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[Normandy]

Dwarves will eat just a little bit earlier or later if they see someone eating before or after they do. It's like synchronized fireflies (saw a discovery channel documentary on them). Each firefly watches the a few other firefly's blinks, and slightly tunes the timing of their flash to those ones. Slowly but surely, eventually all of the fireflies are synchronized, and they all flash in unison. It kind of doesn't make sense for all of the dwarves to eat at random times: dwarves should want to eat together. The same could go for sleeping.

Dwarves should use their social abilities far more. While they're on break, while they're eating in a meeting hall, when passing eachother by, etc... This would help to improve the social skill of all your dwarves and keep dwarves just a little bit happier.

Dwarves should go and do something during their break, rather than stand around. They could sit in a dining hall, or in an office, reading the Daily Dwarf, or Dwarf Today. They could actively seek out nice-looking/pleasurable things. They should at least talk to eachother a bit more.

Finally, dwarves should utilize rooms more. A couple getting married? All the friends of those dwarves will sit in the meeting hall, and watch the couple get married. Dwarves could set up plays, play in orchestras (yes, I know I'm getting a little bit carried away here), or hold funerals in mausoleums. It would dwarfanize (humanize) the dwarves, and make social events much more important parts of your fortress. Of course toggling would be nice , e.g. [dwarves are borgs: YES/NO]

[Derakon]

Synchronizing eating and sleeping is a very dangerous idea, as it greatly increases the odds of your important dwarves (for context-sensitive meanings of "important") all being unavailable at the same time. As it stands, you can generally be safe so long as you have at least two or three squads/miners/masons/etc. If everyone's asleep at the same time (or too busy eating to save the fortress), then bad things will happen.

More to the point, the game's pretty boring when nothing, or only one non-constructive thing, is happening.

[Joseph Miles]

That would take a lot more work for Toady to set up, so if/when that happens it'll be aways off. Not a bad idea though.

[ArdentPenguin]

On the other hand, it would make the value of sentries (and backpacks with rations) that much higher, especially around meal times - like in real life. An attack right at lunch when everyone's eating SHOULD be a bigger threat, since people are out of position, unless you've given a few military dwarfs backpacks with rations and told them to stand watch for ambushes. And it would make for great stories. "Suddenly Mosul sprinted into the dining hall, panting. 'Goblins!' He gasped. 'Goblins in the valley!' The two champions stared at each other in shock, then rose, shouting orders and donning helms as their squads raced to buckle their armor and push through the frantic crowds.'"

I might be getting carried away, though  

Of course, you are right about the game being boring when all dwarfs are doing the same sort of thing at the same time. Dunno what to say about that.

[ May 11, 2008: Message edited by: ArdentPenguin ]

[Haven]

Well, it WOULD be pretty good. However, Dwarves seem to have this strange obsession with their lunches. The dam could burst, invaders could come, lava could wrect their room, and the fiery burning Apocalypse itself could rend the ground apart and send the world around them flying into the abyss, but Armok damn it all, they WILL EAT THEIR !!PLUMP HELMET ROAST!! !

Now, if dwarves were sane, that would work very well indeed. Perhaps for now designating eating/sleeping shifts would be a nice feature.

[Solara]

quote:<STRONG>Originally posted by ArdentPenguin:
"Suddenly Mosul sprinted into the dining hall, panting. 'Goblins!' He gasped. 'Goblins in the valley!' The two champions continued eating. Eventually one of them started toward the entrance to defend it, but halfway there realized he was sleepy and made a detour to the barracks to take a nap. Having grown used to following his example, everyone else did the same. They never woke up."
</STRONG>

Fixed that for you.    

Seriously though, synchronized sleep schedules are one of the things I find frustrating about the early game, it's no fun having work grind to a halt and watching all seven of your dwarves flashing Zs for several minutes at a time.

I admit I like the OPs suggestion about funerals. (maybe they'd help make everyone who attends less traumatized about a death) Also the one about dwarves doing more interesting things with their breaks, though I've noticed they do already tend to seek out in dining rooms and in statue gardens and zoos. But marriages already come with parties, and in general everyone seems gets plenty of socialization - I'd almost like to see that part toned down a little to be honest. I'm constantly getting spammed by messages about social skills going up,  and since this also leads to stat upgrades IMO it's a tad bit exploity, I don't think hanging around the well chatting would really make you get stronger or more agile.

[ May 11, 2008: Message edited by: Solara ]

[Draco18s]

quote:Originally posted by Solara:<STRONG>I'm constantly getting spammed by messages about social skills going up,  and since this also leads to stat upgrades IMO it's a tad bit exploity, I don't think hanging around the well chatting would really make you get stronger or more agile.</STRONG>

I've been saying that for weeks!

[Jetman123]

Dwarves who are friendly with each other, or have made passing aquaintances during breaktimes, should try to synch their meals so they can talk together over fish biscuits.

[Electronic Phantom]

Or maybe 'watches' be implemented or some sort of 'watch schedule.'

Heck.  You've got a 'manager' and all he does is 'manage jobs' or 'glance over jobs and make sure that something remotely plausible is wrong before denying them' or whatever.  Why not extend his 'job' to include assigning Dwarves to 'sleep during third watch' or 'eat during second watch.'

Yeah, sure, the dwarves don't want to follow the schedule, but that's when my (to this day) non-existant fortress gaurd hauls them off to the pit (with my rabid war-dogs whose owners got slaughtered in the last invasion that had like sixty goblins in it) and let them stew with the bones of the adversaries for a while.

...or not.  I can see it now: Criminal: Urist TheLame; Injured Party: AnotherUrist MajorGlutton, Fortress Manager; Crime: Violating Watch Schedule; Punishment: 3 Hammerstrikes

...It was a good idea when I first considered it...

-EP

[Bricktop]

quote:Agreed. Also add a similar button for squads. Something like "Rally", which stops ALL actions the troop is doing, whether it's sparring or sleeping or twiddling their thumbs, and forces them to wherever their station is.

As stated, they should get a bad thought if they were doing something important, such as fulfilling a need.

The above quote is from SirPenguin in the "Urgent" thread.

Basically, I think that with the inclusion of a 'Rally' button of some sort, then the suggestion in this thread about synchronised eating/sleeping times would be great.

I know it might seem like a dull idea, seeing all your dwarves eating at the same time etc but I think it is a cool concept and also that it would give you a real reason to have a chair and table for every single dwarf in your dining room (as opposed to how it is now, where you might have a dining hall with space for 150 dwarves and yet no more than 3 are ever in it at the same time).