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Author Topic: Idle dwarves  (Read 769 times)

Craftling

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Idle dwarves
« on: May 31, 2009, 02:29:26 am »
Dwarves seem to take a break and do nothing. Most people(dwarves) would get a little bored after a couple of seconds and go and find something to do. This should include doing their actual job, someone elses job, sparring, growing stuff, hunting etc. Unless they have a lazy personality and they just want to lie around doing nothing.
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Sunken

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2009, 02:57:54 am »
Even children do work somtimes, so why not idle dwarfs, indeed.
Or they might hang around their friends bugging them at work.
Depending on personality, some might wander off to explore unfamiliar parts of the fortress or topside.

Lovers should want to go on break together and hang around with each other.
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Alpha version? More like elf aversion!

Derakon

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2009, 10:46:21 am »
Idle dwarves have no jobs available that they're allowed to do. Either that or they're upset enough to refuse to work. You don't want dwarves to be disobeying their list of activated jobs; we'd run into situations where your rare metal ore is being used up by unskilled smiths or your kitchen ingredients are being used to make inedible meals, et cetera.

Think of idleness as unemployment; the dwarf is still actively looking for a job, but none of the ones available suit their skills.
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Jetblade - an open-source Metroid/Castlevania game with procedurally-generated levels

Sunken

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2009, 11:18:17 am »
We weren't talking about "no job" idle dwarfs, but "on break" idle dwarfs. What you say doesn't hold for them. They certainly have their "normal" jobs allowed, but maybe they don't want to do them on their break. Then there are, again, those jobs that don't have any qualification at all such as building deconstruction (right?) and harvest. There might be sets of jobs that you allow vacationing dwarfs to perform even if they're normally prohibited - you might want hauling there, for example.

What if a vacationing dwarf really wants to go fishing, even if you'd rather he didn't? Should you be able to forbid it, or not? It's his day off, after all...
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Alpha version? More like elf aversion!

Erk

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2009, 01:35:26 pm »
Who says 'on break' means standing around? They might be reading the engravings in the dining room, or drawing pictures, or talking to dwarf friends. Treat the term with more abstraction. The game doesn't need to tell you that Urist is sitting in his bedroom practicing for the dwarf choir.
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'River' cancels eat: Food is problematic.

Jakkarra

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2009, 01:41:47 pm »
Twould be nice if it did however Erk.                                                                   

along with the other myriad of things that could be added that are similar. mostly these are just for flavour
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Hoborobo234

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2009, 01:48:29 pm »
Maybe dwarves who are on break could help (or hinder) other dwarves to make the jobs quicker (or slower)
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Quote from: irmo on October 23, 2009, 03:57:53 am
Rather than having them directly force you to mine adamantine, I would suggest that they give you strange moods that require adamantine. "Dig out the adamantine or Urist here goes insane and dies" is suitably vicious.

(It occurs to me that you can probably get "Lovecraft" as the random name of your fortress. That's when you know you're screwed.)

Footkerchief

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2009, 02:38:47 pm »
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Pilsu

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Re: Idle dwarves
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2009, 11:13:56 am »
Breaks should be earned with daily work, not be a scheduled activity
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