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[Korva]

*sigh* The duchess of my most successful and fun fort so far, the only fort I've managed to stick with for a decade, is about to go bonkers and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop it. The wiki suggests it was caused by her getting the "utterly traumatized by a lesser's room" thought. Now I had another noble get jealous, before but that one didn't go crazy over it and I was able to balance it with happy thoughts. This one doesn't GET any happy thoughts anymore. I can go back a season when she's still Very Unhappy but it is too late then too, the thought is already there. Even Runesmith (which I downloaded just to try and save her) can't prevent it.

I suppose it IS too late for her and I just have to watch her die. Seeing as how she was one of the founders, my expedition leader, mayor for several years and broker from the beginning as well as a now-legendary blacksmith (no mood, just trained up bit by bit) that hurts since she's one of my favourites and losing her may mean shelving the fort. To help prevent this from happening again, I have some questions.

First off, does anyone actually choose a favourite dwarf as baron or just some random schlob for just this reason? I don't really want to "reward" Urist McUseless with a noble title and power, but at the same time I refuse to let founders, legendaries and soldiers live in some hole in the wall just because of some prissy twit with an entitlement complex. All my dwarves get a smoothed 5x5 bedroom with a gem window, special dwarves get real suites.

Second, just what triggers that massively bad, ultimately fatal thought? My duchess has the best rooms in each category, going by the order in which the Rooms view lists them. Is it triggered when anyone has a room of the same quality level (Grand, Decent, etc.) or when anyone has a room above a certain level? How does the noble learn about it: by being in or near the room, by socializing, or do they just know it via hivemind telepathy?

I'm tempted to turn off the jealousy-inducing token in the entity file. Mandates I can live with, even impossible ones (slade, toad teeth ...), but this is just depressing. Or I WILL elevate a random peasant next time and just not care if s/he goes insane.

[imperium3]

I thought it was when someone lower down in the order of precedence (so for the baron, the mayor and any non-nobles) had a better room than them... You sure that's not happening anywhere?

[nanomage]

It might be that someone has a room better than hers only in her opinion.
The thing is, some Urist McTrollFace has the room that is really worse than hers in terms of dwarfbucks, but it is carved out of her favourite hematite, and has engravings of her favourite jabberers tearing apart her favourite goblins and a nice bed of her favourite tower-cap, which had randomly got decorated with her favourite warthog ivory. You'll never figure out who this Urist is just because her room shows up as the most fashionable in the 'R' menu, and still she gets pissed. I think the only way to go is to stuff some artifacts into her Quarters/Study/whatever she feels is not good enough.

[FrisianDude]

Artifacts, decorate all her non-artifacts, engrave everything in her quarters. Engrave it twice and fill the engravings with molten gold!

[Syrup Roast]

It might be that someone has a room better than hers only in her opinion.
The thing is, some Urist McTrollFace has the room that is really worse than hers in terms of dwarfbucks, but it is carved out of her favourite hematite, and has engravings of her favourite jabberers tearing apart her favourite goblins and a nice bed of her favourite tower-cap, which had randomly got decorated with her favourite warthog ivory. You'll never figure out who this Urist is just because her room shows up as the most fashionable in the 'R' menu, and still she gets pissed. I think the only way to go is to stuff some artifacts into her Quarters/Study/whatever she feels is not good enough.

You mean there's a special value for the room perceived only by that dwarf according to his/her preferences about the stuff in it? What's the multiplier for that?

[nanomage]

It might be that someone has a room better than hers only in her opinion.
The thing is, some Urist McTrollFace has the room that is really worse than hers in terms of dwarfbucks, but it is carved out of her favourite hematite, and has engravings of her favourite jabberers tearing apart her favourite goblins and a nice bed of her favourite tower-cap, which had randomly got decorated with her favourite warthog ivory. You'll never figure out who this Urist is just because her room shows up as the most fashionable in the 'R' menu, and still she gets pissed. I think the only way to go is to stuff some artifacts into her Quarters/Study/whatever she feels is not good enough.

You mean there's a special value for the room perceived only by that dwarf according to his/her preferences about the stuff in it? What's the multiplier for that?

Yeah i believe it is. I do not know the exact multiplier value but i am sure that a dwarf who "likes claystone, iron and weapon racks" will value a room carved from claystone with iron furniture higher than a dwarf who "likes platinum and hydras"

[Korva]

My about-to-go-insane duchess has a thing for billion so I made most of her furniture out of that, and no one else has any of it, so I'm not sure item/material jealousy plays a role in this -- but then, I'm not sure about anything but the fact that she's doomed. As I said, even going a season back, it is impossible to stop the descent to Miserable and the following tantrums/insanity. She simply does not get positive thoughts anymore from either work, food/drink, socializing, or her own rooms. It's really nasty that as soon as some uncertain (to us) line is crossed, a noble is going to snap and you can't do anything about it.

I'm still not sure if I'll mod out the jealousy or just make Urist McPeasant the baron next time. So back to that question, how does everyone else select their barons and keep them happy, especially when getting elevated to count and duke makes them more and more touchy?

[CerealGuns]

It seems like the nobles really overreact to stuff like this.  I had a dwarf who lost his wife and 6 of his 8 children and yet he was far less bothered than a noble with a slightly inferior (but still incredible) room.

[Syrup Roast]

So back to that question, how does everyone else select their barons and keep them happy, especially when getting elevated to count and duke makes them more and more touchy?

I promote the ones that aren't too picky. Bonus if I can get a baron that likes more than one thing that I can produce at the same time. There's a reason I have handful of fine pewter crutches lying around. It's still better, of course, if the things he wants are pretty basic/important, like barrels.

[Angel Of Death]

Do not fear, my fellow forumites!

For a low price of 2100 Dwarfbucks, you can get the Movable Angry Goblin Mutilating Acid, also known as MAGMA.

All you have to do is tunnel from a volcano into your nobles room and watch the MAGMA take it's effect.

_{Results may vary. Warning, incorrect use of MAGMA may cause death or permanant disfiguring}

Alright, how about you swap rooms? You give the Baron the other dwarfs room.

[Syrup Roast]

Alright, how about you swap rooms? You give the Baron the other dwarfs room.

he has no idea who the other dwarf is.

[Angel Of Death]

Well, swap with the room that you think your noble would like best. Look for the one that has engravings of what she loves and is made of what she loves.

[TurkeyXIII]

That would be her current room, as far as we can tell.

I go the random peasant route.  Somebody without any useful skills, knowing full well they will likely go insane within a year or two.  Having them like stuff that I can produce is a bonus.  Occasionally they don't go nuts and start punching people's brains in, but it doesn't matter either way.

[EBannion]

I used to get upset at things like this, and about dwarves I care about dying to stupid reasons.

In fact, that caused a lot of my early restarts and new-world-gens.

Then I decided that the problem was in what I perceived my 'role' to be in the game. I was trying to be their loving mother, keeping them all safe and coddling them and making sure they were all happy.

I've now come to think of myself as something more like a combination historian / FEMA - it's my job to make sure that they don't repeat their mistakes and to clean up after said mistakes. It keeps me a lot happier - now I go 'Oh, awesome, a disaster! Time to play the real game!' instead of 'Oh, shit, a disaster, time to make a new fortress.'

[LordHavoc]

You could arrange for your noble to have an *accident*.

Something involving an atom smasher and a locked door would be sufficient.