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[Sutremaine]

I'm trying to run a long term fort so naturally I'm experiencing the stressed dwarves problem right now.  The biggest problem is sieges - what happens right now is:

1) Goblins and trolls charge the gate.
2) Goblins and trolls get absolutely massacred.
3) Dwarves get really depressed cleaning up the bodies.

Can you not just ignore them until they go away? No bodies, no mess, no stress.

[bigcalm]

Can you not just ignore them until they go away? No bodies, no mess, no stress

That's hardly dwarf-like!

Yes, I have done in the past, but the stockade isn't exactly unclimable - just 2 high made of logs and then 5 wide wooden-block floor outside that to stop trees growing / overhanging the walls.  So I end up having to station dwarves around on the surface just in case one or two of them manage to climb over (it's only ever one or two).  I also like the goblinite, plus the frankly epic sight of my dwarves charging out of the gate to meet the goblin siege head on.  It doesn't go well for the goblins.  (Last 3 sieges, no casualties on my side, all killed or fled on theirs).

[Sutremaine]

Hm. Maybe your civilians could get some military training in to the point where dead sentients don't bother them so much? Not really an option in a succession game, but in a succession game the 'ignore them' option is more viable.

[utunnels]

Hang a goblin corpse in their room? Maybe they will eventually get used to it, or go insane.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Your mistake was to not kill the gobbos enough that there were no remains. Kill it with fire MAGMA

Or just get the soldiers to haul them.

[Naryar]

Your mistake was to not kill the gobbos enough that there were no remains. Kill it with fire MAGMA

Yup. Automated kill traps will be more of a thing now that DF2014 dwarves are more sensitive less manly.

[Skullsploder]

Your mistake was to not kill the gobbos enough that there were no remains. Kill it with fire MAGMA

Yup. Automated kill traps will be more of a thing now that DF2014 dwarves are more sensitive less manly.

Extreme trauma therapy works too. Killing sentients quickly numbs dwarves to the horrors of fortress life. Mob the enemy with civilians as well as military dwarves whenever you're sieged and the dwarves won't have time to get stressed before they stop caring.

[Kishmond]

I have a dwarf that is stuck on 'stressed' despite having a bedroom like a personal palace. The only negative thoughts she gets are frequent trips in the rain due to having an aboveground fort. She's off-duty in the military but I don't see any negative thoughts from that.

Her profile says 'She is often nervous.' so it might be that she's just bad at handling stress.

[TheFlame52]

My fort was pretty okay as far as stress went. Most were happy but ~10 were stressed. One guy, a legendary clothier, was haggard.

Then the clothier tantrumed and tried to kill a giant leopard gecko, which fought back and killed him. About the same time I built a legendary dining hall and designated it as the meeting hall. I haven't had a dwarf above 10k stress in years - not even Kib the easily stressed macelord.

[SyrusLD]

Is it normal that going past a corpse causes a new bad thought every time?

I have two dwarves - ironically my military commander and a soldier (I should really have chosen better) - who went to about 80k stress before I decided to remove the corpses from the last goblin siege by storing them in a closed off area. Man, did that cause a lot of stress for everyone involved in carrying the corpses there.
The two dwarves stress is still by FAR the highest, being at 51k and 37k, even though I split the year into a "patrol-training-no order" pattern and build a nice waterfall (with an artifact floor grate and an artifact lever near it) into the middle of my legendary dining hall and designated it as a meeting area. Every other dwarf is at 0 stress or less (except two at 108 and one at 86...).

Most also seem to have gotten to not care about death anymore after I had the corpses stored in a path that people walked through all the time (even though that was not intended). Most - except for these two...

Weirdly it doesn't even show any bad thoughts for the two (except for having to patrol in the rain).
Hm...I wonder what'd happen if I keep them in the corpse stockpile for a while, maybe they eventually do get accustomed to seeing dead stuff around.
Or they go insane and slaughter everyone, since, you know, they are legendary axe/hammer dwarves.


Any way of reducing their stress better? Or making them less prone to cry about killing goblins?
It somehow makes no sense to me; in my opinion killing an enemy should give a good thought (like "happy about being victorious")...especially when killing pesky goblins.

[TheFlame52]

Okay on second thought I was attacked for the first time in ages and my dwarves are all stressed from the corpses. Highest is ~50k.

[Staalo]

Is it normal that going past a corpse causes a new bad thought every time?

I did some science on this in the "Dwarven child care" thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=140588.msg5832914#msg5832914

and it seems that dwarves get a new bad thought from exact same corpses about once a week. On the other hand, positive thoughts from the same luxurious furnishings etc. can happen every day.

[TheKaspa]

I do have a dwarf who is stressed because my fort doesn't have enough cages and chains...

[Vilkku92]

I do have a dwarf who is stressed because my fort doesn't have enough cages and chains...

Is he the captain of the guard? They get that thought if you have too small jail.

[TheKaspa]

He was - but I built a lot of cages, and he still was stressed over it!