Bay 12 Games Forum

Clothing gets one "tick" of wear every two years, so for simplicity I assume that every dwarf replaces every piece of clothing after two years. That leads to the following formula:

x = (number of dwarves in fortress) * (number of pieces per dwarf) / (number of production orders per year) / (2 years)

So for 120 dwarves that makes 15 of everything per season (30 for socks, shoes, mittens, gloves) that are produced without any conditions. Production orders are tied to a specific workshop that accepts no other orders, has one or two clothiers assigned to them and a dedicated pig tail cloth stockpile and a dedicated pig tail clothing stockpile that only accepts from links. (Sometime I make stockpiles for every type of clothing.) If that stockpile starts accumulating too many of a particular type of clothing, I simply change the number of production orders from seasonal to yearly.

While this is a rather simple approach, any level of complexity can be implemented once other goods can be produced (or bought) in the same abundance as pig tail cloth. Depending on the situation I start replacing some materials:

Seriously, shoes, cloaks, gloves and caps should be made out of leather - not cloth, so I create a similar setup with a leather workshop to produce those. Socks and mittens should be made out of wool, so there's another setup with a clothier's shop dedicated to wool or even multiple ones for different types of wool. (I prefer to employ clothiers/leatherworkers that have a preference for either a type of raw material or a type of product that is produced there.)

Excess clothing is stored in a finished goods stockpile (that accepts from everywhere) near the trade depot.

I think guests don't need food or water. They drink for recreation only.

Dang... I guess, that calls for a more permanent solution.

I can only interrogate via a convicted crime entry on the justice screen. What was the crime? Did you interrogate him without conviction?

The crime was theft of an artifact, no one was convicted at the time of the interrogation. Since there were no witnesses, I started interrogating everyone and uncovered some plot.

Just realized that the new light Aquifers produce water at an insanely slow rate. If you want to irrigate even just a medium area, you have to build some kind of reservoir to store the water beforehand.

When you're embarking, you can press F1, F2, etc, so see the different biomes, which have different features. You have to check each of them to make sure there's no aquifers at all.

That's exactly what I did and it's also how I used to find an embark area that was partly "covered" by an aquifer. The aquifer didn't strictly stick to the grid but it was good enough to be sure that, say, in the upper left corner of the embark area there is none.

That said, there's now light aquifers that are much easier to dig through, and are actually quite trivial.

Now, that sounds interesting. I wasn't aware of that, as I am in fact playing the newest version.

I'm aware of the uses of aquifers and I do prefer to have one around, but never got the hang of piercing one.

Didn't know they can be used for fishing, though... Do you have to populate them with fish, first, or do creatures spawn in them at random?

Engraving a memorial slab will likely give you some more information on how a particular dwarf died...

Stress was one of the primary reasons to start using Dwarf Therapist. Apart from that I modded the game a bit to reduce stress vulnerability and the tendency to become violent when stressed by a fair amount. (I didn't eliminate it, though.) There are some issues that bother me - almost all of them are somewhat related to stress:

1) General management

This is basically why I started using DT. With more than 20 dwarves out there I'd like to have a way that shows me

- Who is suffering from stress? (What's the stress level?)
- Who is currently experiencing stress?

The second one is more of a newbie issue, though. ("This guy is throwing a tuntrum? Let's have a look... Dang, he's been running around almost naked for two years and he didn't bother to tell me.")

One idea about resolving this:

Generate reports about meetings with nobles! Dwarves yell at them if they feel bad - why not let them state what their problem is and how they think it could be resolved.

"Hey, Duke, I haven't seen my wife for weeks and this really annoys me! If I can't see her, you should at least give me a temple that's dedicated to <insertnamehere>.

2) Food preferences

Lots and lots of dwarves complain about not having the "right" food and some of them get really pissed about this over time. Fulfilling food needs is hard, really hard. Apart from their choices what to eat seam totally irrational. There're thousands of lavish meals out there, but they pick up that raw plump helmet. I know there're ways to mitigate this such as placing raw food storages and kitchens far away, but this is annoying.

Suggestions:

- Food of a certain quality does not generate bad thoughts. The required quality is of course different for each individual. While one dwarf may be pleased with anything that has been processed, another may want a lavish meal of at least exceptional quality. This could also be tied to value.
- In order to get a good thought (rather than just no bad thought), a particular ingredient may still be required.
- Of course dwarf should be willing to walk a bit longer to look for some food that doesn't make them unhappy or - if available - happy.

3) Rain & Sun

A lot of things have already be said about whether - rain in particular - so I'd just like to add another suggestion:

If it really pisses them off, dwarves could be reluctant to perform jobs that requires them to go outside or in the rain. This could be done by occassional job cancellations. Of course, if the order is repeatedly given, they should eventually do it - depending on stubbornness or the like...

4) Need to acquire something

If dwarves feel the need to acquire something, they need to haul it. Details unknown. (Will they take it out of a bin, if they haul it?) I think this could be solved rather easily:

If a dwarf needs to acquire something, he should go out and get it. Period. This works for food, for clothing - why not for jewelry and the like? Of course preferences should be honored, perhaps quality, too.

5. Clothing management

Right now I never set up some kind of clothing management - I simply produce clothing in abundance and do a manual cleanup occasionally, which is a pain.

Suggestions:

- high quality clothing simply lasts longer than low quality
- leather clothing lasts longer than fiber clothing
- clothing that is dropped on the ground rots away much faster
- option for xused clothingx (and beyond) for stockpiles to sort out that clothing for further "processing"