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[varangian]

Can't remember if I ever got round to suggesting this a couple of years back but if I did another nudge seems due. I gave up on my last fortress as a vampire(s) was dropping bodies at regular intervals. Plenty of migrants had arrived and the prospect of going through their bios or event logs looking for clues was just too tedious and also not my job. I see my role as a planner and enabler to allow the dwarves to get on with stuff. Give them the tools and they will do the job and so on. But with vampires it seems I have to do most of the work unless by chance - and this has never happened - I get lucky and the perp is caught in the act and dwarven justice kicks in.

I know there are various tricks using Dwarf Therapist and the like to help deal with bloodsuckers but I'd prefer a more dwarfish in-game remedy. Something on the lines of:

• A specialist squad of monster hunters. They'd need combat skills natch plus silver swords, consecrated wooden crossbow bolts and the like to take down supernatural threats.
• Their base would be a new room type, the library, where they'd do research and practice their specialist combat skills.
• To do the research they'd need to order in occult books from the caravans - the Necronomicon and so on.
• Studying the books would allow them to identify and hunt down and expose vampires and either drive them out of the fort or, with a bit of luck, put an end to their unnatural existence.
• As skills and the library grow they'd take on other types of monsters, zombies, were-creatures etc. Also exorcisms of any spirits not happy with their memorial tablet.
• Of course they'd be scope for them to accuse the wrong dwarf, accidentally unleash some horror by reading out loud from the wrong book etc. to keep the fun levels up.

[Gargomaxthalus]

Unfortunately this suggestion would require a magic system, which is a long way off, but having your Dwarves respond appropriately to mysterious deaths really is needed. Ideally a new "Investigator" noble with a small team of assistants would work to track down the perpetrator and then the guards  and hammerer would play out their roles. This would of course be tied to a larger justice system overhaul which would add more types of murder, theft and other crimes.

[vjmdhzgr]

plus silver swords

In Dwarf Fortress werebeast weaknesses are randomized. Sometimes you end up with werebeasts weak to silver, but more commonly they're weak to some other weapons grade metal. I do think a night creature hunter would be a good addition. Maybe they could identify the randomly generated werebeast weaknesses and once the army arc is done they could find and attack nearby night creature lairs.

[Aslandus]

plus silver swords

In Dwarf Fortress werebeast weaknesses are randomized. Sometimes you end up with werebeasts weak to silver, but more commonly they're weak to some other weapons grade metal. I do think a night creature hunter would be a good addition. Maybe they could identify the randomly generated werebeast weaknesses and once the army arc is done they could find and attack nearby night creature lairs.

Maybe have werebeasts belong to some kind of house that is weak to a particular type of metal, and to find what kind of metal you need to capture the werebeast and have your witch hunter study it to find out what House Boltsocks is weak to, unless the witch hunter is supposed to just know by looking at them what they are weak to...

I do like the idea of having some sort of inquisitor militia, where they exist solely to deal with specific problems that the normal militia might not be good at dealing with, such as problems that are ingrained in the fortress populace or use magic that normal weapons have trouble fighting. But as Garg said, it would require there to be more magic to exist in the game to make such a thing worthwhile.

[MDFification]

Eh, the way I'd like it to be implemented is have adventurers visiting your tavern sometimes hunt down and expose vampires, kind of like what player adventurers already do. But this should be rarer than vampires showing up anyone because otherwise it's pointless.

[LordBaal]

I think religious cults/guilds would work better for this.

On the other side right now DF lacks (for the time being) something that would definitely keep vampires in check in every universe. Vampire hunters. From Simon Belmont to Van Helsing, they all have been the ultimate terror to vampires. It remain to be seen, once is implemented, how guilds, groups, religious sects and orders would affect the world, but I have no doubt there wont be a lack of vampire hunters (that would also hunt other assorted monsters). That could be the crucial element of balance to keep vampires in check.

By having one of such guilds on your civilization or laying around in a neighboring one, you could expect regular visits if there is anything suspicious, random trials a la Spanish Inquisition (but they you can' expect ok?) or perhaps you can even call them for help with your liaison once you suspect something funny is happening in your fort. But this could go the other way around too, if you intend to make a vampire fortress then they could be added to the list of sieges or even "excommunicate" you from your civ if they fail to clean the fortress either by action or inaction form your side, basically making everyone and their grandmother you enemy.

With the inclusion of guilds, temples and others you could also have them permanently as part of your fort, and send them/have them go on their own to another sites to hunt vampires/monsters. Or you could have a more pragmatical approach and indeed use a specialized but "regular" combat squad armed with whatever weapons/materials happen to be their weakness(once those things are implemented).

Unrelated edit: The forums use UNIX time for the time stamp of quotes. You'll find it the hard way whenever you try to quote something from a closed thread.

[LordBaal]

Darn double post.

[endlessblaze]

And just what happens when they dicide to kill your vampire solders and book keepers

Not to mention were beast for last line of defense....

AND building a well of un-life for makeing your entire fort vampires.....your entire fort is now a target for theses monster hunters....you soon get "your settlement has crumbled to its end"

[LordBaal]

Not necessarily. In the case of your dorf getting killed, that's, well, tough luck. I could imagine the vampire hunters don't necessarily killing your dwarves in the middle of a siege unless they transform or reveal and pose a immediate threat. Even if no, it would not be very different from the current justice system were a hammerer or the sheriff can kill precious members of your fort for crimes far less dangerous as sucking blood from others, and far more stupid as not making gold beds.

Going into a full vampire fort would be either a terrible thing you can fight against with the help of local or visitor vampire hunters (otherwise called by you, attracted by rumors or following pursuit of a vampire/monster) in which case you could consider the game over once everyone is a monster or it could be a conscious decision, in which you don't call for help and try to "dispose" of any vampire/witch/monster hunter that comes to help the living, and once you succeed on converting the whole fortress you can consider yourself done.

The game could even have a announcement where you could choose to either keep playing with the now undead/cursed fort with all it's perks and challenges or simply accept this as the end of the fortress and start a new one.

[endlessblaze]

Killing them just sounds like a bad idea. Just think about the frustration, if this is included it should be an option that defaults to no

[LordBaal]

Killing them just sounds like a badfun idea.

All I'm saying it's as convenient as fell moods or stupid justice system leaving you with a dwarf less at unfortunate moments too, all of those things are yes by default. Currently people can abuse some creatures with no consequences, having this would provide challenge and a incentive to swerve one way or the other.

I think it could also work very well with starting scenarios, where you come to a fortress to cleanse it from a night creature curse, specially in the case of adventurers, I like the sound of Urist McBelmont...

[vjmdhzgr]

And just what happens when they dicide to kill your vampire solders and book keepers

Not to mention were beast for last line of defense....

AND building a well of un-life for makeing your entire fort vampires.....your entire fort is now a target for theses monster hunters....you soon get "your settlement has crumbled to its end"

Well in that case you don't appoint a monster hunter. Problem solved!