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[Rollory]

My certifiably mad trade minister who wanted butterfly bone items somehow got locked into a dead-end excavation along the bank of the cave river, where the very next seasonal flood carried him to his doom.

Shortly afterward, the human caravan arrived, complete with human merchant baron.  Upon discovering that the trade minister he was here to meet with wasn't available, the baron was stricken with melancholy.  it looks like he's just going to sit outside my gate indefinitely.  Does this count as a hostile act against the humans?

I would expect him to still make a trade deal with the broker if nobody of higher rank is available.  Certainly not to go crazy over it.  Unless there's something about dwarf-human relationships we're not being told.  Hmm.  My trade minister WAS a female.

[Aquillion]

Having diplomats go insane if they can't make a single meeting does seem sort of odd.  Maybe they should storm off in a huff, write an angry letter, or demand some sort of compensation for the insult, but becoming suicidal or going on a berserk murdering spree seems somewhat extreme.

It's probably just a placeholder for more detailed diplomacy, though...  Complicated diplomat interactions will really have to wait for that anyway.

The logical effect in the long run would be to damage relations between your government and whatever group they're a diplomat for.  Right now, though, the only real relations you can have with another civilization are "Happily trading" and "trying to raze your fortress to the ground and salt the soil."  That makes representing the nuances of diplomacy slightly tricky.

Hmm, I wonder if salting the soil will be an actual option eventually?  I can just see your invading dwarves taking 'salt soil' jobs, grabbing one grain of salt at a time, dragging it over to an enemy field, and carefully 'planting' it before grabbing another.

[ September 14, 2006: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[dav]

And then dropping the salt to go eat, and then a floodtide of "Job canceled: Can't find salt."  It's that flood of messages that would make the humans abandon their villages.

[Zaratustra]

"SIR I WAS MOST OFFENDED THAT YOUR TRADE MANAGER KILLED HIMSELF BEFORE I COULD PARLAY WITH HIM

THIS WAS VERY DEPRESSING TO ME

LOVE, TRADE REPRESENTATIVE"

[Varil]

And then he goes home and weeps quietly to himself whilst writing bad poetry. It's probably the bad poetry that will make the king decide to try and exterminate the dwarves. "They've driven my Trade Minister emo! I'll teach them to play with our fragile emotions!"

[Toady One]

We have the complete translated writings of the Assyrian rulers inspiring our salting, so I think we'll get to it eventually.  Various interesting things.  First you salt, then you turn it into an animal park.  I guess the animals appreciate the salt licks.

They aren't supposed to go insane -- they should only go insane if they can't find a way to leave the map, but they trigger the code early for some reason.