Thoughts on Peasant Life
The Peasant doesn’t get much respect in dwarf fortress. I propose some changes to the game that may change that, which may also improve gameplay, and which I think will in the long run also have a positive impact on frame rate.
New Skills
Porter
Cleaning
Construction
Fuller
I propose that Porter, Cleaning, and Construction become skills.
Porter is the skill of hauling things. Dwarves with less than competent Porter skill would haul things slower than at present, while those with greater Porter skill would haul things marginally faster and – owing to the skill they have in balancing loads, packing goods, and so forth - have greater strength for the purpose of moving heavy loads. Hauling would be trained based on the distance of the job, with jobs below say a distance of 15 garnering no XP, but increasing XP for longer distances.
Construction is the skill of building constructions. Dwarves with less than competent Construction skill would build things slower than at present, while those with greater construction skill would build constructions marginally faster.
Cleaning is the skill of cleaning things. It is trained by taking a cleaning or gathering filth job (described below). Skill in cleaning has several notable effects. First, it decreases the resources consumed by a cleaning job. Secondly, it increases the speed at which a cleaning job is finished. And thirdly, it reduces the chance that the cleaner would contract a syndrome by exposure to contaminated blood, vomit, dirt, filth, or other uncleanly substance.
A dwarf with less than master rank in porter, cleaning, or construction retains the job title of Peasant. A master porter gains the profession Porter. A master cleaner gains the profession Butler/Housekeeper. A master constructor gains the profession Laborer.
Fuller is a new skill associated with tasks performed in the Fuller’s Workshop described hereafter.
One of the goals of these changes is to make dwarves more willing to take cleaning jobs. Dirt, blood and the like around the fort is not only unsightly, it’s an object that has to be kept track of, and which is distracting to the eye and makes understanding of the map more difficult. There is another big change related to that.
Rags and Cleaning
Whenever a piece of plant or silk cloth would otherwise be destroyed, it instead may decay to a pile of a new object called ‘Rags’. All rags are treated alike, regardless of origin. Plant or silk cloth may also be designated to become rags in the same fashion that metal objects can be designated for melting. Stack size depends on the amount of wear left at the time the object was deconstructed, and the size of the article with less worn and larger articles producing more rags. Rags themselves can be designated for burning at a furnace. Rags are considered cloth, refuse, and finished goods for the purpose of stockpiling, and are stored in Bins (if bins are provided).
Rags have two uses. First, every cleaning job requires a bucket of water, a rag, and one of either soap, lye, ash, or salt (collectively called, the cleaning agent, with soap providing the best results). Salt initially can be produced as a new item at a mill by grinding rock salt, though other methods may later be provided for. Rags, water, and the cleaning agent are consumed by cleaning jobs, with the lower the dwarf’s cleaning skill the more likely they are to be consumed. Dwarves with high perfectionist/orderliness enjoy cleaning jobs. The reverse is true of more slovenly dwarves, who avoid them and have bad thoughts if forced to perform them.
Secondly, rags may be converted into cloth paper pulp at a Fuller’s Workshop and then pressed into cloth paper at a press.
The purpose of this is to consume the almost limitless worn out clothing that accumulates in a dwarf’s room and elsewhere around the fortress hogging cpu time, as well as add story depth.
Fuller’s Workshop
Wool/hair must first be washed before it is spun into thread if it is to become high quality. This is performed in the Fuller’s workshop, which requires three building materials, at least one of which must be fire safe, and at least one of which must be a stone. A fuller also can turn rags into pulp for paper making, becoming cloth paper after pressed by a papermaker. A fuller can also turn wood shavings into paper pulp, becoming paper. Water (collected via a bucket) is an ingredient in all jobs, and technically various minerals (Kaolinite, Sepiolite, for example) are an ingredient in the wool washing as well (“Fuller’s Earth”). For simplicity, ‘clay’ could be used as an ingredient in this case.
Wool clothing should be more valuable than plant clothing, as the material is harder to acquire and requires more work to use. Currently it is far too easy to ramp up pigtail production to an almost unlimited level and produce high value cloth.
Filth
Animals produce filth, at a rate which depends on animal size. Filth decays (producing miasma when underground) and attracts vermin. Contact with rotting filth also has a chance of inducing disease (generally, mild syndromes) both in animals and in their caretakers. Diseased animals always produce contaminated filth which has a high change of inducing disease. Contact with filth may produce bad thoughts, particularly if the dwarf has high orderliness or cleanliness. Slovenly dwarfs make excellent filth collectors. Hauling filth is a new hauling task for all dwarves which may be selectively turned off. Filth can be collected with buckets, stored in bags, and used as fertilizer in farms in place of potash, but hauling filth still counts as contact with filth and buckets/bags of filth will still produce miasma. One pile of filth generally produces a stack of stored filth. Filth can also be dried in a wood furnace to produce stacks of fertilizer which acts like filth for the purposes of fertilizing farm plots, but is sterile and does not produce miasma or bad thoughts, however wet fertilizer reverts to filth piles. Either way, filth is a vastly more sustainable method of collecting fertilizer than potash.
Author
Topic: Thoughts on Peasant Life (Read 1057 times)