Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rbrx]

So I've still been playing 34.11 since 2014 came out, due to poor frame rate on the new version. Now the newer versions are supposed to run better, and I've made the switch over.

I've run into a problem however, my civilians are entering combat and getting slaughtered, when all I want them to do is cower like normal dwarf civilians. I like to structure my forts with military training outside the entrance, which later gets replaced with guard duty burrows. So, for example, when a were-mammoth showed up, my military jumped in and started fighting, followed by half the fort. My military is more than up to the job, yet I lost three civilians because apparently the way civilians react to enemies has been changed.

Any way to change it back so civilians let my military do their jobs?

[anewaname]

Civilians will respond to seeing an attack on a friendly unit, with an interest in vengeance. Their response is to move closer and attack that enemy (although they still panic if they are overcome with terror).

Even if you activate a civilian alert and the burrow is away from the fight, civilian dwarfs that see an attack on a friendly unit may turn back towards that fight.

I don't know of a way to change how they respond, but the solution might be to look at the design of your entrance and station the military squad or a few dogs a bit further from the gate, so fewer civilian dwarfs are within sight range of the initial conflict (about 15 tiles?).

[smithist]

Yeah fortress design will help you a lot here. That or being more preemptive with alerts. Once a dwarf, civilian or military, engages something it's tough to pull them out. Military will ignore station orders if they're in combat, for example. Same with civs and an alert with a burrow as anewaname mentioned.

You want to design your entrance such that civilians don't have line of sight on combat.

[Rbrx]

I understand steps I can take to mitigate the problem, however that's not what I'm asking. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to disable this behavior. It's pretty dumb that I lose dwarfs because some woodcutter sees a military dwarf fighting a crocodile.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I understand steps I can take to mitigate the problem, however that's not what I'm asking. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to disable this behavior. It's pretty dumb that I lose dwarfs because some woodcutter sees a military dwarf fighting a crocodile.

No, it's not dumb. They're not robots. You don't control dorfs directly. It.s kind of the point of fortress mode. A dorf sees his friend being attacked, he rushes in (under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol) to help.

Yes, it's a little unbalanced right now. Dorfs, especially ones who haven't been drinking for a while should probably consider their actions a little more.

My current game has an infestation of cavern creatures roaming the halls right now. The civilians are having a great time beating up giant rats while the hunters desperately rush about shooting at elm birds. "Dumb" behavior would be having the civilians rush about in blind panic hoping the non-existent military will turn up sometime soon (they're out on a mission, haven't been seen in a year...).

[Rbrx]

"Dumb"

I'm not talking about realistic behavior, I'm talking from a game play perspective. It's unintuitive (lets use a different word so you don't get confused) that your dwarves who are not assigned to combat roles engage in combat roles. It's frustrating to lose dwarves to combat they shouldn't be in, and I'm wondering if there's a way to revert this change.

[smithist]

Dwarves charging into combat to either help friends or protect themselves is probably the least unintuitive thing in DF.

I assume the answer to your question is no. I imagine this is a pretty foundational component to their behavior. I dunno, maybe if you really knew what you were doing with the raws.

[e] We're making suggestions because this is a pretty easy thing to avoid. Any well designed entrance/fortress is gonna isolate the general population from attackers almost by default.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Three possible solutions.

1) Adjust dwarf raws so they are terrified of every living thing (actually doesn't work right now as alcohol is too powerful - I have wild dwarves, tweaked to be nervous and easily stressed bit even the total cowards jump in to avenge their buddies at a moment's notice).

2) Wait for a couple of updates, stress, morale and the effects of alcohol are due to be looked at during this bug fixing phase (won't make your dorfs into mindless robots as you'd like, but might make them consider personal safety a little more).

3) Post a suggestion on the suggestions board "Reverse years of work into personalities and make dorfs into dumb robots". That might work...