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[aepurniet]

an arena or gladiator zone could make it easy to define what is safe. or a room. every one outside of that definition witnessing the event could recieve a happy thought if: all the goblins in the zone die without a dwarf casualty, and no goblin escapes the zone. viola an arena for dwarves to enjoy.

at least you would be responsible for all the dwarf downtime, instead of stupid parties.

[peskyninja]

First of all, dwarfs don't even consider the place where they usually rang out a fortress. It is just the place where they perform most of their functions. So how you define safe? How do you a define fortress?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Maybe they could get minor happy thoughts from seeing dangerous (currently any, eventually any they interrupt work for) animals without being attacked, a bigger one for an ambush being discovered and defeated without them being hurt, an even bigger one for the same thing with a siege, and a bigger one still from surviving a fight with a superior foe mostly unscathed ("Urist McRandom was glad to be favored by Lady Luck recently.")

[KoffeeKup]

I feel that dwarves should be happy if they feel safe and at home. Being underground in solid or constructed rock/metal should make them feel at home and safe. If on the surface, high walls surrounding them (preferably made of stone or metal, wood is weak and burns) a roof over their heads would be best. (Dwarves don't like looking at the sky too much, it gives them vertigo.)

Attacks make them feel the fortress is in danger. Unless there are traps, walls, menacing spikes, fortifications, draw bridges, few entrances, doors, soldiers, guard animals, large tame animals, and a moat.

Thieves, snatchers, hostile monsters, strange monsters, Elves, large wild animals in close proximity, sieges, enemies, dead bodies, fire, megabeasts, titans, forgotten beasts, provision shortages, dwarf blood, severed limbs, large bodies of water (most dwarves don't swim), recent deaths not caused by old age, crazy dwarves, and nobles.   

[Funburns]

Safety due to the presence of something, like a fortress, castle, elaborate and highly idiosyncratic ice-and-magma trap or insane asylum is very difficult to define due to the vast variation in playstyles Dwarf Fortress can allow.

The absence of harm coming to a dwarf during a set period of time, however, seems to me to be a more sensible option. All the dwarves in player #523661's map-spanning pillar-city of ash and bone that echoes with the screams of ten thousand elves and exports pain and death around the world may walk over twenty narrow grates spanning rivers of burning stone every day to get to their bedrooms, but as long as neither they nor anyone they're acquainted with has fallen in that river, they can sleep soundly in their apparently safe routine. An exception might be needed for those dwarves' acquaintances in the military.

Think of it this way; trying to figure out something as nebulous as safety from the point of view of architecture or individual attackers is both too processor intensive and loaded with assumptions about potential playstyles -- but defining safety as a dwarf's own appraisal of their lot in life as shown by their (and maybe their friends') recent history of getting hurt can translate to any environment a sentient creature might live in. It also has the bonus of being more pragmatic due to trusting the player to know what's best for their creatures, whether true or not.

Gladiator fights might be best solved by making an Arena zone which tells $player's_citizens not to worry if something is in the arena boundary unless it's actively harming them, maybe with a happiness bonus if they witness a non-dwarf die in that zone as well. I think that has been suggested Footkerchief-many times before, though.

[Tiruin]

Safe could be defined as: when said dwarf sees an enemy, but due to internal game pathing (which the enemy cannot directly attack except for ranged enemies) it will not advance. In short, enemies just loitering about and easily observed from...3 squares away? To do away with any glitches with LoS.

[dwarfhoplite]

I think dwarves should not get happy thoughts from being safe. Instead I think they should get negative thought (claustrophoby) from being locked in. ( can't find path to outside world)
This way the game would punish from sealing yourself in.

[peskyninja]

They are dwarfs... They live in a 1x1 hole. They don't have claustrophoby! They vomit when they see light!

[KoffeeKup]

They are dwarfs... They live in a 1x1 hole. They don't have claustrophoby! They vomit when they see light!

True, Dwarfs should be unhappy if they can see the sky. Like how every human has a small, natural fear of heights, all dwarfs should fear falling into the sky.

Armok preserve us if Toady implements astronomy...

This prevents people from making Space Fortress 13 and orbital magma cannons, or just ensures they are more FUN!