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[Pyrite]

Stress management is definitely improved from where it used to be, but whenever I do end up with a stressed dwarf (usually in the aftermath of a siege) I have to do an inordinate amount of micromanaging to get them back on track. I've even made burrows for the temple and the tavern to assign troubled dwarves to, though getting my dwarves to make friends they can spend time with still eludes me.

What I'm proposing is basically a labor option to tell dwarves to focus on their needs. A dwarf with this option selected would at a high priority go to the temple to commune with their gods, go to the library to read, actively seek out their favorite food/booze, actively seek out one of the dwarves they have a relationship with to talk to, and maybe even do things like indivisual combat drill on their own, or find a random empty workshop and make a random craft like a mini strange mood.

Such dwarves could have a special label in the units screen for whatever they're doing, like 'On Break: reading book', so you could quickly keep track of who was on break to check if they were ready to resume normal duties.

This would have the effect of making dwarves with unmet needs take time off of productive work without having to do all the fiddly messing with burrows that we currently do to try to manage stress. Think of it like someone's boss noticing that they're on the edge of a breakdown and telling them to take a few days off to focus on themselves.

[Shonai_Dweller]

No, micro-management of Dwarves is definitely not the way to go. I don't want to go round my 200 dwarves telling them to take a break whenever they need it. They should just take a break.

(With perhaps an override to prevent certain dwarves from taking breaks for sadistic overseers who are willing to deal with the consequences).

We fiddle about with burrows because the current system isn't working properly. When it works better we won't be fiddling about with burrows.

[Pillbo]

I'd prefer a simple disable labors option that can be mass applied/removed. Sort of how you can put people in burrows with a military alert, but labors on/off instead.

[Pyrite]

No, micro-management of Dwarves is definitely not the way to go. I don't want to go round my 200 dwarves telling them to take a break whenever they need it. They should just take a break.

I'm not saying to make dwarves attending their needs reliant on the player commanding them to, but an option to make attending to their needs a higher priority for them. Like, normally I'd want my important craftsdwarves to focus on their work through a fair bit of unmet needs, but when a dwarf is subject to particular stress it would be good to have the choice to let them power through normally or instead to set their needs at a much higher priority for them.

[Shonai_Dweller]

No, micro-management of Dwarves is definitely not the way to go. I don't want to go round my 200 dwarves telling them to take a break whenever they need it. They should just take a break.

I'm not saying to make dwarves attending their needs reliant on the player commanding them to, but an option to make attending to their needs a higher priority for them. Like, normally I'd want my important craftsdwarves to focus on their work through a fair bit of unmet needs, but when a dwarf is subject to particular stress it would be good to have the choice to let them power through normally or instead to set their needs at a much higher priority for them.

Why not just make dwarves attend to their needs as standard?

[Pillbo]

I think they're asking for the ability to tell a dwarf to ignore or tend to their needs. So if the needs were fixed they'd still like the ability to ask some dwarves to neglect those needs for the greater good. 

I don't want more micromanaging either, but some sort of ability to set labor priorities would be useful, at least for some people, and adding a Personal Care labor would make sense for cases like this.

It's one of the things Rimworld does well in my opinion. You can set highly skilled miners to high priority mining  and low priority hauling and guarantee that if there are mining jobs they would immediately tend to them and only haul when there aren't any high priority jobs to do.

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[Pyrite]

Why not just make dwarves attend to their needs as standard?

What is standard? Right now there are seven levels of need, from unfettered to badly distracted. At what point along the line should a dwarf prioritize meeting a need over other work?

What I'm suggesting is basically being able to determine that as a player, to say 'this dwarf needs to go meet a need anytime they become not distracted' and 'this dwarf needs to hold out as long as possible and let their needs to yellow or red if necessary to get the job done'. Discipline skill and patience might be relevant to that last one.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Why not just make dwarves attend to their needs as standard?

What is standard? Right now there are seven levels of need, from unfocused to badly distracted. At what point along the line should a dwarf prioritize meeting a need over other work?

What I'm suggesting is basically being able to determine that as a player, to say 'this dwarf needs to go meet a need anytime they become not distracted' and 'this dwarf needs to hold out as long as possible and let their needs to yellow or red if necessary to get the job done'. Discipline skill and patience might be relevant to that last one.

I agree with the idea of having an override to force certain dwarves to work too hard and ignore their needs, sure. But the standard, for independent thinking, non-micromanaged, critters which is what Dwarf Fortress aims for, is for a dwarf to go talk to his friends when he needs to go talk to his friends instead of going insane because he's too busy making cheese to go talk to his friends.

[Pyrite]

Yeah, I agree that should be the standard. But when my militia commander is haggard and drawn because half of his squad of best friends just died in a siege, it would be useful to have a button to press to tell them "Hey just focus on needs and nothing else until I tell you otherwise." I want to do with a button what would currently take disabling and then enabling (and trying to remember) all of their labors, or putting them in a burrow where their labors aren't available.

So to clarify, I want this in addition to better prioritization of need fulfillment.