Bay 12 Games Forum

Why would you want dwarves to spend more time doing things that aren't working?

They wouldn't, they'd just do more things when they aren't working.

A few ideas:
Sports and games: Require equipment (randomly generated when the game is), a few dwarves will organise themselves into teams or something depending on the game. Depending on the game, some skills might be trained. Examples: Chess/Go/Whatever (requires game board, trains Concentration), Hammer Throwing (requires at least one hammer, trains Throwing, may be dangerous for bystanders), some kind of game involving staying on top of a barrel for the longest (requires a barrel, trains Wrestling and perhaps other skills).
Recreational work: Pastimes that are actually work the dwarf gets paid for (once the economy is in again), unless he keeps the results for himself. Examples: Fishing, hunting, certain crafts, animal husbandry.
Storytelling: Find a bunch of other idlers or kids, and tell them tales. Depending on the story, can pass on skills.
Hiking: Probably only done whilst on break. A dwarf grabs a spare backpack and waterskin and wanders around for a while, as far from civilization as they can. On the orders screen, you can disable hikes.

And that's about all I can think of without implementing some really new stuff. All of these should have good thoughts with them--for instance, someone playing a game would get a good thought from that, alongside a smaller bad thought for losing and a good thought for winning.

It's more feasible with several weeks of work. Maybe a bit of exaggeration there, maybe you have a life.

Well, a cat going out of its way to dump its prizes in the trash heap just isn't credible.  But a dog taking a Return Kill job after a successful hunt is, if the dead animal isn't too big.  A horse or ox or even an elephant moving logs around the surface makes sense, though you'd probably need to attach some kind of cart or harness.  A small monkey might be good for delivering food and water to the wounded, or just bringing snacks to its owner if he's busy with a long job.

I agree on the cat, dog, and monkey parts, although I think dogs already do that. (I could be mistaken, as I don't ever use hunting dogs or usually use hunters.) As to the horse/ox/Boatmurderedbane-hauling-logs idea, maybe such creatures could be trained to carry items that were loaded on to them to a stockpile, but except maybe for elephants there's no way that they could grab the items themselves.

This is going to be somewhat (extremely) off topic. What if we used the power of Dwarven engineering to surgically attach a wooden barrel to a mule, then use him as a portable ale dispenser? It may take a legendary surgeon or something to do it, but I think crude cybernetics like that would be awesome. We could also use it to help invalid dwarves by providing them with helpful alternatives to their missing limbs. Urist lost his arm in the goblin raid? Replace it with a pickaxe! Thorin lost his leg? Adamantine pegleg with quiver and flask attachments! On second thought this is a little too ridiculous, but I just had a great idea. What if when Urist McDoctor gets a strange mood instead of building an artifact, he decks out a patient with a permanent body modification? Instead of claiming a workshop, he claims an injured dwarf, if all the dwarves are healthy then he goes insane.

That is...a combination of dangerous, awesome, weird, dangerous, insane, dwarfy, and stupid in varying combinations. To start with, adamantine is horrible for peglegs--not only is it rarer than a sober dwarf, it's so light that kicks and walking would be screwed up, to say nothing of how the dwarf would drink from a flask affixed to its leg. Attaching barrels to mules sounds cruel but dwarfy. A pick-arm would be awesome for a miner, but bad for an axedwarf or something. Calling these things "crude cybernetics" gives it the wrong vibe; you mean "crude prosthetic." Legendary surgeons wouldn't be needed to attach these things, but they would lead to less blood loss. Moody surgeons claiming injured dwarves might be cool, but how I think it should work is that a dwarf claims a table or bed (ideally one in a hospital), then grabs an injured dwarf, then makes the prosthetic. That way, you can see what materials they need to make the thing. Also consider the possibility of fell surgeon moods...

I was going to suggest that, GWG, but I thought it was a little too disgusting.

...Oh, God. I thought I was the sane one on this forum!

Obviously, but what moron would sell all of his stone?

They stop eventually. You'll know when by a special message:
Your settlement has crumbled to its end...

First thing to try: (b)uild the cage (using (x) to select the exact one you want), then (q)uery it and attempt to unassign the dwarf. Most people suggest this as the proper solution, but it's my recollection that it doesn't work.

It worked for me.

it's a FREEZING BIOME this is the easiest type of aquifer to break through! Just dig and let it freeze, then engrave it or something.

Or find a way to have an elf corpse frozen in it, bonus points.

Yeah, and heh.

Please upload the seed?