sure the current engine can handle it, as air would probably be sort of like water in terms of how demanding the calculations are, and even a moderately sized water project can kill framerate. Imagine having that for the entire map!

My prefered solution to the siege thing would be to allow creatures to climb up and down cliffs, albeit very slowly. Thus, goblins could climb down airshafts into your fortress, and if you don't have any airshafts, pretty soon you won't have any dwarves either.

However keeping in mind the need to keep CPU cycles to a minimum, unhappy thoughts from being sealed off would accomplish roughly the same thing while not making your computer run at 1 FPS. However this would only work if the unhappy thoughts are serious enough that only a few will cause a dwarf to go insane, such that waiting out a siege which can last an entire year may not be feasable unless you have a legendary dining room, cook, brewer, and every dwarf has their own personal palace. And even then, your fortress should be very unhappy from being under siege for so long.

An alternative solution would be to have goblins telepathically cause unhappy thoughts to all dwarves on the map, but that would prohibit goblin zoos. For example, "Urist was worried lately about goblins in the area." With enough of those piling up, insanity. But I don't think thats quite as elegant as instead linking it to being able to reach the edge of the map.

Also, going insane by being unable to reach the edge of the map would allow the creation of dwarven arenas. Lock the hammerer up until he goes berserk, then drop cats into the arena with him. And so forth. :D
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Idiom on March 24, 2009, 05:27:19 pm
Wow. No-one recognized the Twilight Zone reference?

Quote
My prefered solution to the siege thing would be to allow creatures to climb up and down cliffs, albeit very slowly. Thus, goblins could climb down airshafts into your fortress, and if you don't have any airshafts, pretty soon you won't have any dwarves either.

Ropes and picks. Rock climbing needs to be a skill.

Quote
tracking air would be an amazing addition
Shouldn't and couldn't this go in with the addition of poisons? Or should it go with the expansion of liquid types?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: AncientEnemy on March 24, 2009, 05:53:56 pm
I don't think air ventilation would necessarily have to be calculated as a flow to be implemented satisfactorily. each tile could have a ventilation value that is measured by how far it is from the nearest 'outside' tile, with multiple outside tiles adding to the effect (larger air duct = more ventilation). this'd only need be calculated once when a tile is exposed to air to begin with, or when a new air shaft is dug.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 24, 2009, 06:00:46 pm
Caves don't have to be small.  Dwarves get cave adaptation whether they're living in a gigantic cavern or a tiny cellar.  The common factor is darkness.  So yes, by all indications it could be called "darkness adaptation."
Actually, cave adaptation is caused by the presence of a roof.  In one of my forts, I have barracks under a constructed roof (marked as inside/light/above ground).  When they get out from under it (outside/light/above ground), they get sun-sick.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Urist McDetective on March 25, 2009, 03:20:47 am
*oops?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Urist McDetective on March 25, 2009, 04:23:39 am
Modelling air flow shouldn't be as difficult as water, if you consider that an area connected to a chasm / bottomless pit / sky should be exempt from calculations. That's almost everything.
Anything cut off completely would eventually run out of breathable air, dependant on the size / number of breathing creatures inside. One time calculation, unless the number of creatures changes or the area is opened to one of the three border tiles listed above.
'Cut off' would likely be limited to constructions, rock falls & magma or water flooding.
If every open underground tile is connected to one of the three, (or has no air) then there's no reason to calculate further.
RAW's could specify air levels for a creature to get dizzy / pass out / suffer damage & finally die. (/other?)
Mining out rock doesn't free breathable air, right? I'm guessing poisonous gases could work something like miasma; different gases provide differing levels of visibility & lethality. Miners' canaries come to mind.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Silverionmox on March 25, 2009, 05:06:02 am
Caves don't have to be small.  Dwarves get cave adaptation whether they're living in a gigantic cavern or a tiny cellar.  The common factor is darkness.  So yes, by all indications it could be called "darkness adaptation."
Actually, cave adaptation is caused by the presence of a roof.  In one of my forts, I have barracks under a constructed roof (marked as inside/light/above ground).  When they get out from under it (outside/light/above ground), they get sun-sick.
Can't we just use the different probability for each race to get certain phobias at birth? That would mean that dwarves are much more likely to get agoraphobia. The founding dwarves still would like to be outdoors, otherwise they wouldn't go hiking across the land. Their descendants, however, are just as likely as - or slightly less than - the average dwarf to get agoraphobia as an inborn trait. That would mean they would avoid coming outside, and are practically stuck at their fortress, which they don't mind, since there's mining to do. Comfortable travel to other fortresses would only be possible with special wagons (for nobles, who have to) or tunnel.
Humans and especially elves strike me as the type to have claustrophobia often. They should get an extra penalty anyway, since they are effectively crawling in a tunnel that has the size of a dwarf (Humans really should mine (if) corridors  and build houses of two squares in height). Tactical considerations: elves would then normally stay where they can make use of bows, while having a real hard time to invade a dwarf fortress. Dwarves would need specially selected troops to attack overland, though making a short sortie should be withing the capability of almost any dwarven warrior - except legendary agoraphobiacs.

Advantages:
- cave adaptation does more than vomit
- we get rid of the Lamarckian evolution
- racial differences/flavour are stressed
- there's already a way to indicate the distribution of traits in the raws

Requirements:
- making phobias (or at least this one, for starters) have real impact on behaviour and decisions, not only a happiness bonus or minus.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 26, 2009, 09:43:28 am
What if none of your dwarves have gone outside for years, and you just decide to close the doors to stop a draught, and then a siege arrives, but nobody knows about it?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: profit on March 26, 2009, 02:22:30 pm
The original suggestion would be an ok game mechanic...  But makes no sense for dwarves.

Realism or Gameplay  which is more important.

Course honestly I think the massive hit in frame rate making area's inaccessable causes is not worth sealing off a fort.. and the line of traps to the entrance does the same thing except caravans can go over traps somehow.

Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on March 26, 2009, 02:45:02 pm
If the idea of this is to impose some harmful morale effect from a long-term siege, then the rule ought to say exactly that: your dwarves get morale problems during a long-term siege. None of this "no available path to the edge of the map" business, and no goddamn claustrophobia. The problem isn't the physical confinement, it's the stress of being surrounded by guys that want to kill you.

And here's how you do that: As long as a siege is going on, dwarves don't get positive thoughts. At all. Happiness is suspended for the duration. Negative thoughts, however, have the usual effect. The only exception to this could be "taking joy in slaughter", because kicking some goblin ass might be therapeutic.

When the siege is lifted, everyone gets a massive morale boost.

This seems like a better model for the kind of tense tedium that goes on in a threatened city, and since your Legendary Dining Rooms and other stupid crap no longer work, you have to switch to keeping morale up by satisfying basic needs and making sure everyone keeps busy with work.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: profit on March 26, 2009, 02:51:29 pm
If the idea of this is to impose some harmful morale effect from a long-term siege, then the rule ought to say exactly that: your dwarves get morale problems during a long-term siege. None of this "no available path to the edge of the map" business, and no goddamn claustrophobia. The problem isn't the physical confinement, it's the stress of being surrounded by guys that want to kill you.

And here's how you do that: As long as a siege is going on, dwarves don't get positive thoughts. At all. Happiness is suspended for the duration. Negative thoughts, however, have the usual effect. The only exception to this could be "taking joy in slaughter", because kicking some goblin ass might be therapeutic.

When the siege is lifted, everyone gets a massive morale boost.

This seems like a better model for the kind of tense tedium that goes on in a threatened city, and since your Legendary Dining Rooms and other stupid crap no longer work, you have to switch to keeping morale up by satisfying basic needs and making sure everyone keeps busy with work.


Ack Common sense....

Run  away!!! Run away!!!!
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Hyndis on March 26, 2009, 04:41:54 pm
If the idea of this is to impose some harmful morale effect from a long-term siege, then the rule ought to say exactly that: your dwarves get morale problems during a long-term siege. None of this "no available path to the edge of the map" business, and no goddamn claustrophobia. The problem isn't the physical confinement, it's the stress of being surrounded by guys that want to kill you.

It was just a possibility and example of a mechanism for producing that effect with minimal framerate issues. The calculation for seeing if a dwarf cannot reach the edge of the map is the same one that the trade depot uses. If a dwarf cannot reach the edge of the map, goblins cannot reach said dwarf. Thus, a penalty for having a retractable bridge over a 1 tile wide channel and relying on that for defense. And limiting the checks to every time they go on break would be to save CPU cycles.

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And here's how you do that: As long as a siege is going on, dwarves don't get positive thoughts. At all. Happiness is suspended for the duration. Negative thoughts, however, have the usual effect. The only exception to this could be "taking joy in slaughter", because kicking some goblin ass might be therapeutic.

When the siege is lifted, everyone gets a massive morale boost.

This seems like a better model for the kind of tense tedium that goes on in a threatened city, and since your Legendary Dining Rooms and other stupid crap no longer work, you have to switch to keeping morale up by satisfying basic needs and making sure everyone keeps busy with work.


Ehh, that would only work if the fortress is filled with miasma or hateful vermin. In a decently designed fortress, even with no positive thoughts at all, it would take a very long time for anything really bad to happen due to unhappy thoughts. Probably too long for it to be really urgent.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on March 26, 2009, 06:01:56 pm
It was just a possibility and example of a mechanism for producing that effect with minimal framerate issues. The calculation for seeing if a dwarf cannot reach the edge of the map is the same one that the trade depot uses. If a dwarf cannot reach the edge of the map, goblins cannot reach said dwarf. Thus, a penalty for having a retractable bridge over a 1 tile wide channel and relying on that for defense. And limiting the checks to every time they go on break would be to save CPU cycles.

I get that, but it doesn't consider whether goblins can't reach a dwarf because there are a million billion weapon traps in the way. And it's even less CPU-intensive to just check a flag that says "yes, we are still under siege".

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Ehh, that would only work if the fortress is filled with miasma or hateful vermin.

You've just named two of the things goblins should do to fortresses under siege: stuff rotting corpses into the air vents (once we have air vents) and introduce vermin.

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In a decently designed fortress, even with no positive thoughts at all, it would take a very long time for anything really bad to happen due to unhappy thoughts. Probably too long for it to be really urgent.

Sieges aren't really supposed to be urgent. The point of this mechanic is that you can't reach an equilibrium with the siege--even if everyone is well-fed, clean, and properly housed, you get occasional shocks (some dwarf pokes his head out the wrong door and gets a couple of arrows to the face; goblin sappers breach a wall that has a masterwork engraving on the other side), and with no way to recover from them, each shock increases the chance that the next one will wipe you out.

Speaking of which, badly demoralized dwarves under siege should be able to surrender, especially if they lose their leader.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 26, 2009, 08:32:46 pm
Yeah, I would like to see sieges go on for years... If they can't get in then they can't get in, I think dwarves would like that idea, it means they have built an impervious fortress. My forts usually have respectable supplies. Even if farming was turned off it shouldn't even need rationing in order to outlast the current sieges. If your fort isn't actually under any pressure than it shouldn't really be under any pressure...

At this point in the game's development there are holes in the game, the impervious 1x1 channel is one of them. I don't think it is currently practical to start trying to balance sealing your fortress. If you don't like it then don't use it. I think that this is a perfectly reasonable attitude to take towards an unfinished game.

The idea of an invulnerable fortress is not all that bad. Maybe not in the literal sense, but I could easily imagine a siege not wishing to attack the dwarves on their own ground, and actually choosing to sit outside and fortify their position. It would be like an off switch on the outside world, no above-ground trading, lumber, water, fishing, hunting... Maybe with occasional attempts to break the siege coming from your allies, of course, by that time the siege is dug in and it becomes goblin fortress...

How bad do you want this to be, between sieges the negative impact would probably have dissipated, so should this be pretty much fatal to anyone who closes the door upon the words 'siege' and keeps it closed until the siege ends?

I could envisage a fortress being concerned about their reputation, which would be negatively impacted by traders never returning and envoys being fed to the fluffy wamblers... Unless they are isolationists, which is an option I would like...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Aquillion on March 26, 2009, 10:19:05 pm
I dislike this suggestion because it artificially limits what the player can create.

I like the idea of creating entirely self-contained, utterly cut-off underground empires with no surface contact at all.  It's interesting.  Using 'your dwarves suddenly go insane if you close the floodgate that they have never, ever, ever walked over at any point in the past ten years' to prevent that strikes me as heavyhanded.

The game isn't complete yet, not by a long way.  There will be additional things to do and challenges to meet beyond angry groups of goblins halfheartedly milling about outside and wandering through your traps.  Don't think of ways to make the existing challenges harder or more unavoidable; focus on the entire new types of challenges and dangers that will be added in the future.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 27, 2009, 01:05:32 am
*cheers*
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on March 27, 2009, 03:56:13 pm
I dislike this suggestion because it artificially limits what the player can create.

That's the point of having game mechanics. If you don't want any restrictions, there's always Graph Paper Fortress.

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I like the idea of creating entirely self-contained, utterly cut-off underground empires with no surface contact at all.  It's interesting.  Using 'your dwarves suddenly go insane if you close the floodgate that they have never, ever, ever walked over at any point in the past ten years' to prevent that strikes me as heavyhanded.

I don't think anyone was proposing they suddenly go insane within seconds of closing off the last path. I agree that it's sort of cheesy to have adverse effects from closing off a hypothetical but completely unused path to the edge of the map, which is why I suggested adverse effects from being under siege as such.

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The game isn't complete yet, not by a long way.  There will be additional things to do and challenges to meet beyond angry groups of goblins halfheartedly milling about outside and wandering through your traps.  Don't think of ways to make the existing challenges harder or more unavoidable; focus on the entire new types of challenges and dangers that will be added in the future.

That's exactly what this is: a new type of challenge.

Old challenge: Goblins come and try to kill dwarves. Easily avoided by digging a one-inch gopher moat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mhbxlz_wrI).

New challenge: Dwarves start to get twitchy and paranoid from being surrounded by a hostile army for too long. Now you actually have to do something!
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: zchris13 on March 27, 2009, 04:18:38 pm
The problem is is that sometimes, you can't do anything. Because everybody is partying. And you do not have enough weapons.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Aspgren on March 27, 2009, 04:29:20 pm
Um ...

If you want dwarves to crack under siege pressure, why just not give those who can't handle pressure unhappy thoughts from the siege?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on March 27, 2009, 06:09:21 pm
Um ...

If you want dwarves to crack under siege pressure, why just not give those who can't handle pressure unhappy thoughts from the siege?

Because unhappy thoughts get canceled out by happy thoughts, which are stupidly easy to generate. So either the siege-related unhappy thoughts are weak enough that they have no effect next to the Prozac Dining Room, or they're strong enough to overwhelm everything and you're just doomed. Realistically, the tolerability of a siege depends on how badly it's interfering with everyday life, and it makes gameplay sense to try to simulate that.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: profit on March 27, 2009, 06:20:12 pm
Of course... it also makes sense that the dwarves might not even notice the siege and the goblins would get bored at staring at the rock face and go elsewhere.

I really dont know where I stand on sieges... On one hand they are really easy and provide little challenge once the fort has dug into the mountain side... on the other hand...

I just cannot see a dwarf bothered by the fact their are goblins outside the walls...  Even if they are there for years...   Kinda like I am not really scared by the warlords in Kenya at this moment because it is impossible for them to get me here. (As a side note if I was in Kenya I would be scared...)

Dwarves know they are safe from the attack... Why would they even care?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Onlyhestands on March 27, 2009, 07:59:28 pm
Dwarves know they are safe from the attack... Why would they even care?


Exactly. If your Dwarves are sitting inside their fort inside totally safe from Goblins, what do they care if some Goblins (which they wouldn't know were there anyways) are sitting around outside the fort?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: SirHoneyBadger on March 28, 2009, 05:41:33 am
I wonder what I'd think about, if I were buried alive...hmmm...

I like the idea that there always has to be atleast one "entrance" (or shaft, or skylight, or whatever) leading to the surface. On a big enough map/in a big enough Fortress, more than one.

If only for an air supply. 
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Derakon on March 28, 2009, 10:48:24 am
Dwarves know they are safe from the attack... Why would they even care?
Exactly. If your Dwarves are sitting inside their fort inside totally safe from Goblins, what do they care if some Goblins (which they wouldn't know were there anyways) are sitting around outside the fort?
Because they know they can't contact their family back at the Mountainhomes any more. Because that +green glass corkscrew+ they'd ordered from the traders won't arrive as long as the goblins are there. Because they can't strike out with six chosen buddies to make a new start. Because the goblins are the enemy, and they should be fighting instead of hiding, no matter the odds. Because refusing to deal with problems is fundamentally un-dwarven.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: PTTG?? on March 28, 2009, 11:04:12 am
Because they know they can't contact their family back at the Mountainhomes any more. Because that +green glass corkscrew+ they'd ordered from the traders won't arrive as long as the goblins are there. Because they can't strike out with six chosen buddies to make a new start. Because the goblins are the enemy, and they should be fighting instead of hiding, no matter the odds. Because refusing to deal with problems is fundamentally un-dwarven.

Inspiring!
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 28, 2009, 11:16:21 am
Dwarves know they are safe from the attack... Why would they even care?


Exactly. If your Dwarves are sitting inside their fort inside totally safe from Goblins, what do they care if some Goblins (which they wouldn't know were there anyways) are sitting around outside the fort?

Fear isn't supposed to be strictly rational, and as Derakon mentioned there are plenty of rational reasons anyway.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 28, 2009, 10:45:34 pm
Yeah, but going insane is something that you reserve for real horrors, like running out of booze. A few measly goblins out the back who can't even get past a crummy little pit are just an irritation, maybe if you are miserable to begin with it could be a disaster, but making it so that trying to avoid contact between dwarves and sieges isn't viable just seems, to me, to be limiting the game in a bad way...

I would rather it if collapsing the only tunnel to my fort, so that, literally, the only way out of my fort is by digging, was preferable to charging a siege with outnumbered peasants...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 28, 2009, 11:15:27 pm
Ahem.

Goblins will not always be able to be deterred by a small moat.  In fact, at some point in the future, they may even be able to get through constructed walls.  So no, "they're on the other side of the moat, what's there to be afraid of?" is not a valid argument.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on March 29, 2009, 12:56:53 am
Yes, but the argument in favour of this suggestion is exactly that, that there is nothing to worry about. Ironically, this could be a pretty nice feature if done subtly, but the current suggestion is that this be used as a means of stopping people from just raising the drawbridge whenever a siege shows up...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Aquillion on March 29, 2009, 01:26:11 am
New challenge: Dwarves start to get twitchy and paranoid from being surrounded by a hostile army for too long. Now you actually have to do something!
Yes, but this is a challenge that radically forces people to play the game in your preferred way.

Ahem.

Goblins will not always be able to be deterred by a small moat.  In fact, at some point in the future, they may even be able to get through constructed walls.  So no, "they're on the other side of the moat, what's there to be afraid of?" is not a valid argument.
The question of whether the dwarves are in danger or not is a matter for the player's defenses and the fortress.  If the enemy can break through...  then they'll break through, and there's no need for a hamhanded magic force that makes your dwarves go insane, because they'll go insane as a result of the enemy shooting at them.

On the other hand, my feeling is that it should be possible for the player to at least aspire to build an unassailable fortress, one that no siege can ever break.  It should not be easy (not nearly as easy as it is now), but it shouldn't hamhandedly be made impossible by making it so that when you have an invulnerable fortress, your dwarves still go insane from the non-existent pressure of enemies who can't hurt them.

Many people in this thread obviously like the idea of using armies and sweeping away invaders in a heroic charge.  That's up to them.  But that shouldn't be the only solution.  What you're asking for here is just that -- a mechanic to ensure that no fortress, no matter how well designed, is ever able to be (near-)perfectly defended against sieges.

I see that suggestion as being against the spirit of Dwarf Fortress.  The game is not really, to me, about micromanaging dwarves or armies or anything -- it's about aspiring towards the perfect fortress, based on my own intentions and desires.  I can try and make one that's structurally unassailable, or one set up for perfect productivity, or whatever...  and nothing stops me from focusing on it  however I want, and approaching the challenges however I want.

I don't think it should be as easy as it is now to make a perfectly-defended fortress, of course.  Maybe you should never be able to entirely reach perfection, only asymptotically approach it, keeping things interesting.  It's boring if it's too easy to make that perfect fortress.  But the effort of trying is the game of Dwarf Fortress, to me.

This suggest is bad because it is a "Play the game my way or you're playing it wrong" suggestion.  The game should not use hamhanded rules to force players to solve things in specific ways -- it shouldn't say "You MUST kill the siegers or you lose, period!"  That is not the Dwarf Fortress way.  The Dwarf Fortress way is to present the siegers as a challenge or danger, carefully-simulated, and to let the player confront it however they want.

Or, to reiterate:  If the enemy can make it past my moats and traps and devious defenses, then they can make it past my defenses, and will kill me.  That's fine.  If they can't, they can't.  No other mechanics are needed.

Also note, of course, that siegers must have supplies and morale of their own, eventually.  Pulling up the drawbridge and outlasting a siege is an entirely realistic and valid way to deal with it; that's the whole point of a fortress.  The enemy should have various ways to try to get past your moat and so on, but you shouldn't be magically forced to rush out of your fortress and attack them -- that's silly and unrealistic.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 29, 2009, 05:07:48 am
... but it shouldn't hamhandedly be made impossible by making it so that when you have an invulnerable fortress, your dwarves still go insane from the non-existent pressure of enemies who can't hurt them.

... What you're asking for here is just that -- a mechanic to ensure that no fortress, no matter how well designed, is ever able to be (near-)perfectly defended against sieges.

... but you shouldn't be magically forced to rush out of your fortress and attack them -- that's silly and unrealistic.

I'm having difficulty seeing any connection between things said by the people you quoted, and the results you're imagining.  Nobody has said that it should be strictly impossible to passively defend a fortress.  Your reply is very eloquent but you aren't responding to specific points.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 29, 2009, 07:47:50 am
Yeah.  That's all well and good, but when did I say all dwarves go insane from having goblins outside?  Nope.  I said that the current game structure of goblins having no way to cross a moat doesn't really trump the idea of there being a penalty for lockdown, because goblins eventually will have a way to get across the moat.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on March 29, 2009, 03:37:12 pm
Yeah.  That's all well and good, but when did I say all dwarves go insane from having goblins outside?  Nope.  I said that the current game structure of goblins having no way to cross a moat doesn't really trump the idea of there being a penalty for lockdown, because goblins eventually will have a way to get across the moat.

And it's not even that they will be able to get through whatever your fancy defenses are, but that they might. If your way of dealing with a siege is to lock yourself in and wait for them to go away, then you don't know what they're doing out there. They might find a way in tomorrow. So your dwarves are still under pressure and should still suffer the psychological effects. What they won't suffer are the psychological effects of getting killed and wounded, so your nigh-invincible fortress still helps a lot.

Aquillion, the idea is not to force you to deal with sieges in a certain way, just to simulate them in more depth. This isn't a "magical force"; it's psychology. You have to keep the invaders from getting in, you have to deal with being cut off from outside trade and resources, and you have to deal with the mental stress of being under attack. If you have a very secure, well-stocked, and mentally stable fortress, you might still be able to just wait out the siege.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: alfie275 on March 29, 2009, 04:31:49 pm
Maybe make it so they only get large unhappy thoughts not just go mad, this might drive them mad though, and only if they are reliant on going over the moat.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 29, 2009, 04:37:45 pm
You mean one large enough that it makes sealing yourself in a challenge, but not so bad that it cannot be overridden?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: SirHoneyBadger on March 29, 2009, 09:14:30 pm
Maybe there could be a disease involved with this kind of thing.

Humans get "cabin fever" (partly as a result of Vitamin D deficiency, but also partly psychological), so maybe dwarfs that are cooped up in one place, underground, for too long, will start to get more Fell Moods, and just go crazy more often, when they path over the same small area too many times.

There could be medical/psychological *things* you could *do* to alleviate this kind of danger, which would go along with the Health and Medical emphasis we've been seeing lately, that would allow you to build your Fortress in a contained space, underground, if you decide you want to do that--but not without consequences, and not successfully, for too long, without having planned a strategy for dealing with them.

That's something I particularly like, the idea of "by all means, do whatever you want to do in the game, but there's consequences for every choice you make". That to me is a *huge* step towards "reality" in the game.

And it helps maintain the challenge of the game.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Aquillion on March 30, 2009, 05:00:24 pm
...what if I mine away the top of a mountain, smooth the cliff face so nobody can get anywhere near it, and set up a meeting spot there, far out of reach of non-flying enemies?  Would that avert cabin fever?

(Cabin fever seems undwarven, though.)
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 30, 2009, 06:24:09 pm
...what if I mine away the top of a mountain, smooth the cliff face so nobody can get anywhere near it, and set up a meeting spot there, far out of reach of non-flying enemies?  Would that avert cabin fever?

(Cabin fever seems undwarven, though.)
Dwarves crack more easily than most real people in DF.  No, that wall would not avert cabin fever, because methods for AIs to get over walls will eventually be implemented.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: profit on March 30, 2009, 06:38:07 pm
Didnt he say avert cabin fever?

  I did not know that that averting cabin fever and being ruthlessly crushed by orcs that scaled the mountain were mutually exlusive.

I use to be apathetic though twords this whole cabin fever bad thought during siege business..... now that I have thought about it though...

It's just a silly hack to cover up a flaw that only exists because the game is unfinished..... When the invaders come pouring over everything but the most well thought out and ridiculously overdone defensive lines this will no longer be an issue.

Till then lets ignore it, and let this silly hack die as its just wasted programming time.

Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on March 30, 2009, 06:41:00 pm
Yes he did.
...what if I mine away the top of a mountain, smooth the cliff face so nobody can get anywhere near it, and set up a meeting spot there, far out of reach of non-flying enemies?  Would that avert cabin fever?

(Cabin fever seems undwarven, though.)
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Carcer on March 31, 2009, 07:45:19 am
Let’s approach this from a different angle.

If you’re trapped in your house, with no real security (Security gates, bars over the windows, steel shutters, and whatever.) and there are a bunch of people sitting outside who want to kill you, and can possibly get in, you’re going to be terrified.

On the other hand, if your sitting in your house that has bomb proof walls, steel shutters with firing slits over the windows and what basically amounts to a vault door as your front door, and you've got about ten guys in there with you who are militarily trained who have the armour, guns, ammo and "kick-your-face-in" attitude and hordes of loyal attack dogs to fight off the enemies. And you've got enough provisions to last a few years; I doubt you'll be that on edge.

The same should apply to the dwarfs in the fortress. If their defences are weak, they don’t think they have enough traps (Generates negative thought) Have enough of a military compared to whose attacking them (Generates big negative thought) or the enemy has a clear and unobstructed path to them (Really big negative thought) Then they should get scared or go insane, not just because a bunch of scraggly goblins have arrived.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Footkerchief on March 31, 2009, 08:13:36 am
On the other hand, if your sitting in your house that has bomb proof walls, steel shutters with firing slits over the windows and what basically amounts to a vault door as your front door, and you've got about ten guys in there with you who are militarily trained who have the armour, guns, ammo and "kick-your-face-in" attitude and hordes of loyal attack dogs to fight off the enemies. And you've got enough provisions to last a few years; I doubt you'll be that on edge.

Yeah, although you'd still be on edge at first.  So the fearful thoughts should drop off over time as long as the siegers aren't making any headway or killing any dwarves, although the isolation-related thoughts should increase as the siege drags on.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Carcer on April 01, 2009, 01:05:46 am
At first, yes.

An alternate system to the one currently proposed is to have sieging enemies on the map generate a bad thought, which increases as the number of enemies, or squads, increases. Enemy elites, leaders and champions will generate a larger bad thought all on their own.

This gets counter acted in two ways. First, your own military. Your dwarves get a positive thought during a siege for every soldier you that not just a recruit, they get a better thought for elites and a very good thought for champions, who can almost walk through goblins squads at times.

Secondly, if you kill a goblin, your dwarves should get a moral boost, killing a leader would bring a larger boost. This won't work particularly well in the current version as the goblins tend to flee when they take casualties, but we ever end up where they properly siege, long periods of waiting with small, bloody fights, then this would be more useful.

Similarly, the goblins should also get moral boosts as they kill dwarves, which would stop them from retreating so quickly.

Finally, as Footkerchief says, the negative thoughts from invaders should start out stronger than the positive thoughts and then die down, while the positive thoughts from your army should get stronger for a while and then also die down.

This would simulate the initial panic as invaders arrive, and then as they become confident that the enemy is being held at bay. Then they get complacent, which is represented by the lack of positive or negative thoughts.


Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: kotekzot on April 01, 2009, 08:06:07 am
roll out the cage traps?
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: RAM on April 02, 2009, 08:54:34 pm
The initial post gave me the strong impression that it was intended to make sealing the entrance impossible, I get the feeling that few participants want this. Can we change this from a discussion about preventing a sealed fortress, and turn it into a discussion about the potentially insignificant psychological impact of this?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would want this to be relative to the greatness of the fortress, if the initial 7 seal themselves off from a 20 goblin ambush, then that will be a serious threat. If 20 goblins are camping outside of a 200 dwarf strong settlement then, even with no military at all, locking them out is likely to be seen as more of a convenience than desperation...

There should be many more ways to maintain morale than just military. Traps and ballista should count. Stockpiles of high quality armour and weapons should encourage people who are facing military conscription. Fortifications, especially those that are raised relative to one of their facings should multiply the effects of archers and siege weapons. Not to mention what happens if a goblin paths over a tile that has a clear line between it and a floodgate that is holding back a large quantity of magma...

 If a siege of unprecedented magnitude turns up, it shouldn't drive your entire fortress insane simply because you didn't have enough military dwarves. But I can see people getting upset because a large horde of murderous thugs turned up with the intention of beating people to death with their own entrails... Of course, if this has happened before on a regular basis, people may get used to it, and may even be happy about it if they are running low on iron ore...
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on April 02, 2009, 09:41:13 pm
The initial post gave me the strong impression that it was intended to make sealing the entrance impossible, I get the feeling that few participants want this. Can we change this from a discussion about preventing a sealed fortress, and turn it into a discussion about the potentially insignificant psychological impact of this?

Looking at the past few posts (including some of mine), I'd say this has already happened.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: irmo on April 03, 2009, 01:40:05 am
I would want this to be relative to the greatness of the fortress, if the initial 7 seal themselves off from a 20 goblin ambush, then that will be a serious threat. If 20 goblins are camping outside of a 200 dwarf strong settlement then, even with no military at all, locking them out is likely to be seen as more of a convenience than desperation...

No, that's going to be seen as cowardice. We're locked up in here because of TWENTY DAMN GOBLINS? What the hell? What kind of pansy is running this fortress, anyway? Twenty goblins isn't an invasion, twenty goblins is up there with swatting a mosquito.

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There should be many more ways to maintain morale than just military. Traps and ballista should count. Stockpiles of high quality armour and weapons should encourage people who are facing military conscription. Fortifications, especially those that are raised relative to one of their facings should multiply the effects of archers and siege weapons. Not to mention what happens if a goblin paths over a tile that has a clear line between it and a floodgate that is holding back a large quantity of magma...

I think this whole "morale bonuses for having military/traps/weapons/fortifications" idea is a mistake. Seriously, you want a morale boost for a goblin walking in front of a floodgate?

During a siege, you should get morale penalties for getting killed or wounded, and morale bonuses for actually killing or capturing invaders, by whatever means, but not for anything else.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on April 03, 2009, 07:51:22 am
I think this whole "morale bonuses for having military/traps/weapons/fortifications" idea is a mistake. Seriously, you want a morale boost for a goblin walking in front of a floodgate?

During a siege, you should get morale penalties for getting killed or wounded, and morale bonuses for actually killing or capturing invaders, by whatever means, but not for anything else.

That doesn't make any sense.  Soldiers used to get huge moral boosts if they thought the location they were in was difficult/nigh impossible to capture by the enemy, as would civilians. 

This complaint about floodgates makes no sense, seeing as how it is a FLOOD gate - not something designed for fortifications.  Then doors.  A troll can kick a door down (which they can really do with floodgates as well).  Small moral boost at best.  No one ever said "a goblin sees a fortification, every dwarf gets a moral boost" except you.  Don't go putting words into people's mouths.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: Derakon on April 03, 2009, 10:43:30 am
RAM's post gave a long list of things that are good ideas to do for defending your fort, and implied that having them should improve the morale of your dwarves by leading the list off with "There should be many more ways to maintain morale than just military."

In my opinion, being under siege should be a strict morale penalty. Even if your fort is badass enough to swat the goblins away, they're still out there. Civilians might get hurt (if they were stupid enough to go outside, or if they wandered too close to the walls), traders can't get through, migrants are just outright dead unless they're very lucky, and of course, there's freakin' goblins out there, they need to die! These are all bad enough things to more than offset any bonus for having an impervious fortress. A morale bonus for repelling the siege? Sure. But no bonuses until then.

Once sieges become a more long-term thing, it might be worth having bonuses for repelling attacks, but since the current siege is basically just a bigger battle, I don't think that's really appropriate yet.
Title: Re: Buried alive and thoughts
Post by: LegoLord on April 03, 2009, 10:46:41 am
No . . . the point is that you can have an impervious fort, just that it will be another challenge.