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[Tormy]

Well I think that something should be done about mandates..Mandates really aint adding anything into the game, they are only annoying, and sometime its impossible to fulfill them even. Perhaps completing a mandate should have some beneficial effects on the fortress later on.
..on a related note, the hammerer should be changed also. Right now all players are just killing the hammerer as fast as possible, so what is the point in having a hammerer at all?
Punishments are ok, but please, the hammerer is just a serial killer..

[Granite26]

I think the mandates add a lot to the game.  IMHO, keeping the Nobles happy IS the game.  After you've dug yourself in and created defenses, it's too easy to just magma or flood kill the siegers, or trap them, or whatever.  The challenge in the game is putting up with the arbitrary demands of a random set of nobles.  You don't know what your economy needs to look like till you get them.

As far as killing them goes, I think that the latest release started to curtail your imigration when the nobles die too often.

[Mephansteras]

Well, it would also help if mandates had a logical stream of requirements and checks in place.

For example:

Noble mandates Electrum goblets.
  Game checks: Do we have electrum, do we have forge (or at least an anvil)
    if yes -> normal mandate in progress
    If no electrum -> Do we have gold, do we have silver, do we have fuel
      if no to the above -> do we have a trade agreement to bring these?
        if no -> Must be added to the trade agreement for the next year, if possible. Maybe automatically?
    if no forge/anvil -> Must be added to the trade agreement for the next year, if possible. Maybe automatically?

If something is to be added to the caravan, noble waits until the next liaison/merchant shows up. Having the raw materials on order keeps the noble happy, since something is being done about it.

If the item is on order, but isn't brought by the merchants, maybe the noble does something with negative consequences? Siezes any electrum goods or something? Once world politics is in place, maybe it hurts relations.

Assuming the order are met, the noble then gets impatient if too much time passes before the items are made. After all, you have the stuff required now.

This would require queued mandates, I suppose, but I think it would help.

[Granite26]

We'll see if my attitude changes (I've got a mayor with 'likes raw adamantine'), but I don't have a crazy amount of trouble filling mandates.  OTOH, I always request all the stone and bars possible from all trade agreements and use cheap stonecrafts as the basis of my export economy.  (Keeps all my dwarves used hauling, low opportunity cost since there's a dumb number of stones, and metals available for weapons and mandates.)  I also keep my dwarves all extremely happy by giving them awesome rooms, lots of work (see hauling) and a low body count.  I'm relatively sure that mandate frequency is severely reduced by happy nobles.

[evktalo]

I disagree that the mandates don't add anything to the game - I actually find fulfilling them a fun sub-game (still, after playing a dozen forts or so). I've never been a noble-killer. Of course, unreasonable ones when I don't have the resources are pretty unfair. Trading solves some of that, so apart from glass on sandless maps, at least some of those are ok every now and then, in my opinion.

But back to the original suggestion. I like it very much! I know that my dwarves complain to the mayor every now and then, but I don't really receive who does that and why, unless I spend effort. Mandates-through-complaints would be a transparent unemployent unhappiness mechanic. You don't come across transparent unemployment unhappiness mechanics that often, so I think it's a good suggestion!

cheers,
--Eino

(sorry if the attempt at dry humour was awful.)

[axus]

I like this idea in general.  The "unhappy due to lack of work" could be a bad one, since there could be a good reason the no work is being assigned.  How about a more complex mandate for that situation, like "Reach 0 idlers"?  Now that injured dwarves always use Rest job it should be ok.

[WingDing]

well, mandates are always going to be the bane of the lazy user.  Though it would be nice if some mayors actually bothered to investigate trouble sources.  So, if the wood item mandate was not met, the program will do a check for available wooden logs.  If there are no available wooden logs (craftsdwarfs in the clear), the program will assign punishment to a woodcutter instead.

Of course, you could go crazy with this and string it along - oh, but the woodcutters don't have axes!  Blame the blacksmith!  But the blacksmith doesn't have any requisite metal bars!  Get the furnace operator!  But we have no magma pit, and - again - there are no logs to burn into coal!  Anyway, we have no ores either!  That's the miners' fault!  But all the miners are finding is limestone and clay!  Why didn't we just trade for freakin' axes if it was so important?!

And thusly, the broker's post would become the most dangerous job in the fortress.

Thanks, that gave me a good laugh.

Hammer the Earth for not providing us with wood!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You Strike the Earth!

The entire damn world has crumbled to its end. Including all the fuzzy bunnies-

Wait...

fuzzy bunnies

What kind of crazy modded-up world are your dwarves living in?

[Techhead]

What is the difference between a fluffy bunny and a Fluffy wambler?

[DanielLC]

The jailer complains to the mayor about lack of work.
The mayor mandates unfulfilled mandates.

Better yet, the mayor mandates Dwarf Cage (Metal). After nobody commits a crime, the jailer is jailed.

Dwarfs complain to the mayor about elves. The mayor mandates Elf Corpse.

[varkarrus]

Was annoyed by an annoying friend lately...

[Christes]

I thought I recoginized this thread

Still a good idea.