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[Hannibal Barcalounger]

milaga's Real Wagon experiment inspired me. If they all hit legendary in multiple skills so quickly, wouldn't that be a great way to boost immigrant attributes?

I decided to set up my own Real Wagon and see just how quickly attribute boosts would come. I embarked on a calm forest with nothing but food, booze, and some stone. I quickly ran into the first problem: I had miscalculated how much stone they'd need to wall in a 3x3 area, forgetting the corners, and had no pick to mine more or axe to chop wood. 

So I abandoned and re-embarked, with EXTRA stone this time. I built a wall, suspended construction of one section, and waited for everyone to get inside. Problem two: they wandered around, never with all of them inside at once. So everyone was suddenly drafted, stationed inside, and then one lucky mason built the last section of wall. Success!

Very quickly, one of them got unhappy. I expected this, since he'd just been drafted and they were sleeping outside in the dirt with no chairs, tables, or really anything of value. I figured he would make a friend and then recover. Not so, as everyone else apparently found him annoying. He also hated roaches, which were plentiful because I'd forgotten to bring along a cat and had 300-400 food and drink sitting outside.

Soon enough, he became miserable and tantrumed. Unfortunately for him, his fellow cellmates dwarves were already getting strong and tough from socializing, and they tore him apart instantly. This made his one actual friend unhappy (even though she thought he was annoying too!), and I feared a tantrum spiral that would quickly end this instance of the experiment.

Fortunately, though, the leader at the time was getting pretty good at consoling and talked her down. From then on, everyone progressed quickly to happiness and ecstasy, and the attribute boosts kept coming. By early Sandstone (1st month of Autumn), I counted 14 or more attribute gains on each surviving dwarf.

In my real fort, I'd had a hell of a time leveling up single skills in the catapult yard or the pump gym, so this seems like real progress. The only real downside I can see to this method of cross-training is that it will produce very tight-knit friendships within each immigrant wave. Especially if these go into your military en masse and thus have a higher risk of dying (and many dying at once), you could have some serious morale problems among the remaining Charm Schoolers and any of their other friends, possibly provoking uncontrollable Fun.

I'm going to keep experimenting with this setup, and I'll go back into my saves to see exactly when people hit 10, 15, and 20 attribute gains. Once I know that, I'll set up a more efficient pump gym and catapult yard and see how long those take to level dwarves, too.

Questions to be investigated:

• how quickly do attributes progress as compared to other cross-training methods like Siege School, Pump Gym, or Mining Gulag?
• how much quality furniture is required to avert early tantrums?
• is there a way to invite new immigrants (but not current workers) to Charm School without drafting them?
• what is the effect of the Dwarven Economy on Charm School?

I'm still working on my first fort (just edged over 80 dwarves there) and have no idea how a lot of later-game elements like the economy actually work. So please let me know what other things I should investigate, or if you have any other knowledge to contribute!

[Derakon]

Yep, socialization works, oh, I'd say about six times faster than normal "training", because the dwarf is learning all of the social skills simultaneously. Remember, what matters for stats is the rate of experience gain.

This won't work in the next version, where stat-ups depend on the job -- so your miners are likely to be very strong, but not very agile, agility not being required to mine effectively. Presumably in the next version, improving social skills won't get you stat-ups at all.

[labouts]

Yep, socialization works, oh, I'd say about six times faster than normal "training", because the dwarf is learning all of the social skills simultaneously. Remember, what matters for stats is the rate of experience gain.

This won't work in the next version, where stat-ups depend on the job -- so your miners are likely to be very strong, but not very agile, agility not being required to mine effectively. Presumably in the next version, improving social skills won't get you stat-ups at all.

According to the 'behind the scenes' document, the next version will have both physical and mental attributes. So forced socialization chambers should still be useful in a different way. In any case, research done now will be quickly outdated by the next version.

[Hannibal Barcalounger]

In any case, research done now will be quickly outdated by the next version.

DAWWWWW, there goes all my fun.

[wagawaga]

To make immigrants into your charm school without havin them meet workers, as soon as the migrant message arrives lock your workers inside the fort. Above the charm school there should be designated a meeting area over a retracting bridge, which is controlled from inside the fortress. When all the migrants are in the meeting area, pull the lever.

The only problem is if you want to use some of the migrants as actual workers, then drafting would be the easiest solution.

About preventing early tantrums, make sure your charm school area is a statue garden. This way parties will be organized, making dwarves happier.

I think it doesn't take much space to stick in some beds, a little masterfully engraved dining room, and optionally a small mist-generator. Artifacts can help boosting up room quality.

As long as no room is assigned to a dwarf, they will all gather at the statue garden while idle (and they will be most time). Make the garden small (3x3) so they are stuck together.

Masterful prepared meals and booze from a legendary brewer should send your dwarves to pure ecstasy, combined with all the above.