Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Beast Tamer]

My start into pragmatic sociopathy began when I noticed that one of my best swordwarf kept getting pregnant because of her husband. After she sired a tenth military recruit, he somehow ended up outside when the next siege started and didn't make it back in quickly enough. Poor fellow.

[Button]

I care for my dwarves' well-being, but sometimes even caring can be a form of overseerpathy.

For example, I recently needed to stir up a Forgotten Beast which was lazily ignoring the bait I had set for it. It was a webber, which I wanted to capture alive for a silk farm, so I couldn't sic my military on it. When I went through the list of haulers to "promote" to "militia captain", the main qualification for the job was: not related to any living members of the Fortress.

I care for their well-being, you see. I wouldn't want to send anyone they'd miss.

[Bludulukus]

When my queen would not stop issuing mandates to make even more bracelets, I placed her alone on a squad and sent her to battle a group of blind cave ogres on her own.

[catpaw]

I care for the living in fortress mode. When I restart playing I even had to swear to myself not to go too emphatic, I remember getting a hurt king appearing on the map. Nothing I could do to save him.

Adventurer mode, however, somehow gets the worst out of me. I mean hammering some poor animals leg for training purposes for hours, even already ever bone in it is broken and it must be flat as a atom layer. After the adventurer got too tired, finally hammered its head a few times to put an end to it.

[thecrimsonbeard]

I'm also quite a softy for my dorfs.  I feel terrible if I'm doing a simple project and end up killing anyone in the process...usually my well construction ends up with a casualty either via cave in (I've never gotten the 'link a lever to a support' trick to work), or getting distracted, and coming back to it in-game months later when they're starving at the bottom because I didn't plan an exit route well enough.  Last time it happened, the miner gave up and started hunting vermin when she was was about 5 tiles away from getting back into the fortress proper (I had no trees to make charcoal and a an emergency pick).  But I stop caring as much when I have a giant population the succumbs to a tantrum spiral, as Stalin said 1 death is a tragedy, 10 million is a statistic.  Except for baby dorfs.  I will immediately recruit anyone around to kill a berzerk dorf mother choking her baby, and I feel terrible that no one adopts orphans, and they end up crawling around until they starve...is there any way to stop that?  It kills me inside every time.

[Larix]

You can remove a baby's hunger/thirst by raw-hacking: add "NO_EAT" and/or "NO_DRINK" to the dwarf creature raws as needed. Remove again to make sure other dwarfs can still eat and drink from time to time, or just keep everyone needless until the baby grows up.

[Loud Whispers]

It starts when your Dwarves are resources.

[Mishrak]

I think this most recent fort was the most noticeable dive into full out murderous intent towards my dwarves I've experienced to date.   I'm embarked on a biome with 3 necro towers and a goblin civ next door, literally.  I don't have time to be nice.  I still make statues and nice bedrooms and such, but when Billybob McUrist's brother died to the zombies, I don't friggin have time to screw around quelling a tantrum spiral.  Same deal when we ran out of leather and the weapon smith just had to go into a fell mood at the EXACT time we get an ambush of goblins and a necromancer running around re-animating every corpse from the last siege one season ago.

I have a 7 z-level pit that I just opened into the caverns.  That's where they go.  Those who won't listen to military orders get locked in their rooms till they die or calm down.  I killed a good 6-8 dwarves after the first siege who were full on red mood and a good 30 seconds of unpause away from wrecking the fort.  It's quite a mess, but I'm through caring.  So far there's a pile of undead down there too.  Fun times.  Ghosts galore.

[Varnifane]

I started playing again after a six month break and what I'm experience is not darkness as much as apathy.

Losing dwarves now and then just doesn't bother me anymore. When I found I had a vampire I just let him go for awhile. When I got a weremonkey I let the problem work itself out.

[thecrimsonbeard]

You can remove a baby's hunger/thirst by raw-hacking: add "NO_EAT" and/or "NO_DRINK" to the dwarf creature raws as needed. Remove again to make sure other dwarfs can still eat and drink from time to time, or just keep everyone needless until the baby grows up.

Cheaters never win have FUN

I have a 7 z-level pit that I just opened into the caverns.  That's where they go.  Those who won't listen to military orders get locked in their rooms till they die or calm down.  I killed a good 6-8 dwarves after the first siege who were full on red mood and a good 30 seconds of unpause away from wrecking the fort.  It's quite a mess, but I'm through caring.  So far there's a pile of undead down there too.  Fun times.  Ghosts galore.

Ghosts used to not scare me so much as irritate me until I went from 60 dwarves to 2 in a few days in-game times (for the second time in that fort) due to a web spewing dimetrodon.  I was about to make a suicide rush with the only useful dorf (the other one having gone stark raving mad) and the 10 wardogs I had him training in the kitchen, when suddenly a ghost ripped off his leg and left him lying on the floor until he went berserk.

[Nikow]

You dwarves are more immune to drama after losing some close to them dwarvs. The same with players... you can see "doesn't care about anything anymore" though in they minds.

[Mishrak]

I found, quite by !!science!! accident, that opening a retractable drawbridge and letting whatever is on it fall 10 z-levels (be it caravan, military squad, whatever) doesn't cause tantrum spirals or loyalty cascades provided the dwarves never see the results of their labor.  I think only in the case of military squads and pitting my own dwarves would they be rather upset upon seeing the corpses.  But it's an extremely easy way to pillage even the dwarven caravans without loyalty cascade.  Ooops they fell!  I wonder who tripped that lever~  Although I do still (for now) have reservations about killing the dwarven caravans.

[AmpsterMan]

I try to take care of my dwarves, though I don't give them all equal treatment. My nobles get the best of the best for themselves. They usually live in opulent standalone homes. My skilled laborers ( basically those that work in trades where skill is important) end up living in small apartmentment complexes or in small homes above their workshops. My main military is part of this caste. All else live in studio aparments and make up my reserves/conscripts (basically, a "true" militia)

I treat the humans with respect, the elves with apathy, the kobolds with disdain, and the goblins with hate. Dwarven prisoners get what's coming to them without remorse. War prisoners are executed via dropping unto spikes. Survivors are eaten by dogs.

All in all, I don't think I have the madness cascade.

[Melting Sky]

I found, quite by !!science!! accident, that opening a retractable drawbridge and letting whatever is on it fall 10 z-levels (be it caravan, military squad, whatever) doesn't cause tantrum spirals or loyalty cascades provided the dwarves never see the results of their labor.  I think only in the case of military squads and pitting my own dwarves would they be rather upset upon seeing the corpses.  But it's an extremely easy way to pillage even the dwarven caravans without loyalty cascade.  Ooops they fell!  I wonder who tripped that lever~  Although I do still (for now) have reservations about killing the dwarven caravans.

I've never quite figured out why people bother to rob caravans. I guess maybe for amusement purposes? One thing I've noticed about dwarf fortress is how ridiculously easy it is to create wealth. You can literally have your carpenter sit down with a stack of maybe 10 logs and when he's done making them into spikey balls you can clean out the caravan for everything of value they have and they will march off contently with a handful of spikey balls and a big grin on their faces.

[mastahcheese]

It starts when your Dwarves are a nuisance.

FTFY