(1) - Successful in that I get to keep playing the fort and didn't lose any legendary citizens I was attached to
(2) - In that I didn't use my militia and didn't generate combat alerts. One could certainly argue justice that utilizes incarceration is itself inherently violent.
Background:
My "Towering Wooden Hospital between a Haunted Ocean and Good-Aligned Forest" was going swimmingly, save for a few perpetually unhappy citizens (mostly related to bad thoughts from unavoidable caught in rain and an early werebeast attack), until the killing of a dog in the midst of a tantrum set off what appeared to me to be a loyalty cascade.
While there weren't any further combat alerts, citizens were chasing each other around the map, interrupting each other's actions, having thoughts related to "joining conflicts" and generally making a mess of things. Usually I just abandon loyalty cascade forts, I hate losing my citizens to things that are hard to prevent like this, but I wasn't ready to give up this fort or save-scum just yet.
Methods:
I identified a few actors that were clearly interrupting others (and each other), and tried a few things. Inclusion criteria for this process included being attributed as the cause of a job interruption more than half the time. Exclusion criteria included being a citizen I liked:
1. Expelling - This worked on about 50% of them. Some of the citizens left, others just kept roaming around, carrying the things they were hauling beforehand, continuing to start trouble.
2. Fabricating jail time - Since non-citizens (including recently expelled citizens) appear in the justice menu, I framed one particularly problematic citizen for 5 counts of disorderly conduct, but my captain of the guard didn't take the bait, even after his job forging serrated discs was interrupted by the very weaver I sent him to capture.
3. Burrows - I burrowed a quarreling pair (of non-exiled) citizens deep in an abandoned mineshaft. While they didn't fully obey the order, they and the exiled (above) dwarves that had it out for them sort of stayed in a general area, chasing each other around, giving me enough time to wall them off.
4. Traps / Trapping - I tend to door off most hallways and rooms in my fort, even ones that are nowhere near the surface, liquids, or at risk of cavern monsters, mostly in case I flood something by accident, an invasion goes bad, and to prevent miasma. I also hatch off most staircases, but that's mostly for limiting pet movement for FPS reasons. I tried to catch a problematic weaver in the oceanic "trap,flood,freeze" trap I have running, but my response time was too slow. Ultimately he trapped himself in a dead end refuse room, and I locked the door.
Results:
- 2 Exiled citizens left the map, one of them carrying a book copy (ugh)
- 1 Irritating weaver is trapped in one of my refuse rooms. Will hopefully starve unless he tantrums and breaks the door
- 2 Non-expelled citizens and one expelled citizen are walled up in an abandoned mineshaft with all the stone already removed. Haven't decided if I'm going to let them starve or open up the single square between them and ocean
I plan on keeping these areas sealed indefinitely, unless I need the bones in my refuse stockpile for a mood, and engraving slabs for ghost-busting after they die.
Conclusion:
Loyalty Cascades can be managed without usage of military force through careful pre-planning of doors and locking problem dwarves away, or using burrows to isolate problem dwarves and their targets (as bait). While I've certainly seen people using doors to isolate workshops and other rooms in cases of failed moods, I had not considered using this tool for loyalty cascades. Exile/expelling dwarves or fabricating justice accusations is not a 100% dependable solution to loyalty cascades.
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Topic: Successful(1) Nonviolent(2) management of a Loyalty Cascade (Read 3211 times)