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[Terratoch]

We all know vampires. They sneak in. They suck blood. Sometimes (quite often) they kill people. Sometimes those people are really useful!
We love them. We hate them. We love to hate them.
Most of the time we want them dead. But!
We've been given something here that:

A. Obeys burrow orders without leaving the designated burrow zone, ever.
B. Never needs sleep.
C. Never needs to drink.
D. Never needs to eat.
E. Is stronger than your average dwarf.

Because of these points, vampires do have their uses

We can equip them with some gear and send them out to fight goblin sieges or ambush squads.

We can seal them in a 1 tile room with walls or a locked door and our fortress will never see it's end.

We can seal them in a room with a lever connected to... whatever, and have them pull it forever, and never have to worry about them getting there in time.

To accomplish the second and third, merely designate a burrow in that area, assign them to it, build... whatever, and they will happily stand there and let you wall them in.

Can anyone else think of uses for these blood suckers?

[zombat]

Cavern explorer.

[DungeonJerk]

I use vampire's as slave labor. Particularly for jobs that require constant attention from dwarves that would lead to them getting very thirsty and or hungry.

Such as mining, producing gears for traps, smelting, etc, etc.

They become cogs in my machines are in fact very useful. And the two that I have acquired at my one fortress only occasionally nom a Dwarf. And so far have avoided any of the ones I need. Not that it matters at Rackscar's, as the ghost's cause far more damage then even a whole legion of vampires ever would.

My other fortress's have yet to gain a single vampire.

And its not as if I haven't been searching every migrant.

I think if I can get enough of them, I will build a dead man's switch with one.

[wierd]

Exogenic environment surface construction contractor.


When the grass is made of writhing tentacles with staring eyeballs, and mysterious jellyfish sting like yellow goop rains from an ominous sky while the dead walk, the vampire mason is the construction worker of choice.

Being unliving, the zombies shouldn't mind him.  Being sleep immune, he doesn't pass out from the unrelenting chemical burns beneath his beard.

He might work slowly... but slowly and surely won the race.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

I have two vampires doing useful work.  One is built into a huge single-level tree farm, with a wood stockpile designed to auto-dump the wood to the next level, so all he does is chop trees, and all I have to worry about is designating some trees every couple of years.  The other is built into my automated silk farm, designed with both dropping stockpiles and automanagement of the bridge controlling LOS to the beast that makes the silk-- it's nice because it requires exactly zero oversight, and is designed so that no critter will ever enter or leave.

[acetech09]

We can seal them in a 1 tile room with walls or a locked door and our fortress will never see it's end.

The exact opposite, if you think about it. We'll get to watch the end of our fort even after the dwarves die. (Cool to see trolls bash the wrong floodgate, gobbos fighting off evil wildlife/weather in the fort they invaded. etc.)

[JelloSnark]

We can seal them in a 1 tile room with walls or a locked door and our fortress will never see it's end.

The exact opposite, if you think about it. We'll get to watch the end of our fort even after the dwarves die. (Cool to see trolls bash the wrong floodgate, gobbos fighting off evil wildlife/weather in the fort they invaded. etc.)

That's kind of what he meant. Kinda. I believe what he was saying is that if you lock a vampire up, even after everyone else dies you will never see the 'end' screen.

[Flying Dice]

One of the funniest things for me is seeing them help to wall themselves in.

"So we're building a wall around me, guys? I'm a completely normal dwarf, so I'll help out!"

[rtg593]

Lever pullers
Managers
Bookkeepers
Magma tube tappers
Gladiator in the mass pitting goblin pit
Zombie surface builders
Candy miners
Cavern explorer (already mentioned :p)
Ambush lookout

[Urist Da Vinci]

So zombies ignore the vampire dwarf, and he (as a civilian) ignores zombies? Make him the butcher in a fort in an evil region. He simply has to put the cut meat in an airlock.

[Kestrel]

Population control.

[Terratoch]

We can seal them in a 1 tile room with walls or a locked door and our fortress will never see it's end.

The exact opposite, if you think about it. We'll get to watch the end of our fort even after the dwarves die. (Cool to see trolls bash the wrong floodgate, gobbos fighting off evil wildlife/weather in the fort they invaded. etc.)

That's kind of what he meant. Kinda. I believe what he was saying is that if you lock a vampire up, even after everyone else dies you will never see the 'end' screen.

Kind of.

Even if all of your *other* dwaves die to a 100+ goblin siege, your vampires will be tucked away safely behind walls, so yes, no "Game Over, you had fun" screen.
Instead, eventually, more migrants will come. Eventually, the goblins will get bored and leave. Eventually, enough trade caravans will come with enough guards to destroy the goblins.

And when you finally do get that migrant wave that survives the fecal matter hitting the wind moving device, think of all the free loot that will be laying around for them from all of those decimated caravans and dead goblins and caravan guards.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I accidentally trained my vampire into a legendary everything while trying to get it to bleed into the well.  I think he is going to deal with the f.b.s now.

[wierd]

Just make him do some sparring matches with live weapons.  He will get nicked and cut. When he washes, the blood will wash into a pool on the floor.  Wash it into the well.

[arphen]

Vampires are currently still broken and have very little or no use at all right now.
i've gone through the process and have infected ALL of my dwarves with vampirism in my current fort.
They still suffer effects from soberness, but won't touch booze at all.

Vampires are broken and useless.