Bay 12 Games Forum

Fine they don't have to lick (was mainly a stupid dwarf joke as one of many injuries you could get in the Jungle Gym), but grabbing metal bars in freezing temperatures without mittens should piss off your dwarves.

Making the Jungle Gym out of wood gives the Dwarves a chance of getting a splinter based on the quality of the gym.  A minor injury healed with the surgery skill, but if left untreated could become infected.  A metal jungle gym, in freezing temperatures, has the chance of a dwarf getting his tongue stuck.  No treatment needed, but it's a bad thought.  Using the climbing rope has a chance of rope-burn, bruising the skin of the hands and giving a bad thought, though it has a chance of improving the Toughness atribute.  Using the course in general has the good thought of 'enjoyed vigorous exercise', but generally speaking, the good thoughts don't outweigh the bad until the dwarf has about Competent skill in Acrobatics.

It would vary somewhat by the dwarf's personality, and perhaps personal attributes; corpulent dwarves may find less enjoyment from the constant teasing from the other dwarves.  I'm not sure we should include dodgeball, though I often have a room dedicated to dodgespear anyway.

Well, the biggest thing that would change for Humans vs Dwarves is mounts.  Human forts would start off with the ability to ride horses, and I suppose captured large creatures; everything goblins can ride, up to cave dragons.  Yes, I once had goblins invade my fort riding friggen cave dragons, on the first siege no less.

Also, human nobles could vary in what justice they want.  A truly draconian baron might order executions for so much as a theft, or citizens could be banished entirely from the fort.

Anyway, yeah, this would be for after DF is relatively finished, and mroe importantly the issue with frame-rate is fixed.  My computer is not exactly old, but most of my forts tend to end in crippling lag.  I use battery farms for my meat industry, and avoid perpetual motion plants, but even with a pop cap of 80 DF can come to a crawl in a developed fort.

We may one day have civilizations beyond the current 5; Kobolds were only added as a Civ a few months ago IIRC.  Each world could have a few random manbeast civilizations; one world could have Badgermen forming cities, while another world has Mooseman cities.  And not just new species civilizations, but rival civs in the same species.  You know how there are 4 dwarf civs to choose from at the start?  Nothing says that all dwarves are permanently allied.  But until then, no torturing dwarves.

Dwarves are your own civilization.  I doubt you would be able to interrogate your own cousins.  But yes, Humans and Elves would be able to exchange for prisoners.  Money is kind of worthless IMHO, but I wouldn't mind receiving 50 logs or 20 steel bars or something along those lines for a soldier, twice that for the squad leader, etc.  You might be able to end a war sooner with an exchange of some kind involving prisoners.

And yes, I would like to exchange an elf prisoner for a tame Giant Mosquito (seriously, I want a breeding pair; say hello to my army of flying giant carp!) or something.  Hey, it would actually make me want to start some wars, just for prisoners to exchange.  Not sure what Dwarven ethics say about that though.

Also, would be nice if you could request stuff of the Elf/Human merchants.

So you have cage traps in your entrances, and now have a stockpile of thieves to dispose of.  Why not "question" them for information?  Successful interrogations will give information on things such as when and from where the next siege/ambush will come, how many will come, what kinds of weapons they will attack with.  If successful, the game will warn you in advance if an ambush is expected or if a siege is imminent.

There can be more than one way to interrogate the prisoner.  It can be done cruelly or kindly, depending on your assigned torturers' personality and social skills.  Kindly involves feeding the prisoner your masterwork tallow roasts and showing him around your tastefully arranged statues, getting the prisoner to ecstatic and friendly enough to divulge the information.  Cruelly involves physical and psychological torture to make him miserable, such as sleep deprivation by engraving near him or just a few hours on a torture bench.  Extra points for being near scary things like a caged giant mosquito or over a pool of magma.  Time may be important; too long and the information is no longer relevant.

Prisoner Exchanges should also be available.  So you captured 10 goblins, but what do you do besides execute them?  Why, engage in a bit of diplomacy!  You want Urist Whinestone back, so you can trade 3 goblins for your stolen child; you may see those 3 goblins in the next siege though.  Or you can trade 20 prisoners in exchange for a temporary truce for a year (which they may break, unless you still have more goblins they want).  Anything to involve diplomacy and social skills, so your nobles aren't worthless.

Capturing creatures with the military.  Soldiers can be equipped with ropes or nets to try and capture creatures/goblins, where they then drag the captive to a built cage.  Squads can be assigned to attempt to capture a creature rather than kill.  Some weapons can also be used to help; new weapons like batons or sock-bricks.  Capturing is of course harder than just killing.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.  I just want to do something with prisoners besides executing them.

It's also easier to look at the blue list near the top of all the relationships; a huge list 1/3 the page is a big warning sign, then check relationships to see if the vampire has lots of friends/family but none in YOUR fort, and lastly at the bottom the vampire will have extra things to say in the "needs alcohol to get through the working day" part.

Then assign your vampire to be the leader of his own personal squad, move him to a location, and wall him in with a desk and chair to make him a bookkeeper.  He slows down incredibly as he runs out of dwarves to feed on, too slow for a manager but not so slow as to be a poor bookkeeper.  Also, put some nice things in the rooms for him to admire so his happiness helps if he's the last "dwarf" alive.