Bay 12 Games Forum

So, having dwarves make friends (and lovers) is a very good way to avoid unhappiness.  If you just have a big group of dwarves, they tend to make a lot of aquantances,  rather than friends.   Guilds are really good for this.  I split my dwarves into guilds, set up living areas and squads based on guilds.   I start by allowing everyone to visit every guild when the fortress is small, but when it is large, I make each guild members only.   Sometimes I use burrows to divide my guilds.   You then see more friendships and romantic relationships occur, which lowers unhappiness a lot. I think that dwarves who share skills are more likely to become friends as a well, but I am not sure.

I also tend to build taverns and barracks just below a weak aquifer and bore holes in the ceiling (about 2 z levels up) to allow the occasional waterfall effect to splash my dwarves.   

I've run three more forts and the best way to get a dwarf to make friends is to burrow them in a guildhall with some other dwarves with the same skills enabled- dwarves seem to make friends with those who have similar skills faster.
I supply food and water, and since all of the workshops are in the guildhall, put the dwarves to work.   Within a year, most dwarves have multiple friends, and only one or two have no friends. 

What I'm doing is burrowing most crafts, while allowing miners, haulers, admin etc.  free movement.  Apparently, you can immediately socialize in a guild, socialize or train with dwarves far away in the guild, and that training and socializing builds relationships a lot more quickly than a tavern.   

The other key is keeping your guilds around 15 or less dwarves, so that  they are repeatedly socializing with the same dwarf.   My next question is does the same thing happen with burrowed dwarves in taverns? 

In this build, friendship seems like a more important need, and losing a friend is less likely to make a tantrum spiral.   

Strange question:

Can an event like a birth in particular be use to trigger a syndrome?  I think that the birth process for dwarves is one of the least realistic events in the game (having gone through 2 deliveries on the part of my wife in the last 3 years), and I would like to create a labor syndrome that is triggered by the birth event. 

The issue is the trigger - how does one connect that to a syndrome or other event?

thanks.

Hello, my apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this. . .

I would like to make two dwarves friends, but it seems that this is difficult as the friendship data is stored in history as a vector.   Is there a script that can accomplish this?

thanks for your help.

I retired some adventurers at my fort, including Muzikam Okagkirun, "Fungusgorged the Bloated Mushroom."  This is a plump helmet man who became something of a mascot for the dwarves of my fortress.  He is listed among the animals of the fortress, but due to the blessing of the gods (and dwarf therapist) Fungusgorged was able to become a high master brewerer among other skills. 

When the representative of the mountainhomes asked in all earnestness who should be the new baron of Beastgorged the Brilliance of monsters, the mayor looked at the Captain of the guard, and the captain of the guard looked at the mayor. 
"Ye mean, you're actually letting US pick?"   The representative nodded affirmative.

With great, gap-toothed grins they replied

"Oh, Aye.  When know just the individual for that singular honor."

I imagine representatives of the great powers having bizarre one sided conversations with the mushroom baron as it capers on the table and emits spores.    I imagine Fungusgorged extending patient hyphae to devour foul slime as disgruntled dwarves share their troubles with  it.   

How dare the elves say that dwarves have no sense of humor?

So, my fort currently has 2 children and one insane, ecstatic master weaponsmith wandering the miasmatic, corpse filled halls.   Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  How did this come to pass?

A werehorse attacks my fort.  The well armed militia respond and kill it, but in the process, one fragile marksdwarf, an administrator by trade, is injure.   The militia is sent to quarantine for a month.  The injured dwarf goes to the hospital, setup without doors near the main body of the fort.  Several days, later the administrator transforms while in his bed.   He is unable to escape (I assume strapped down), but a innocent ranger comes near to drop of some linens, and has his throat bitten out.  Chaos reigns.  Now healed, the marksdwarf escapes his bed and begins to attack other members of the fort. The military is sent to kill him.  Oh, they do!  But it is too late - many in the military, already depressed due to the long patrol time bug, go berzerk, crushing pets and children. 

The mayor goes insane and kills a nearby child.   Then, as bodies pile up and blood runs, he takes over a woodworkers shop.  As he does so, a forgotten beast attack. What remains of the military makes short work of it.    The mayor reveals his creation:  an artifact bone coffin!   

God, I love this game.  Losing is indeed !FUN!     I plan to keep on with this fortress, and try to rebuild.  I mean, there is an artifact steel shortsword waiting for a dwarf dwarfly enough to reclaim it.  I see it as sticking out of an anvil somewhere in the dark, waiting for the chosendorf. 

Temujin

About that experiment:

After I made sure I had the JUSTICE requirements - that is enough restraints, the laison made me an offer.  I did offer about 10,000 dwarfbucks in tribute as well.  Try making a jail, and see what happens, people.

Temujin