Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Immortal-D]

I've been out of the game for awhile now.  From what I've read recently, hauling sentient bits is not quite as bad, but a single drop of rain will still make even the most hardened Dorf into a fruit loop.  Similarly for social needs (which are separate yet intertwined with stress), you don't need super micromanagement anymore, but it's still not great.  If you have non-stop building projects for several years, the Dorfs will still become 'haggard & drawn' even with a tavern + temple, so time management remains a thing.  I know Toady mentioned in a FotF this year that the entire psyche/needs system would be looked at before Steam, but I haven't seen any of the aforementioned observations in the patch notes.

[Shonai_Dweller]

We haven't had any updates since Steam work started, so just as it was a while ago. He's getting the graphics functionality in place so the artists can work on stuff before the first mid-development bug fix release comes out. He's said stress fixes and additions will be looked at in those releases. Steam is still a good 12 months or so away yet.

Done so far (47.03 update): Social groups, so dorfs don't socialize by themselves any more, works very well. Recalculation of stress for the most vulnerable (not sure if it makes a difference, seems to be slightly better than the release before).

(Social groups work better if you pasture your cats all in one place, um...because.)

Hauling sapient bits was improved quite a long while back, they're not guaranteed "horrified" thoughts any more, but it still stacks harshly so needs improving.

[Bumber]

Body parts and rain are still horrible. My last fortress turned into an endless tantrum spiral just from dwarves repeatedly walking past the above ground corpse stockpile.

Even worse, the tantrums often turn into loyalty cascades whenever they start a fight with a visitor.

[PatrikLundell]

As mentioned, corpse horror was reworked a bit so there is now a differentiation between corpses of friends and corpses of enemies, and corpse bit horror has been toned down a lot. Caravans can now pass by half goblin teeth most of the time, and sometimes even the occasional goblin corpse without scuttling. Corpse hauling still stacks horribly, though, and I don't think rain and its recurring flashbacks has been adjusted.

In a rare case of providing an estimate, Toady said he wanted the Premium release out before the end of the year (and I think the contract deadline is somewhere around February, at the two year mark of the contract, so there's a fair bit less than a year to get it out). There's probably more than a year before the post Premium fallout cleanup is done, though.

While I've seen socializing clumping together and a larger number of passing acquaintances, I haven't seen any significant improvement in the friend making department, nor in the "be with friends/family" fulfillment one. They still seem (mostly?) unable to seek out those they need to spend time with (let alone create the relations required for the associated need), just as they often seem to complain about not being able to pray despite there being a temple available and they've had no job for months explicitly to give them time to catch up on needs (which gets especially bad when they're stressed, as half their actions then become yelling/crying at a consoler, with the other half typically hauling hoarded socks rather than need fulfillment). Once they start to get stressed, the stress level seems to continue to rise for no visible reason even if you take actions to try to fulfill needs and remove stressing activities. If these measures are taken immediately they can sometimes save the dorf, but wait a month and you've probably lost it.

[DrCyano]

From my experience, the big change in 0.47 is that socializing and positive memories seem to help a lot more than before, and is enough to counter rain or the occasional corpse. You still want to restrict battle clean-up to well-trained soldier Dwarfs (or the occasional odd-ball whose personality traits simply make them unfettered by corpses).

Here's the simple formula that usually keeps 95% of the Dwarves happy:
- Exactly one generic temple not dedicated to any god (put nice stuff in here, the Dwarves will spend a lot of time praying)
- Rotate most/all citizens through military training
- Make guild halls open to non-members (dwarves like to socialize here)
- Give your Dwarves the occasional holiday to socialize
- And of course, a steady supply of fresh booze, food, and clothing

About 5% of Dwarves have personally traits that make them practically impossible to keep happy in the long run.

[Sarmatian123]

[...] a single drop of rain will still make even the most hardened Dorf into a fruit loop.[...]