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[Bertus]

Hello, I am fairly new to the DF, and this is my second fortress, explanation is a little long so bare with me
I finally felt that i am starting to get the hang of it and made it into my second year without much of a problem, everyone seemed to be happy, working, drinking, eating, etc, but then some weird thing happened.
A goblin thief arrived to my fort and tried to get past, i assembled a squad of 5 dwarfs to quickly deal with the intruder when after a few second of chasing him my dwarfs went uphill and i got the message popping up on my screen which paused the game:

-The Wererhinoceros Shorast Erithtashem has come! A large rhinoceros twisted into humanoid form.
It is crazed for blood and flesh. Its eyes glow spring green. Its sepia hair is long and wavy. Now you
wili know why you fear the night.
A wererhnocerous has sprung from ambush!

What puzzles me is how exactly the dwarfs who were inside the fort got interrupted by him 3 times after the message and then the beast (i assume this refers to werewolf type creature) transformed into a goblin who started to interrupt my dwarfs again for a while during the transformation confusion. Right after i got a message that a dwarf named Ducim (my dissector) is no longer enraged where there was no previous message about anyone being enraged at all, this followed by him falling unconscious that gave error cancel Clean Self.
I disbanded that squad feeling all confused not knowing what had happened when i saw some blood splatter around unconscious dwarf, assuming he got hit by the intruder somehow, but there was no sign of the goblin.
Later there were a few notifications about a snatcher, goblin thief, kobolt thief who i tried to kill once again everything calmed down and no one was dead, injured dwarf was healing just fine.

Horror began after about 5-10 minutes of unpaused game.
- Ducim (dissector) has transformed into wererhinocerous!
lots of dwarfs started to get interrupted by him, next,
- Farmer Loloradag has been found dead.
interrupts again
- A cat bled to death
interrupts again
- Dwarf bled to death
- Dwarf bled to death
- Cat bled to death
- Dwarf bled to death
- Dwarf bled to death
- Soldier bled to death
Note that this has happened during the time when i promptly assembled a squad of 10 again to try and deal with him, this was happening while my dwarfs were swarming him in fact trying to kill.
Later he transformed back into dwarf again! (COME ON!)
More crazyness follows, i started getting messages that my recruit is harrasing and interrupting my other dwarfs from work, which recruit, i have no clue, was no way to determine even though i tried to track him. Again note that recruit harassment started immediately after the Ducim's transformation but that wasn't him harassing the rest because some messages show that Ducim himself was interrupted by recruit. One of the soldiers entered martial trance, then he exited it and afterwards he was struck down by someone or something. Interruptions continued, some other soldier entered the trance meanwhile soldier marked Soldier3 was struck down as well. Interruptions continue, lots of them, a page long. What happened next showed me who was the recruit (it is really odd because this person wasn't assigned to do anything as he was not nicknamed by me and was only hauling)
Minkot Erithhat has become a wrestler. this followed by another round of interruptions by a Wrestler this time, this wrestler was struck down too after a while.
Recruit interruptions continued once again!
I disbanded the squad still desperately trying to find out who is doing this and what is happening.
After disbanding Recruit was tagged as a Siege Operator (wave default tag) who once again was interrupting everyone.
The last message at this point that followed continuous interruptions by siege oprator is that my metalsmith is interrupting everyone...

I am really confused at this point because i haven't a clue whats going on and how to stop this madness.
Tried searching wiki, google something about wererhinoceros, there is no information at all, even on the forums i tried search, while found some references there was no useful info. If someone has an idea what is going on and how to deal with it please reply.
Thanks.

[Psieye]

You have a loyalty cascade. Somehow or other the original werebeast (which happened to be based on a rhinoceros this time round) bit your dwarf, Ducim. I'm not convinced it was that goblin you were pursuing at the time, werebeasts are very fast when it's the full moon.

Anyway, Ducim became a werebeast and of course this wouldn't show until the next full moon. He temporarily assumed his lycanthrope form and started harassing people. In your panic, you ordered your dwarves to attack a member of their own civilisation. Now your soldiers are considered both a member AND an enemy of the same civilisation. Therefore everyone will be hostile towards them and should any happen to attack them for whatever reason, they too will be declared an enemy of the civilisation, etc etc. As I said: "Loyalty Cascade".

The correct response would have been to wait for Ducim to turn back to normal and then isolate him somewhere (by burrow or giving him a useless job) so he won't cause trouble again. The alternate response would have been to let him infect everyone with lycanthropism and enjoy your murderous rampaging were-rhinoceros fort.

[Bertus]

*Facepalm*
Thanks for the explanation Psieye, i guess play and learn, is this possible to correct somehow? I already have 7 dwarfs dead by now
I also found out that Ducim is the wife of the Siege Operator who is harassing everyone currently.
I knew that there was such thing as vampires that arrive with the migration waves sometimes but had no idea that werewolves exited too.
My assumption is that this is a new feature due to there being nearly no information on this.

[Astrid]

The best way to fix it as stated is to wall him into an room, or somehow let an 'accident' happen to him. Among everyone else who's
regarded to be hostile.

Best way to deal with thiefs is to have only one entrance and chain 2 guard dogs along its side on ropes. As soon as tehy are spottet
they will run away.

[Finn]

*Facepalm*
Thanks for the explanation Psieye, i guess play and learn, is this possible to correct somehow? I already have 7 dwarfs dead by now
I also found out that Ducim is the wife of the Siege Operator who is harassing everyone currently.
I knew that there was such thing as vampires that arrive with the migration waves sometimes but had no idea that werewolves exited too.
My assumption is that this is a new feature due to there being nearly no information on this.

At this point I would suggest that a new player just start over.  You were only two years into the fort, start a new one.  There are many other things to learn that are more important and less tedious.  Loyalty cascades are relatively rare.

Otherwise the way to deal with it is to isolate the military, and then keep them forever isolated or arrange an unfortunate accident.

[Bertus]

Thanks for the replies guys also great tip about the dogs Astrid, i was wondering the whole time how to deal with them thieves since they bypass nearly any trap, one question though about the dogs, since i usually take 2 wardogs with me when i embark, do they still reproduce when chained at the entrance, and are wardogs considered guard dogs, or will i  have to train guard dogs later in the game?

[Loud Whispers]

At this point I would suggest that a new player just start over.  You were only two years into the fort, start a new one.  There are many other things to learn that are more important and less tedious.  Loyalty cascades are relatively rare.

The only way to get good at Dwarf Fortress is to lose Dwarf Fortress. Abandoning because you're losing goes against the spirit.

You have a loyalty cascade. Somehow or other the original werebeast (which happened to be based on a rhinoceros this time round) bit your dwarf, Ducim. I'm not convinced it was that goblin you were pursuing at the time, werebeasts are very fast when it's the full moon.

This is likely to have been what had happened; while you chased the goblin the werecreature emerged from ambush (they can do that - meaning they're not seen until spotted).

Anyway, Ducim became a werebeast and of course this wouldn't show until the next full moon. He temporarily assumed his lycanthrope form and started harassing people. In your panic, you ordered your dwarves to attack a member of their own civilisation.

When in lycanthrope form were-creatures can be killed and ordered to be killed with impunity, as easy as you would tell your Dwarves to kill a berserk Dwarf. There are no consequences.

However, if the Rhino-Dwarf happened to be wrestling something - say, by latching onto something with its teeth or grappling when it transforms back, this can trigger a loyalty cascade.

The alternate response would have been to let him infect everyone with lycanthropism and enjoy your murderous rampaging were-rhinoceros fort.

Were-rhinos are rare beasts. Powerful, rare beasts.

[i2amroy]

The alternate response would have been to let him infect everyone with lycanthropism and enjoy your murderous rampaging were-rhinoceros fort.

Were-rhinos are rare beasts. Powerful, rare beasts.

And an completely infected military is one of the most powerful forces out there. They are temporarily useless during every full moon, but the result is that as long as they are alive during that period, regardless of how crippled or close to death they are, they become completely healed when they transform.

[Thormgrim]

wererhino sounds stupendously bad-ass, btw.

I say infect the whole fort and go nutso-crazy!

Typically when I get a were-anything it's something pathetic, like a were-hamster that turns into a minature fish person or something right away and immediately runs off the screen

[Bertus]

Well, turns out its a good thing then, perhaps i will continue and try to deal with the loyalty problem while whole fort gets infected and hope i get it done, having crazy powerful military sounds very tempting.
Only how to deal with it at this moment is unknown to me, i will see what i can do, meanwhile if anyone has tips, please, tell

I also found this bug report about were-dwarfs http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=3259
   0003259: Loyalty cascade after ordering squad to attack were-citizens, merchants/traders, guards, or liaison
Looks like its new and not yet resolved.

[locustgate]

Thanks for the replies guys also great tip about the dogs Astrid, i was wondering the whole time how to deal with them thieves since they bypass nearly any trap, one question though about the dogs, since i usually take 2 wardogs with me when i embark, do they still reproduce when chained at the entrance, and are wardogs considered guard dogs, or will i  have to train guard dogs later in the game?

As far as I know they still reproduce and a 'guard' dog is just any dog chained to something it doesn't have to be a trained dog but it's better. I always suggest getting something better a guard bear or lion.

[Mitre]

My "fool-proof" method of stopping evils of Tantrum Spirals and Loyalty cascades is to make sure every floor of my fort has a "supply closet".

These small rooms contain limited food and tools.

They come in handy, because my main staircase is rigged to collapse at my will!
In case of doom, take out the stairs. They'll usually finish their trouble on their respective floors, and the rest will rebuild. Usually avoiding the lost floors.

Optionally, have some pressurised water pipes each floor, rigged to blow the trouble down the hole of a main stairwell.

Note: does not protect against zombie ravens.  D:

Not suggesting you use this design, but remember that losing brigs you to think of new ways to win!

[SharkForce]

main problem with guard dogs is that if the goblin gets close enough, it will stab them before running. so make sure you're going to have extras.

[Numeroid]

At this point I would suggest that a new player just start over.  You were only two years into the fort, start a new one.  There are many other things to learn that are more important and less tedious.  Loyalty cascades are relatively rare.

The only way to get good at Dwarf Fortress is to lose Dwarf Fortress. Abandoning because you're losing goes against the spirit.

I get the "Losing is Fun!" as a sort of joke/motivator, but if I know I'm going to lose, I'm going to abandon. There's no point in sitting there watching as my dwarfs die. I like my dwarfs. I don't maniacally laugh, I just get irritated. Still love this game though.

[Necrisha]

either abandon before the tantrum spiral/loyalty cascade hits total unhappiness, or long after the dust settles. berserk/hostile migrants of the normal variety are just as fun as sneaky were-beasts. haven't had much fun with were-beasts yet though. they keep spawning within range of a lucky hunter.