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[garlicfiend]

It looks to me like there are really two main issues at play in the current stress system:

1. Dwarves have sensitivites to different stressors, based on personality traits. Some of them seem to end up "stacking" or even interacting synergistically with each other, so that in some dwarves a given stressor has a stress effect that is dramatically disproportionate to the severity of the event (such as getting rained on). The reaction of these extreme dwarves on the bottom of the bell curve then has ripple effects on the rest of the population.

2. The majority of dwarves are not able, without at least a great deal of micromanagement, to meet all their needs. In some cases this incurs stress. But mostly it means dwarves are unable to offset all the stress incurred by by daily fortress living with happy experiences, slowly pulling the bulk of the fortress population into depression and insanity.

[fortunawhisk]

It seems like there are multiple components to the stress system: stress caused by actions resulting in bad thoughts (getting rained on), stress caused by unmet needs (badly distracted by), probably some others. The stress from bad thoughts can spike suddenly (see billw's charts) based on what happened to the dwarf, but it seems like the stress from unmet needs seems to accumulate over time. Met needs seem to provide a minor stress relief (negative stress growth) for about a month, but don't automatically result in a massive stress reduction when met (for long term needs that are suddenly fixed). The system also automatically meets a number of needs (had a drink, slept in a room, saw some art, etc) and whatever labors a dwarf has can satisfy others (crafting, staying occupied, etc).  There are a couple that require specific player action, and the best way to satisfy those is still up in the air.

From my own tests on needs metrics, it looks drinking and crafting are the biggest consistent potential stress makers. Keeping Drinking satisfied isn't really a problem, but keeping any number of dwarves making things long term seems problematic. Devout dwarves also generate stress if they don't pray, but can be solved by giving them plenty of idle time to do their prayer thing. My suggestion for satisfying social needs is to use small meeting zones (5x5 or smaller) for temples, libraries, and taverns. Afaik, dwarves still require other dwarves to be within 1 square (for some period of time) in order to interact with them. Note that if/when dwarves do make friends/family, you're right back at the tantrum spiral.

The only vanilla way to get a feel for stress before it becomes an issue is to check each dwarf for good/bad thoughts and met/unmet needs, afaik.

[PatrikLundell]

At least making babies satisfies the need for being with family (felt love talking with the spouse, with a corresponding fulfilled need). Encouraged baby making involves burrowing the couple in their room with nothing to do, so there's no Socializing involved.

[FantasticDorf]

At least making babies satisfies the need for being with family (felt love talking with the spouse, with a corresponding fulfilled need). Encouraged baby making involves burrowing the couple in their room with nothing to do, so there's no Socializing involved.

This is old vs new, how its always been really. I mean making dwarves actually go 'talk' as a activity and seek out a person to path to would help theoretically. As given the pre-party removal setup just 'worked' and was sort of taken for granted that X amount of dwarves left in a room would do stuff, anything really.

[Death Dragon]

Do we know how much consoler and pacifier reduce stress? Could it be worth it to embark with one dwarf who has very high consoler and pacifier skills and who hopefully gets elected mayor? Actual dwarf therapist.

[PatrikLundell]

Do we know how much consoler and pacifier reduce stress? Could it be worth it to embark with one dwarf who has very high consoler and pacifier skills and who hopefully gets elected mayor? Actual dwarf therapist.

You don't need any "hopefully" there, as you can replace mayors, although you have to do it after every election, which take place in the middle of the summer.

[NTJedi]

1. Dwarves have sensitivites to different stressors, based on personality traits. Some of them seem to end up "stacking" or even interacting synergistically with each other, so that in some dwarves a given stressor has a stress effect that is dramatically disproportionate to the severity of the event (such as getting rained on).

My current embark location is 80% sand and desert yet my location has non_stop rain about 85% of the time.  The sand and desert should not be here with how much it rains since only one dry biome was shown. The stacking negative stress of weather and unrealistic weather durations has left me no choice but to disable weather when playing the game.

[fortunawhisk]

A quick test shows there's no (visible to me) difference in stress reduction based on raw skill level of the consoler. I used dfhack to toggle the skill level of consoler and pacifier between 0(dabbling) and 15(legendary) for the mayor, no major change in the stress metric from one day to the next for the dwarves that attended meetings. I didn't see anything in either dwarves' personalities that seemed like it would have blocked the affect: mayor had 'empathy' thoughts, stressed dwarf had 'satisfied' thoughts for crying or yelling at somebody in charge. There might be personality configurations that make it more effective, but imo, not really a fix.

[RWARO_GNARL]

Having the whole fortress on vacation month once or twice a year help a lot. Burrow everyone in temple/bar/bed for a month.

Though this doesn't fix the problem as I still have to expell some dwarf, but the number of dwarf needed to be expel reduced a lot since I adopted the policy.

[Fleeting Frames]

@NTJedi: At least with evil rain, it is shown that rain is dependent for per-biome (including differently in the air), even if the message doesn't show where it rains. 80% desert is still going to have rain messages near nonstop if 20% if tropical forest.

(internal weather struct is 5x5 array for both 1x1 and 3x2 embarks, so not sure about elsewhere - you'd have to watch whether the raindrops appear in desert during the rain)

[Shonai_Dweller]

Having the whole fortress on vacation month once or twice a year help a lot. Burrow everyone in temple/bar/bed for a month.

Though this doesn't fix the problem as I still have to expell some dwarf, but the number of dwarf needed to be expel reduced a lot since I adopted the policy.

I've started doing this. Just be sure to relieve your tavern keeper of duties if your tavern is still small (if you're playing with tavern keeper Fun on). I sometimes forget that more people aren't dead because my tavern keeper/manager is usually too busy to focus on killing them all...

[Adequate Swimmer]

Having the whole fortress on vacation month once or twice a year help a lot. Burrow everyone in temple/bar/bed for a month.

Though this doesn't fix the problem as I still have to expell some dwarf, but the number of dwarf needed to be expel reduced a lot since I adopted the policy.

I've started doing this. Just be sure to relieve your tavern keeper of duties if your tavern is still small (if you're playing with tavern keeper Fun on). I sometimes forget that more people aren't dead because my tavern keeper/manager is usually too busy to focus on killing them all...

Same, they've now got a new alert and burrow for dwarf history month.

Also I am now in possession of a goblin nose and it's going to be the first thing goblins and dark dwarves see when they try to attack me, on a silver pedestal.

[Dorsidwarf]

For the crafting issue, you can probbably get around the immense material requirements by using metal and melting them down in a magma workshop linked to the output stockpiles for the workshops

[Fleeting Frames]

I'm fond of green glass blocks, when I have sand, because those can be potentially useful later.

[thefinn]

Anyone noticed that there's hardly any children being made?

Most I've had is 2... they got to 11 and 9 and still no other babies. I guess this is related to being depressed at not seeing family or friends in a long time bug?