Dwarf Fortress > DF Suggestions

Preventing tantrum spirals

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Mr. Wallet:
So, I just got my first-ever fort to 84 people when I get my first attack: a bronze colossus. I was woefully unprepared.All 10 members of the military died, as well as two human traders. In a last-ditch effort to prevent abandonment, I drafted every single member of the fort to bum rush the monstrosity. I lost 3 more dwarves and a baby.Naturally, this VERY brief drafting caused large-scale permanent unhappiness, not to mention 20% of the population had died - a population that spent most of its time in leisure and partying (as was my intention), and thus all had close bonds with one another.Now, I completely understand that this is a big deal: 1 out of every 5 people you know is dead, and you had to fight a bronze colossus with your bare hands; anyone would be pretty shaken. But we didn't get the odd unstable dwarf going psycho; literally everyone went completely off the deep end. 36 more dwarves have died in the rioting - 2.5 times as many as were lost in the incident itself - and the system is nowhere near stabilized.Now, I'm not suggesting that dwarven psychology need be exactly like human, but no species could possibly survive in a communal setting with these kinds of instincts; dwarves would be solitary creatures or downright extinct.I'm sure I'm not the first person to bring this up but my brief searches didn't turn up anything. I'm curious: what do you folks suppose should be done to limit total chaos when many dwarves are made suddenly unhappy at the same time?

Neonivek:
I think MAYBE there being a chance that an insane dwarf can just snap out of it eventually, even in pernament insanity could help.That way even after the Spiral of Insanity you end up with a few dwarves left to rebuild

SHAD0Wdump:
I say if Toady were to remove this problem,he should at least add a option to ALLOW tantrum spirals,they are a excellent challenge.

Neonivek:
Without Tantrum Spirals... there is little need to care about happyness anyhow.

Mr. Wallet:
It just seems to me that a given community only cares about the happiness of its citizens once it has ensured the SURVIVAL of those citizens; I am in favor of tantrum spirals so long as they cannot occur as a direct result of an attack on the fort.Perhaps a different type of unhappiness, "stress" could be generated by military- and death-related problems, and these would merely cause the dwarves to stop working while they "cope". The difference between coping and tantrums is that coping is not externally destructive (unless, of course, it results in a berserker rage, as stress can cause insanity at least as easily as unhappiness).[ June 03, 2008: Message edited by: Mr. Wallet ]

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