Bay 12 Games Forum

I used to worry as a child that my mother might be poisoning me. It was after I saw something on TV where a mother poisoned their kid to keep her sick all the time.

Yeah, something similar happened to my brother.  We watched some sort of documentary on this sort of thing and he was paranoid about it for a while.  He did have OCD, so that probably played into it.

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I don't get this fear of hositals and dentists, they won't try and hurt you or anything :/

Needles poking through my skin.. or gums (at the dentist)..
I truly hate needles..

This.  I didn't fear much as a kid, but man I hated the dentist.  I finally mostly got over it, but I definitely don't like needles.

I initially thought that megabeasts were a joke when most of them got killed in short order.  Then I ran into one with deadly vapors.  Oh boy.

I was actually looking to end the fort in a spectacular manner, but I sent the military after it anyway.  The way into the fort from the caverns wasn't blocked, so it managed to get up into the fort and near the dining hall.  Then the vapor started.

The military eventually managed to kill it, but I lost about half of them (had 40 to start with, 23 after I think).  In all, I lost 1/3 of the 150 citizens in my fort.  The vapors didn't kill immediately, but after bleeding for a bit people started dying.  I was lulled into a false sense of security when the military didn't go down instantly from it.

There was so much blood and vomit afterward it was kind of funny.  Then the miasma started when I couldn't bury them fast enough.  Hilariously, I only my mayor tantrumed from the ordeal from losing his wife and 2 kids.  He was fine a few days later though.

This was using the pony mod.  I guess there wasn't enough magic of friendship in my fort.  Nobody cared that everyone was dying.

So, is this distinct from social phobia in general?  I could relate to that, as I imagine many here probably could, but I must say I've never experienced the direct symptoms you describe.  For me, I just usually stay to myself in crowds, for instance.

The standard response to this, of course, is to seek a professional.  Having said that, my completely uneducated opinion is that the only way to get over it is to face it.  That's how I (more or less) overcame my social phobia and arachnophobia (although I'm still working on acrophobia).

So if you're looking into self-medicating on this issue, that's probably all you can really do.  Just try to ease yourself into these uncomfortable situations.  Like everything, it gets easier with practice and time.

One alternative to treating phobias is flooding, which in this case I wouldn't recommend.  In flooding, you are thrust into a situation you find uncomfortable in the extreme (such as being covered in spiders if you fear them).  I probably don't need to elaborate why this is probably a bad idea.

I've only dug into the HFS once, but when I did it was underwhelming. Not sure if my map only generated minimal demons, or if my dudes were just uber badasses, but I had about 6 legendary fighters, all veterans of dozens of combats, all with full adamantine armour and weapons. They massacred the demons very easily. I think there were probably less than 10 demons in total, is this abnormal?

Or you could end up like me where the demons just ignore you.  I dug through the last line of adamantine, got the message, and the demons went up the wrong spire.  They seemed to disappear after that.  Was strange stuff.

Anyway, about 15-20 spawned for me, but it's supposedly randomly from 10 to 30 or so.

the first time I play any game I enjoyed (save for DF, it was a few times in I enjoyed it most)

There's a lot to be said for this, actually.  I always enjoy games most when I'm still learning them.  It's exciting to learn a new game.  Everquest did this for me longer than any other game because of the utter lack of hand holding early on.

Once I've mastered a game, I never enjoy it as much again.  I think that's one of Dwarf Fortress' strongest points.  You pretty much can't master it.

Drivers maybe?  I've heard second hand that Ubuntu updates like to screw up proprietary driver installations for one reason or another.

((He sucker-punched her. how the hell do you get a skull fracture from that?))

((Well, this is Dwarf Fortress after all.  Kind of.  I'd say Starkey's little outburst would count as a tantrum, and I've seen fatal tantrum punches to the head))

Falcata's Diary - 21st Obsidian, 98

The rainbow ponies sent their diplomat to meet with the countess today.  It wasn't long after the tentacle pony set hoof in the door that Isos discreetly informed us to keep a close eye on him and to stay close to the countess.  I couldn't agree more with that decision, so I obeyed.  Fortunately, nothing came of the matter, and so far as I know the meeting was conducted and he left without incident.

25th Obsidian, 98

Word passed down today that things are going well enough here that Countess Charity has been granted the title of Duchess from the princess.  I still have strong reservations about the way she handled the smuggling incident, but otherwise I suppose she has earned the title.

But enough of that.  When I enquired about Isos' absence today, I was informed she had given birth yesterday.  Kris is enough for me to keep up with, so I don't know how she's going to handle having another foal.

1st Slate, 99

I don't know what to think.  Just as I was finishing another failure of a practice session, I overheard Captain Isos and Captain Starkey discussing something terrible.

It seems that the murderous Dr. Friesden has claimed another life.  This time, it was Captain Carrot of the militia.  I was am furious about it.  I couldn't comprehend why Friesden would have even been allowed free until Isos informed us that it was Khenal's doing.

That I don't understand at all.  I've seen Khenal associating with Friesden off and on, but I didn't really comprehend the implications until now.  I trust Khenal's decisions more than just about anypony else, but this I just don't understand.  Regardless, it seems he made a terrible mistake that has cost the life of Captain Carrot.

Well, we'll get to see what he has to say on the matter soon enough.  Duchess Charity has set a trial for Friesden a week from today.  If I have time I'll be there to watch.  I want to know what Khenal and Friesden have to say for themselves.

For now, I'm going to try again to get some sleep.  My first attempt was fruitless, but perhaps now that I've cleared my mind I'll manage.

I'll admit to taking a doctor in my starting builds, but it's probably not necessary, for the reasons already outlined above.

Diagnostician is apparently pretty important, so I bump that up a bit.  In my current fort, I've yet to get a single immigrant with better medical skills than my starting doctor, so it seems like a decent investment so far.

Except for the fact that I've only had 1 injury in 3 years.  Oh well, self injuring dwarves feels... wrong, so I don't do that.

I did inspect personalities first though, and assigned my doc to one who found helping others rewarding and who doesn't procrastinate.  She did jump to it immediately when she was needed, so maybe it's worthwhile to do this for dwarves in case you get a great doctor immigrant who is a sourpuss and never does his job.