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[Isaac23]

Why is a dwarf walled in the hospital room? One guess.

[Blastbeard]

Werebeast?

[Isaac23]

Werebeast.

This dude was hanging out when a werebeast Opossum walked in my front gate (See "Kutsmob Fell" for front gate pic) and, while my entire barracks is right there, he was the first targeted among the livestock and soldiers. I consider them both equally replaceable, but a good cook is a valuable member of the fortress, and it does not do well to have him stuck in an eternal limbo forever. So I guess what I'm saying is, what do I do to kill him?

[Blastbeard]

He's not a lame horse just yet. Werebeasts are only a problem at set times, the wiki page will tell you when Urist McWerecook needs to get locked up.

If you had a way to give ingredients and take finished meals while still keeping him secured, there's no reason he couldn't continue his cooking duties, since lycanthropy isn't a food-bourne illness. A room like this could work:

Code: [Select]

____X____
| |___
| |_X_
|_________/Ingredients get dropped in from the X hatch in the ceiling, and prepared meals get hauled out through the ramp with the other X hatch over it. Soon as the werecook transforms, the ramp hatch gets forbidden and he can't get out. As far as I know, building destroyers still can't bust things above them, so it's safe.
...Right?

Do you know what kind of werebeast he is? If it was something robust, consider drafting him your militia's bioweapons division. Weresoldiers are unreliable and potentially dangerous in my opinion, but they have a lower turnout rate than normal soldiers thanks to their healing abilities. Wouldn't be seeing that hospital much anymore, that's for sure.

It's kind of gimmicky, but you could also use him for a time based mechanism. Since werebeasts transform at set times, and werebeasts are always larger than dwarves (80000 at minimum), you could park him on top of a pressure plate set to go off when he transforms. To what end, you decide.

If none of that appeals to you, he'll eventually starve to death if left walled up as he is.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

He won't starve. Hunger meter gets reset with transformation. It would also be safer to move food in and out via minecart.

[Bouchart]

Werebeasts would make for decent bookkeepers and managers, since they can do their jobs in isolation.

[Niddhoger]

Dont forget that ALL wounds are healed after a lyconthrope reverts.  This includes damaged nervous tissue and missing limbs.  You could make him into a soldier and have a "special unit" of werebeasts made up of wounded veterans.  You would just need to keep them (mostly) separate from the rest of your fort.  When sieges/FBs happen you can divert/send them to the front lines first.  Anyone that doesn't immediately die on the spot will bounce back to full health later.  Come on, this is DF.  EVERYTHING can be weaponized

Also, cooks really aren't that valuable to the fort.  They are good as destroying caravans, but are otherwise only needed for making wet ingredients/seeds edible.  Caravans/wealth/trade are rarely important after the first few years and there are other means to make bank (clothing, high value crafts).  A dwarf will gain the same happiness (none) from eating raw pig intestine than he will eaiting a masterwork dragon heart roast made with whip vine flour, quarry bush leaves, and dwarven syrup.  Dwarves only gain happiness from food that they prefer (this is presumably a bug, as the quality increases the happiness from the preferred ingredient).  However, with the gajillion plants and two gajilllion assorted animal parts you are never going to get this outside of the rare blue moon (we embarked into the middle of a scorching desert, I prefer tiger shark and my brother likes blueberry wine! the expedition leader likes giant thrip meat!.  Even if you do have a food a dwarf prefers, he'll only pick it up randomly.  As far as saving space? You can chuck 200 mixed veggies and fruits in the same barrel/pot.  For cooking wet/inedible foods up? Skill doesn't matter for fortress consumption.  If you wanted to, making tallow is very quick but gives decent cooking experience.  Slaughtering a bunch of animals and training a new cook on the tallow is a good way to play catch up. 

[Goatmaan]

I try to have a wide variety of drinks
Simply because of the huge numbers of food
Types. Better odds at a "truly decadant drink" thought

  Goatmaan

[Jigowah]

If you don't want them to be a manager or bookkeeper, then were-dwarves usually aren't worth the amount of micro required to keep the rest of your population safe.

I tend to assign my undesirables to "naked cave explorer" duty, although I bet they could also be used for some good trap bait...

[Niddhoger]

I was specifically talking about the value of a COOK who handles FOOD.  However, the same principle applies.  There are ~80 types of alcohol in the game, and they all seem to be weighted equally.  So your chances of a dorf having a preference for a type of alcohol you can actually produce/obtain are fairly low to begin with.  Furthermore, even if you produce heir favored drink, they aren't gauranteed to pick it up.  However, the happy thoughts from drinks are NOT bugged like happy thoughts from foods.  Its just that drinks have no quality levels.  Thus the happy thoughts from decadent drink are mostly gained from sipping from a high value (full) pot.  So a decadent drink can be a Plump Helmet Wine [30] pot, while drinking from a near empty pot would give no such thought... even though the exact same amount of drink is taken from each.  The difference is that a masterwork roast that rivals the price of lower tier artifacts will produce the same level of happy thoughts as a raw dirty turnip.  In fact, if the dorf prefers turnips he'll gain MORE happiness from the cheap food.  Lastly, a dorf isn't even guaranteed to have a food preference at all.  There are only 4 preferences that every dorf has: stone, metal, gems, booze.  Everything else must first roll to see if they even have a preference (then roll for what exact type). 

Don't get me wrong, I still have a legendary cook in all my forts.  Its just that they are a luxury position whose quality level only matters for trading.  I mostly use them to cook up excess seeds, or cook in ingredients I made for the hell of it (like pressing rock nuts into excess oil, milled flour instead of turning it to booze).  I mostly keep one around, though, becuase we really -should- have one.  Its barbaric and uncivilized to just shovel random ingredients into your mouth and call it a day.  From a strict gameplay perspective, it simply makes no difference, and retraining a new cook isn't a big hassle either.

I'm not saying you have to abandon him, its just that abandoning him isn't really a big deal like it would be for your legendary weaponsmith.  Personally I'd keep him as a "seed" to infect crippled dorfs with.  Military works best. When a goblin siege comes you can "release the (were)hounds!" Or make him a manager/bookeeper.  Or Set up a pressure-plate controlled containment system and keep him as a cook- just pray no one gets trapped inside his room when he transforms. 

[AceSV]

I kept a werebeast around as an archery target for a while.  Because it's actually dangerous, your archers will be much happier to shoot at it than they are about normal archery targets.  But you still have to wait for that special time of the month. 

Now supposedly, if you were really dwarfy, you could make every member of your fortress a werebeast.  The werebeasts will not attack other werebeasts.  This closes a few doors in the diplomacy department, but opens them up elsewhere...

[Niddhoger]

The problem with a full werebeast army, is that when they revert to normal they are nekid.  So if the fight goes on too long, they will be fighting armed goblins in their b-day suites.  Thankfully, anything that might be... lost... in such an unfortunate accident would grow back later.  The entire fort has its productivity die during that 'special time of hte month" as well.  Werebeasts don't exactly forge weaopns, cook food, or knit socks. This is why I'd just keep a segregated unit of soliders, and only add to this list to rehabilitate nerve damage and missing limbs. 

[Isaac23]

I love all of these suggestions, but unfortunately, I don't want to militarize the wereopossum. Why? Because I already have a bronze colossus sitting in my old barracks, walled off until I need to unleash him on whatever kills me. I don't suspect adding the wereopossum to the fray will make the bronze colossus, nicknamed "Atca" (See "Kutsmob Fell") be any more efficient in its last-resort defense/murder of the fortress.

I think he'll just chill in the hospital for now.

[Dunamisdeos]

Since my experience with weremammoths, I have found it fun to build extremely overcomplicated vaults beneath the earth for dangerous guests.

These include multiple airlocks, recapture traps, and constant dwarven guards. They also include methods of keeping people from releasing them, such as citizen-dangerous traps to deter (maim) berserk dwarves. it's a fun project.

[Isaac23]

Since my experience with weremammoths, I have found it fun to build extremely overcomplicated vaults beneath the earth for dangerous guests.

These include multiple airlocks, recapture traps, and constant dwarven guards. They also include methods of keeping people from releasing them, such as citizen-dangerous traps to deter (maim) berserk dwarves. it's a fun project.

You sir have done it.

I will dig out a labyrinth and throw the unworthy dwarves inside, along with this wereopossum.

Thank you.