Also does happiness matter? According to Dwarf Therapist my dwarves are ALWAYS miserable.
I am making shoes,vests,dresses,gauntlets all the time , I make different types of drinks in the brewery, I have a dining room, a bed for each person, etc...
Are you judging that from their stress levels? Remember that for stress that positive is bad, it means they are highly stressed, while negative is good, they are getting lots of happy thoughts. (I'm assuming here that therapist reports stress in the same way as the labour manager that comes with DFHack.)
Happiness is important. Unhappy dwarves can tantrum causing death and injury to other dwarves.
Main things for happiness, although I think you are likely following most of these already.
- Always have booze available so no dwarf has to drink water. Having a variety is good as it prevents them becoming bored of always having the same drink.
- Always have food available. Dwarves get better thoughts from consuming something on their list of preferences(or a cooked meal that contains it) and having variety. Cooked food also improves this due to quality modifiers.
- Give each dwarf their own bedroom. While dormitories stop the bad thought from sleeping on the ground, they provide a minor bad thought about not having their own bed.
- Have a high quality dining room for your dwarves to eat. Have each table adjacent to a single chair to avoid bad thoughts about overcrowding. Make sure there are enough table/chair pairs to seat each dwarf that is eating at a time, as numbers pick up generally at least a third as many as you total population. Many build dining rooms that can seat their entire population.
- Make sure there are at least some jobs for each dwarf to do. Dwarves become unhappy following long periods of unemployment, while completing work often gives a happy thought, as long as they are not overworked.
With the above covered, generally your dwarves will remain happy in normal situations.