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Author Topic: Dying of Thirst  (Read 625 times)

Sliver Barb

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Dying of Thirst
« on: November 28, 2009, 02:14:11 pm »

I've noticed a rather interesting trend in my current fort that's never happened to me before: my dwarves are dying left and right of thirst. This is weird; I have a large farm running full-time, and two stills running full-time, and enough liquor is being produced to keep at least 50-60 units of booze around at all times. I've had experience running large forts before (200+), so this strikes me as odd. I have more than enough production going on to keep up with the ~90 dwarf population.

Update: my founding carpenter just dropped dead. What the hell is wrong with these dwarves, are they just too stupid to go to the food stockpile?  :D This is bizarre.

I'm kind of hoping this results in a tantrum spiral. I've never actually seen one before.
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Sliver Barb

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2009, 02:17:07 pm »

Update No. 2:



WHOO
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NecroRebel

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2009, 02:25:40 pm »

It may be that your dwarves simply can't reach the barrels of booze. Check to see if everyone is somewhere they can get to your fort proper. I'm guessing "Peons" are your haulers/unskilled peasants, so they may have inadvertently gotten trapped while you were doing mining or building or somesuch.

On the other hand, you should bear in mind that only one dwarf can drink from a barrel of booze at one time, so if you're not producing enough barrels for everyone to drink from, you might still get dehydrated dwarves even with hundreds of units.

I'd suggest building a well, and at least trying to take the standard happiness-improving steps in an effort to avoid a tantrum spiral.
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Sliver Barb

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2009, 02:29:57 pm »

Nah. I don't kill immigration waves (I've always considered that cheap/cheating), but I'm not above pressing them into chain gang labor. If it results in the slow death of the fortress, well... I can reclaim it.  ;D I'm actually having fun watching the chaos.
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Sliver Barb

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2009, 02:47:43 pm »

Yes, normally I do keep pretty large food/booze stockpiles around, but I had two huge immigration waves in a row.

Then again, I also have a rather ruthless play-style. I like huge crypts.
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Sphalerite

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2009, 04:09:47 pm »

An important thing about booze is that a single barrel can hold multiple units of booze, and only one dwarf can drink from a barrel at a time.  And they take a long time to do so.  So if that 50-60 units of booze is contained in 10 barrels, only 10 dwarves can drink at a time, and others may die of thirst while waiting their turn.  And if you have 90 dwarfs, there may be a long wait before they can all drink.

I usually aim to have at least 1000 units of booze in reserve at all times, but I tend to run large, cluttered, and prosperous fortresses with FPS in the teens.
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goron72

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2009, 04:17:20 pm »

I've had repeated problems with dying of thirst. My theory is that they can't get to the barrel because it's being used so they cancel drink. Then they have a thirsty status. They are temporarily wounded and back, cancelling drink until another round of time passes and by then they are dehydrated and sometimes die.
This has it's flaws, but my usual situation is that I run out of booze and half refuse to drink water, seriously. I see some dwarves drinking fine but some just die. Possibly because they can't fit into the water hole and it goes into the cancel drink cycle? This is probably wrong and the fact is I don't know, it's just obnoxious.
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Poojawa

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2009, 04:19:56 pm »

this is why you have a well, too :P
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Simmura McCrea

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2009, 05:00:36 pm »

This is why I have 2000+ units of booze after the second year, and keep it topped up.
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slink

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Re: Dying of Thirst
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2009, 05:36:39 pm »

I have currently 1599 drinks stored in 97 barrels.  The fullest barrels seem to hold 25 drinks.  50-60 drinks could be just three barrels.
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