You got people to only indulge as much as needed in locations?
~Snip
Ultimately had nobody but pets idling in the active meeting area. Which is neat for a catch-all pasture, but that's it.
Did you never set the zone to meeting area and assigned location to it with dfhack or something?
Ehh, i guess i should explain in more detail.
My tavern had been up for a while (2 years? or so), if you deactivate it while the patrons are already inside (when it is active) they will sit where they are until they've had their fill. If they aren't being entertained by people telling stories/activities they wont go away so it might be slightly attributed to skills gained in speaker or poetry over time for satisfaction. They will drink of the tavern booze supply while in the tavern preferentially to stockpiled booze (hence a dwarf as reported will visit their favourite tavern to drink)
> More dwarves inclines more range of personalities so eventually you'll get dwarves who outright don't care compared to those who are always inside the tavern. Wait for migrants rather than fast test with the starting 7 to get a wider range. A common trend is that those with 'occasionally overindulges' detailed in white (below dreams and above needs) will actually overindulge like intended and keep their need filled.
- Its to be expected with dwarves to a certain degree because they are naturally immoderate and the culture promotes merryment. A stoic race that is not [ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT] might enjoy a bit of tipple but aren't compulsive drinkers. Dwarves with no pressing traits or that have had thier fill without over indulgence or 'strong cravings' will usually pull away unless there are some nice storytellers/performers.
My big ol' resident religion of death (you can find it on the related save) had a bunch of (more or less the same) stories to tell repeatedly about how the dwarf necromancer began worshipping the god of death. The action of them telling the story worked as a purple fufilling action (given i had no instruments)
I would not recommend using a no specific deity space as they might try to worship different gods for communion forever. Specific temples for specific worshipers fulfilling their own needs works fine for me. (in above picture the dwarf worked through their needs first filling them up then moved onto prayer, doing so until they run out of things to do and idle in the meeting area)
My save has moved on with play a bit, tavern is top left, and death-temple top right, at the bottom i have a inactive meeting zone overlapped with a 'zoo' (a cage meeting area that is always active) and some spare animals for dwarves to gawp at (picture isn't flattering) most of my dwarves will fufilled needs or no strong needs are hanging out here.
Here is a random mechanic chilling in the zoo meeting room that has come back from the tavern with a good amount of needs fufilled, the only thing that might pull them back is a need to see art if not to drink/be merry/take it easy. Currently they dont care about taking it easy so aren't fufilling it.
Amusingly it turns out that dwarves argue a lot while (still friendships are very rare) drunk (a inebriation condition rumoured to never wear off) meaning dwarves are not happy drunks just loud rude and bashful which other dwarves do not appreciate- bring good speaker stats on dwarves with good linguistic & wordsmith skills to make dwarves happy with good art & supply drink i would recommend because instruments are unreliable.
So it turns out dwarves do still talk, but the rudeness of inebriation causing no friendships is universal to drunkards. Not like you have happy drunks, sad drunks & angry drunks like in real life, perhaps the only friendships maintained that aren't passing acquaintances are those between immigrants or people who really really don't mind rudeness.
- If acquaintances wont dance together because they are too drunk and arguing instead of bonding because they require friends to do certain actions it might explain why sober dwarves around the caravan make friends with each other quickly compared to dwarves after their first sip of booze (whic as i mentioned before is reported to never wear off)
Found a bug while i was making a sober tavern, temple & meeting place setup like the areas described above to test my theory based on facts that dwarves who are drunk (syndromic forever due to drinking constantly) are too rude to make friendships with one another and progress forward with relationships.
Fish won't path out of rivers (to join worldpop) unless the exit doesn't contain water or a lethal amount (3/4 or less) of water for fish which is walkable for land creatures, meaning dwarves drinking from that section of the river are liable to get sucked in & drown too by stepping inside the dangerous river path. Here you see tigerfish all piled ontop of each other, the living tigerfish is air choking on insufficient water, while the other two tiger fish are already dead.
- some milkfish on at embark moved on and off the map as soon as i touched the river channelling, creating the conditions for them to leave causes them to leave very quickly when they've been there long enough (season roughly)
I made this by channelling water underground to create a well so that my dwarves are happy drinking clean water from a organised spot rather than breaking cover to run for the river. Fish occasionally get sucked in but its not major enough to strand them there. Fish panic when they get caught in a strong current.
Its also a strong possiblity they aren't pathing out as per wilderness (but milkfish migrating out creates arguement for that) but are instead fleeing or being pulled towards by the current water pressure the slowly drying up 2/7th's of water river exit. Why fish can't path through water competently might be related to flying creatures hovering in the air aimlessly even when they have places to be (like flying tavern guests)
I can see the bug report now - "Fish can't swim"- this is actually true because if you observe the soul DF structure of a fish and its skills, it does not have the natural ability to swim & will constantly exclaim about dangerous terrain.
(Trying to leave via a river exit with 2/7 of water cosied up to a skeletal tigerfish & a rotting tigerfish that couldn't make the journey while the water was shallow enough to not be dangerous)
The no booze friendship pair off didn't got quite, as expected. All my founding dwarves all became readily good solid friends immediately but migrants & my own starting seven wont talk to each other. Not a single thought of talking to one another. Though my embark buddies are hitting it off dancing in the tavern with each other.
I think i have found the culprit, my animal trainer has a 'need' to spend time with friends so will make friends to achieve this goal but not passively talk to other dwarves (because they already have 6 other buddies and are lime green happy) / (
Or alternatively dwarves will not talk to strangers not from their own site)
- Other dwarves just become "friendly terms" and don't progress past that even when aggressively forced into a meeting area room together. All of them have bad talking statistics, because they dont have the need compulsion to make friends and therefore talk to one another.
> Dwarves with a need to argue, argue constantly as much as their needs require it, same as with other need activities.
- The clerk was a bit unpopular, but dwarves like making friends so will reciprocate advances by dwarves with a need to make friends.
The thought system really ripped up the game mechanics in ways we're only now realising (with supplied bugs) and in my own verdict could REALLY do with rebalancing