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Author Topic: Cribs for babies  (Read 1201 times)

FantasticDorf

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Cribs for babies
« on: October 09, 2016, 11:26:01 am »

Im aware that there have been notable other threads on the topic but this is my own suggestion angle on what id think would benefit the game with so much relative ease you could probably mark it as a minor suggestion with some behavioural/UI changes and a item addition.

A large issue i find with other races, and certain trivialities with dwarves is that the general game rule is that only 1 child can be held by a mother at a time. The mother will constantly express distress over not being able to attend to two children at once, and this problem is exaggerated when you have custom/alternative races with multiple births that grow large families fast.

A crib is a object that can be made out of numerous materials as a piece of furniture to be placed down to put babies inside almost as 'storage' if for whatever reason the mother has to relinquish their hands or take up dangerous duties which will not distress them. Multiple babies from the same mother would end up in individual cribs (summarily allowing dwarves to have twins/identical twins without too much hassle) and between duties of putting them down and picking them up, may cycle babies or hold onto 1 baby pernamently.

Cribs can be placed anywhere to create domestic bedrooms (or left free to put any baby anywhere) but the main places to put cribs would be in personal holdings (personal bedrooms) and hospitals, both with functions in which to filter out which baby belongs where and to who, with the relevant community and family unit looking after the baby being fed.

  • Babies inside cribs, within bedrooms are fed personally by the family and close friends (giving positive thoughts) except in emergencies and the baby has been unfed/unattended too long
  • Babies inside cribs within hospitals are fed by a mixture of the community (doctors etc) and the family unit

Summary other small changes to maternity i would suggest are.

> Eggboxes can only be claimed by sentients if they are in a hospital area/room area owned by the sentient (otherwise barred from animals)
> Spare or orphaned babies (of any racial/civ kind/feral kind if sentient or semi sentient) can be put in cribs within hospital zones and adopted by dwarves into families, it is a public room where they can be attended to if there is no room inside the parent's own personal holdings and or the parents don't own a room.
  • Orphans that were not related to fortress dwarf members (or fortress members) that aren't adopted will remain in your care as children then emigrate as a free citizen or go to live with their nearest relatives, they will be marked on the list to return to your fortress as visitors later IF they return and survive moving about the outside world, where they might go and make a name for themselves or be a candidate for a adventurer

> Adding cribs and nest box functions would also help races who lay eggs in worldgen to maintain populations as it allows them to lay eggs according to map plans if appropriate then have somewhere to deposit the children in cribs in order to count local site population and therefore growing world/civ population.

For example a little bit of map logic in if the room is occupied whilst the map is unloaded for the adventurer by a egg laying race put a eggbox in that room until their residency conditions change.

All of these changes would help streamline maternity mechanically and bring them in line with the existing games systems by applying interactions rather than wholly new mechanics. (though the exception to this would have to be a livestock separate adoption screen) And as always, rely on the community to take it to the next level and create goblin snatcher/forgotten beast baby lure-traps.

Feedback on the suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks

Other relevant threads

Quote
> Cribs for infants (author - Scraggletag)(August 05, 2011)(600+ views)
Quote
>Maternity Ward+ supporting furniture and skills (author - Pinstar)(September 13, 2013)(Note - different to mine, but goes over ideas of giving birth in a hospital more preferable, personally i would have liked it if dwarves gave birth at their holdings if they could for a equal positive boost)(1300+ views)
Quote
>Dwarven cradle (author-Aslandus)(January 05, 2015)(Note - Most recent and similar to my own suggestion, this thread recieved a lot of positive feedback)(1000+views)
« Last Edit: October 09, 2016, 02:39:00 pm by FantasticDorf »
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Grimmrog

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2016, 12:10:37 pm »

A nursery/Kindergarten would indeed be nice. So that some dwarfs take care of bigger amounts of infants/children.
As well as a school, we have such a complex game, yet not anything of this is existing. Ontop the availability of various tys could influence the childs skills and traits such as creativity before growing up. This would also give the teacher skill more use than only military purposes.

that would generate some safety for them as they are gathered somewhere, also, not having to be carried to the job by the mother.
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ykcud

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2016, 01:06:47 pm »

I dont know. I rather like the idea of dwarven mothers using their infants as shields when met with *fun* or conscripted into military service. I also rather like "dwarven daycare".

Actually I am totally on board with this idea. although I can foresee some fortress keepers to place daycare's (areas full of cribs) in dangers way, such as right outside of the entrance. First line of defense, babies!. you never know, the time the dragon takes to burn the babies may be what it takes to get your draw bridge shut and the military set up for defense. Also now that I am thinking about it, I am waiting for that moment when a dwarf gives birth and immediately throws baby at enemy and kills said enemy with baby projectile. Mark my words and tug my beard! It will happen one of these days, if it hasn't already!
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2016, 01:31:25 pm »

First line of defense, babies!.

Load up the baby ballistae (a bridge with occupied cribs) & were-babies, we have goblins to kill.

I did sort of adress baby traps (surround a baby crib in the open with traps to bait baby-snatchers and hostiles) in the op  :D
« Last Edit: November 07, 2016, 01:34:24 pm by FantasticDorf »
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Grimmrog

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2016, 02:29:11 pm »

First line of defense, babies!.

Load up the baby ballistae (a bridge with occupied cribs) & were-babies, we have goblins to kill.

I did sort of adress baby traps (surround a baby crib in the open with traps to bait baby-snatchers and hostiles) in the op  :D

see and nothing would be a better depot for ammo than a daycare next to the ballista. It's just needs to be done.
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DanielCoffey

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2016, 03:40:30 pm »

I like the idea of baby daycare in a Hospital area.

I do remember the episode in DasTactic's Shrine of Freezing video where a dwarf (Hairybritches, was it?) gave birth to triplets while on archery patrol on the roof!
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Zammer990

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2016, 04:44:38 pm »

+1 for outdoor daycare, right next to the dragon pit
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NEANDERTHAL

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2016, 04:43:54 pm »

Perhaps babies and eggs could be treated the same, where they remain items with an optional ownership tag until they "hatch" into real creatures? That would allow things like baby rat delicacies, too.
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anewaname

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Re: Cribs for babies
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2016, 03:02:09 am »

Looking at the "bloodthirsty overseers" perspective, it seems that baby-care should be implemented in a way that care for orphaned or abundant babies is done without separating babies from adults. This is normal social behaviour for all the sentient races, even those that steal babies. The sentient flag is the first important thing. The baby flag is the second important thing. Locking up children in some manner seems rather normal, even if they are just being told "you are grounded".

In real-life, mothers don't 'crib' babies, they 'haul' babies. That is why the babies stay with the mother in DF and the mother chases the baby when they are separated. When a mother's eyes are not on the baby, their ears are on the baby and they constantly check in. Mothers normally avoid dangers while hauling babies. You can help them do this in DF by defining what is dangerous

Furthermore, orphaned babies should automatically be considered as "Available" for adoption within the sentient communities and adopted quickly. All sentient societies have individuals interested in adopting orphaned babies for whatever purposes and this would involve some baby care.

To implement the above in a coded manner, there could be a new Standing Orders menu option to assign an existing burrow as a "babycare burrow". Any mother with a baby would be auto-assigned to that burrow until the baby is grown then would be auto-unassigned. Mothers receiving active Military orders could forcibly "orphan" their baby, which would cause another dwarf to "Adopt" the baby, then the military mother would "Reclaim baby" when released from their active orders.
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