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[10terrapin01]

Looking throughout various forum posts, I saw the rumor that dwarves would not drink booze if they were too tired of it.  This has since been proven false, and in such discussions I have seen doubt expressed as to the accuracy of how frequently dwarves eat.  In this post I will follow one dwarf's eating.  In the thread let us discuss all manner of dwarvern food so that other matters of hungry !!Science!! may be brought to the community's attention.

The dwarf, Rith Sackconflict, has been put in a room excavated from soil with the standard starting food.  15 meat, 15 plant, 15 fish and 60 drink.  He has been barricaded in with a construction.  Now we wait.

Herein lies the pedantic logs.
TEST 1 (Burrow)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Granite: Rith and the dwarves has become thirsty.  To my surprise the other dwarves took drinks from nearby ponds during this month.  Rith remains thirsty.

Slate: 14, Rith has fallen asleep, still thirsty.  He has also become hungry.
15, Rith has awoken and has consumed a unit of dwarvern wine.

Felsite: 7, Rith consumes 1 cavy meat and becomes thirsty again.  The other dwarves cancel their jobs and are hunting vermin for food.

It is now summer

Hematite:1, Rith begins the month by consuming a unit of dwarvern wine and is hungry again.
When I check the stocks, meat is at 13 units(identified as cavy meat), instead of expected 14.  It is possible that this is due to the abundance of hamsters and rats I have seen.

22, Rith consumes another unit of cavy meat.

Malachite: Rith becomes thirsty.
16, Rith consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer and becomes hungry.

Galena: 9, Rith consumes 1 unit of cavy meat.  He is now thirsty.

Autumn has come

Limestone: 1, Rith consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer and becomes hungry.
23, Rith consumes 1 unit of cavy meat.  He is now thirsty.

Sandstone: 13, Rith consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer and becomes hungry.

Timber: 9, Rith consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.  He is now thirsty.

Winter is upon you

Moonstone: 3, Rith consumes 1 unit of dwarvern wine and becomes hungry.
24, Rith consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.  He is now thirsty.

Opal: 17, Rith consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer and becomes hungry.
Checking the stocks, a unit of plants have been lost(identified as plump helmets).  Rats continue to roam.

Obsidian: 10, Rith consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.  He is now thirsty.

And thus ends the year.

Due to a... Minor oversight, this is the consumption schedule for a burrowed dwarf.
Consumption Schedule
Granite: Nothing
Slate: Drink
Felsite: Food
Hematite: Drink, Food
Malachite: Drink
Galena: Food
Limestone: Drink, Food
Sandstone: Drink
Timber: Food
Moonstone: Drink, Food
Opal: Drink
Obsidian: Food

TEST 2 (No burrow)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Asmel,our new dwarf is barricaded in quarters, as Rith was.  This time there is no burrow.
Granite: 10, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern rum.

Slate: 7, Asmel consumes 1 unit of prepared buffalo intestines. 1 unit of dwarvern rum disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has drunk from.
26, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern rum.

Felsite: 13, 1 unit of prepared buffalo intestines disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has eaten from.
18, 1 unit of dwarvern rum disappears, unobserved, from a previously untouched stack.

Hematite: 8, 1 unit of dwarvern wine disappears, unobserved, from a previously untouched stack.
20, Asmel consumes 1 unit of prepared buffalo intestines.
27, 1 unit of dwarvern rum disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has drunk from.

Malachite: 16, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer, from a new stack.
25, Asmel consumes 1 unit of prepared buffalo intestines.

Galena: 7, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern rum, from a new stack.
26, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern beer.

Limestone: 3, Asmel consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.
17, 1 unit of dwarvern wine disappears, from a new stack.

Sandstone: 7, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern wine.
9, Asmel consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.
25, 1 unit of rum disappears, from a stack Asmel has drunk from.

Timber: 15, Asmel consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.
Dwarves Raid Caravan? Numbers confused.  Resorting to manual counting.
19, 1 unit of dwarvern rum disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has drunk from.

Moonstone: 7, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern wine, from a new stack.
23, Asmel consumes 1 unit of cave lobster.

Opal: 3, 1 unit of dwarvern wine disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has drunk from.
16, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern wine.

Obsidian: 2, Asmel consumes 1 unit of plump helmet.
13, 1 unit of dwarvern rum disappears, unobserved, from a stack Asmel has previously drunk from.
27, Asmel consumes 1 unit of dwarvern rum.

Consumption Schedule
Granite: Drink
Slate: Food, Drink(unverified), Drink
Felsite: Food(unverified), Drink(unverified)
Hematite: Drink(unverified), Food, Drink(unverified)
Malachite: Drink, Food
Galena: Drink, Drink
Limestone: Food, Drink(unverified)
Sandstone: Drink, Food, Drink(unverified)
Timber: Food, Drink(unverified)
Moonstone: Drink, Food
Opal: Drink(unverified), Drink
Obsidian: Food, Drink(unverified), Drink
Total consumed: 8 food, 16 drink- this is in line with the wiki's prediction, however I am fairly sure vermin were at work during the test.



The wiki says dwarves need 2 units of food per season and 1 unit of drink approximately every 3 weeks.  However it would seem food and drink are needed in the same quantity, ~7 units per year.  I will continue in documenting Rith's dietary habits over some time, but I have just spent an hour staring at him, watching him eat while in a box.


Other Info
A dwarf can drink the same drink 4 times before becoming tired of the booze.

To Do
How often do vermin eat?

[neblime]

dwarves certainly won't stop drinking the same booze but it will give them a bad thought.  how many drinks of the same drink does it take I wonder?

[gtaguy]

That's because the dwarven beard doesn't require very many nutrients to sustain itself, it normally absorbs the crumbs from the messy dwarven way of eating or the unaimed quaff hitting it.

[10terrapin01]

dwarves certainly won't stop drinking the same booze but it will give them a bad thought.  how many drinks of the same drink does it take I wonder?

Interesting, I didn't even think of that.  After some quick !!Science!! and I mean 1000FPS quick, after drinking the fifth barrel of dwarvern rum, my test subject grew tired of the booze, meaning four drinks of the same type is the limit without an unhappy thought.

[Larix]

Eh, it seems that your observations were faulty. I locked up my seven starting dwarfs in individual rooms with nothing to do but eat, drink, sleep and admire their shitty beds. I then kept track of their consumption, and it fit my previous cursory observations and the rates given on the wiki:

- late Granite (pre lockup) - dwarfs get thirsty and have a drink. -7 drinks on stocks
- ~6-12 slate (post lockup) - dwarfs eat for the first time, then have another drink and nap. -14 drinks, -7 food
~1 felsite - third drink.
~20 felsite - second meal, fourth drink, second nap
~5 hematite - fifth drink
20-26 hematite - third meal; sixth drinks directly afterwards, from 26 hematite until 3 malachite.
Tally: -21 food, -42 drinks around 10 malachite. drink consumption was double the food consumption.

How did you keep track of Rith's drinks? Just watching can easily miss it, dwarfs will usually drink before showing the "thirst" blue arrow if they're idle. The only surefire way is to track drinks through checking the stocks - either via stocks screen if you just recruit your entire population for the experiment or precise booze count of your testing dwarf's supply.

[Sergarr]

You know, the physical/mental parameters of dwarves can influence their actions.

Maybe it has some effect on food/drink usage?

[neblime]

Correct me if im wrong but doesn't temprrature affect how quickly dwarves get thirsty, maybe that's the difference between these two tests

[Larix]

You know, the physical/mental parameters of dwarves can influence their actions.

Maybe it has some effect on food/drink usage?

Possibly, but when seven dwarfs have the exact same food and drink consumption over 4 1/2 months, i think a single observed dwarf claimed as seven food/seven drink in a year smacks of faulty observation/reporting.

Going by my experience with forced matchmaking, food and drink are required on a very strict schedule. Dwarfs tend to get slightly out of sync over time, but less than +/- one drink against each other in a year. In my test, i watched the seven closely, and it wasn't just "altogether 42 drinks and 21 food consumed", each single one had consumed exactly six drink and three food, no variation among them; the total tally was just the confirmation check, i also kept track of their individual stashes (each was confined to a single cell shared with no other dwarf).

As far as temperature is concerned - all my seven were underground, which has a (near) constant temperature between embarks and worlds.

[10terrapin01]

Larix, I checked the stocks after every time that he ate or drank.  I ended up with two less food than expected, however I believe this to be the result of vermin.  Booze was at its expected value.  Rith had a tendency to eat from the same pile of food, whereas the missing food was from different piles.  Also there was an abundance of rats and hamsters in his cave.

The difference between our tests was I had Rith in isolation and left the rest of the dwarves to starve.  This made it a lot easier to track him.

[Larix]

Could you upload your save? I wonder if there are any area effects that could halve drink consumption. I have a rather substantial collection of data from various locations and have never encountered this. Your test, as far as i can tell, is an exceptional outlier and would be worth verifying/falsifying.

And as far as data reliability is concerned - i had seven dwarfs, each in isolation, and kept track of them individually and cumulatively. And they were all locked up before anybody had their first meal/second drink.

[Quietust]

I've just analyzed the relevant code in 0.34.11, and these are my findings:

Thirst, Hunger, and Drowsiness each increment by 1 during each game tick (e.g. 1200 per day, 33600 per month, 403200 per year), possibly more if the dwarf is a mother carrying her child. When they reach certain thresholds, the following things happen.

Thirst:
* 20000 - dwarf starts considering getting something to drink (1/120 chance per tick) if idle
* 22000 - dwarf decides to go get something to drink if idle
* 25000 - dwarf starts flashing "Thirsty"
* 35000 - dwarf gets an unhappy thought about being Thirsty and cancels its current job to get something to drink
* 50000 - dwarf starts flashing "Dehydrated"
* 60000 - dwarf gets an unhappy thought about being Dehydrated
* 75000 - dwarf dies of thirst

Hunger:
* 40000 - dwarf starts considering getting something to eat (1/120 chance per tick) if idle
* 45000 - dwarf decides to go get something to eat if idle
* 50000 - dwarf starts flashing "Hungry"
* 65000 - dwarf gets an unhappy thought about being Hungry and cancels its current job to get something to eat
* 75000 - dwarf starts flashing "Starving" and begins hunting for vermin
* 85000 - dwarf gets an unhappy thought about being Starving
* 100000 - dwarf starves to death (unless it still has stored fat, at which point it starts burning through it rapidly)

Drowsiness:
* 50000 - dwarf starts considering going to bed (1/120 chance per tick) if idle
* 54000 - dwarf decides to go to bed if idle
* 57600 - dwarf starts flashing "Drowsy"
* 65000 - dwarf get an unhappy thought about being Tired
* 150000 - dwarf starts flashing "Very Drowsy"
* 160000 - dwarf get an unhappy thought about being Exhausted
* 200000 - dwarf goes insane

Completing an Eat/Drink job decreases the relevant counter by 50000 (to a minimum of zero), though they may also decrement it additional times during the job's progress.

Prior to version 0.31.07 (and going all the way back to the 2D versions), the unhappy Thoughts resulting from hunger/thirst/drowsiness occurred at the exact same time that the dwarf started flashing, but all of the other numbers were otherwise the same. Additionally, in earlier versions (most notably 40d and earlier) dwarves cancelled jobs for food/drink/sleep much more readily.

Summary: dwarves should drink roughly twice as often as they eat, though active jobs may interfere with things.

[10terrapin01]

That is some odd behavior on the part of dwarves then

Thirst:
* 20000 - dwarf starts considering getting something to drink (1/120 chance per tick) if idle
* 22000 - dwarf decides to go get something to drink if idle
* 25000 - dwarf starts flashing "Thirsty"
* 35000 - dwarf gets an unhappy thought about being Thirsty and cancels its current job to get something to drink

My dwarf was idling the entire time, yet he managed to reach the unhappy thought before deciding to go get a drink.  Are those definite numbers?  Every time Rith would become thirsty, even though those numbers suggest he would take a drink BEFORE he was thirsty.

[Larix]

Hmm, it would just barely work if he went all the way to "dehydrated" before deciding to have a drink - since apparently both eating and drinking remove 50 000 off their respective counts, a dwarf _could_ survive on the same number of drinks as meals, although if given free access to provisions and enough time to look after themselves, they should default to the observed ~20 days between drinks, ~40 between meals.

Considering none of my testing seven ever waited until showing the blue/brown arrows before eating and drinking, it sounds more like there was something wrong with Rith. Any peculiar soul attributes? Or can needful dwarfs reserve inaccessible booze barrels for a drink? In that case, your efforts to starve out the rest of the embark crew could have prevented Rith from getting a drink.

[neblime]

if he was burrowed, and the booze not included in the burrow, (seems obvious I know but just a thought) he would ignore the burrow when he got thirsty enough.

[10terrapin01]

Neblime, I'm not sure if you can see the picture, but Rith was walled in the location with the booze.  There was no burrow for him
Weeelllll shiiiitt. 
I forgot to remove the burrow I used to get him in there.  Mystery solved, time to do a new test.