I used the word exploit rather loosely back there, that's why I put quote marks on it and put on the doubt it could be called one.
I know it's not necessarily an exploit, but it's not intended to work that way either, as Knight Otu quote explains. Should a vampire really go years without blood? decades? Without consequence? Is it right, lore-wise? (medieval lore wise, I know DF is fantasy but it has it's standards)
But LordBaal is right, they should be immortal. But they die if certain conditions are met and drinking blood is a necessity, not a luxury, something should happen.
Hibernation, as Knight Out pointed out, is a good compromise, though I don't know how close it is to "reality". Maybe it could be stages: going berserk, going mad, hibernating. Or maybe it will depend on the curse, as he himself suggested. It would make sense. I will check what medieval lore says about vampires.
I'm not against people playing the way they want, I don't want Toady to end danger rooms or develop a way to prevent players from doing magma cubes to avoid diggers when they come. People play DF as they want, with mods, without mods, etc. The thing is, I wanted to know Toady's opinion on it and if he plans to do something about, like, if vampires will endless live without drinking blood and without this bringing any consequences in future updates.
Do you know of any lore, HugoLuman, where vampires can endless live without blood without having any consequences whatsoever?
I don't know, vampires are defined for being blood-suckers. It's in their nature, and it should have consequences, IMHO.