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[Hyndis]

So, in my quest to be crazy prepared and building a massive ice fortress that handles all threats through direct combat, without using any traps at all (except the occasional cage trap to stock the arenas with), I have weaponized dwarven babies.


One of the problems with military recruits is that they are squeamish. Often times they are miserable after their first battle, and may go berserk or throw a tantrum, causing further carnage. In worst case scenario this can lead to a tantrum spiral.

Eventually dwarves will become used to being traumatized, and will no longer care about anything. When they have this trait seeing dwarves, friends, or even lovers die doesn't seem to cause a negative thought. They just don't care anymore.

In order to do this dwarves need to be slowly inoculated to misery. If they're hit with a sudden trauma you could get a tantrum spiral going, but if you get them used to tragedy they will no longer care if dozens of dwarves are slaughtered.

To do this, I have a barracks at the bottom of a long pit. New recruits are sent to that barracks for training. While training, I periodically load a dwarven baby or child onto a retracting bridge above the pit, and drop them down the pit. They hit the floor and explode into a shower of giblets. This of course horrifies the dwarves in the barracks below, making them all unhappy or very unhappy.

Wait a few months until they recover, then drop another baby. Then another one. And another one. Eventually they will be so traumatized by it they just won't care anymore. If you want to do this to your fortress at large instead of a barracks put a meeting zone at the bottom of the pit. This means even civilians will be all used to tragedy, and so you can recruit them directly into the military and they will already be hardened right from the get go.

[SpiralDimentia]

This works with puppies and kittens too I believe. So you wouldn't have to sacrifice a potential recruit, nor would you have to agitate the mother. Everyone's happy.

Minus the puppies. But they can't tantrum so it's acceptable.

[zarokima]

Dwarf Fortress: Where infanticiding your own babies in front of the whole population can actually be considered a good idea.

[Necro910]

Dwarf Fortress: Where infanticiding your own babies in front of the whole population can is actually be considered a good idea.

[The Scout]

Dwarf Fortress: Where infanticiding your own babies in front of the whole population can is actually be considered a good idea.

[Talion]

Congratulations that is certainly one of the most horrible solutions to a problem I have read on this forum. Yes, the mermaid hunting was nasty, but did it involve (non-mermaid) child sacrifice?
Tying a goblin up and assaulting it periodically with a spike was a quite nasty torture method. Doing it purely so that they would bleed into some water allowing the player to turn the river red with blood at will was quite sadistic certainly. On the other hand that was a goblin who would have happily kidnapped dwarven babies given half the chance.
Building an execution device and connecting it to a lever with a window so that the chosen executioner would know that they'd just executed their spouse was quite bad, but it was more of a one off punishment for a deserving dwarf.

Congratulations on plumbing whole new depths of depravity in the cause of survival. Perhaps you should win an award.

[Syrup Roast]

Thread title mislead me.

I thought you raised the baby limit and put them in cages, and then released them upon unsuspecting goblin prisoners in an arena.

[Girlinhat]

Coincidentally, there was a babyfall thread some time ago.  Children are often idle, and will deconstruct walls, making them very likely to deconstruct that one wall holding back the river, thus tossing the children down a conveniently placed pit.  Nothing of value was lost that day.

As expected, this thread quickly became, "I am disappointed, I was expecting a showering of babies, not a baby on a waterfall...  Wait, how would we do that?"  And the consensus seemed to be placing a mother on a 1x1 square and hoping the child was born in an adjacent square, or else setting a lever on repeat, and letting out water atop this lever.  The mother would return to the lever to keep pulling, but her child in her arms would be swept away and down over a cliff.  Of course the mother would go after the child, but proper timing and cliff placement helped to control the babyfall.

Unrelated and undwarfy, goblin deaths seem to cause the "does not care" mood also.  Live training + hardening soldiers all in one.  I've also partly observed battle itself to cause this, as a dwarf with no kills who is wailed on by an elf swordsman (lol wooden swords) would gain this attribute.  Not sure if this is coincidence or if any exposure to violence causes it.

[Shook]

...

This is the first time i've been moderately horrified by you guys. Then again, it's not like REAL babies are being dropped off a bridge into a room full of green recruits. I'd probably go with Spiral's idea though, puppies and kittens are much more abundant than babies in my forts.

DWARF FORTRESS: GIVE US YOUR BABIES THEY ARE TOTALLY SAFE HERE

[Hyndis]

I'm unsure exactly what causes the does not care trait but it seems witnessing death causes it, however they only get this thought when a dwarf dies that they can see. If they see non-dwarven creatures die it doesn't seem to cause a negative thought and so that may not cause the trait to appear.

[Girlinhat]

I can eagerly confirm that watching anything die outside of a butcher's shop will cause it.  Any violent death.  My solo soldier took down an elf ambush (around 60 elves on bear-back) and gained the trait.  Addy-clad soldiers and stupid AI elves, btw.  I'm also prone to say that loved ones dying will cause it as well, even if not within view.  In fact, I'm -almost- willing to say that any bad thought over a certain threshold will work.  Hunger will not, witnessing death will, sleeping in mud will not, losing a pet will.  Or rather, it will move towards it.  There's a small curve, where you get traits like "He is slowly growing hardened to tragedy" and such.  Generally though, a dozen puppies will suffice.

[kotekzot]

I'm interested in how exactly you get the babies to drop without collateral damage (in other words, useful dwarves). Babies and children are just a waste of my cpu cycles, so if I can sacrifice them for some benefit, all the better.

[Girlinhat]

Anything an object falls upon (short of a cave in) will not damage the struck item or creature.  Thus, falling babies will not harm your dwarves.  Although, there is a smallish bug-feature, that if a creature falls onto another creature, they will be stunned but both will be unhurt.  It may be worthwhile to have the babies fall into ring of fortifications or windows, to prevent anyone from catching and saving them.

I'm going to repeat that for anyone who wants to quote this:
It may be worthwhile to have the babies fall into ring of fortifications or windows, to prevent anyone from catching and saving them.

[SpiralDimentia]

It may be worthwhile to have the babies fall into ring of fortifications or windows, to prevent anyone from catching and saving them.

Oh, Dwarf Fortres... what have you done to us.

[kotekzot]

You will forgive me for not sigging this, as my signature is both full and full of awesome. Still, good sig material.