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[DarkDragon]

Been reading the wiki about this, and supposedly, you are not suppose to be able to get a strange mood with a glassmaker if there is no sand on your map.

I've confirmed it by viewing the area with the embark screen, and there is no sand-containing biome on my map.

Yet, I have a glassmaker locked away in a room right now as he's demanding tons of raw green glass.

I read that it's possible for sandy tiles to appear after discovering an underwater stream, possibly as a result of some sort of wear and tear on muddy tiles where tower-caps would normally grow.

I have tower caps cropping up in areas of my fortress that are sandy CLAY loam (not sand in-game) and in parts of my failed waterworks project that tapped into the brook also on the map, that have since dried up, leaving the muddy tiles.

However, I see no sandy tiles.

Is there any way to search for where in the world the sand has been generated on the map? If that is indeed the issue here, not sure who to believe, the people saying the moods aren't generated unless you have sand (who also say it's impossible to get sand created via a strange process with tower-caps and underground rivers) or the people who say glassmaker moods are possible, but they think it IS possible for the weird sand to generate as well, and explain the weird moods.

Any help?

If nothing else, I'll let the dwarf die and regenerate a mood using Dwarf Companion on some other dwarf. That was my original plan until I read about the possibility of "Phantom sand".

[tomas1297]

Eh,let him die.I doubt theres anything you can do.Except if a magical caravan unexpectedly arrives with tons of raw glass.

[DarkDragon]

The discussion on the wiki got me thinking though. If it's not normally possible to get a strange mood out of a glassmaker on a sandless map, what causes it to happen sometimes?

Could it be true that sand is being generated in one or two tiles somewhere after discovering underground water as some people have reported?

It just seems like an oddity, and that bugs me.

[IronyOwl]

I've occasionally managed to find sand on maps that didn't show any on embark. It's possible there is sand, it's just over in a corner somewhere under some loam.

[Raging Mouse]

As Toady just said in the latest DF Talk, the moods you get nowadays are dependent on what skills your dwarves have, not what raw materials they have to work with. The Wiki article seems to have outdated information, as it used to be that it demanded things actually on the map.

In other words, your glassmaker is in for Fun times.

[Jacob/Lee]

I've gotten a similar problem.
The glass maker was mumbling "raw........green" over and over as that was the last thing he needed.

[Sphalerite]

The trick to turn a tile into a sand only works if your embark site has a sand layer somewhere.  Basically when a tile is occupied and then cleared, for example by having a tower-cap grow and then cutting it down, it can then turn into a tile of a default layer for that area.  So if your map has a sand layer, cutting down a tower-cap can leave a tile of sand.  If there is not sand on any of the layers of the map, you can't get sand this way.

And as pointed out in the current version moods are not restricted to materials which exist on the map.  So you can get a glassmaker demanding glass on a sandless map, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[Asmodeous]

So you can get a glassmaker demanding glass on a sandless map, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You could wall him in, or anticipate that he's going to be a pain later and, since he has a useless skill anyway, send him to the Naming Bridge™, where all Dwarfs with useless skills go to get a name. Directly from Armok. In magma.

[Aspgren]

I'm not sure if you can assign a tomb to a crazy/melancholic dwarf. and you most certainly can't assign it to a berzerker ... so make preparations while there is still time.

Tell his family. Remember to put a chest and a .. *sniff* .. cabinet in the tomb so they know where to store his ... oh god I can't do this!

[NW_Kohaku]

You could wall him in, or anticipate that he's going to be a pain later and, since he has a useless skill anyway, send him to the Naming Bridge™, where all Dwarfs with useless skills go to get a name. Directly from Armok. In magma.

Or, you know, just make anyone with a job like glassmaker take a job on something you know you can do, like stoneworker or clothier, and take away their hauling labors until they hit at least normal.  They only get moods for their best moodable skills, after all. Or stick him in the military, and never let him out.

[Asmodeous]

...but the Naming Bridge is far more entertaining, and there are always more dwarves.

[Loyal]

Dwarves die to their own stupidity and misfortune often enough, they don't need us speeding the process along.

So if your map has a sand layer, cutting down a tower-cap can leave a tile of sand.  If there is not sand on any of the layers of the map, you can't get sand this way

From what I've heard, there is a possibility of getting sand, if the tile in question exists in a biome with no soil layers whatsoever. I've been testing it, but for some reason all my tower caps keep withering away so I've yet to get conclusive results.

[Asmodeous]

Dwarves die to their own stupidity and misfortune often enough, they don't need us speeding the process along.

I tend to go years without losing dwarves unless I kill them myself or am not paying attention to where they are standing when I raise the drawbridge (which is often hilarious).

And besides, Dwarves are a renewable resource! . . also, speeding the process along is entertaining.

[Quietust]

The trick to turn a tile into a sand only works if your embark site has a sand layer somewhere.  Basically when a tile is occupied and then cleared, for example by having a tower-cap grow and then cutting it down, it can then turn into a tile of a default layer for that area.  So if your map has a sand layer, cutting down a tower-cap can leave a tile of sand.  If there is not sand on any of the layers of the map, you can't get sand this way.

This is untrue - the actual trick for creating sand tiles is to force the game to create a soil tile in a biome with no soil layers, which will either be a Mountain or a Glacier. Creating soil on a Glacier is as simple as digging through the bottom layer of ice (such that it has a stone floor beneath it), building a construction on top of that stone, then removing the construction. Creating soil on a Mountain requires cutting down a tower-cap, which means you need to have an underground pool/river in your embark region. Even though those 2 biomes never have soil layers in them, the game still decides on a random soil type for them to have, so when it does try to create soil, there's a ~30% chance (per biome) that it'll end up being sand.

[Sphalerite]

Ah, I haven't tried this trick in a region with no soil layers at all.  Makes sense that when called on to generate a soil tile in a no-soil region you'd get something random.