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[krenshala]

i inadvertently assigned my first vampire (.34.01) to be my Chief Medical Vampire Dwarf. This apparently worked out well, because I was starting to wonder how often vampires will feed due to the lack of dwarves turning up mysteriously drained of blood.  After two years I finally noticed a dwarf that was Pale, but I didn't go back to that fortress due to the 34.02 update coming out.

I believe my lack of deaths is directly attributable to the Chief Medical Vampire having a bedroom just off the hospital (where he would admire the bed he never slept in), and about half my dwarves using the hospital beds for their naps, thus providing the CMV with ample opportunity to drink non-life-threatening amounts of blood.

[smeeprocket]

My Chief Medical Dwarf is a vampire too. That's explains all the pale people. It seems to work out well!

[Timst]

About that... how frequently must a vampire feed ? I have a vampire engraver that I keep locked in some rooms so he can smooth and engrave them. After that I put him in a squad and move him to another, where I lock the room, designate the place and so forth. I've been doing that for 2 years, and he doesn't seems to be willing to escape when I make him walk from room to room. He isn't even Tired. Ditto for another vampire that I just locked in a room when he first came and forgot about. On the contrary, I have an old vampire that I convicted subsequently imprisoned that was just released, and the first thing he did was sucking down a farmer. Maybe different vampires have different needs ?

[Kaos]

What's the deal with the jewellery?

I have immigrants with lots of jewellery and they are wearing it, yay! I've seen:
*earrings on the ears,
*amulets and crowns on the head and
*rings on the fingers

I've also seen dwarfs wearing jewellery in combat using their crowns to beat their enemies...
When assigned to a squad with only a weapon as uniform they drop their crowns...
How's the nickname glitch supposed to work?

I have a fortress over 1 year old, just seen my second dwarven caravan/outpost liason, got a mayor, had like 4 migration waves, got 90 dwarves,  the starting 7, maybe 4-5 were born on-site, the rest all immigrants (both adult and children), so far I haven't had no vampire draining...

I've been screening all my dwarves:

*some come with jewellery
*some have previous kills (elfs, humans, animals, are these any indicator?)
*some show one name on the units screen but a different (last) name on DwarfTheRapist, are these vampires? I remember this happening before...
*using DT I gave all nicknames, they all show on the 'U'nits screen
*using DT I gave all custom profession names, they all show on the 'U'nits screen

Some Screening Assumptions
In the raws vampires are supposed to not age -> any child immigrant that grows to an adult on the fortress is safe?
In the raws vampires are supposed to be sterile -> the parents of any newborn in the fortress is safe?

Do vampires don't drink/eat at all? I mean they don't need to, but do they do anyway, like to keep appearances/because they enjoy it
I've tried stationing some suspects but they get sleepy/thirsty/hungry, are these safe?

can you have baby (not child) immigrants?
can babies/children be vampires?
do you get vampires in all biomes? (I'm in good/normal biomes)
maybe my fort is too young?

[Timst]

The idea is that dwarves (and humans, etc.) tend to make jewelry out of their slain enemies, and wear it. For vampires, the "enemies" would be the other humanoids they kill. Thus, any migrants wearing a large amount of humanoid bone jewelry is suspect.

It's not a perfect indicator, as not all vampire wear them. My 4 vampires have perfectly standard outfits.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

I think I may have observed a vampire going to sleep!  Or perhaps an absurd series of false alarms.

Here is the situation: Sodel Amalurist came to my fort in the third immigration wave, and I believed him to be one of two confirmed vampires.  I have always nicknamed all my dwarves, but when I nicknamed Mr. Amalurist "John Hancock" (I have an historical theme), the in-game menus refused to acknowledge his new nom-de-fortress.  When I gave him the custom profession "Farm Hand", certain in-game menus refused to acknowledge his occupation change from "Broker".

Sodel Amalurist is 150 years old, he has been a member of approximately 50 civilizations, the mayor of a few and the "High Moss" of another.  His absurdly high social skills got him immediately elected mayor of my fortress Earthenromanced.  He loves doors, forbids their export, and mandates I make rock doors, so I think I'll keep him on as mayor.  But he worships a god (of light!) with a long history of turning people into vampires and were-Buffalo.

I made my two vampires into my militia and they patrolled for about a year without rest, food, or drink.  And their minor injuries all seemed to heal fine on their own.  So I'm pretty sure he is a vampire, although I admit to not having seen him drain anyone.

But he was recently injured in a fight with an owl-man.  He lost his left back tooth, and sustained a compound fracture of his second toe on the right foot.  He has been diagnosed by my not-yet-vampire doctor, and the wound is infected.  Anyway, he recently went to sleep in the hospital (on the ground, despite free dormitory beds, during a blighted-kitten-husk crisis).  Has he really not been a vampire all this time?  Despite all the evidence?  Or can vampires sleep when they are wounded?  I have saved a separate copy of the save, so I'm willing to do whatever !Science! is needed.  Please advise!

[xordae]

Chief Medical Vampire Dwarf

[Sutremaine]

Are vampire attacks easy to detect without special measures? Based on the raws, their teeth extend when they're feeding, and while you'd need to be watching the dwarf to know to look at their description screen (or you could be doing it randomly for some other reason) it would be a confirmation of their vampire status.

Also based on the raws, they're alcohol-dependent creatures that don't drink. Is their need for alcohol sated by feeding on the blood of an alcohol-dependent creature (I wouldn't expect the game to track the BAC of each walking dwarven Happy Meal), or do they find themselves becoming inexplicably cranky after some months in the fortress?

[TheCze]

So I just had a Reptile Man diplomat coming to my fortress who was a vampire.
Did not kill anyone though (apparently)

[xordae]

After having kept vampires in a tower without blood, or booze, or any furniture at all save for their own coffins, I can safely say that they don't get cranky. They'll never display a 'has been hungry / thirsty' or anything like that. I don't know if they can starve if left without blood, but they can last for years without it.

If they're classified as depending on booze, I don't think it actually manifests itself in the game.

[greycat]

I think I may have observed a vampire going to sleep!

[...] He has been diagnosed by my not-yet-vampire doctor, and the wound is infected.  Anyway, he recently went to sleep in the hospital (on the ground, despite free dormitory beds, during a blighted-kitten-husk crisis).

When you say "went to sleep", do you mean he is showing the "Rest" job?  Or is he merely unconscious while idle?

[Sutremaine]

They'll never display a 'has been hungry / thirsty' or anything like that.

Just to confirm, you were looking in the right place? The text for alcohol status is right at the bottom of the thought screen, just above the 'a short, sturdy creature...' line.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

When you say "went to sleep", do you mean he is showing the "Rest" job?  Or is he merely unconscious while idle?

He is ignoring his orders by staying in one place, far from his station, having a flashing Z over his smiley face when he should be off killing a kitten husk with the rest of his squad.  I'm on a different computer right now, so I can't check his actual job, although I'll post that later tonight, but he shouldn't be idle, and I think the flashing Z is an unambiguous indicator of sleep.  In this still expected behavior for creatures with [NOSLEEP]?

[xordae]

They'll never display a 'has been hungry / thirsty' or anything like that.

Just to confirm, you were looking in the right place? The text for alcohol status is right at the bottom of the thought screen, just above the 'a short, sturdy creature...' line.

I was actually looking at the first paragraph in white, where they give reasons for happiness and unhappiness. Will have to check on that other one.

[crossmr]

I disagree, I have a successful fort with several vampires, a few who are soldiers, but mostly my nobles. (the soldiers are because the stupid peasants rushed in when I unlocked the door to my vampire blood fount.)

You just can't have -a lot- of vampires. But getting them to feed from children is possible, you just have to make liberal use of burrows.

Making nobles vamps isn't really the best use of vapirism, btw, I just wanted a ruling class.

I didn't say my fort wasn't successful. I had a great little fort, lots of workshops, food, everyone was happy, etc
The problem was that good dwarves were randomly being killed off and I could do nothing about it.
That's the point. The risk vs reward doesn't balance out here. The risk of losing random dwarves that you could have spent hours/days cultivating, say in the case of training up a military from scratch, vs the reward of getting a slightly better soldier/a mug maker that never sleeps doesn't work for me.