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[coldmonkey]

I think the topic kinda speaks for itself, but to clarify: I was reading the Dwarven Child Care thread, and thought that since the sociopathic superdwarves are a lot more expendable than other dwarves, since the negative thoughts upon the death of one would be limited to the close family, they wouldn't really cause many tantrum spirals from Berserk-related deaths, would they? And then I thought, hell, that goes for all friend- and family-less migrants. A quick look in the Wiki taught me that dwarves with an Angry personality are more prone to berserk when they lose their mind.
So my question is this, has anyone tried isolating suitable dwarves for purpose of pushing them into Berserk rages, when such might be useful? I'm thinking sieges, syndrome-spreading FBs, husks (which begs the question, can berserk dwarves be Huskified and do they stay angry after transformation), those kind of situations.

[Girlinhat]

There's two issues here.
1: Berzerk dwarves do not eat or drink, and will die rather quickly.
2: If you're gonna send a suicide soldier out, just tag them on a squad.

This is one of the items that can be weaponized, and has been before, but to underwhelming results.

[coldmonkey]

There's two issues here.
1: Berzerk dwarves do not eat or drink, and will die rather quickly.
2: If you're gonna send a suicide soldier out, just tag them on a squad.

This is one of the items that can be weaponized, and has been before, but to underwhelming results.

The dying part was meant to be part of the calculation. Instead of trapping already insane dwarves, I was thinking assigning them a dozen pets or so, and then letting them fall to their deaths in front their proud owner when the situation calls for it. Until then, they should be kept sane, with food and booze. So the idea is a handful of on-demand berserkers, like the Soviet tank factories that would send engines of destruction straight from production to the front. Although if it's been tried already and the Berserkers don't perform particularly well, then I guess there's no point in continuing this line of thought. And thanks for the quick reply!

[Girlinhat]

Well, the problem is that berzerkers are less useful than regular militia.  I believe they get penalties to dodge and block, and basically just wail on their target until one of them dies.

If you really want to weaponize something, then figure out what in specific causes Martial Trances.  That is field-clearing on its own!

[Lida_Brainbroken]

If you really want to weaponize something, then figure out what in specific causes Martial Trances.  That is field-clearing on its own!

I've noticed military dwarfs with low anger thresholds go into the martial trance more readily.  I also recall reading it somewhere, too.  Add a high stress threshold and I think you'll have a stable, yet dangerous soldier (without the need for "kitten rainfall" to deaden them emotionally).  I've considered retraining the marksdwarfs who show this trait in hopes of increasing the odds, but in my present fortress I've not had any need to test it.  I've erected archer's towers for the first time, and they tend to soften or eliminate the threat before I get a chance to send the melee fighters into a heavy fray.

[coldmonkey]

Well, experience and the Wiki says it's often related to fighting multiple opponents. Maybe enemy entities trapped behind fortifications along bottlenecks would count for nearby dwarves and make them more prone to enter trances?
So, this has probably been researched extensively already, but when fighting one-on-four, all with heavy armour and high Dodge so they don't kill each other quickly, the outnumbered dwarves entered trances with similar timing, so there's a countdown rather than or along with chance. After falling unconscious and passing the time limit that seems to restrict Trances, they wake up and immediately go into trance. Trances seem to last for less than half a day, and during one versus three testing the countdown between them seems to be between four and five days, leaning closer to five. Oh, and I'm obviously doing this in Object Testing mode, so there are no personalities involved. I'll get ten or more dates for a good enough average and then check if number of opponents affects the countdown or duration somehow, and what exactly counts as being outnumbered towards Trances.
So, this is what I've got so far: One-on-one most definitely hasn't triggered any trances, nor have two-on-one, while three-on-one, three on-two, three-on-three etc. all delivered. 1-on-1-on-1-on-1 also triggered trances, but less often for some reason (I have a few ideas, but they're pointless to share until I've tested them), while 1-on-1-on-1 didn't work. Three seems to be the magic number. Proximity is important, as just a few steps away they stop counting towards the required three. I also tried placing nine Team #1 dwarves on pillars two z-levels up, but they didn't seem to count along with the ground level #1 towards making the #2 go into trance. I need to do more testing with enemies only one z-level up.
This is the timetable for one dwarf fighting against three other dwarves, first date is the start, second the end: 4th-4th, 9th-10th, 14th-14th, 18th-18th, 23d-23d, 28th-28th, 4th-4th, 9th-9th, 15th-15th, 19th-20th, 23d-23d, 28th-28th. After that, the three in Team #2 started falling unconscious as well, and the dates became irregular: 3d-3d, 10th-10th, and then the lone #1 died and that's that. I think the area was a bit too big, because when the #2s began hardnapping they were separated for short periods. So I don't know if unconscious opponents count towards the Martial Trance Trinity. I'll do some more testing tomorrow, when I'm not on the verge of spontaneously falling asleep.
Oh yeah, skills don't seem to affect the regularity of trances. They went from Proficient Dodgers to Legendary in several skills without any particular fluctuation in their martial countdown. I'll try vampires tomorrow, since they're so much stronger and can thus quickly show if higher attributes have an effect.

[Hyndis]

Equip a vampire in full adamantine gear. Torment the vampire until the vampire goes insane. You have a 1 in 3 chance of the vampire going berserk. A vampire doesn't require food or drink, and so will never die even when insane.

2/3rds of the time you just get a depressed and naked vampire moping around in your meeting hall. An insane vampire will never feed, so all of your other dwarves are safe.

If you get a berserk vampire they will retain the equipment they were holding at the time of insanity, and you can catch one and put one in a cage. I'm not sure how useful a berserk vampire is though. The only thing they really have going for them is that zombies will not attack a vampire. This means vampire haulers cleaning out your zombie trap for goblins could be useful, but if you have a horde of zombies you don't need a berserker. The horde of zombies will take care of the goblins for you.

[coldmonkey]

Topic change, this thread is now about weaponizing everything, anything you can think of. I'll continue researching Martial Trances.

Okay, today's findings have been somewhat interesting. Started with 1-on-3, full adamantium, blowguns for weapons (they count as swords, apparently), no skills at all. At the beginning, it was lika a clockwork: Days 2-2, 7-7, 12-12, and then #1 (I'll call him Jet) started falling unconscious from over-exertion. So we get a little lag due to him napping for a few hours: 16-17, 22-23, 27-27. Notice how it's consistently been seemingly FIVE days between each Trance, but here there's only four. Then: 2-2, 5-5 (only three days here, and it's around this time that Team #2 starts to fall unconscious now and then), 8-8, 14-14 (six days), 17-17, then a long leap to the 6th the next month, meaning 17 days between trances! Around this time there were often two from #2 unconscious at the same time, which might be related. Soon after, two of them died and I replaced them with new cowards (ganging up on a single opponent!) and the dates started to look more regular again: 11-12, 18-18, 22-22, 25-25, then a seven day leap to 4-4 when Team #2 started fainting again. After that, #1 was amazingly superdwarven and killed/knocked out the opponent team too quickly for there ever to be three opponents at once, and for the half a month this went on he didn't fall into a single trance. Then he succumbed to infection.

So, none of this is conclusive proof of anything, but it seems that unconscious opponents, even when right next to you, don't count towards the Trance Trinity, but I don't know if it's due to them being out of it, or if it's because they simply can't attack, so it might be the number of active attackers that matters. Skills once again seem mostly unimportant, BUT towards the later testing stages there are several instances of trances occuring within three or four day intervals. Once again, I'm guessing this has to do with attributes, which increase more slowly.

Numbers past three seem unimportant. Three weasels or 30 weasels, it made no discernable difference for the dwarf.

[Naryar]

Berserk vampire legendary axedwarf. That is all.

[Orange Wizard]

Weaponised beserkers are Cool but Impractical.
What we need are obsidian sword minecart catapults, which consist of minecarts loaded with swords dumped on a raising bridge. Then launched at goblins.

[Girlinhat]

Weaponised beserkers are Cool but Impractical.
What we need are obsidian sword minecart catapults, which consist of minecarts loaded with swords dumped on a raising bridge. Then launched at goblins.

But obsidian swords need to be produced.  Instead, just use stolen goblin weapons, dumped into a cart.  It makes a snowball effect as each kill makes for a heavier load next season.

[Orange Wizard]

Weaponised beserkers are Cool but Impractical.
What we need are obsidian sword minecart catapults, which consist of minecarts loaded with swords dumped on a raising bridge. Then launched at goblins.

But obsidian swords need to be produced.  Instead, just use stolen goblin weapons, dumped into a cart.  It makes a snowball effect as each kill makes for a heavier load next season.

Oooh, that's efficiency. I like that. And we can launch elves, too.

[Hyndis]

Why not just goblin body parts? Carts can hold refuse. And a mine cart hitting a goblin at the speed of light will result in ludicrous gibs.

[coldmonkey]

Weaponised beserkers are Cool but Impractical.
What we need are obsidian sword minecart catapults, which consist of minecarts loaded with swords dumped on a raising bridge. Then launched at goblins.

But obsidian swords need to be produced.  Instead, just use stolen goblin weapons, dumped into a cart.  It makes a snowball effect as each kill makes for a heavier load next season.

Oooh, that's efficiency. I like that. And we can launch elves, too.

Can we launch berserker elves?

[Orange Wizard]

Weaponised beserkers are Cool but Impractical.
What we need are obsidian sword minecart catapults, which consist of minecarts loaded with swords dumped on a raising bridge. Then launched at goblins.

But obsidian swords need to be produced.  Instead, just use stolen goblin weapons, dumped into a cart.  It makes a snowball effect as each kill makes for a heavier load next season.

Oooh, that's efficiency. I like that. And we can launch elves, too.

Can we launch berserker elves?

I'm pretty sure merchants go insane if you keep them from leaving for long enough.
So all we'd need to do is trap the elven caravan on a drawbridge, along with all the other crap we're launching, wait for them to go mad, and then launch them at migrants invaders.