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[Goblins]

What's your opinion on Idlers?  Are they good, bad?  Why? 

What could I do to get a bit less idlers?

[pisskop]

Bad.  For me.

  Larger forts they are almost inevitable, but I allow the social administrators, nobles and doctors/nurses/etc to idle.

Idling makes parties and friends, and those (used to) make tantrum spirals.

[GhostDwemer]

Good and bad, depending. I turn off all labors on nobles and let them idle. Legendaries only get their particular labor enabled, and they can idle if there is nothing for them to do in their area of expertise. Everybody else should be doing something, most of the time. I often have forts with 200+ dwarves and only a few idlers.

[vjmdhzgr]

Is there any possible way someone could consider idlers good?

[pisskop]

Doctors, lever pullers, and nobles whose skills are social in nature.  Baby making, and the happies from parties.  If you want them to congregate for some reason, or have achieved true automation.

[§k]

In dwarvish, the phrase "iddeler" literally means "rocksteel", which probably refers to adamantine.

This phrase states an opinion: idler, like adamantine, can be valuable or dangerous, depending on situation.

[utunnels]

I just don't care as long as the jobs get done.

Although sometimes I like to recruit extra dorfs to give them something to do.

[GhostDwemer]

Is there any possible way someone could consider idlers good?

Yes. When you've got an injured dwarf waiting for a lift to the infirmary, idlers are good. When you need that lever pulled NOW, idlers are good. When you want your leader to actually meet with someone, it's better if he's not working. When you want dwarves to get happy thoughts, and maybe marry somebody, let them idle.  When you want your legendary armorsmith to get right on with making armor once you buy those steel bars, it's better if he's not hauling stone from 100 z-levels down.

[vjmdhzgr]

Is there any possible way someone could consider idlers good?

Yes. When you've got an injured dwarf waiting for a lift to the infirmary, idlers are good. When you need that lever pulled NOW, idlers are good. When you want your leader to actually meet with someone, it's better if he's not working. When you want dwarves to get happy thoughts, and maybe marry somebody, let them idle.  When you want your legendary armorsmith to get right on with making armor once you buy those steel bars, it's better if he's not hauling stone from 100 z-levels down.

Idling doesn't give any happy thoughts. In fact working gives a happy thought that idling doesn't. Also, the reat I wouldn't really consider idlers, just dwarves with specific jobs that might not come up very often. Anyway, dwarves not working is still bad because you only need a few dwarves to do those things and for me at least doing my best to keep every dwarf working constantly I still end up with more than enough dwarves to perform a lever pull or an injured dwarf recovery.

[Badger Storm]

Idlers aren't concretely bad to me, it just drives me bonkers to see all those yellow "No Job"s in the unit list.  I just have trouble coming up with enough crap for my dwarves to do.

[Button]

I love idlers. Means there'll be plenty of free haulers around come surface-harvest season or goblin Christmas.

I need a particularly large hauling force for these events because I use quantum stockpiling, so I have barrels and bins forbidden in most of my stockpiles.

[Naryar]

Idlers aren't concretely bad to me, it just drives me bonkers to see all those yellow "No Job"s in the unit list.  I just have trouble coming up with enough crap for my dwarves to do.

Same here.

I like a few idlers when i need hauling jobs done, and mass building as well. But seeing 40 idlers makes me think HEY 2/3 OF YOUR FORTRESS IS LAZING AROUND, DO SOMETHING.

[NeatHedgehog]

Usually out of 200 I'll have about 50 idlers. I typically only have a dozen or so performing fortress-critical operations; barrels, coffins, lavish meals, booze, farming, ammo, weapon and armor making (not counting a few dozen military units). These guys are all burrowed indoors and kept busy at all times. Everyone else is free to idle and journey outside to haul wood, stone, construct walls, whatever, as needed.

[Skullsploder]

I try to keep my idlers under 10% of the population. Medical staff idle or have 1 little-used non-medical skill, just in case. I have a "Labourer" macro saved that equips all the jobs where skill doesn't impact item quality on a dwarf, excluding hauling, mining, woodcutting and hunting. This is where most of my migrants go. They handle all wood burning, plant gathering, smelting, butchery, tanning, etc. That way there's always something for this caste to do, and if I'm focusing on one specific area at the moment like butchering my way through excess livestock or I've just got a big import of iron ore to smelt into steel, my population is non-specialised enough that they can quickly switch from one area to another, rather than most idling while a specialised few get to work.

Also equipping all your dwarves with some basic armour and weapons and enabling their squads' training at a barracks in a central area means they'll slowly gain military skills instead of just idling.

[ptb_ptb]

Idlers probably increase your chance of getting dwarf marriages in your fortress ... without cheating.