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[groo]

In real life if I was a doctor... I STILL get a vacation

If my doctor took a quarter of the year off for vacation as a regular thing, I'd be looking for a better doctor.

Anyone who needs to be on call at short notice can't afford to take this much time off. Especially if they're routinely getting sieged by goblins, demons and whatever else.

It would help if parties weren't wholly devoid of benefit and were only a pain in the ass in Dwarf Fortress. A dwarf that has "no job" listed and is hanging around with other dwarves is getting exactly the same benefits as a dwarf who's attending a party. The difference is purely that one can be extracted to perform a job if necessary, and the other can't, for a months-long period of time.

[The Architect]

The "On Call" suggestion makes a lot of sense to me. I'd change some of the details but it seems that it would build right in to the new alert system.

Parties are bad. I don't want to trade months of work in exchange for a (possible) random attribute gain from social skills, and have all kinds of friendships popping up such that a death will make the whole fortress miserable (very rare anyway in my forts so far, but still). I thoroughly enjoy the current option to end all parties cold-turkey by freeing the room.

[Neonivek]

In real life if I was a doctor... I STILL get a vacation

If my doctor took a quarter of the year off for vacation as a regular thing, I'd be looking for a better doctor.

Anyone who needs to be on call at short notice can't afford to take this much time off. Especially if they're routinely getting sieged by goblins, demons and whatever else.

It would help if parties weren't wholly devoid of benefit and were only a pain in the ass in Dwarf Fortress. A dwarf that has "no job" listed and is hanging around with other dwarves is getting exactly the same benefits as a dwarf who's attending a party. The difference is purely that one can be extracted to perform a job if necessary, and the other can't, for a months-long period of time.

On the Contrary your Doctor takes more then half the year off.

[groo]

No, mate. He doesn't. He takes about one fortnight off per year, if that, which is most of the reason I still go to him. But we're kind of getting off topic here, if you really want to bicker with me over something you have no way of knowing anything about, like my family doctor's vacation schedule, then hit me up with a PM, yeah?

Bottom line is that the way dwarven parties work at the moment is neither game-functional or realistic. It's good for a laugh, in the usual "oh man my dwarves are lazy idiots" way, but if you're trying to run a fort that actually works it's just a pain in the butt. I'd change generic dwarven parties to be something dwarves do in their spare time instead of idling in the meeting hall, not something they do for months on end to the exclusion of everything else except for eating, drinking and sleeping.

[Felblood]

I like the idea of an on-call system, but I suggest doing it differently.

Instead of desperate dwarves calling for a relief workers, I'd like to see the power in the players hands. Being able to schedule this like the new system for guard duty, seems like a natural progression to me. If you want to put your dwarves on duty until the stress makes them start throwing things and starting fights, that's your prerogative.

While a dwarf is on call, he should get a very minor unhappy thought, that lasts until he is released from duty. "His free time is currently restricted by his work," or something like that would be good. When you work in an industry that forces you to be within five minutes of you employer at all times, lest your services be needed, it puts a constant mental strain on you that can and does make people irritable and even violent. The power of this thought should build up ever so slowly, as the work period goes on, and the overworked dwarf's nerves start to fray.

When he does get released, he should get a small happy thought, like "He is reveling in having his freedom returned to him." I've worked in a position like this, and believe me you don't know how great a weekend really is, until you've gone without for a few months.

Dwarves in on-call careers should take an extended break, after their on-call period ends, as most positions that require you to give up your entire life to be available have some form of off-season or sabbatical system, to rehabilitate the exhausted worker, and keep him sane. After that, they should go back to taking jobs, even if they aren't "on-call". An option to disable this extra break, on a per-profession basis, would be cool.

This gives players a reason to train more than one or two people for each profession, in order to concentrate all the XP in one place. It's never been realistic, and this is a step in the right direction, especially with jobs that only require occasional work in DF, like an ER doctor.

It should probably tie into the burrow system, as well. It doesn't matter if we have three doctors on duty, if none of them are in the hospital you got rescued to.

[Neonivek]

Nope half the year off why?

Because he likely doesn't work more then 12 hours a day.

So you can count the 3 months partying under the 6 months he isn't working.

[groo]

So you're saying we should also count all the countless months of idle time most dwarves spend doing nothing towards their partying/"on break" time?

Excellent idea! I support this 100%; any time a dwarf spends not working should count towards the limit on how much they can spend attending parties and being on break. Lord knows I'm tired of my dwarves being idle for 23 hours out of 24 and then picking the one hour I want them to actually do something to go on break.

[eerr]

Dwarves should honestly just do what (most) normal people do, which is party in their play time, not in their work time. A particularly stressed out or unhappy dwarf might not be able to drag themself away from a party, but in general a happy dwarf should be alright with either prioritising work over attending a party or just substituting partying for the 'no job' task if there happens to be a party going on somewhere.

You know, various personalities for Dwarves (and other Dwarf-civs) party more or less.
Some people are loners and just won't go.