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[NW_Kohaku]

I searched a few terms, and couldn't find anything to post onto.  (I'm sure Vattic will come along and prove me wrong with some better search term, though...)

Anyway, this is a short one (at least for now) that spawned after I was thinking about some of the

Spoiler: The Problem (click to show/hide)

Anyway, a problem I keep seeing with many of the personality traits and other "invisible" aspects of dwarves is that many problems only occur in a space that the player will never see or understand in the normal playing level of looking down at a slice of their fortress.  The only visual feedback we get about dwarves, themselves, is their primary job, and maybe that they're hungry or thirst if we're looking in the right place at the right time. 

Dwarves can be severely unhappy frequently without players ever knowing about it.  Likewise, figuring out why, and what could be done about it requires manually intensive work on the part of the player. 

Yes players in theory should be watching over their dwarves, but if you wanted players to play like that, you'd cap them at a manageable number like 20, not 200, where players wouldn't even realize they totally forgot to assign labors to a dwarf that has been idling for 5 years.  Interface management tools are mandatory, here.

Spoiler: The Solution (click to show/hide)

At the same time, a core function of the mayor is often to meet with unhappy and complaining dwarves.

We already see diplomat interactions with our mayor.  Why not include meetings with the mayor, as well? 

To keep it from being annoying by having pop-ups swarm the player, by option, players might make this merely a type of alert. (Unless there's a decision the mayor could optionally make...)  In fact, I'd suggest a special type of dwarven social alert type, that would be a different category from things like the combat reports. 

Rather than swarming the player with every alert, by making it relate to the mayor's actions (or expedition leader), you only occasionally get alerts coming in as the mayor can deal with the complainers, themselves.

Spoiler: Comment Boxes (click to show/hide)

Further, since the mayor can't be everywhere, and you wouldn't want a miner coming all the way up from the depths to complain about how he really hates a bat he saw down there, comment boxes could be installed.  For gameplay convenience, we could assume it's a box with mechanisms that uses dwarven quantum pneumatics like bridges to send messages all to a central location instantly. 

A dwarf wanting to leave a message could drop them in wherever a player has installed a comment box.  Mayors then read the messages as a job, and they get entered into the alerts page as a sequence of messages to be read by the player when they look at the social reports page next.  (Probably best to date the messages, as well...)

Spoiler: Practical and Flavorful (click to show/hide)

Things don't have to be purely mechanical with this system.  The new dwarven thoughts system includes a sort of monologue when you look at the dwarf specifically, and this could be an extension of that. 

For example, if a dwarf is unhappy because of spotting miasma, they might make a complaint report that specifically states something like "There is so much miasma in the hallways! Why isn't anyone cleaning up Two-Legged Rhino Lizard Corpse in the Burrow Name?" (Include zoom-to function for message to where the dwarf encountered miasma when starting the complaint "job".)

Likewise, it can be an alert that things are going seriously wrong - "I had to catch a rat to eat last night! Where are the farmers?!" Or even just mildly wrong - "It's been years since I last enjoyed the taste of some good ol' blackberry wine!"

At the same time, possibly based upon there not being enough general complaints, a random dwarf might just start posting random odd messages to the player, as per the monologues of dwarf thoughts screens. 
"We should all work together!"
"Have you thought about waking up with Fortresses? Pray to Urdim for Fortress."
"This comment contains a masterfully-doodled image of a dwarf in graphite.  The dwarf is not travelling.  This doodle commemorates the boredom of Urist Fledclasps in the Spring of 503."

Hopefully, it can be a way to allow both the silly and the serious to get through to the player by drawing more attention down to the details that are often overlooked.

[LMeire]

I like the idea, but I think it might be better to have grievances displayed with graffiti. Like in Pompeii, the whole town was just covered with obscene drawings and public messages detailing this rumor or that complaint. It'd be like an engraving only detailing a dwarf's thoughts rather than their interests. It'd also leave some more interesting ruins to explore since an adventurer would be able to piece together a rough history of the fort and it's residents just by looking at the walls.

[NW_Kohaku]

I like the idea of graffiti, but "smoothing" implies it's engraved on par with a proper engraving.  Honestly, chalk messages on dark stone works well, and having some poor dwarf on cleaning duty go around with a pig tail cloth and bucket of water to wipe the "Mayor Asmel is an elf-hugger!" off the walls is rather amusing. 

You could have it "discovered", as well, although probably not with the pop-ups, just another social report.  This would mean that you could have a serial vandal in your midst, and have to track the offender down, like a vampire, but less lethal.

The only problem would be making the consequences of graffiti something to care about.  Maybe it lowers property value or something, making your taverns less valuable?  My first reaction would be to make the mayor more likely to lose election if you let rumors spread behind their back, but this isn't Tropico, you don't really lose the game if someone else is elected...

[Witty]

I like it, a lot. +1