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[Xeldrakka]

Hello fellow delvers of the deep. I have a question for those who either have a better mechanical understanding of the game than I or those who have simply obtained the experience. I've recently messed around with the game files and plied my hand at playing a subterranean serpent-man tribal civilization. The task seemed simple enough and everything went more or less smoothly, save for encounter a metric ton of nasty underground critters early on.

I encountered on particular issue though: I could not, for the life of me, get my tribe to procreate. At first I left things to business as usual, but that did nothing. I later realized I'd have to treat these egg layers like fowl and made a bunch of egg nests for them. That worked right up to the point where my tribe began making scrambled eggs out of their unfertilized would-be offspring. I forbid the consumption of their own eggs and figured that would do the trick. Unfortunately, their eggs now mostly lay dormant until they spoil. Of the dozens of potential offspring that were contained in those awful leathery shells, only three were fertilized and hatched at a later date.

So. I'm having an issue getting these idiotic fish skewering milk drinkers to go spawn season on their eggs and make a mess of their cavern hallways. The issue is clearly with the males, who apparently don't want to take the time to be featured on a discovery channel special. Does anyone know how to resolve this issue? Is it a construction thing? Strategic placement of the egg nests? Free time for the masses?

I'd appreciate any elucidation on this problem that you all can provide for me.

[wierd]

Your horrible lizard people need to spend more quality time with their mates. No, really. That is the deal, IIRC.

Toady revamped some of the social interactions, and needing contact for interactions is one of them.

[Thisfox]

As with fowl, make breeding chambers, and lock a couple in, with nothing to do, until they've socialised, brooded, and hatched some young. Just make sure there's something to eat in there other than scrambled eggs....

[PatrikLundell]

As said above, quality time with no job and proximity is required. In addition to that, the normal rules for egg laying animals probably apply:
Females kept from nest boxes for too long rush to them to lay their eggs. There is no time for fertilization at that stage, which usually means the first batch of eggs laid are infertile (using DFHack to if eggs are fertilized or not makes things a lot easier).
With animals I just keep the male and the female locked up together with then nest box well in advance of the next egg laying time. You may consider locking the pair up for a dual egg laying cycle (with the first one being dud), or try to time it.

I haven't tried to lock a male and a female up and THEN construct a nest box. With luck, it would allow the female to be impregnated when the box arrives and the egg laying urge overtakes her, but I don't know how egg fertilization works. If it does work, however, it could allow you to skip the dud egg clutch.

By the way, you only need to keep the couple locked in initially if you've burrowed them together. Once they accept the burrow (which can take quite a few attempts due to need satisfaction override and "running away after a job before trying to get a new one"), they'll stay inside even if you unlock the doors (to e.g. allow someone else to install a nest box. Just make sure neither one of the future parents has the appropriate job assigned, or you risk cancellation spam as they can't pick up the nest box, but still take the job so nobody else can do it).

[Xeldrakka]

This will be like herding cats! lol

Alright. I'll give this all a good look over and see what I can make of it. Thank you for your advice folks.

I'm so going to pillage this tribe with a proper dwarf fort when I'm done. **** these lizards. lmao

[Dunamisdeos]

Recommend designating a few lizard couples as permanent egg layers. Give em' a small but pleasant complex to live and make babies in. Can prob use burrows to assist with this.

[Xeldrakka]

I was thinking that might have to be how I do things. Given the... dedication... that seems to be required of the child making members of the population, it looks like having a normal life while trying to procreate is quite the difficult task.