Bay 12 Games Forum

I just wanted to pop in and say that I saw a dwarf go over to the carpenter while they were working and had an apparently satisfying intellectual conversation. I was super stoked to see this happen, as it removes the need for a lot of social micromanagement, and is just extremely.realistic.

I really hope we'll see our dwarves trying to proactively solve nearly all of their needs in the future.

Is there a script for removing or fulfilling the need for decent meals? I find this need so frustrating and difficult to fulfill on many dwarves that I basically consider it a bug. Having a dwarf constantly get bad thoughts because I can't provide a source of magpie meat or millet beer gets old fast.

I can deal with all the other needs, as finicky as they are, but I'd really just like to kick this one to the curb.

Something I've taken to doing recently is using my captain of the guard squadron as a way to give most of my dwsrves at least a tiny bit of military training, to increase their odds when attacked, give them some discipline skill to make them more resilient, and to meet their need for military training. As a side effect, I'm hoping it will also help more dwarves develop friendships in the fortress.

Basically what I've done is created a small, 2x2 training room, assigned it to the guard squad, and filled that squad with random dwarves who have gotten to 'distracted' by the lack of martial training, focusing on the unhappiest of those. Then I assign them wooden shields, basic armor, and training weapons, set the training schedule for minimum 4, and periodically check in on whose in the barracks and whether their martial training need has been satisfied, in which case I boot them out of the squad to slot in the next dwarf.

So far it's been pretty effective at boosting overall morale and keeping stress under control. And if I ever got desperate for more military dwarves, I've gotten a head start on training a lot of potential recruits.

Why not just make dwarves attend to their needs as standard?

What is standard? Right now there are seven levels of need, from unfettered to badly distracted. At what point along the line should a dwarf prioritize meeting a need over other work?

What I'm suggesting is basically being able to determine that as a player, to say 'this dwarf needs to go meet a need anytime they become not distracted' and 'this dwarf needs to hold out as long as possible and let their needs to yellow or red if necessary to get the job done'. Discipline skill and patience might be relevant to that last one.

Stress management is definitely improved from where it used to be, but whenever I do end up with a stressed dwarf (usually in the aftermath of a siege) I have to do an inordinate amount of micromanaging to get them back on track. I've even made burrows for the temple and the tavern to assign troubled dwarves to, though getting my dwarves to make friends they can spend time with still eludes me.

What I'm proposing is basically a labor option to tell dwarves to focus on their needs. A dwarf with this option selected would at a high priority go to the temple to commune with their gods, go to the library to read, actively seek out their favorite food/booze, actively seek out one of the dwarves they have a relationship with to talk to, and maybe even do things like indivisual combat drill on their own, or find a random empty workshop and make a random craft like a mini strange mood.

Such dwarves could have a special label in the units screen for whatever they're doing, like 'On Break: reading book', so you could quickly keep track of who was on break to check if they were ready to resume normal duties.

This would have the effect of making dwarves with unmet needs take time off of productive work without having to do all the fiddly messing with burrows that we currently do to try to manage stress. Think of it like someone's boss noticing that they're on the edge of a breakdown and telling them to take a few days off to focus on themselves.

I guess Deon was mostly talking about his plans in the thread, rather than what he had implemented.

I don't suppose there are any more complete fallout-inspired modpacks?

In my experience, I've had good results locking my marksdwarves into whatever area they are expected to shoot out from, and putting a supply of bolts in there directly.

I have occasionally taken screenshots of my fortresses and used them as pathfinder dungeons.