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[TV4Fun]

This is something that really needs to be fixed, and I'm open to suggestions for improving my fort design. I think it makes sense for dwarves to get a negative thought from seeing a corpse, even an enemy corpse, but if I have a corpse stockpile with dozens of slain enemies in it, then even if I wall it off and restrict access, a very happy dwarf can have a sudden plunge in morale to tantrum levels if they have to take a fresh corpse to the stockpile and see all of the other corpses there. Why not have a corpse pit where corpses can be thrown without the thrower having to see all of the existing corpses? I know this can already be done with garbage dumps, but doing this with corpses would require manually designating each corpse to be dumped, when I like as much of my fortress to be automated as possible.

Additionally, there is in psychology, usually a diminishing return, precisely to stop our minds from being overwhelmed by a flood of new inputs. So for example, the effect of seeing 36 corpses all at once should not be 36x the effect of seeing one corpse. There are short term and long term adaptations in the mind to new stimuli. I would have to check this, but I think in most cases, the mind's response to n new inputs of the same type is typically O(log n). This could be implemented by simply having the kth corpse in a short time period have 1/k times the effect of the first corpse, with k gradually returning to 1 (exponential decay, probably) as time passes without seeing another corpse.

I'd also like to see better control of cleaning up refuse and other debris on the outside. My fortress, like I'm sure many others, has a walled-in above-ground portion where I keep my above-ground crops, grazing animals, beehives, and militia training grounds. If a dwarf who has been cave-adapted comes up to the surface and starts vomiting everywhere, or if someone is injured and drips blood everywhere, the dwarves don't clean it up and it is left to disturb anyone walking past it. Rain will eventually clean it up, but if you are in a desert area and not in the rainy season, this can take a while. Also, since animal corpses are considered refuse, the only way to get an animal corpse cleaned up if it dies above ground is to enable refuse hauling for the entire above-ground map, and since I prefer larger embarks, this is a pretty wide-reaching area. It would be nice to be able to designate a specific area for cleanup and refuse hauling rather than just being able to set to inside or outside. This is what Rimworld does, and it works well.

Another thing I have noticed is that a lot of my dwarves have negative thoughts from things like not being able to pray to their god, despite me having an easily-accessible temple devoted to their god, or not having access to decent meals, despite me having a large number of prepared meals, or having to drink without a mug, despite me having multiple taverns with many mugs in them, or not having clothes, despite me having ample stockpiles with many clothes in them, or having to sleep on rough stone despite me having a dormitory with many unused beds in it, or not being able to see friends or family. In the last case, if their family is at the fortress, it should be easier for them to spend time together, if their family is not at the fortress, then there should be a way to request their family to come (I know I can request workers from holdings, but this seems very limited in its applicability). Perhaps being able to set specific work and off-time schedules for individual dwarves—and making sure families are on the same schedule—would work. I appreciate that the game AI has put a little more focus on performing designating tasks, as in previous versions it could be extremely difficult to get important tasks performed *coughbrokercough*, but it seems like we have gone a little too far in the direction of task-orientation and need to allow our dwarves more time for self-care. I think it would be good to expand the priority system to include workshop tasks and building and hauling tasks, as well as perhaps set priorities for each labor for individual dwarves, while also setting priorities for self-care tasks. This along with the scheduling system is what ONI does, and it works well.

Just a few thoughts I have had. Any other ideas along these lines are welcome.

[TV4Fun]

Something else I have noticed is that, in addition to the possibility for a tantrum spiral, dwarves seem to go through a sort of personal downward spiral—once they have reached tantrum level, it is very hard to get their morale back up, because they will keep dwelling on, among other things, the fights they started and the damage they did. Imprisoning just seems to make it worse, as, even if I have worked to make the decor in my prison cells extremely high, the shame they feel over being imprisoned will just make morale lower. I have also made the prison cells part of a temple, so they can continue to pray while imprisoned, but this has not helped.

[Sarmatian123]

Toady broke fortress mode with those emotions in 0.44.11. Psycho system came as support to thieving expansion, as I understand. It will stay. Players freaked out and got 0.44.12 patch out of Toady and we all see how it unwell works due so many unfinished yet features and unpatched yet bugs. Maybe Toady will do something about it. Though I wouldn't keep hopes up. It would take him 1 whole year, if not more, to just clean the mess left by the psycho system with urgent patches to bugs and releasing long time promised features to the old released systems.

I think this is where banishment option (in menu on dwarves with v-key menu I think) comes to play. You can't satisfy all randomized needs of all Dwarves. Did you try to start yet a Dwarven hillock to use it as penal colony of sorts for your fortress? Do tell, if you do.

Automation in farming, in cooking and in herding would help keep many of these unhappy Dwarves from depression and tantruming. Specially, if they need food, which brings in only Elven caravan. Automation of those processes in food industry would ensure a certain level of particular dishes to keep Dwarves happy and productive. I do not mind linking 13 stills to particular stockpiles to make 13 alcohols available at some defined amount, but kitchen is not automated at all. Alike farming plots and pastures. You can't select auto-order in butcher shop to keep 3 males and 10 females and all young of certain specie, while auto-butcher all the rest of this specie. You can set some automation inside of farming plots, but it doesn't check upon seeding for already stockpiled harvests and has no conditions to define like work orders in workshops do.

It would help in fortress mode and in adventure modes, if satisfaction from already fulfilled needs lasted 100% longer time. It would help that depressed Dwarf in temple, who is going constantly there in the middle of the temple into depression from... not praying to its deity. This is how this system is broke today unfortunatelly.

[TV4Fun]

DF is an alpha, and I think it's to be expected that new features may take a few versions to get working properly. I like the new emotion and site system, it's very ambitious. I just think it needs a little tuning is all.

[Bumber]

I know this can already be done with garbage dumps, but doing this with corpses would require manually designating each corpse to be dumped, when I like as much of my fortress to be automated as possible.

Use a minecart dump. Build a track stop set to dump items into the pit, and assign a minecart route stop on top of it that is set to take from a nearby corpse stockpile. (Don't forget to set the desired items for the stop.) The dwarves will automatically load corpses into the cart, which will immediately dump them into the pit.

[delphonso]

If it's too much of an issue, you can destroy them manually with DF Hack, and if happiness isn't something you want to deal with at all, there are solutions from DF hack as well.

Personally, I dig a few little crypts in the dirt outside of the fort, and set a 3x3 stockpile for corpses there. I disable corpse hauling on several dwarves, meaning only an unlucky few have the task of dragging goblins underground. On the plus side, they get preferencial treatment, private dining rooms, less tasks but common crafting tasks to give them equal happy thoughts. Once a 3x3 spot is full, I seal it or forbid the pile and they rest in the earth from which they came.

Old versions of DF had Dwarves be whiney, violent, alcoholic children, tantruming at the drop of a hat. If not for the latest updates, the interior of your fort was meaningless. Now there are requirements to deal with growing unhappiness and needs. Fortress mode can be quite boring and easy, but the psyche side is a new set of challenges to overcome.

Remember the old mantra: losing is fun.

[darf]

Nah it's fine. Just destroy invaders with lava or some other method and your dwarves will never see their bodies. I agree that dwarves should adapt to negative emotions, but for now you can just destroy the bodies. I like a refuse stockpile next to a dump zone under a bridge, so I can limit dwarves to 1 or 2 exposures to dead bodies before those bodies are annihilated by physics.

[Sarmatian123]

Cage traps & mass pitting or magma for ever it seems. Always something broken with alternatives.

[FantasticDorf]

I use a thin corpse pile with a airlock door seperated by doors to break sight personally with wheelbarrows for body collectors to sheild their thoughts from having to manually handle the hauled dead and get the job done quickly while there is space.

Then i push them down a garbage dump hole into a bridge atom smasher area, rinse and repeat as needs be. But a more efficient way of doing this would be to use lava as to avoid having to pull a lever and make it less manual and perhaps a little bit more pernament.

Maybe just have the corpse pile have more complex sorting rather than general all access.

Corpses -
Citizens
  Visitors
    Invaders
      Semi-Sentients/Animalpeople/Others

[Splint]

Maybe just have the corpse pile have more complex sorting rather than general all access.

Corpses -
Citizens
  Visitors
    Invaders
      Semi-Sentients/Animalpeople/Others

I would be so happy with a category sorter like that. I tend to let hunters run amok in non-evil embarks, and that generally means they need somewhere to store game corpses (otherwise they do weird shit like store fresh mountain goat carcasses in their bedrooms if I haven't gotten a butchery set up/moved yet.) It's a pain even with DF hack to help to have manually go through the stocks (twice for corpses and body parts!) and disable every sapient thing in the game just so the bodies don't get collected unnecessarily.

Also I've personally gotten surprisingly decent results from a large population in terms of corpse clean up. It's far from ideal, since you need 150+ dorfs for it to even resemble efficiency, but the more clean up crew you have (and a big enough hole to throw the bodies into) the less overall impact there seems to be in all but the most mentally fragile of dwarves. I say this as someone who manually has his drunken parasitic beards clean up the messes they make on the front lawn.

[Su]

Maybe just have the corpse pile have more complex sorting rather than general all access.

Corpses -
Citizens
  Visitors
    Invaders
      Semi-Sentients/Animalpeople/Others

even just having the ability to distinguish between residents and non-residents would be incredibly helpful - I would be able to have invader and other sentient corpses automatically be disposed of [via Minecraft dumping into a pit, or something] while still allowing my citizens to receive a proper burial.

allowing invaders and other sentients to be buried would be another option.

[Azerty]

Mass graves admitting several bodies without the need for caskets might be a good idea, along with mass cremation pits for those wanting to save on space and having a great quantity of fuel.