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[Warlord255]

Right now, a dwarf which is on break or attending a party just mulls around and talks. Not a very relaxing way to take your time off, if you ask me. Why shouldn't breaks be more interesting?

Some ideas, in order of ease for integration;

-Taking a Walk: Dwarf tours the fortress/outside.
-Picnic: Takes a meal and goes outside to eat it.
-Pet/Child Games: Fetch with the dog, hide-and-seek with the kid, etc.
-Personal Project: An unannounced crafting job for an item that goes directly into the dwarf's ownership. Could be expanded upon with later bloats, i.e. novel writing/graffiti.
-Recreational Cooking: See above. Dwarf will collect favored ingredients, cook, and eat it on the spot.
-Shower/Bathing: Dwarf goes to a designated pool or waterfall and gets clean.
-Smoke Break: If we ever get pipes/tobacco-ables in, dwarves go somewhere nice and produce a few units of smoke.
-Game Party: Snowball fights, Dwarven cricket, whatever is possible.

Thoughts?

[bjlong]

Dwarves should also plan their breaks so that they're off with their friends/family around the same time. That would make more sense.

[Aquillion]

-Picnic: Takes a meal and goes outside to eat it.

Outside?

First, these are dwarves.  They're not going to go outside for fun.  Heck, dark-adapted dwarves might actually vomit at the thought.

Second, this would be a horribly annoying thing to have.  In a dangerous area or at a particularly dangerous point, it could eventually amount to 'dwarf XYZ has decided to commit suicide by wandering into the rampaging enemies'.  There's nothing a player could do about it, either, since they wouldn't control breaks.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Breaks should be something over which you'd have some level of control. There should be a skill that works to motivate dwarfs around the skilled one to work hard and not slack off.

Excessive break-taking might also be cause for a hammering, since it would be very "undwarflike", dwarfs being so industrious.

That said, occasionally, you might be burdened by a dwarf "epicurian", of the Noble class, who might take it upon him/herself to enlighten the rest of your fortress about the "finer things". He would be a bit like a philosopher. An anvil dropped from great height is the cure for him, but maybe not before he got your dwarfs addicted to things like pipeweed, games (boardgames, dice, cards, darts, bowling, etc.), or dwarf opera/choir music (it'd be fun at some point to be able to build a fortress around a massive pipe organ, or a huge amphitheater).

This would be more like a misfortune event than something I'd want dwarfs doing on their own, from the beginning of the game, though.

Recreational activities might be done in the dwarf's living quarters, however, or at worst the dining area.
 

[Warlord255]

I'm not suggesting by any means that dwarves should take more breaks; just that when they do, they ought to have a better excuse than "stand around like dolts for no reason".

[Capntastic]

Pretty much all of this is in the devnotes either explicitly, (like smoking, hobbies, etc) or implicitly (people doing stuff for fun in general).

[Pilsu]

Smoking would make them choke on smoke underground. Not to mention the bugs involving dwarven beard growth mixing with lighting up

Parties that actually celebrate something would be nice. Medieval stasis and grinding in the club don't really mix. If the years ever become longer, we could even have player set holidays to commemorate the time Cog the Watered Pantshollows died heroically staving off the goblin hordes just long enough to save the fort. Doesn't really work if the party takes 3 months and no one works during that time though

[Neonivek]

Smoking would make them choke on smoke underground. Not to mention the bugs involving dwarven beard growth mixing with lighting up

It is one of the many odd differences between reality and fantasy

Dwarves are usually presented as hedionists usually stopping at illicit drugs... however everything else is alright by them. As such most Dwarves however muscular are also fat as the standard. Drinking is usually a sport for fantasy Dwarves... and Smoking is sometimes available to non-sense lengths (Isolated Arctic Dwarves having access to it?)

Oddly despite the fact that it was a luxury back then I somehow fully expect it to be common place if it is added

[Granite26]

originally I thought you were asking for flavor text about why the dwarves are having the party... which would be awesome

[Tormy]

Sounds very trivial to me...the current party system is good enough imo.

[Silverionmox]

Everything that gives the dwarves personality is great. Walking around takes relatively much time though, so the amount of frames in a eat/sleep/work cycle needs to be increased. That will also reduce the odds of dwarves going off to mine a single square and then going all the way back for a snack.

[PTTG??]

I support the OP here. May I add that dwarves have value for how 'relaxed' they are, and will take breaks occasionally to recharge. The player can order them to stop taking a break if they are needed right away, and can grant breaks to idle dwarves so that they are more available later on.

It would work well with the happiness system, such that unhappy dwarves decide to just take a break for a few days instead of working until the go berserk- unless, of course, the fortress manager orders them back to work. This will allow you to manage dwarves well, without making micromanagement essential; They'll take care of themselves, but if you keep them organized, they'll do even better. This would also partially nullify the Broker Break/Caravan sync issue.

Some people won't like this because Dwarves are known for being perfectly stoic up until they go insane, with hive-mind like focus. I would remind them that most of the weirdest Dwarven behaviors are artifacts of the current, Alpha programming.

[Mephansteras]

On the subject of parties, I'd like to see partying dwarves drag lots of food and booze into the area with them. What's a party without food and drink?

Eventually they should also bring mugs/goblets and musical instruments with them.

Oh! And if parties eventually have reasons, like birthdays, weddings, etc, then dwarves could exchange gifts! That would give crafts a much bigger role in the game, at least once the economy is in place and dwarves can actually own random craft goods.

[Creamcorn]

-Picnic: Takes a meal and goes outside to eat it.

Outside?

First, these are dwarves.  They're not going to go outside for fun.  Heck, dark-adapted dwarves might actually vomit at the thought.

Second, this would be a horribly annoying thing to have.  In a dangerous area or at a particularly dangerous point, it could eventually amount to 'dwarf XYZ has decided to commit suicide by wandering into the rampaging enemies'.  There's nothing a player could do about it, either, since they wouldn't control breaks.

It should be possible that dwarfs choose only certain areas to picnic, such as out door statue or meeting areas, that a decent player would have chosen for it to be in a safe area.

[Orange Drink]

you didn't mention that they get happy thoughts from this.

"he had a decent/good/wonderful walk lately" - depends on where he walks
"he had a decent/good/wonderful game with his son/father" - dwarves should increase their sneaking ability slowly when playing hide and seek.
"he was happy he completed his *craft* recently"
"he cooked a decent/good/wonderful meal lately"
"he had a decent/good/wonderful bath recently" - depends where he bathed
"he had a decent/good/wonderful game of *game* lately"