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[Talfryn]

So I'm trying to find a fun, amusing way to train regular dwarves into hardened killers. I'm already planning on instituting a gym program and a swimming program so they can max out their attributes before they even start weapons training. However, if I'm going to train a portion of my population to be... well, brutal killing machines, I want them not going off and murdering friendlies.

I know that tragedy hardens dwarves against everything, and pets seem like an effective way to do that without messing them up too easily. Would locking a dwarf in a room with a cat until they adopt it, and then killing the cat (without burying it) be enough to make them stop caring? How many pets would need to die per dwarf, and how do you stop them from going berserk? (Also, if a dwarf is locked in a room and goes berserk, will it eventually calm down?)

Thanks.

[Sabreur]

There was a thread on this awhile ago. I think the best solution found was to drop stray puppies into the dining room. The bad thought is minor since they're strays, but it still gives the full hardening bonus of witnessing death. Falling damage seems to have been reduced a bit, so your puppy waterfall might need a spike trap at the bottom.

[khearn]

I'm pretty sure (and the wiki backs me up) that cat's will pick any dwarf on the map, not just one in the same room. They also apparently are more likely to pick a dwarf that likes cats. So locking the dwarf in a room with the cat doesn't sound like it would help.

On the other hand, you can just assign a puppy to the dwarf via the z->Animals screen. Or assign a pet turkey, for that matter. That should server the same purpose.

I'm not sure how many pets it would take to make a dwarf not care any more. I haven't heard of anyone doing science on it, either. Do some testing and let us know what you find. To keep them from going berserk, use the normal tactics of an nice bedroom with engraved walls and maybe a statue or two, plus a legendary dining room and good lavish meals.

And, no, a berserk dwarf will never calm down on his own. You can calm him down, however, by applying magma.
 

[weenog]

Depends on whether you mean Berserk status or just generally flipping out.  Dwarves can recover from tantrums.  Berserk is a flavor of insanity and like the others, is permanent until death.

[Talfryn]

Well, I've got thirty eight puppies, and seven dwarves. I modded their need to eat and drink out for convenience, and will run 7 experiments... for science.

[Poindexterity]

it doesnt have to be tragic death to gain the attribute.
I've had soldiers who never lost a friend or loved one who have it just from the sheer amount of killing they've done.

[Broken]

Atacked by dead is a tragedy thought.

if you have evil disturbance/a captured necromancer, a good way to train soldiers is just to leave some corpses in an undead danger room then let them resurrect and have your soldiers kill them repitedly. Bonus points if the corpes are of friends/familiars/pets of the soldiers.
I order my commander to kill the remains of her brother seventeen times. Now he doesn't care about anything.

-Note- to use a captured necromancer, put him behind fortifications, with a bridge to close line of sight as needed.

[Broseph Stalin]

You can get "doesn't really care" from kicking biblical amounts of ass but if you want to manufacture tragedy the method I used to drive dwarves crazy in my ghost studies was to train a war dog, give it to them, then have it butchered. It's quick and reliable and works fast but be careful if you catch a guy on the bad day it's very likely that they'll just lose their shit and go berserk.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm not sure how many pets it would take to make a dwarf not care any more.

One of my Dwarves killed her husband, instant ticket to not caring about anything anymore.

[Talfryn]

After finding out that I could only seem to make them very sad and not actually get them to not care, I'm slightly confused.

[Broseph Stalin]

After finding out that I could only seem to make them very sad and not actually get them to not care, I'm slightly confused.

The more tragedy they experience the cooler they get about it. You should see something like getting used to tragedy after a while till you finally get the coveted doesn't really care about anything.

[Talfryn]

And the war dog thing, that really works? I'll want to test it, but I really -dislike- the idea of dangerous dwarves tantrumming on people's faces, so I want them to battle ready before they get trained.

I guess I don't see why a dead war dog would make them not care more than a pet.

[Broseph Stalin]

And the war dog thing, that really works? I'll want to test it, but I really -dislike- the idea of dangerous dwarves tantrumming on people's faces, so I want them to battle ready before they get trained.

I guess I don't see why a dead war dog would make them not care more than a pet.

An assigned war dog is just a pet that you can reliably give them. The only problem I ever had with it was that I accidentally slaughtered the wrong dog once and a mechanic ate his wifes hand before the militia stomped him into quadriplegia at which point he used his teeth to strip naked and rolled himself out of the hospital only to die at his wifes feet. So yeah be careful about butchering the right dog.

One piece of evidence that did come in handy from Chirpacted was from Portalis, she was impossibly resilient because she had "angers quickly" she would throw a tantrum at the slightest provocation so her mood wouldn't have time to reach miserable. 

[Loud Whispers]

And the war dog thing, that really works? I'll want to test it, but I really -dislike- the idea of dangerous dwarves tantrumming on people's faces, so I want them to battle ready before they get trained.

I guess I don't see why a dead war dog would make them not care more than a pet.

Do keep in mind slaughtering pet war dogs has been a method of deliberately causing Dwarves to berserk for quite a while now. Control the amount of tragedy your Dwarves receive per month.

[Splint]

Alternativly, if you had embarked on areas with lost of weak but persistant animals, (badgers or macaques for example) have them kill alot of them in rapid succesion (a dozen or so did it for mine, killed them in the ingame span of two days, probably more realistically he killed them in the space of an hour.) they'll also be pretty much emotionally sapped too.

Although there's good ol' glacial training that will achieve some of the same results stat wise. Trust me, it definetly helps.