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[perilisk]

Oddly enough, I didn't see much about it on the big dev page.

I think it would be interesting if Thoughts had a little more complexity. In general, I don't have a problem with the system of taking all active thoughts and adding their values. But I had a few ideas for tweaking it.

First, variable duration...
* Losing a loved one lasts for a long time (a week for a pet, a few years for a spouse).
* Sustaining injury lasts for the period of injury, and the severity depends on the severity of the injury. Minor conditions (hunger/thirst) tend to go away as soon as the condition itself does.
* Witnessing death lasts a week or two, the first time, but the dwarf becomes permanently desensitized, both in duration and magnitude, as they see more death.
* Failure to have mandates/demands met is as arbitrary as the demands themselves. Some nobles will obsess about it for weeks, some will have forgotten they even passed a mandate by the time the deadline expires.
* Major accomplishments (relationship changes, noble ranks, artifacts) will also have long-lasting Thoughts.

Most of the remaining thoughts go into a big category called Quality of Life (including admiring and disgust, chatting with loved ones, being consoled, caretaking, being in jail, etc.). Most of these thoughts have a duration of a day or so, though they can be triggered again as soon as they expire. Every dwarf has an expectation of QoL, and happiness/unhappiness is relative to this. A dwarf who expects to sleep on rocks will be ecstatic to sleep in soft dirt. A dwarf used to a finely crafted bed will be unhappy in the same situation.

Having positive QoL tends to raise expectations, and having negative QoL lowers them, so dwarves tend to become inured to any static situation -- however, there is a minimum level of expectations, and it's higher for legendaries and tends to ratchet up with noble rank. Personality traits play a role in this process. Moreover, and also very much depending on personality traits, dwarves will weigh their own expectations against the average expectations of their fortress. If every dwarf has a meager bedroom, everyone is fine. Once half the dwarves have nice ones, the have-nots will be more prone to unhappiness.

It's a few more variables per dwarf (QoL expectation, number of deaths witnessed, etc), but not a ludicrous amount of additional bookkeeping. Thoughts?

[PTTG??]

I agree that Dwarven Happiness needs more work, and I think that there are some at least +ideas+ here.

To go on a tangent, the idea of Advanced Thoughts suggests that some particular thoughts would be explained in detail.

Perhaps the most recent or most major thought on record could be explained in more detail, such as where or when it happened, or if they had a preference for that item. "Urist enjoyed a wonderful meal of Plump Helmets, his favorite food." "Urist was accosted by vile Acorn Flies, which he especially hates."

[Quift]

I agree that Dwarven Happiness needs more work, and I think that there are some at least +ideas+ here.

To go on a tangent, the idea of Advanced Thoughts suggests that some particular thoughts would be explained in detail.

Perhaps the most recent or most major thought on record could be explained in more detail, such as where or when it happened, or if they had a preference for that item. "Urist enjoyed a wonderful meal of Plump Helmets, his favorite food." "Urist was accosted by vile Acorn Flies, which he especially hates."

I love this... Also,
Urist talked to her friend Bombek recently, he was unhappy about the lack of chairs.

[Erk]

Talking to a dwarf complaining or cheering about their latest happy/unhappy thought and getting a weaker happy/unhappy thought yourself: THE WIN.

This reminds me of something I have wanted to post about for a while... dwarf longterm goals. Like, goals the dwarves have. I'll see about putting that up.

I'm all for more detailed dwarf thoughts, and for a wider variety of happy and unhappy thoughts too. The latter gets mentioned often, I think, and I'd imagine they're on the slate.

[Granite26]

Sounds like there's a thought object:

Thought:  Bugged by Insects
Duration:  Short : 1 month
Strength: Moderate : 10 pts
Resolved by: None
Partially Resolved by : Admired Fine Trap(5 pts), Comforted by Cat(5pts)

with details selectable from the current aggregate screen.

I'd still like to see an agregate screen of thoughts:
Bugged by Insects : 20 dwarves
Ate without proper dining room : 1 dwarf
etc.

I like the QoL suggestions, but would modify them to keep a running track with a logarythmically decending value.  Rather than ate a great meal recently, track the last meal eaten, with it's value rapidly decending.  (If you eat a crappy meal, the value may not equal the remaining value of the exquisite meal you ate yesterday, so it resets hunger but not the QoL value).  Anyway, rather than the thoughts expiring and being refilled, they would constantly be resetting.  (Like a dryer where everytime you walk by you reset the timer to the full 80 minutes).