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[arghy]

Literally just had one ruin my entire fortress because he got scared by a giant buzzard then came close to my outdoor refuse area. If necromancers can't control themselves why aren't they hostile? It's like having someone come to a grocery store then start lighting fires for no reason then running back in to light more fires. Is there a way i can disable them? I know i can get migrant necromancers and the thought that they can just doom spiral my fortress because they can't stop themselves from raising undead kinda makes me not want to play.

Vampires i can understand but something that spawns non stop hostile zombies for literally no reason at all sounds insane.

[Telgin]

I'm sure it's an incomplete feature, with the future goal to have them properly infiltrate forts and / or raise undead only in combat if they're under direct control or something.

Anyway, I think you can disable them by generating a new world and using advanced worldgen settings to decrease the number of secrets to 0.

[arghy]

Yeah saw that but i have to abandon a perfectly good fort it is frustrating. If the undead they raised were the same alignment as the necromancer it wouldn't be such a big deal because they'd just raise undead that could actually be helpful but honestly i feel something like that should require the necromancer to either ask or risk turning hostile.

It should honestly be off by default because i can't imagine a new player would appreciate something as silly as that. I've been playing for a decade now and its not too hard to restart my forts haha nothing lost beyond some irritation.

[Saiko Kila]

The necros are that way because Mother Nature made them that way

Seriously though, my visiting necros don't behave as such, they don't reanimate a few skeletons I left in the courtyard (for science), even if their towers are warring with me and sending experiments and intelligent undead made by the same necromancers during next siege. They (the necros, not the zombies) just go to the tavern or church and socialise. Like, maybe some necromancers are more polite than others?

[Ziusudra]

For migrant necros you could expel them - which is often what eventually happens to them in world gen - or send them on missions and they're either successful or they don't come back, so win-win.

You could also isolate them so that they never are triggered to use their powers, except in controlled circumstances for the purpose of possibly raising your dead citizens as intelligent undead.

[Telgin]

The necros are that way because Mother Nature made them that way

Seriously though, my visiting necros don't behave as such, they don't reanimate a few skeletons I left in the courtyard (for science), even if their towers are warring with me and sending experiments and intelligent undead made by the same necromancers during next siege. They (the necros, not the zombies) just go to the tavern or church and socialise. Like, maybe some necromancers are more polite than others?

I think they only reanimate undead if they're scared or possibly only actively in combat.  I managed to have a necromancer mayor for many years without issue since he just never happened to be near hostiles.

In a different game, I had a necromancer migrant who caused a fort ending disaster because an agitated crow swooped at him near a stockpile containing sheep wool.

[pisskop]

used to be necromancers would be pretty ... broken... before too.

In adventure and fortress mode, there is no guarantee they are innately hostile to you, despite the zombies being so.  And they could get triggered by said zombies being retaliated against.  You could sneak up to all enemies in adventure mode and have reasonably normal, albeit limited, conversations with them.

In older versions they would show up, even and especially after the game stopped procedural generated sieges, and hang out for several days before leaving with a portion of their zombies, leaving others behind as gifts.  Necromancer themselves ranged from poorly equipped and mediocre fighters to legendary fighters with all sorts of natural boons, depending on your world age and what critters were allowed to be them.

Im not sure about the state of the game these days, but ever since necromancers and thralled dwarves became accepted commonplace, the world has been rift with weird and almost unkillable members of your civ who can do that.  Another reason to hide your corpses, I guess.

For a race of critters who are supposed to be so lawful and upright, theyre oddly tolerant of clearly deviant creatures under all manner of curses.

[sodafoutain]

You could also isolate them so that they never are triggered to use their powers, except in controlled circumstances for the purpose of possibly raising your dead citizens as intelligent undead.

Or make them captain of the guard, so they're constantly raising the corpses of your dead foes until your hammerdwarfs mash the resultant corpses into paste.

[klefenz]

That sounds like the original Dr Frankenstein. Making a monster for dubious reasons and immediately regretting it.

[pisskop]

or a great training regime.

Make a small corpse pit and let your boys go to town.

Remember:  dead dwarves dont need food, and can be caged for later release

[Bumber]

Remember:  dead dwarves dont need food, and can be caged for later release

They also lack emotions, which means no tantrums for intelligent undead that used to be your living dwarves (as they may petition to rejoin your fort.)

[Eric Blank]

Isolating them from fights tends to be the best way to control them. I burrow them indoors, often in the library and meeting area. If you're going to have them raise corpses as intelligent undead, you need to have them stationed in or above an "arena" set up with a corpse stockpile for exclusively dwarves and a caged animals to spook them/order them to fight (not intelligent creatures or they'll raise them as int. undead too, which is dangerous) and you need to do it fast, because they cant raise rotten/skeletal corpses as int. undead.

I agree it would be nice if their zombies were under their control/part of the fortress faction so they could be more useful and less destructive.