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[Mr.Northern]

In a continuing bid to optimize the efficiency of the ortress I was curious if anyone had ever taken the time to study how many times each year a dwarf will perform a certain activity.  I am interested in using the information to perform some basic frequency * distance traveled computations to figure out where best to position things in the fort.  This is great, easily summarized information for the Wiki, which doesn't currently seem to have anything to say on the subject.

I realize that there are many variables here, dwarf stats being perhaps the hardest one to account for, but I believe some base numbers for some of the common tasks might already be available (I think I recall reading somewhere how much food and drink an average dwarf uses a year, which should correspond to how many times they eat and drink each year).  

The activities I am interested in:
number of trips to bed
number of breaks
number of drinks
number of feedings
number of times going to work (assuming constant work)

Is this a complete list of activities that matter (or should "checking chest" be included, which it shouldn't be if that activity only occurs during a break or when no job is available)?  Barring any existing work on the subject I may have to lock up a dwarf in his room for a year and count, but thanks in advance for anything people can direct to me to on the subject.

[Sofaspud]

First thing that comes to mind: A dwarf will perform non-work-related activities in direct proportion to how badly you need his skills.  Murphy's Law, sorta.

In a more serious vein: a non-injured dwarf, by my count, sleeps twice per year.  I haven't noticed (or cared to track carefully) how long each sleep lasts, whether each dwarf sleeps the same amount of time, whether or not interrupted sleep counts as a full sleep, etc.  The 2x per year figure does seem to be reliable, though (at least for my forts).

[Karlito]

If I remember my last hermit for correctly, he ate about once per month.  He drank about twice that often.
He probably slept once per season.

I remember that food from one mule would feed my dwarf for about one year and it comes to something like 11 mule tallow and meat roasts.

[ December 14, 2007: Message edited by: Karlito ]

[martinuzz]

I think personality traits and stats also influence sleep duration, break frequency etc.
I.e. a dwarf who "does not go out of his way to do more work than nescessary" will probably take breaks more often. And a dwarf with very high toughness will sleep less.

[Entropy]

Sleeping is once per season - eating is about once a month, drinking about 3 times a month (rough guestimate on that one), and breaks depend on the personality (and happiness maybe?) of the dwarf.

Obviously this is based on nothing more than my own experiences, but ive been trying to pay attention to this for a while.

[Fedor]

I have playtested figures for eating and drinking:  About 10 times/year and 20 times/year, respectively.  Note that these come from the 2D version - things may have changed, but I doubt it.

Sleeping I'm more uncertain of (never tested it explicitly).  About six times a year?  Certainly more than once per season.

Breaks I'm even more unsure of; very roughly one and a half or twice a year'd be my guess.

Dwarves will check chests whenever a change of jobs occurs, or whenever idle (best guess here).  They will party if a statue garden is available and they aren't kept busy 24/7.  They can also (if the economy is on) complain to Guild representatives.

[ December 14, 2007: Message edited by: Fedor ]

[slMagnvox]

Just a heads up, the Check Chest job will only be generated if there is a container (cabinet, coffer, etc...) installed in an unassigned room.  Thus, if you don't want dwarves Checking Chests, don't build any containers except in rooms and not until you've assigned those rooms to a dwarf.

[mrshirt]

Is there an online source for this kind of information?  As far as I know there isn't any on the wiki, and it would be a great asset for theoretical discussions of the game.

[Dreamer]

I noticed that dwarves who do more work (Bookkeeper, Miners, Engravers) seem to take more breaks, though I've also had woodworkers idle for months before suddenly deciding to take a break.  Breaks may be "earned" by the satisfied at work thought, even if the thought is very old.  May have to check on that, though, I'm just thinking of possibilities.

[Fedor]

Playtesting report:

drink ~18 times/year
eat ~10 times/year
sleep ~7 times/year

Have not tested dwarves with differing attributes (such as active versus lazy).