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[amade]

So, with locations I can assign occupations i.e. tavern keep, performers, scribes, etc.

I read in the wiki that the tavern keeper would idle indefinitely if there's no drinks stockpile. I took it to imply that dwarfs given occupations would not do any other labors (growing, cooking, engraving, etc) assigned to them. But when I gave an otherwise useless Fisherdwarf migrant I had the occupation of performer at the tavern he continued doing engravings (which was still enabled as his labor) instead of entertaining the idle dwarfs in the tavern.

The wiki doesn't really say much about occupations, does anyone know how much priority is given to them and whether it's advisable to let them moonlight several jobs labors or have them be dedicated to their occupation? Can I give my Fisherdwarf multiple occupations and make him both the tavern's keep and performer?

[PatrikLundell]

My experience with Performers and Tavern Keepers is that they're harmful/useless.
- Both tavern keepers and performers serve booze that can kill patrons from alcohol poisoning and lethal "non lethal" bar room brawls. Some forumites refuse to believe that can happen as they fail to induce it themselves, so apparently the efficiency of this discord induction measure varies greatly.
- Tavern keepers and performers do not seem to perform or entertain any better than any idle dorf.
- Ordinary jobs seem to have a higher priority than positions.
- My first tavern keeper decided to spend two years on a prayer bender rather than serve anything.

Thus, if you want the tavern discord effect it doesn't matter if you appoint tavern keepers or performers: they seem to behave identically. In addition, you mustn't give them any civilian jobs. At a guess, you should probably try to appoint dorfs with traits suitable to the position, such as (all guesses) liking people, helpful, tolerant of cultural differences, etc.

[mikekchar]

I don't disagree with what PatrikLundell is saying, but having run with tavern keepers for a while now I have a couple of observations.  Because labours take precedence over serving, if you have a tavern keeper with a semi regular job, they will exit the tavern regularly.  This seems to keep the over-drinking under control for the most part.  My normal set up is to have any regular job scheduled by manager work orders and to do 1 every day.  So if the tavern keeper is also the dyer, then he'll have a couple of dying jobs during the day (one for each type of thread).  So he'll be walking back and forth to the tavern.

The other thing is that while I have also noticed long breaks, tavern keepers (and performers -- what limited experience I have with them) tend to go back to their place of occupation.  So this means that they have a better chance of  performing than other dwarfs.  One of my tavern keepers has improved greatly in his poetic skills.

I also tend to have enforced conscription and every dwarf is in a squad.  Because I play vanilla, this helps me keep track of them.  But I also rotate my dwarfs.  So I'll have 3 tavern keepers, and 2 of them will be training in the military at any given time.  This mostly forces them to break whatever they are doing.  Even if it doesn't, eventually another dwarf will come and serve in the tavern.

The only time I've ever had deaths in the tavern is when I've had a full time tavern keeper with no other jobs assigned.  I'm not saying it can't happen, but it seems to be fairly rare in my experience.

Having said that, I don't see any utility at all in tavern keepers or performers.  Already taverns are *waaay* too popular.  Making your tavern a "good" tavern... and getting more visitors???  Not usually what I want.  I wish visitors wouldn't hang around so long :-P

[amade]

Seems like moonlighting staff is the best bet. I've had a few brawls already, with trips to the hospital.

On the whole, their occupation does feel rather superfluous. People get their own drinks and entertain themselves all the same. Is it the same for scribes in libraries and performers in temples? Do they provide any benefit at all?

Kinda wish we could force evict some of the unwanted guests though. Or can we do that and I just haven't found out how to?

edit: Argh! I accidentally allowed a whole troupe of performers to become residents.

[PatrikLundell]

Well, tavern staff serve booze to creatures who normally don't drink (such as vampires and goblins) which provides some benefits. You can probably set up a visitite mining operation by having a well staffed all visitors tavern a bit away from the fortress and a non serving residents only tavern close by.

As far as I understand performers in temples are completely useless currently. Scribes copy scrolls which can offset the thefts performed by visiting sages, but there are bugs that can completely stall all writing activities.

There is no way to evict unwanted guests, and they do respect burrows, travel restrictions, or pressure plates (including those set to trigger by citizens as well). Removing the tavern can get them angry, and setting #visitors to 0 will cause some of them to drift away in a year or so. You can order them killed, but that's not a civilized way of dealing with over staying guests.

Resident performers and scholars apply for full citizenship after two years or so, and at that time you get full control over them (well, the same control as you get over your dorfs). This means they can lead squads, perform work, etc. Human poets can thus be equipped with weapons too large for dorfs, if you want to.

[Skorpion]

Only in dwarf fortress will having a bartender cause people to literally drink themselves to death...

[amade]

Thanks, I guess I'll put up with them for a while before I decide what to do. I rather have them push off elsewhere instead of killing them.

Maybe I can use them as bait meatshields defenders in future sieges. I'll just station them over the retractable bridge over the volcano.

[PatrikLundell]

Well, Titans and undead attack everyone, but gobbos usually ignore visiting civilians. There will be a brief battle as the leading trolls slaughter the visiting mercs, though (and any patrons related to those mercs, and who thus join the fray). Unless you have a huge, FPS draining number of mercs they won't kill more than 5 or so trolls, due to being massively outnumbered. Note that you can MOVE the tavern zone (but don't delete the tavern object, i.e. the named thing behind the zone) and thus get the visitors to move to the new location.