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[than402]

oh god the tantrum. three guys. I LOST THREE GUYS AND HALF MY TOWN IS TANTRUMING BECAUSE OF THAT!!!

that's it, I'm using dfhack. call it cheating, but this thing is surreal. I had 15 deaths and half the town tantruming because of three dead guys in a battle 3 months back. Humans don't act like this at all.

[than402]

Humans Year 5, Autumn and Winter


4th Limestone, 31

After I finished with the "Automata", I ordered my citizens to start cleaning the mess. I also ordered for a restraint at the barracks. I want to find out more about the creatures. The broker and some other people were grieving for their lost loved ones with the traditional way (that is, screaming and throwing stuff). I also drafted some people to make up for the empty spaces in the guard and mandated the constuction of some new quivers. Meanwhile, that asshole of a mayor still tests my patience by mandating dices.

10th Limestone, 31

I had my men tear up one of the automata. Steam bursted when they opened it, but they did kill it. If only I knew how these things work, maybe I could find a way to fight them. I also mandated some coffins. The liaison asked me what the town needed. I said "metal, sheep and maybe a few contracts." I'm thinking about making some universities and renting the space to teachers.

1st Sandstone, 31

I've reached a conclusions: The town is composed entirely out of whiny assholes. Three guys. That was three guys dead and already I have two people driven insane (one of them a bladesman) and another one gone berserk. And like I didn't had enough problems already, some new critters appeared.

Good, now I have huge maggots to worry about. They've already wounded a soldier, even.


5th Sandstone, 31

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, at least that's taken care of.

15th Timber, 31

The general depression continues relentlessly. Some migrants have arrived, which is nice, but otherwise about half our town is unhappy. I asked around, and the results were... not shocking.

1st Moonstone, 31

It's been three months since the battle and people still haven't gotten over it. The good news are that my overseership will be over in three months, so these whiny idiots won't be my problem anymore. In the meantine, I'll set up some beds for the newcomers. I wonder if it's too late to invite the automata, though... After witnessing this rampant idiocy, free will doesn't seem so necessary after all...

12th Moonstone, 31

That's it. I gathered the townsfolk and declared martial law. I said to the people that anyone I catch tantruming, speaking to himself or whatever I'm gonna hang. I don't care if that leaves me, Bearkiller, WodanYmir and Bigheaded, I won't stand for this anymore. You people had three months to mourn, and razing the town won't bring your loved ones back. So after ordering the military to kill a tantruming jeweler as an example, I ordered everyone back to business. I'm gonna set this place straight no matter what.

22nd Moonstone, 31

Okay, it seems martial law is working. The place is a disorganized mess, but at least it's quiet. I bought a permit for a rockforge and set out to make one. I'm also going to make a smiths' guild. Also, some idiot has razed our drawbridge.

24th Opal, 31

So, a miner died and we're back in business! Everyone's upset again.

7th Obsidian. 31

More tantruming and some animal razed the smiths's guild and half the merchants' guild to the ground. It's official, our community can't have nice things.

19th Obsidian, 31

The whole town is at each others' throats again, and I don't even give a crap anymore. Some gnomes have arrived. That's nice, let's see what they carry. But first, we must make a new depot. Because as I mentioned earlier, we don't deserve nice things, only ruins. I'm kinda looking forward for the automata to attack.

1st Granite, 31

More deaths, more destuction, more insanity and the simple task of making a depot has not been carried out yet, but I don't care because my overseership is done. So now it's time for my next project: find a way to talk Samspikixi into abandoning this madhouse and settling somewhere else.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

ok, so this LP may as well be the perfect example of a destructive tantrum spiral: everyone in the town is friends to each other (which doesn't make sense, obviously) and each time someone dies everyone starts tantruming until someone goes berserk or dies, which causes more tantrums et cetera. I didn't even bothered to use dfhack the second time, it's pointless. Unless I remove all relations from everyone, it will keep on happening. Remember, the second wave which has killed 12 people so far started from one dead miner. One. I don't even think it's salvageable anymore, but if anyone wants t try to save it or reclaim it be my guest.

here's the save file. let me know if it's the wrong one.

http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=10489

[Jakob]

☼Dwarves☼ - Year 5, Summer

In response to the piles of corpses we’ve been finding in the caves, I decide it is time to expand our glorious military now that I have once again taken control back from the foul usurper. Migrants are greeted at the door with piles of weapons and armor, and are drafted into the glorious legions of Kadollisid.



Their tears are ignored as I give them the order to kill everything in the caves, and I begin whistling a tune as they march solemnly down the stairs. Just as the last one leaves, I hear screams from outside, and see a werewolf murder half of the leaving gnome caravan, the rest running away after shooting it down. I can only hope their king understands that it wasn’t my fault the caravan wasn’t protected in our land.

In their haste, the gnomes left behind a mix of the goods we gave them and things we didn’t buy in their wrecked cart, and I quickly have our boys take the stuff inside. Much of it is baubles, but they’ll sell good, and the damned cutthroat gnomes deserve it.

However, as the wounded are dragged upstairs, I am told our victory in the underground is far less glorious.

They only had to kill a Blight Bat and the Antman, Stagabashrolgis. The Blight Bat was killed almost instantly and soon, over twenty soldiers descended on Stagabashrolgis. The ant warrior already had a broken chest, feet and a missing arm, and has so far managed to easily brush off all of our warriors’ attacks, bashing them with his shield as they attempted to drag him down.



It soon becomes very clear that if I continue this, Stagabashrolgis is going to murder 20 Dwarves and I order the retreat. One Dwarf is already dead, and twelve more are lying on the ground, incapacitated. All that’s left of our glorious legion is a mastiff whom Stagabashrolgis is currently curb stomping.



We can’t even recover the wounded or dead for fear of Stagabashrolgis, and we can’t trick him into a trap as he simply sits in his little corner of the cave, waiting for our next strike. I glanced him as I investigate and I am immediately pierced by his cold, calculating, black eyes. The antman knows that we fear him, and I soon back away.

Summer arrives soon after.

[Arcvasti]

Antmen have four arms. So three limbs to wield shields with. Four if they lack a weapon. That's hilarious. He'll pass out from over-exertion eventually, and then he'll be screwed.

EDIT: 2/3rds of the way through Spring for the Kobolds. Should have the update up in about an hours. No promises though.

[smakemupagus]

But they lack any ranged weapons, so you can pick 'em off from fortifications or even a non-fortified platform well enough.

[Jakob]

He's hovering a tile off the ground, which is why every one of those guys on the ground has a broken neck and skull. His three arms of shields have completely dominated us. Marksdwarves just charge him for some reason.

[WodanYmirthe2nd]

Oh boy, looks like the effects of having too many slackers being buddies with each other is finally paying off in the Human Town. I was expecting this to happen in my tenure but it seems that I usually end up not having any of that during the time I started playing despite having two guys killed who are friends with a lot of people. Not to mention, the animal population is in one place, festering with rage as their pasture space/meeting area gets more and more crowded every migrant wave.

While it is logical to blame ourselves for bringing this upon us, I'm gonna go and blame the fucking hill for this. If the Xen Infesters thingies came out from the hill, I'm gonna blame the hill extra hard now for doing this kind of shit.

Also, Man versus Machine, somehow I'm getting this feeling that the Human LP will have some kind of an Iron Men Wars.

[Boltgun]

"Offense is still the best defense"
- Urist McGettingBeatupWithThreeShields

[than402]

Oh boy, looks like the effects of having too many slackers being buddies with each other is finally paying off in the Human Town. I was expecting this to happen in my tenure but it seems that I usually end up not having any of that during the time I started playing despite having two guys killed who are friends with a lot of people. Not to mention, the animal population is in one place, festering with rage as their pasture space/meeting area gets more and more crowded every migrant wave.

as it is, the town is heading straight into a tantrum spiral ending and there's no legitimate way to prevent this. the only way to prevent this and keep it going is to remove the friendly relations (everyone has at least 20 friends, that's why half the town's upset every time someone dies) and then remove bad thoughts again.

While it is logical to blame ourselves for bringing this upon us, I'm gonna go and blame the fucking hill for this. If the Xen Infesters thingies came out from the hill, I'm gonna blame the hill extra hard now for doing this kind of shit.

"Offense is still the best defense"
- Urist McGettingBeatupWithThreeShields

On hindsight, the hill was just defending itself from our merciless attack by whatever means it had at its disposal. It's moby dick all along, only we have a town instead of a ship, a hill instead of a whale and unlike the book, there will be no survivors at all from this fight if we lose. Let the anti-hill crusade continue!

Also, Man versus Machine, somehow I'm getting this feeling that the Human LP will have some kind of an Iron Men Wars.

If it survives for that long. I actually imagine automata more like Cybermen, though...

so, can relations be removed through dfhack? If not, then I don't see how we can keep it going without suffering a tantrum spiral each time someone has a boo boo.

[qorthos]

Do humans get something like the tavern that can remove bad thoughts?

[Arcvasti]

Tantrum spirals, in my experience, rarely destroy forts alone. There's usually a handful of survivors who eke out a living amongst the ruins of their fallen friends until the next migrant wave comes. Although I haven't actually lived through very many of those recently, because Kobolds don't tantrum or berserk.

Also, Spring update incoming~! For real this time~!

EDIT: Also, I'm not so sure about using DFhack to circumvent in-game difficulties. If the fort dies, the official Meph-approved^TM thing to do is reclaim it.

[Arcvasti]

☼☼Kobolds☼☼ Year 3[Redux]


 
I blink, and stagger to my feet. Where am I? I look down. I am on the top of the Tower in the Sacred Valley of the Kobolds. I vaguely recall something about a speech? Yes, I have just been made the head kobold of the Valley-dwellers.

☼☼I am Arcvasti, shaper of Metal. You may have heard of me and my strange ways. And indeed, my ways are different. Mine is the path of the square, the metal, the fire and the law. This is not the way of the Kobolds. But such things are only set in stone. Stone can be broken. Once I am done speaking, report to the bottom of this Tower to have your duties inspected and potentially reorganized. This is no place anymore for round pegs.☼☼

I turn and descend the staircase. GRIBLIN, but I have a lot of work ahead of me.

2nd Granite: I’ve finally sorted most of the kobolds into three groups: Specialized labourers who do only one type of task and also take care of basic hauling and construction tasks when otherwise idle, BLANK’s, who only do hauling and construction until I can find a better use for them in some new craft or another and two new four-person squads[The Blossoming Spears and the Withering Blades] of dedicated soldiers, who will be armed with mithral, armoured in bonerattle and who do nothing but train full-time. As mithral weapons will require, quite naturally, mithral, I have a smelter built of an itinerant platinum bar so we can melt down the mithral weapons and armour the Elves left behind into usable bars for me to forge into weapons. I also completely disband the old citizen militia we had going, but leave the Druidic squad, the Savage Spirits, completely as it was.

3rd Granite: I had a prepared meal stockpiles set up in the jack rat pasture. It’s not a very central place to put food, but its better then leaving them to rot right after making them. I also begin revamping the Valley’s defenses as the current state of affairs was proved unsafe by recent events. I also have the new tailors begin turning our vast stores of cloth into wearable clothes for the populace. The smelter is finished and my new assistant has begun making fuel for melting down mithral.

7th Granite: On an odd whim, I order a Thieves Tunnel built at the top of the cave. We have PLENTY of Thieves, but nothing to steal.

8th Granite: The entrance is secure. We now have a sealable area between Outside and the Depot and the Depot is only connected to the Valley through a hallway with a door at the end. I also have a Wood Processor built and start processing our wood stalks into wood, so we can get seeds to plant for a reliable wood source

10th Granite: A succubus thief attacked a Bone Carver today, cutting open his leg. Our pet Spirit Bear, almost single-handedly responsible for the Valley’s survival during the Elven Masscre, charged her. We need some traps to deal with these kinds of threats. I order two of them, a cage trap and a weapon trap, built in the hallway between the Depot and the Valley.

12th Granite: I begin forging mithral weapons for the Withering Blades, since my assistant has finally smelted enough bars for me to use.

19th Granite: The Withering Blades are fully armed with mithral and they’ve begun their training in earnest.

23rd Granite: While I slept, it came upon me like a vision: Elves clawing at the wood and leather walls of their tomb as it filled inexorably with water, a tower of lightning descending upon the Druids lodge and setting it alight. I can see plans, coruscating vertices of blueprints whirling throughout my vision in a blur that makes me dizzy. My way is not the way of the kobolds. Mine is the way of the sliding rule, the spinning gears and the buzzing static. And I, like anybold, will defend this Valley in my own way. I’m going to need blocks. Lots and lots of blocks. And wood. And some more specialized parts I’ll have to have specifically made or “imported” from the Gnomes, once the Thieves Tunnel is finished. Nothing like the Elven Massacre will hapen while I am head kobold. At least, not to US…

27th Granite: Progress on the Drowning Chamber is coming along nicely. It helps that I seem to know exactly where everything goes and I even corrected a few flaws of the plan in my vision.

1st Slate: The Thieves Tunnel is officially complete. I order our legendary Thief to get to stealing what I need for the rest of the automated defenses from the Gnomes. I also begin forging mithral pointy sticks for the Blossoming Spears to use, instead of the mismatched bone and iron ones they’re currently equipped with.

11th Slate: After about a week of non-stop thieving, we get lucky: A Thunder Coil blueprint. Even with what I saw in my vision, there’s no way I could have recreated machinery that intricate, so this will be integral to the defense of the Valley. I let our Thieves resume their standard raids, as we’ll need the fireproof Metal mechanisms of the Gnomes for the Thunder Coil. I have the Digger work on slightly enlarging the catacombs, so we can have fireproof stone blocks for the Thunder Coil. The final requirement, glass pipes, is trickier, but we have sand in abundance. I order a Glass Furnace built, conscript a Blank into Glassmaking duty and have my assistant make some more fuel.

16th Slate: Progress on the Thunder Coil’s infrastructure goes along nicely. Based on an ominous sense that the worst has happened before, I decide to have it powered from above, so as to be at less risk of damage from its potent electrical aura. One mustn’t be too careful.

25th Slate: Several kobolds reached maturity today. Four, to be precise. As they all have decent combat Birthsigns, I give them all Metal scourges and flails we had lying around. I have the Bone Carvers start on making bonerattle gear for them.

1st Felsite: Some new kobolds have arrived. Processing them is going to be a pain.

4th Felsite: The migrant wave brings us to 121 kobolds. Most of the immigrants were unskilled and are now Blanks, but one promising Bluebird-Sign was made the fort Witch Doctor and they brought another pet Spirit Bear, who will be an important addition to our defenses. How we’re going to find beds for all these new arrivals, I have no idea. Once the mechanical defenses of the fort are finished, I’ll probably enlarge the bedroom area to accommodate so many new muzzles.

5th Felsite: A couple raccoons get caged or diced by our traps. More meat for us.

7th Felsite: I order thirty mixed leather and bone bedrooms sets made. Do we even have that much leather? If not, I will MAKE enough leather. We need more rooms for the immigrants and the children.

11th Felsite: I designate thirty bedrooms to be dug out. I’m not sure whether this will be done before or after the furniture for them is. Maybe it can be a race between rivals?

12th Felsite: We finally have enough Metal mechanisms stolen from the Gnomes to build the Thunder Coil. We still lack some of the glass pipes, but our defenses are nearly complete. Although the soldiers learn slowly, none of them are more than playing at combat. I redirect our Thief’s efforts towards the Goblins, as we need their gems for many a ritual.

17th Felsite: An Elven ambush of War Raptors is spotted outside the Westgate. I order everyone inside the Valley. Now.

18th Felsite: Some Bowdancers showed up too and started taking pot shots at our Spirit Bears over the wall. One of them takes several arrows, one of them to the eye. He’ll probably live, but he’ll have scars and will be half blind. Hopefully we’ll be able to lure them and the raptors into the Drowning Chamber. Pity the Thunder Coil isn’t finished yet, that could have been fun.

21st Felsite: A lucky hit kills the injured Spirit Bear. The Drowning Chamber performs perfectly and kills most of their war Raptors and a single Elf. The rest of the elven Bowdancers fled, disheartened by the mostly fruitless death of their comrades. There might still be other Elves still around, so I don’t unlock the door to the outside, although I do allow the Drowning Chamber to drain out.

22nd Felsite: Just because there might still be Elves lurking nearby doesn’t mean our domestic affairs should stall. We finally begin construction on the Thunder Coil. When I am finished with them, the enemies of koboldkind will fear not our blade, nor even our traps, but the whirring of gears, the hum of electricity and the rushing surge of water. This will be MY legacy.

24th Felsite: There’s a War Unicorn on top of the aquaduct that supplies the Drowning Room with water. What the fuck. I guess it could have been hiding in the Drowning Chamber and then swum up into the aquaduct while the floodgate was open? No, I had a grate installed to prevent that. I suppose its just… There. Maybe it jumped? And now it’s spooking everyone with how menacing its horn is. Sigh.

And it can’t even get down so I can’t send the Druids to go deal with it. Double sigh. I decide to give a bunch of Blanks bold-bola throwers and bolas, Griblin knows we have plenty of those lying around for whatever reason. I’ll have them throw things at the behorned pony until it either dies or falls off so we can kill it properly. Triple sigh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

26th Felsite: Wow, that’s actually working. They’re only hitting every fifth shot, but seven out of the ten Blanks remembered to get their equipment. The War Unicorn has so far suffered only grazing injuries and hasn’t even tried to dodge any of them, perhaps knowing how precariously its balanced.

27th Felsite: A fortuitous shot sends the Unicorn tumbling into the aquaduct, where it drowns fairly quickly. I dissolve the impromptu militia and resolve to make sure nothing as absurd as this happens again.
[/color]

[smakemupagus]

so, can relations be removed through dfhack? If not, then I don't see how we can keep it going without suffering a tantrum spiral each time someone has a boo boo.

Just as a study to see how bad it was I did a "serious" (i.e. no frills, no storytelling, etc.) game from your save; I got the spiral stabilized after ~4 months and down to zero Miserable humans by late summer.  As a test, we did lose a human fighter to a next years' orcish ambush and there was no relapse into despair!  I think there were a lot of root causes for the sadness, not just a handful of deaths.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

* made sure all nobles are re-appointed and give offices
* fort was short on prepared meals and booze -> make more.  also bought food and drink from elves
* well was overcrowded -> add floors around the back and add a 2nd well
* militia was thirsty when on call for long -> butcher pigs for waterskins
* many humans were upset from cave ins -> stop breakneck assault on hill
* many humans were upset from decay -> un-forbid corpses and build an out-of-the way stockpile ("morgue") for human corpses
* hospital was overcrowded due to shortage of crutches and splints -> fix
* manager about 60 coffins, 20 very badly needed tables & chairs, 30 rock pots to keep the meals/drinks going
* spend most un-skilled manpower placing and filling the coffins
* luckily there were still migrants, and there were good weapons if not armor on hand.  refilled military with migrants and continued to keep them pretty busy put down berzerking humans, and automaton and orc ambushes.   

... just wanted to satisfy my own curiosity that it could be salvaged without DFHack'ing, figured I would share the data point.

[Taupe]

Good job stabilizing this! Any chance this can become a canon turn?

[smakemupagus]

Sure, I will play it out, and turn it into a real write up.... Maybe in the second half of the year I will learn what some of the human buildings do