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[Pyrite]

One of my dwarves managed to get nerve damage on his right leg and left foot from a fight with a zombie a while back, rendering him unable to stand. Ever since then, the thought 'he feels hopeless after suffering a major injury' always seems to be at the top of his thoughts, while positive thoughts always recede into last season. He has since become stressed, and then haggared, and has had a bout of obliviousness and one of depression.

Is this just how it is for majorly injured dwarves? Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone have a solution?

[DeDeRon]

i can confirm this, i have the same problem.

according to the health screen he has motor and sensory nerves damaged and lost the ability to stand. left kidney has issues too. i remember when my dwarf was wounded my hospital was out of threads. don't know if this is a reason. he received fiber dressings though.

[dennislp3]

Seems like a reasonable response to a disability that renders you useless for life...though I suspect not every dwarf would be so gloom about it

[McCautious]

A somewhat too early encounter with a goblin rendered one of my miners a total mess and he now bears the nickname "Vet".
His treatment was extensive: Suturing lower spine, upper body, right hand and liver as well as handing out crutch.
Still, he came out a paraplegic and still has an infected upper body, right hand and liver which apparently cannot be cured (or better: will not be cured because there is no diagnosis request anymore).

He is now "utterly harrowed by the nightmare that is his tragic life", runs on a stress level of 560k and gains -100 weekly alone by "suffering major injury".
Lately, he has fallen into depression, been stumbling around and staring into nothingness quite a bit. His second tantrum just happened and while in the first one he was content with kicking the crap out of a sheep he now turned on other dwarves too, which he his very ashamed of, hence contributing to his stress even more. His stress levels also rise by being hungry, thirsty and drowsy all the time.

All the "interest", "bliss" and "satisfaction" from dining, looking at fine stuff and yelling at the mayor apparently cannot compensate for this traumatic lifestyle.
An exquisite prison is currently being built where, I suppose, he will end up spending the rest of his miserable life. 


On a similar note:
Why does Dwarf Therapist show tons of "D"iagnosis requests when ingame there are none? (40.19 Peridexis pack)
 

[Pyrite]

I've got a second one now who lost the use of one of his arms, and is constantly annoyed. He's stressed now, while my hopeless, haggard paraplegic recently threw a tantrum and punched another dwarf's chest, shattering his false rib and tearing it through his lung. Then after the tantrum was over he carried the dwarf he injured to the hospital, very slowly of course because he can't walk, and felt sympathy for the poor dwarf.

Do you guys think this is working as intended? As it is, it seems like it will become virtually impossible to keep these dwarves from going crazy.

[dennislp3]

I would say its working as intended but needs tweaks...I would be sad if permanent disabilities didn't affect the moods of dwarves. other traits should factor into the reaction of such a life...primarily the optimism aspect

[Skuggen]

Yeah, depending on the overall personality of the dwarf this could make perfect sense. Someone™ needs to subject many diverse dwarves to this sort of injury and see how it affects them in the long term!

[Naryar]

I know if I were gravely injured and never to walk again I'll be distressed at the very best. Though it'd be more anger than depression...

He is now "utterly harrowed by the nightmare that is his tragic life", runs on a stress level of 560k and gains -100 weekly alone by "suffering major injury".
Lately, he has fallen into depression, been stumbling around and staring into nothingness quite a bit. His second tantrum just happened and while in the first one he was content with kicking the crap out of a sheep he now turned on other dwarves too, which he his very ashamed of, hence contributing to his stress even more. His stress levels also rise by being hungry, thirsty and drowsy all the time.

This may be excessive however. Is he particularly vulnerable or prone to stress ?

The new emotion system needs more tweaks to be balanced, I guess.

[Larix]

I think being constantly in pain, or suffering from lack of breath, or having trouble doing everyday things for lack of usable limbs _could_ quite realistically drive someone mad. Remember that this is a world without effective analgesics or prosthetics (and quite likely a society that's not very supportive of handicapped people). My current "major injury" dwarf got a lung permanently disabled in an accident (forgot dwarven prioritising so of course a floor tile adjacent to a bridge was built before any actual support was in place), suffers regular bouts of being "winded" and gets a constant yellow "shaken" from major injury thought. She went "stressed" after a bit over half a year and is still at that state almost a year after getting wounded. "She can handle stress", so that ought to be a slower-than-average progression. She has grand master skill at discipline by now...

I don't find it at all unrealistic, i just find it slightly frustrating that there's really nothing you can do to help such a dwarf (apart from the bay12-approved lazy sociopath ‼treatments‼).

[Pyrite]

Now the dwarf who got lungshot by his own rib is constantly cancelling his jobs to be shaken by his injury. Then again, this may be a result of having my chief medical dwarf surgery his lung without having any skill in surgery.

Hey, I didn't realize that I had another surgeon in the fortress!

Edit: the job cancelations have stopped, and my paraplegic dwarf was kind enough to throw another tantrum and punch another dwarf's rib through their lung, so I'll get to repeat the experiment. On a related note I'm now digging out a jail for my fortress.

The dwarf with the bad arm seems to constantly be meeting with my mayor to cry on shoulder or yell at, so that might be helping.

[McCautious]

This may be excessive however. Is he particularly vulnerable or prone to stress ?

I took a look at his description and didn't find anything specifically concerning stress. However:
 
"He has a great deal of respect for the law." ... could explain all the shame for breaking it lately.
"Feels that those who attempt to conceal their emotions are vain and foolish." ... well, he is indeed quickly earning a reputation for tantruming and yelling at the mayor.
"He very rarely develops negative feelings toward things." ... hmmm ... his own body is probably not considered a "thing".
"He has little interest in joking around." ... no shit.
"He is rarely happy or enthusiastic." ... I really wonder if any of these traits appeared after his tragic injury.
"He generally finds himself hopeful about the future." ... great, this will help him through his prison career.
"He is getting used to tragedy." ... Wow! ... really interesting. Wonder if this indicates some kind of way out of the spiral of doom we are assuming here.

Remember that this [...] quite likely a society that's not very supportive of handicapped people.

(the art of quoting)
Hahahaha, yes. The dwarf described above had to hobble after the mayor for a couple weeks to attend a meeting. The mayor, who has two perfectly fine legs, probably saw it coming and constantly pretended having to haul yet another item somewhere.

[Urist Tilaturist]

The lack of amputations in DF disappoints me. Painful, broken limbs could be removed with dwarven technology. Wooden legs should also be within their technology.

As for injuries to major organs, there is little that dwarves can do about these other than euthanasia, which is very popular even for perfectly healthy dwarves. If a dwarf was severely mutilated with no chance of recovery I would give him a magma funeral and commemorate him with a slab.

[Broseph Stalin]

In the diffuse dwarven culture we as players have created a dwarf with a motor nerve injury or missing limb is permanently worthless and a dwarf with two is immediately killed so the rest of the fortress doesn't need to be burdened by them. Couple that with the fact that dwarven aftercare is the time that elapses between someone stopping the bleeding and the bed being deconstructed from underneath you and that dwarven psychological treatment constitutes talking to the mayor for a few minutes then getting over it you crippled crybaby it's probably kind of a big deal. There should be a reasonable chance that a dwarf just can't handle going through that no matter how nice the dining hall is.

[smeeprocket]

yea it makes sense, it's somewhat dark, tbh, but being unable to cope with a major disability like that seems realistic.

But man does it depress the hell out of me.

[Urist Tilaturist]

In the diffuse dwarven culture we as players have created a dwarf with a motor nerve injury or missing limb is permanently worthless and a dwarf with two is immediately killed so the rest of the fortress doesn't need to be burdened by them. Couple that with the fact that dwarven aftercare is the time that elapses between someone stopping the bleeding and the bed being deconstructed from underneath you and that dwarven psychological treatment constitutes talking to the mayor for a few minutes then getting over it you crippled crybaby it's probably kind of a big deal. There should be a reasonable chance that a dwarf just can't handle going through that no matter how nice the dining hall is.

I agree that motor nerve injuries or damage to vital organs should essentially be incurable by dwarves, but amputations, hook hands and false legs are easily within their grasp and should be added. Dwarves which have lost limbs, or parts of limbs, should be able to continue existence.

Bad reactions to this are completely understandable, hence the need for euthanasia in the form of magma. The new stress system is much better than the old one where dining rooms could offset these problems, though it may need some tweaking. I only send a dwarf to the magma if it will be permanently consigned to insanity and tantrums otherwise - just being useless is not enough. A big fort can easily supply a few dependents.