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[Fleeting Frames]

Hm. Toady mentioned that there are 42 categories in thoughts. Since some people are reporting minor effects from rain while others are reporting major effects, maybe it is not tied to biome but what other memories are made in fortress?

[Senator Jim Death]

Had a dwarf that was mentally scarred from choking on a miasma. Understandable (I guess) is that it caused him to become depressed often. What I don't understand is why it convinced him that there should be no such thing as personal privacy. I'm paraphrasing there--I can't check him because I sent him to live in a hamlet instead of dealing with his garbage. He was my only unhappy dwarf.

[sketchesofpayne]

This thread has been quite helpful.  A few thoughts I've had:

Now that I'm looking at my dwarves' profiles under a microscope it is starting to bother me that family members don't have the same surname.  I would really like to see family relations at a glance.  I'm almost thinking of using 'nickname' to assign ad hoc surnames and pretend their current surname is their first name.

When dwarves get into a heated argument and brawl it would be nice if it was restricted to slapping, hair-pulling, and broken noses.  Right now I have dwarves straight-up murdering each other when stressed.  In one fort I kept having a fight break out in a high-traffic hallway.  I did a "groundhog day" reloading and trying to prevent the fight.  I kept delaying it by de-stressing dwarves but it still ended up happening, leaving six or seven dead dwarves.  Experimentally I burrowed the whole fortress into a 10x10 room.  It ended with 25 dead dwarves (out of 150) after they pulled an impromptu Thunder Dome.  The funny thing is these do not show up under the Justice tab.

I messed with the RAWs and generated a new world.  On the personality token STRESS_VULNERABILITY I changed the median value for dwarves from 45 to 30.  This has made a big difference in my forts built in that world.

[Miuramir]

Now that I'm looking at my dwarves' profiles under a microscope it is starting to bother me that family members don't have the same surname.  I would really like to see family relations at a glance.  I'm almost thinking of using 'nickname' to assign ad hoc surnames and pretend their current surname is their first name.

Quick side note: you may not be aware that what we think of as "standard modern English / Western naming schemes" are comparatively recent, and not shared across all cultures.  England was one of a comparatively few places that had "surnames" in the modern sense used commonly before 1400, and that has colored a lot of our modern perceptions.  Even then, many of them were recently evolved from earlier patronymic (John's son => Johnson, etc.), geographical (Hill, Wood, etc.), occupational (Smith, Baker, etc.), etc. names that got "set in stone" by custom or some legal requirement (frequently connected to the Domesday Book or some similar tax roll or inheritance thing). 

Given name + profession (or more general caste) is probably a lot closer to period appropriate for typical dwarves, especially since we have what amount to  color-coding for role-based castes.  Or, if you want to take a generally Nordic take on it, Foo Barson, who is son of Bar Bazson, son of Baz Quxson, etc.  (Still used in Iceland, but used to be much more common.) 

That said, if assigning family / clan nicknames helps you keep track, more power to you. 

[Immortal-D]

Future of the Fortress, 10/01/2018

Bit of a self-bump here. I know that testing long-term mechanics is difficult for you due to the time required.  That said, are you aware of current issues with the new stress sytem? (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171185.0) Based on reports here & in Reddit, stress-reducing effects seem greatly underpowered compared to stress-causing effects.

Yeah, I have that thread in my "next version / before Big Wait" text file.  I think I'll need to look at and log data on some saves for some of the problems, until we're satisfied that we understand what happened with a lot of the dwarves and their specific pathways to negativity.  It'll be interesting to see how much of a portion of the stress is caused by probably-easily fixables like those repeated vulture interruptions (which is pure combat stress, I think, rather than just stress at being interrupted, which doesn't exist) vs. more systemic changes (which'll be harder to rebalance, but are clearly needed for certain recurring thoughts and broken/missing needs.)

[sketchesofpayne]

Or, if you want to take a generally Nordic take on it, Foo Barson, who is son of Bar Bazson, son of Baz Quxson, etc.  (Still used in Iceland, but used to be much more common.) 

Honestly this would be the most helpful naming scheme.

[anewaname]

Or, if you want to take a generally Nordic take on it, Foo Barson, who is son of Bar Bazson, son of Baz Quxson, etc.  (Still used in Iceland, but used to be much more common.) 

Honestly this would be the most helpful naming scheme.

It might better to stick with nicknames, or to split off this topic into another thread for further discussion

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(being that DF mothers are the baby haulers and commit themselves to the same strenuous and dangerous work as the males, there might be reason for dwarf cultures to have the children named after the mother's surname rather than the father's. The naming outcome would be the same; Erush Uristson or Erush Uristdotter, but the outcome of a "discussion" about this topic, might befoul this Stress thread)

.

[sketchesofpayne]

It might better to stick with nicknames, or to split off this topic into another thread for further discussion [...]  the outcome of a "discussion" about this topic, might befoul this Stress thread.

Yeah, I don't want to sidetrack.  My real concern is dwarves who have not gone !!INSANE!! murdering each other due to stress.  I've noticed on some that they don't "strike them down" but hurt them enough that they bleed out or die from their injuries later.  This may be why they don't show up in the Justice tab.

(ADDENDUM)
I'm into year four of a new fort, currently at population 160. 

Previously I had a temple to each god, two taverns, a library, a statue garden, and two dining halls.  All of them were furnished lavishly.  This time I made one 10x10 temple.  Smoothed it.  Built one basic rock statue of each god.  And one chest of instruments.  Made one 10x10 dining hall.

So far no one is stressed, even after wildlife encounters, a werelizard, an elf ambush, and encounters with forgotten beasts and blind cave ogres.

(UPDATE)
Eight years in.  Still just the same 10x10 temple and a 10x10 dining hall.  Frequent forgotten beasts, elf ambushes, and a dragon.  I have a population of 170.  About 20 of the dwarves are very happy/euphoric.  I lose around two dwarves a year to stress.

So far, once they have the "constant state of internal rage due to rain/miasma" tag in their profile they're done for.  I haven't been able to bring one back from the brink.  I've even tried "shock therapy" by exposing them to more stressful stimulus to try and trigger a "reversal" personality trait.

[HumanScholar]

...  Built one basic rock statue of each god.  ...

Is it known whether the dwarves appreciate this little detail in any way?

[Immortal-D]

...  Built one basic rock statue of each god.  ...

Is it known whether the dwarves appreciate this little detail in any way?

Unfortunately, no.  Dwarves do not distinguish the content of Engravings or Statues, it is purely for your amusement.

[Fleeting Frames]

I've read that they find statues of their preferences to be more valuable in their bedrooms, but haven't tested.

[HumanScholar]

Dwarves can have preferences for shapes and colors -- what does this apply to, if not decorations?

[mikekchar]

I've had one guy picking fist fights and he ended killing someone and sending his wife and son the the hospital.  There are 2 problems I see.  First is that the other people don't fight back, no matter what -- and nobody else intervenes.  So that means the stressed out guy just keeps wailing on their target until they snap out of it, or *hopefully* the target goes unconscious and gets carried off to the hospital. The second problem is that they just keep going even after the target has passed out -- which can result in the death of the target.

The target should respond.  They are panicked -- you can see it in their thoughts, but they don't run away.  They don't fight back.  Possibly they will go off to do a job if one comes up, but they are divorced from the fight in every way, except for getting beaten to death.  Also, the fight should end on some kind of trigger -- not just when some random time is up.  You've broken the guy's arm -- it's time to stop!  You've exploded their leg into gore -- well beyond time to stop! They've passed out... No, you shouldn't take that as a queue to grab their neck.  There's a difference between a fist fight and murder.

But, my fighting dwarfs *do* end up with disorderly conduct.  However, if you don't have a sheriff/captain of the guard, people won't report it, so there will be no witnesses.  I locked up my murderous dwarf for 28 days (after a beating), but realising he'll definitely kill again (his combat skills are getting quite good), I'll have to exile him, which is a shame.

[pamelrabo]

This sounds just so silly, but I'm not having dangerous meotdowns but understandable angry dwarves due to miasma or being naked in the temples.

Then I realized I'm in a semi-desert biome with almost 0 rainfall.

So, word of advice for players who want to avoid micromanaging outdoors people and fearing rain depressions: just do as I did, but not by accident.

Sieges are a pain, though. Half my soldiers are terrified of shooting their crossbows from the inexpugnable battlements.

[Senator Jim Death]

It's possibly intended that everyone can't be kept happy. In the old versions, you had nobility. In these versions you have that one guy who just refuses to be satisfied with legendary dining rooms and whatever. Instead of melting him down, you can just exile him. We seem to usually end up with a couple folks who are ecstatic, with most other dwarves somewhere between content and happy.

I guess I understand that it's kind of a tough thing both to get balanced and for us to evaluate the balancing of. It's a combination of many small factors over a lot of game time.