Dwarf Fortress > DF Gameplay Questions

Long term and post siege stress in 44.12

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Adequate Swimmer:
I'm struggling with the new stress mechanics in the current version of DF. As far as I can tell after 4-5 ingame years the dwarves never get unstressed. Every negative thought is like one of those fish that latch onto a shark, it just keeps growing and producing more fish. God forbid if a dwarf sees a dead rat or a goblin body part. They're going to keep worrying about it and having existential thoughts until I finally decide to send the dwarf to stand in the trash compactor, or just dfhack it to save myself the trouble.

I also got wardec'd by a dwarven civ a couple of years back which seemed to make the problem worse, esp with how legendary warriors blow enemies to bits, each tooth and finger becoming a different, separate source of stress.

Is there a better way of dealing with this or should I just dfhack it? I know toady cares a lot more about adding new features than about mundane quality of life stuff, but there has to be a better way of doing this. Even archcrystal had this problem since updating to a newer version of the game.

Shonai_Dweller:

--- Quote from: Adequate Swimmer on August 18, 2018, 06:23:01 am ---I'm struggling with the new stress mechanics in the current version of DF. As far as I can tell after 4-5 ingame years the dwarves never get unstressed. Every negative thought is like one of those fish that latch onto a shark, it just keeps growing and producing more fish. God forbid if a dwarf sees a dead rat or a goblin body part. They're going to keep worrying about it and having existential thoughts until I finally decide to send the dwarf to stand in the trash compactor, or just dfhack it to save myself the trouble.

I also got wardec'd by a dwarven civ a couple of years back which seemed to make the problem worse, esp with how legendary warriors blow enemies to bits, each tooth and finger becoming a different, separate source of stress.

Is there a better way of dealing with this or should I just dfhack it? I know toady cares a lot more about adding new features than about mundane quality of life stuff, but there has to be a better way of doing this. Even archcrystal had this problem since updating to a newer version of the game.

--- End quote ---
It's a work in progress, it's been adjusted once (try 44.10, that was just crazy), based on further feedback it'll be adjusted again. The release arc is still ongoing. "Toady doesn't give a shit" is just some weird rumour which has nothing to do with his actual statements on the stress system.

Adequate Swimmer:
I did but I didn't play 44.09 long enough for it to become an issue. Or rather, as soon as it became an issue I checked the file depository, only to find out the starter pack had been updated a few hours earlier.

Looking purely at dev logs without being influenced by anyone's opinion, it's visible he spends a lot of time concepting new systems, and trying to get them to interact with each-other in interesting ways. He simply isn't the type of programmer that's willing to spend the whole day reproducing the same bug again and again or doing unit tests. Not to mention that unit testing the corpse bug would be incredibly time consuming, since the effects are only visible after long-term attrition and as a result of several gameplay systems interacting for years.

PatrikLundell:
As Shonai_Dweller said, he does care, and he does try to adjust things. A major drawback with his setup is that he doesn't have the time to run fortresses for long enough to see long term issues himself, and so has to rely on feedback and well written/reseached bug reports (ideally with a save that clearly shows where the problem is).

Shonai_Dweller mentioned 0.44.10 for a reason: that's the version where the new system was introduced in a completely unbalanced state, so experience from 0.44.09 doesn't account for much.

In order to balance the current take on the system again Toady would need solid data on what is too much and what is too little, and I don't think there's enough experience in the community to determine that yet.

One of the changes made to the system was to divide memory slots into groups, so not each and every instance of the strongest kind of thought would occupy every slot, but leave room for weaker thoughts that hopefully are positive to make it in, and I think the impact of seeing lesser body bits (such as teeth and fingers) has been lessened as well.

My personal experience of the system is limited, as my fortress is just short of 10 years old, I think. So far I haven't had anyone go over the edge, although I've had one I thought lost because he kept slipping further into stress even when I did everything I could think of, but he eventually turned around. I've got one or two cases of yellow arrow stress as well. It can be mentioned that my fortress sees its share of corpse hauling, as goblins and undead show up a fair bit (although my prisoner execution device happened to end up in a reanimating biome, converting some killed prisoners into undead, which should cause less stress when hauled (assuming they are killed [again], of course). Most prisoners get atom smashed, though, but there's still ones killed by the delivery process before then can enter the smasher.

Adequate Swimmer:
Think I'll do what you did and simply go with cage traps and a suicide booth. It's kind of a waste since I've got a grudge with another dwarven civ and humane execution simply feels wrong. These things need to be both loud and public.

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