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[Shootandrun]

First: I hope this isn't something that has been suggested before. I did a quick search to check, but the search tool in these forums isn't super helpful.

The gist of the idea is in the title. I think it's an interesting design choice to have dwarves react badly to rain due to feeling little affinity for nature, but the system doesn't feel very well integrated right now. For one, the effects of being caught in the rain are probably too strong, judging from many examples of dwarves becoming caught in constant states of rage or despair because of it, but it goes beyond that: it isn't something players can do very much about. Woodcutters and herbalists always have to spend time in the rain, unless the biome has none or the player is doing a caverns-only run. Builders doing projects outside also can't effectively be managed to go inside when it is raining.

Enter hoods. Cloaks, hooded vests and hooded coats could mitigate or entirely negate the negative thought for being caught outside in the rain. This, as a system, would be both more actionable for players (rain making dwarves unhappy? you need to get a clothing industry running) and generally more sensible (wouldn't craftsmanship-loving dwarves just love to use a solution like that against pesky rain?).

Any thoughts?

[Shonai_Dweller]

Stress doesn't need workarounds, just fixing (as planned). A dwarf without a hood shouldn't go permanently insane from walking to the fortress on the day he arrives.

Hoods mitigating bad thoughts about weather (if waterproof) is a good idea though. My rangers could all use that.

[FantasticDorf]

Seconded, perhaps a minor mechanic in which water is counted concurrent to 'dirt' which accrues rather than have dwarves react to rain itself, making comment on how protected they are if they can't detect any rain-water in contact with the skin.

"I feel grateful for being protected from the rain"

And then have dwarves wipe off water using cloth or similarly absorbant material, also counting for polishing their other equipment with rags if it is not explicitly blood, vomit or slime. Adventurers could try to drink from wet cloth's as a emergency source of hydration if it was made a minor adventuring object.

Dwarves hate rain, as given, they want to keep out of it, same way they would be upset if the "am i wet?" counter showed dissapointment regarding being pushed or dodging into a river for how soggy they are and the negative effects of not being a amphibian man like increased disease chance, slower walking speed, higher chance of exhaustion.

• Small addition, masterwork and artifact clothes should be typically watertight, so if any of your dwarves take a dip into liquids, short of their face (if not covered) they won't get wet beneath their clothes in anything less than 7/7 directly.

[voliol]

+1 to dwarves not getting upset by rain if covered in waterproof clothing (such as hoods). The positive thought from it is also a good idea.

[anewaname]

I like the idea of clothing being able to resist water to some degree. Cloth with natural oil, like wool, or cloth that has been treated with plant oil, animal fat, or wax, will resist rain Clean water, such as rain, does not stick to wax or oil, so the water tends to form a ball and roll off the cloth before there is enough pressure for the water to be pushed through the weave of the cloth..

But, treating cloth with wax or oil will not protect the dwarf from immersion in water. The dwarf will get unhappy as soon as the water sloshes into their shoes and wets their socks.

[Batgirl1]

+1.

Hoods should mitigate the unpleasantness, but still not erase it completely. It should be:
Being indoors > Being outside in appropriate clothes > Being outside and soaked.

[Starver]

As a habitual wearer of a wide-brimmed hat (a Tilly, to be precise) who had occasion to go bare-headed (not counting hair) at times recently in both rain and sun, I know I am much happier with headgear under both conditions, even without being cave-adapted¹ or genetically predisposed to being troglodytic.

A good piece of headgear should indeed mitigate various possibly unhappy effects (depending upon the hat it might substitute different thoughts due to the need to keep it held on in more extreme conditions, or to take it off to avoid social or physical issues when inside with low ceilings and high etiquette). Additionally a hat or hood or a helm is a traditionally utilised anonymiser for cultists, assassins, PIs, spies, faceless goon-guards, etc - and I'm sure could be given these additional effects (somehow, the benefits of the covering never being quite countered by the associated disadvantages such as "Hey, that person is trying to look inconspicuous. How conspicuous of them!")

That and and a good cloak or other upperwear (myself, I'm content to have wet shoulders as long as my head is kept sheltered, but my fleece jacket with extra-hydrophobic shoulder-panels still adds greatly to the sense of invulnerability to the elements), with optional boots/gaiters/leggings and/or waders being primary mitigators against sodden terrain and underbrush (post-rainfall, snowfall or maybe flooding, rather than linked to the precipitation itself) there could be a c1400s solution to all this, and maybe even a form of sunglasses (see prehistoric Inuit snow-goggles, or Chinese quartz spectacles from the 12thC that were also used during judicial questioning somewhat like mirrored-shades have been in more recent times) to be deployed against the not-so-pluvial outdoor effects.



¹ I can't say I'm not Server Room-adapted, though.