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[FantasticDorf]

I recommend saving your embark profile after the items are finished if you want to choose suitable skills to suitable dwarves - as they're randomized each time. This is, however, a level of micromanagement that isn't very necessary.

By the time you should be able to request additional expedition members as part of your embark arrangements, the micromanagement aspect of specialising the randomized dwarves could be knocked out by just deleting a member of the party (to six) and re-adding them to get a new dwarf (or adding more dwarves until there's a stable amount of them to be marriagable/friends and inverse, having barely 2 etc so they're always intimately close to each other)

Its just one of the things that hasn't been changed or touched in a little while but for player benefit could be more friendly. For instance by eventual horizon where we have fortress scenario framework, it'll probably need to be redone by scratch to accomoddate different classes of citizens

• Etc, how many guards and how many prisoners are you embarking with you are in charge of, possibly raising your embark point allowance and how does this affect your goals for setting up a prison, does your prison require skilled prisoners for forced labor?

• Are there any normal citizens amongst your monastary complex to help complete labor while the erudite priests can only really watch on from afar?

• If you are playing a group of exiled dwarves per scenario, how should all the dwarves relate to one another? Is it a family group, perfect strangers, or are they sharing a commonality between each other like being members of the same overthrown site administration and how does the player have input into these social connections?

As a experienced vanilla 'out of the box' DF player, i know that 'Play Now' is typically advantageous and how to manage that group, in modded settings i usually trust player embark recommendations set by the content creator and its slightly annoying to have to back out and hit 'abort' and re-enter the world within those two weeks if i get some really odd-ball citizens.

[Vorox]

A small but annoying thing I have noticed in my current fort. I failed to create a proper Temple after accepting a petition to do so, and no one cared except one dwarf. He actually isn't very stressed, but he seems to experience "dismay" every few weeks - he will cancel his current task, stop for a moment, then start another task. The thoughts and preferences screen says something like "He was dismayed after reliving  ."

This isn't game breaking or a big problem, but I think this isn't working as intended.

[Shonai_Dweller]

A small but annoying thing I have noticed in my current fort. I failed to create a proper Temple after accepting a petition to do so, and no one cared except one dwarf. He actually isn't very stressed, but he seems to experience "dismay" every few weeks - he will cancel his current task, stop for a moment, then start another task. The thoughts and preferences screen says something like "He was dismayed after reliving  ."

This isn't game breaking or a big problem, but I think this isn't working as intended.

That's a bug. Needs to be on the bug tracker. Temple and guild thoughts are coming up incomplete here and there. This is a new one I haven't seen before.

[Sarmatian123]

I just posted an article on forum about this issue "Topic: All Dwarves in Dwarf Fortress have to go crazy and die! Everyone must die!".
In the article I am describing the whole stress mechanic and why it fails and how it fails.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175955.0

I was pointed to this thread. I will not copy-paste whole thing, but it has 2 very easy and simple fixes to this issue.
BTW, It takes about 5 years for 1st psycho Dwarf to pop-up, but then they come in steadily one by one. About 5 new cases yearly.
5%-10% yearly death rate from insanity on 200 Dwarves fortress is a predicted rate by me from my observations. Though I rather expel.
Rain is being major executioner of Dwarves, because of peculiarity of this stress mechanic.
Peculiarity results from many unfinished features from past releases, which unfortunately pile upon each other in this mechanic.
I described those peculiarities in greater detail in my article.

Alternative 1.
To make the whole month lasting prayer or socializing and such,
not last a whole one month to fulfill into green color just one need put in yellow or in red color!
How about 5 days at max? This is not a sleep.
Alternative 2.
To make satisfaction from fulfilled needs last not 1 season, but 1 whole year.
This would help in adventure mode a lot too, despite time being calculated differently there for 1 month/season/year in Fortress Mode.

[delphonso]

I'd like to mention that I'm experiencing a much better management of stress in the current version. Still not perfect, but definitely better.

My fort has been going for a few years - I was feeling confident in my military and bored with the lack of raids (no necromancers in this world - just by chance.) A forgotten beast composed of water entered the caverns and I took it on. It could shoot webs, but I figured my marksdwarves could take it down before that was really an issue. A few minutes later, 20 dwarves had died.

Dwarves did the thing they do and gathered all the clothes instead of the bodies - exposing themselves and their friends to extra negative thoughts. Luckily, body bits weren't causing it, as the beast preferred kicking people in the head, some teeth had been scattered about. Dwarves buried their dead and I spent some time managing labors and refilling blank positions. Three dwarves came undone - the leader of the military being one of them. They all did so either in a depressed way or far from anyone else (this fight happened about 100 levels deep, so the clean up was sort of far from the main fortress.)

Those three were a lost cause and either died or were exiled. There are 4 more very upset dwarves who I have been paying close attention to. I've given them a bit of work to do, and avoided further bad thoughts and it's working. It seems, the fort will recover, even if a few of these guys go mad later on.

This is really nice compared to 44.12. Without a doubt, this would have been a death sentence to the fort, but in my fort now, nearly a year later, the scar is there, but the wound is recovering.

Not sure how everyone else is doing, and there still remain some issue (needs and thoughts being confused, this whole thing being a bit unclear to new players), but I'm happy with the improvements so far.

[Sarmatian123]

I played DF on 0.47.04. It endured now for 16 game-years. During this game time, I had to put down 30 depressed oblivious or tantruming Dwarves. First 25 got just banished, but then I had a second thought about infecting world with haggard, depressed and harrowed Dwarves. Last 5 got slabs. I think they all should get slabs from the beginning. I think I ruined this map.

Rain is the only cause of my 30 Dwarven casualties. 2 Dwarves spiraling down into naked suicide squad under atom smasher every year, it seems.

Some had cloths rotting from them though, as I didn't manage to change all 180 of them with military menu. Mittens, caps, vests, robes, tunics and shoes are banned from my fortress. Selection in military menu is too indistinguishable and too tiny for scrolling 180 Dwarves.

No dead bodies, as I use cages and bridges. Something sentient dead outside? Set 1 Dwarf for the job of dumping the corpse and use remote lever. In worst case there will be just 1 master quality slab more.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Some had cloths rotting from them though, as I didn't manage to change all 180 of them with military menu. Mittens, caps, vests, robes, tunics and shoes are banned from my fortress. Selection in military menu is too indistinguishable and too tiny for scrolling 180 Dwarves.

Why do you need to put 180 dwarves in the military just to have them wear clothes? I don't think that's actually a thing, is it?

[PatrikLundell]

Some had cloths rotting from them though, as I didn't manage to change all 180 of them with military menu. Mittens, caps, vests, robes, tunics and shoes are banned from my fortress. Selection in military menu is too indistinguishable and too tiny for scrolling 180 Dwarves.

Why do you need to put 180 dwarves in the military just to have them wear clothes? I don't think that's actually a thing, is it?

If you decide to use a play style that does not produce certain clothing layers DF does not provide specific support for that play style to ban all usage of the forbidden layer clothing. A possible work around is to draft everyone in squads and use replace clothing, or else they'll keep the old things until they rot off or can be replaced by items scavenged from invaders (possibly before the player stops them from grabbing replacements). [Trying to explain a reason for having an issue: it's not my play style].
It can be noted that providing all clothing layers possible maximizes the number of happy thoughts dorfs get from acquiring new clothing (at the expense of a rather massive amount of old clothing to deal with).

[Shonai_Dweller]

Some had cloths rotting from them though, as I didn't manage to change all 180 of them with military menu. Mittens, caps, vests, robes, tunics and shoes are banned from my fortress. Selection in military menu is too indistinguishable and too tiny for scrolling 180 Dwarves.

Why do you need to put 180 dwarves in the military just to have them wear clothes? I don't think that's actually a thing, is it?

If you decide to use a play style that does not produce certain clothing layers DF does not provide specific support for that play style to ban all usage of the forbidden layer clothing. A possible work around is to draft everyone in squads and use replace clothing, or else they'll keep the old things until they rot off or can be replaced by items scavenged from invaders (possibly before the player stops them from grabbing replacements). [Trying to explain a reason for having an issue: it's not my play style].
It can be noted that providing all clothing layers possible maximizes the number of happy thoughts dorfs get from acquiring new clothing (at the expense of a rather massive amount of old clothing to deal with).

Fascinating!
One for the suggestions forum I'd think rather than this thread on stress balance.

[Sarmatian123]

Some had cloths rotting from them though, as I didn't manage to change all 180 of them with military menu. Mittens, caps, vests, robes, tunics and shoes are banned from my fortress. Selection in military menu is too indistinguishable and too tiny for scrolling 180 Dwarves.

Why do you need to put 180 dwarves in the military just to have them wear clothes? I don't think that's actually a thing, is it?

If you decide to use a play style that does not produce certain clothing layers DF does not provide specific support for that play style to ban all usage of the forbidden layer clothing. A possible work around is to draft everyone in squads and use replace clothing, or else they'll keep the old things until they rot off or can be replaced by items scavenged from invaders (possibly before the player stops them from grabbing replacements). [Trying to explain a reason for having an issue: it's not my play style].
It can be noted that providing all clothing layers possible maximizes the number of happy thoughts dorfs get from acquiring new clothing (at the expense of a rather massive amount of old clothing to deal with).

Fascinating!
One for the suggestions forum I'd think rather than this thread on stress balance.

Suggestions for any fixes in military or in cloths go now in thousands. People had years to write them and they kept doing that tediously. I would have nothing new to add there. Any fixes in military or cloths will be after kitchen been dealt with, which will happen well after map rewrite and magic system. Plus DF could use GPU support at least for Floyd-Warshall algorithm, which handles path finding in linear time. About Floyd-Warshall I could write a suggestion. How to install OpenCL for example (do not touch the 700$ expensive trap SDK from the Intel's site!). With code and some pictures to show time measurements. With math, though this is simple ordo and theta comparisons.

Back to topic.

For some reason cases of depression among my military (60 military and 120 civilian) is far smaller then among civilians. The only difference is, my civilians had rotting cloths (caps, mittens, shoes).

When I started to play, I ignored all petitions for new crafts locations. I think I remember a Dwarf going into tantrums and depression over it, as soon as I started sending Dwarves outside into rain after wood for clear glass making. I restarted of course. All locations got their master steel mechanism in a lever and init_d.txt got correction for no-profession migrants. Not bad thing though. I can hand-pick profession according to their aptitudes, so they skill 2x-5x faster then usual crafts-dwarves. Though you can't expect that from any new player, can you.

[Immortal-D]

I'd like to mention that I'm experiencing a much better management of stress in the current version. Still not perfect, but definitely better.

My fort has been going for a few years - I was feeling confident in my military and bored with the lack of raids (no necromancers in this world - just by chance.) A forgotten beast composed of water entered the caverns and I took it on. It could shoot webs, but I figured my marksdwarves could take it down before that was really an issue. A few minutes later, 20 dwarves had died.

Dwarves did the thing they do and gathered all the clothes instead of the bodies - exposing themselves and their friends to extra negative thoughts. Luckily, body bits weren't causing it, as the beast preferred kicking people in the head, some teeth had been scattered about. Dwarves buried their dead and I spent some time managing labors and refilling blank positions. Three dwarves came undone - the leader of the military being one of them. They all did so either in a depressed way or far from anyone else (this fight happened about 100 levels deep, so the clean up was sort of far from the main fortress.)

Those three were a lost cause and either died or were exiled. There are 4 more very upset dwarves who I have been paying close attention to. I've given them a bit of work to do, and avoided further bad thoughts and it's working. It seems, the fort will recover, even if a few of these guys go mad later on.

This is really nice compared to 44.12. Without a doubt, this would have been a death sentence to the fort, but in my fort now, nearly a year later, the scar is there, but the wound is recovering.

Not sure how everyone else is doing, and there still remain some issue (needs and thoughts being confused, this whole thing being a bit unclear to new players), but I'm happy with the improvements so far.

Fascinating.  I didn't see anything explicitly mentioned in the patch notes, but good news if this is repeatable.  IIRC, the biggest non-social issues were weather and sentient body parts.

[delphonso]

Poor wording on my part - mostly comparing 44.12 to 47.x, but this was 47.04

[PatrikLundell]

The "attend meeting" stress relief action has to be toned down. As far as I can see, literally every second action of a stressed character (probably modified by traits) is to cry/yell at the expedition leader, leaving even less time for fulfilling the neglected needs (as well as making it neigh impossible for players to force the morons into temples to pray, rooms to spend time with the spouse/friends/intended future friends using burrows, as they'll just sit there with "attend meeting" rather than actually do anything useful).

[Shonai_Dweller]

The "attend meeting" stress relief action has to be toned down. As far as I can see, literally every second action of a stressed character (probably modified by traits) is to cry/yell at the expedition leader, leaving even less time for fulfilling the neglected needs (as well as making it neigh impossible for players to force the morons into temples to pray, rooms to spend time with the spouse/friends/intended future friends using burrows, as they'll just sit there with "attend meeting" rather than actually do anything useful).

Priests were meant to help there, but in my experience having them tied to the temple demand system means there's almost never a chance to appoint one. You can lower the demand cap, but it mght be more useful to have temple demands and preist setting separate so they start working right away like taverns and guildhalls. Also someone in charge of the "no specific deity" zone to shout at would be nice.

[PatrikLundell]

The "attend meeting" stress relief action has to be toned down. As far as I can see, literally every second action of a stressed character (probably modified by traits) is to cry/yell at the expedition leader, leaving even less time for fulfilling the neglected needs (as well as making it neigh impossible for players to force the morons into temples to pray, rooms to spend time with the spouse/friends/intended future friends using burrows, as they'll just sit there with "attend meeting" rather than actually do anything useful).

Priests were meant to help there, but in my experience having them tied to the temple demand system means there's almost never a chance to appoint one. You can lower the demand cap, but it mght be more useful to have temple demands and preist setting separate so they start working right away like taverns and guildhalls. Also someone in charge of the "no specific deity" zone to shout at would be nice.

Ah, well, I DID get a demand for a temple (a first for me), and I appointed the trouble dorf as the priest... Sounds like that was a mistake, but at least it was his sect.
However, the bugger should still at least leave some time to actually fulfill their needs, not allocate all the time to complain about them not being met, regardless who the receiver of the complaints is. With the current system, a single consoler would be fully occupied by 2 unhappy dorfs who'd take turns yelling and crying, who'd be stashing away a worn out sock in between the bouts rather than address their needs.

Edit: Just looked at a dorf who'd been yelling at a priest. Every second action in the thoughts was yelling at a priest, with an occasional case of two performances in a row, which is WAY too often unless yelling is the absolutely most potent stress reduction possible for that dorf.

Apart from managing the stress, it's extremely frustrating to try to address the dorfs that show signs of stress by micro managing them, only to see the stress just continue to climb (assuming you use Dwarf Therapist or similar to actually see the numbers: vanilla you'll just see no improvement, and eventually cracking events [stumbling obliviously, tantruming, etc.]), with no indication of why that happens, as the visible need fulfillment situation is better than it was, new sources of stress have been removed, and the visible thoughts are dominated by good ones (and you can't do anything about the flashbacks).