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Author Topic: Free Time?  (Read 970 times)

callisto8413

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Free Time?
« on: June 10, 2023, 05:44:34 pm »

My Dwarves are starting to stress out.  Some things I plan to do, like make a temple, may help.

But I want to give them free time.  In other words take a season where all labor is turned off.

But I know some of them get upset when they don't do crafts or learn a new military skill or do other things.

How do you give them time off to socalize, drink, pray, and build friendships/relationships without pissing them off even more?

Any examples or suggestions welcome!

This is the Steam version by the way.
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Telgin

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Re: Free Time?
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2023, 10:32:49 pm »

I haven't found a need to take active measures to do this, and just don't make an effort to make sure that everyone is busy like some people do.  In my experience, dwarves will take the time they need, and sometimes you'll have dwarves that are unhappy no matter what you do for them.  You can just go a few months without issuing any work orders, but if you have any automation then that's harder to disable temporarily.

Past that, I don't think it's really practical to micromanage which dwarves need to stay busy and which don't.  The game prioritizes dwarves for jobs based on skill now, so even if you have a dwarf who wants to make crafts, if they have a low skill they'll be lower on the list of dwarves selected to actually do those jobs.

Making a temple will definitely help, and one of my first things I do when embarking is to make a meeting area and create a temple in it with no specific deity.  That lets everyone pray as they need early on, until I can make something better.
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brewer bob

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Re: Free Time?
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2023, 02:17:56 am »

You could have several craftsdwarf's workshops which are only usable by a single dwarf. Assign those who seem to get most pissed off without crafting to the shops. They can then continue working at their personal workshops while the rest have time off.

At least in 0.47.05 having a season off hasn't caused issues with crafting needs, except with those who would be unhappy no matter what you do. I'm not sure if this has changed in Steam?

What I usually do is set up a civilian alert burrow at a inn/temple, put it on for a month or two to force people to socialize (stocking up the places with plenty of food & drink beforehand). This has worked well for stress even before the stress fix of 0.47.05. Haven't had many unhappy citizens after starting to do this. But I guess this doesn't work with Steam unless you use DFHack's civ alert thing?

callisto8413

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Re: Free Time?
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2023, 10:15:39 pm »

Thank you!
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Salmeuk

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Re: Free Time?
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2023, 11:20:19 pm »

be aware that the needs are generally lenient enough that doing a task once or twice a year is plenty for most dwarves. idiosyncracies aside..

definitely build that temple! such an easy boost to the fortress, in that a completely undecorated temple will serve just fine for fulfilling the need for worship. make sure to set it to 'unspecified deity' for maximum general appeal, unless you are prepared to build 10-20 individual temples for each unique god.

more difficult is getting your general population military training, if that is something they desire . something to think about
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DerpFortress

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Re: Free Time?
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2023, 02:29:21 am »

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Stress

Also check the discussion pages for the older versions, they have some tips.
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