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[Daveorock]

So I've been dealing with 2 vampires in my fort now, and have learned some things about how they behave, and how to keep them away from snoozing dwarves. Here are some tips for you to try if you can't figure out how to stop the vamp (these are tips for keeping them from draining dwarves, not for discovering the vamp in the first place).

1) Contain the vampire in a (sealed off or locked, or both) room.
2) When they are outside containment, NEVER LET THEM OUT OF YOUR SIGHT.
3) Assign them to burrows, they will stay inside them (afaik)
4) Locked doors keep them out of rooms, so if they start strolling to your sleeping area, lock the doors of rooms with sleeping dwarves, if you successfully do this (and the vamp was indeed heading for one of them) the vamp will instantly re-path and find another job.
5) Drafting the vamp and telling him/her to do something in the military will NOT discourage them from draining dwarves, they will readily disobey your orders and gorge themselves.
6) If you tell them to do something like pulling a lever, they WILL do it, and will not do anything else (even draining dwarves) until that lever is pulled (so theoretically, you could have a vamp burrowed to a lever specified to them that is set on repeat in the middle of your dormitory/rooms, and as long as the vamp doesn't go on break your dwarves are safe).
7) When a vampire wants to drain a dwarf, they take a fake job. This can include things like going on break, storing items, and the like. If you see this happen, you can check if it is indeed a fake job by going into the jobs screen (j), and trying to remove the job from the vampire (select job, press r), if the job does NOT get removed, it is definitely a fake job. Even if it isn't or you can't tell (like going on break), you should still take precautions and use tip 4.

[psychologicalshock]

The way I do it is I simply check every migrants history quickly. If they have a large amount of relationships or a lot of citizenships I instantly become suspicious, after that you need to check the Gods they worship as well as their kills. If a dwarf is very suspicious just quarantine him for a bit, it will become obvious in a month or two if he's a vampire or not. Using this method I have avoided letting vampires into my fortress in the first place.

As for letting them into the fortress proper - it's always unsafe for them to be around normal dwarves, no matter how careful you are.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

My ghosts have a habit of hanging around my vampires-- and that leads to unlocked doors.  I wall them in.

[slink]

Walling them in also has the advantage of keeping them safe from building destroyers, thus insuring that your fortress will never crumble to its end.

[psychologicalshock]

Yep I first lock the door then wall in the said door. That way if I ever want to let a new vampire in I can quickly slip him past the door and wall it back in. Vampires seem to obey forbidden doors.

[Mitchewawa]

5) Drafting the vamp and telling him/her to do something in the military will NOT discourage them from draining dwarves, they will readily disobey your orders and gorge themselves.

Actually, if you make an order (like station), cancel and reorder it usually works, if not it does on the second try.

[GavJ]

Wow wait... the lever thing made me realize...

Vampires are bloody well naturally MADE to be cloistered, dedicated lever pullers.  It's so perfect, how did I not think of that?

Just have two rooms.  One has only a single lever, which walls itself off with a floodgate or something.  The other one has all the other fortress' important levers in it, also secured from the fort with a floodgate, to make absolutely sure they dont sneak out.

Whenever you install a new trap or whatever, make the vamp seclude himself in the safety room, then your mechanics install the new hardware, leave, close the airlock, and then the vamp releases himself again.

No need to drop food in ever! No need to worry about them falling asleep at the switch!  Man, I am pissed off now that I killed my last one and wont be getting any more migrants due to pop. cap now... =(

[psychologicalshock]

That was a great idea in 34.05, now that vampires can go insane from being naked it's an even better (read: horrible) idea to leave your fortress controls to them.

[GavJ]

...Why would they be naked?

Or are you just saying they can go insane very easily?

[rtg593]

...Why would they be naked?

Or are you just saying they can go insane very easily?

... You don't read what's new in the update before you download, do you? clothing wears away, and they're bashful. Clothing industry is now required.

I put all migrants into room, thirsty ones are let out. Rest are labeled vamp and made bookkeepers, managers, and lever pullers.

[Sphalerite]

7) When a vampire wants to drain a dwarf, they take a fake job. This can include things like going on break, storing items, and the like.

Wow.  That solves a mystery from my current fortress.  Early on I looked at the dwarves in Dwarf Therapist, and saw a dwarf with some job involving putting bees in a hive.  This puzzled me, since my fortress has no hives, and the name of the dwarf didn't match any dwarf in the fortress.  Soon after I found a child drained of blood.  Dwarf Therapist displays the real name of vampires, and the filling a hive job was the fake job.

Vampires are bloody well naturally MADE to be cloistered, dedicated lever pullers.

I had that thought too.  I nearly lost the fortress because of it.

Vampires never get thirsty.  Because of this, they never drink booze.  Vampire dwarves are still alcohol-dependent, so not drinking booze for years causes them to work very slowly and take more breaks.  Eventually you'll get to a point where you need that lever pulled NOW, but your vampire lever-puller has decided to go on break for a year.  Never assign a vampire to a time-critical job.

[orius]

Wow.  That solves a mystery from my current fortress.  Early on I looked at the dwarves in Dwarf Therapist, and saw a dwarf with some job involving putting bees in a hive.  This puzzled me, since my fortress has no hives, and the name of the dwarf didn't match any dwarf in the fortress.  Soon after I found a child drained of blood.  Dwarf Therapist displays the real name of vampires, and the filling a hive job was the fake job.

I see vampires are still pretty stupid. 

Vampires are bloody well naturally MADE to be cloistered, dedicated lever pullers.

I had that thought too.  I nearly lost the fortress because of it.

Vampires never get thirsty.  Because of this, they never drink booze.  Vampire dwarves are still alcohol-dependent, so not drinking booze for years causes them to work very slowly and take more breaks.  Eventually you'll get to a point where you need that lever pulled NOW, but your vampire lever-puller has decided to go on break for a year.  Never assign a vampire to a time-critical job.

Yeah.  I made a vampire manager but he took forever updating work orders.  I would never entrust a vampire to pull the levers for the fort's defenses, that's just asking for trouble.  Maybe an atom smasher that's out of the way, but nothing critical.

Of course you could wall the vamp into a small space with a lever that keeps jamming a spike up the vampire's ass everytime he or she pulls the lever.  Put in on repeat, and it's ok if the vamp goes slow with it, gives the vampire time to heal, providing potentially decades or more of torment to punish the bloodsucking parasite from daring to besmirch the fortress with its presence.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Vampires are excellent for constant, non-critical jobs-- I've used them successfully for wood cutting and weaving, I'm certain they could run a kiln or a glass furnace, and I believe you could even set one up as an omelette chef without too much difficulty (but probably a lot of waste).  Their minimal physical needs more than make up for their booze withdrawal, at least in these roles.  For the less mechanically inclined, using them in a watchtower, as a bookkeeper, or to run a danger room is nice.  I don't think they make good lever-room overseers or military-- they're simply too unreliable-- although I could imagine a fortress patrolled by vampire marksdwarves, using triple-width fortification based walls.

Vampires are really great in the roles they're good at, and considering how many useless dwarves old forts tend to accrue, I wouldn't be surprised to see half-vampire forts in the future.

[Darekun]

Yeah.  I made a vampire manager but he took forever updating work orders.

He managed to be slower than a regular dwarf manager in updating work orders? That's actually kind of impressive.

I would never entrust a vampire to pull the levers for the fort's defenses, that's just asking for trouble.  Maybe an atom smasher that's out of the way, but nothing critical.

Eh, the problem is using one vampire for the job. Infect ten migrants and give 'em one lever room, and it's a fair sight better than dining room levers :J