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[Hans Lemurson]

So I'm doing the one-pick evil tundra challenge, and when the last immigrant wave got annihilated, one dwarf managed to stroll past the zombies without problem.  This dwarf had been a member of 5 previous forts and so is obviously a vampire.

A vampire though is an invaluable asset in a fortress besieged by legions of the undead.  She can scout, retrieve items, build walls, and herd zombies.  However, I'm concerned that if completely segregated from the fort, she might become useless from misery and blood withdrawal, or that one slip-up in my containment will result in an irreplaceable member of my population being drained dry.

Are there any ways of feeding my vampire without risking the death of a Dwarf?  Can I arrange it so that she can only feed on the beefiest members of my population?  Can I have her feed on livestock who might be big enough (I have 2 horses) to survive a bloodletting?

How can I have a happy healthy and productive Vampire who lives a sustainable lifestyle?

[Dwarvinator]

Some bad news, I'm afraid.

Sadly, dwarf vampires are still [alcohol_dependent] so even if he drinks blood all day, every day he will still slow down.

But...

...However, the attribute gains from being a vampire do help level this out, so even if he isn't amazingly fast, he won't be the slowest dwarf in your fort either. And the fact that he can train uninterrupted forever mean that if you get a squad of three vamps, set to train 2 minimum all the time, then they will have, like, 5 year sparring matches, so they gain skill very quickly. They only have average speed, but the rest of their attributes are really good, so even with their alcohol withdrawal, they are still great soldiers.

Vamps can be confined to a burrows to save them snacking on the populace - they only leave if possessed by a Strange Mood.
Making friends with non-vampires may cause the vamp hurt feelings when that dwarf subsequently dies.
She needn't be alone - you could vamp a couple of sparring partners with a tainted well in a burrow.

[Garath]

last thing I know, feeding vampires don't obey burrows. I could be wrong though

[BlackFlyme]

last thing I know, feeding vampires don't obey burrows. I could be wrong though

Pretty sure that's station/training orders you're thinking of. They won't feed on dwarves unless one falls asleep within their burrow area.

[stumpy]

I've never tried this, but it should work wouldn't hurt to test on any unskilled dwarves.
    Assign the vampire to it's own burrow separate from the bedrooms used by everyone else. Include a "guest" bedroom in the vampire's burrow and rotate the bedroom assignment among the unskilled dwarves. If you could work out how often the vampire needs to feed, it shouldn't be too hard to give it a roommate to snack on every now and then without killing too many people.
 Or just create a dormitory in the burrow for the new arrivals as a form of population control. Make them prove their dwarfiness to redeem them from snacktime.

[Sutremaine]

What are the effects of blood deprivation on a vampire?

[BlackFlyme]

What are the effects of blood deprivation on a vampire?

That's actually a good question. Has there been any science on this?

Searches on Google only come up with the fact that vamps can't drink beer.

Though I did find this thread that suggested that well-fed vampires will drain less blood than starving ones.

[itg]

I wonder if vampires still get the benefits (whatever they are) of feeding if the job is interrupted? And more importantly, will they try to feed again?

I'm thinking you might try a setup where every bedroom has a fortification/window in the wall and a pressure plate in the doorway. Behind the fortification is a floodgate, and behind that a scary animal. The pressure plate is linked to the floodgate, probably with a delay circuit. The theory is, (though I don't know if it will actually work), that the vampire will trigger the plate when attempting to feed, then he'll get scared off by the animal before totally draining the victim. The victim should be able to fall asleep before the floodgate opens, so it won't effect his daily life.

[Tirion]

I wonder if vampires still get the benefits (whatever they are) of feeding if the job is interrupted? And more importantly, will they try to feed again?

I'm thinking you might try a setup where every bedroom has a fortification/window in the wall and a pressure plate in the doorway. Behind the fortification is a floodgate, and behind that a scary animal. The pressure plate is linked to the floodgate, probably with a delay circuit. The theory is, (though I don't know if it will actually work), that the vampire will trigger the plate when attempting to feed, then he'll get scared off by the animal before totally draining the victim. The victim should be able to fall asleep before the floodgate opens, so it won't effect his daily life.

How does the victim go in to sleep?

[Larix]

Afaik, no-one has yet witnessed any effect from a vampire draining a victim, apart from a dead dwarf. There haven't been reports of any kind of benefit to the vampire, or adverse effects of long blood withdrawal.

Vampires survive just fine without blood for years and their health readout never changes (no "thirsty" or "hungry" indicator, ever). Fort-mode vampires slow down massively over time, but since they're generally dwarfs, that should be due to alcohol withdrawal.

Testing for possible effects of blood withdrawal/blood drinking would require at least two vampires and checking the performance of a blood-sucking vs. a 'dry' one. To exclude the main interference with vampire performance, it might be prudent to remove the ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT tag from dwarfs in the raws.

[itg]

I wonder if vampires still get the benefits (whatever they are) of feeding if the job is interrupted? And more importantly, will they try to feed again?

I'm thinking you might try a setup where every bedroom has a fortification/window in the wall and a pressure plate in the doorway. Behind the fortification is a floodgate, and behind that a scary animal. The pressure plate is linked to the floodgate, probably with a delay circuit. The theory is, (though I don't know if it will actually work), that the vampire will trigger the plate when attempting to feed, then he'll get scared off by the animal before totally draining the victim. The victim should be able to fall asleep before the floodgate opens, so it won't effect his daily life.

How does the victim go in to sleep?

Same way the vampire does. The theory is that the victim would fall asleep before getting scared off, thanks to the delay circuit.

[Godlysockpuppet]

Vanpires dont need to suck blood at all. It's just a thing they do - they get no extra stats, happy thoughts or any other effects from drinking blood. There is no difference between a fed vampire and a non fed one