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[Oaktree]

Trying to figure out how to stop a dwarf from trying and failing something in a cyclic manner. 

He is trying to pick up a prickleberry, probably to eat it.  However, said berry is close to a pit full of badgers which scare him.  Therefore, he runs away, waits a bit, and then tries to come back and get the berry again.

At this point he is starving to death.

I've tried the following to break this:
1. Forbid on the prickleberry
2. Assign dwarf to an active military squad
3. Issuing an alert that evacuates all dwarves from the area the berry is in

While this was going on I noticed the dwarf get thirsty taking a drink break that included a trip all the way to the dining room - and then back upstairs to go after the berry - without eating while given the opportunity.  Which makes me think this is some sort of waypoint/command lock-up.

Wall so he won't see the pit is out since they scare the masons as well.  And killing the badgers is taking a while due to access to get a marksdwarf firing at them.  And there are a collection of monsters in the pit so I am askance at just opening it up and doing a melee attack.

I'm also tempted at this point to just let the stupid git starve.  However, I figure something like this will happen to a valuable fortress member at some point and would like to see if there is a different solution that could be applied to the situation.

[Girlinhat]

The issue is, when a dwarf is eating, he owns the food.  He's claimed it, and it's "owned by" him, and he will eat that food and none else.  This is likely to prevent bugs, and prevent a dwarf from claiming food, getting interrupted, and claiming another food until he owns the entire stockpile.  So, he will eat that food, or else.

Destroy the food somehow, is probably your best bet.  Remove the stockpile from under it so that it rots, if you have time, or use DFHack to place 1/7 magma atop it and burn it.  This should recreate the hungry order.  I had this happen when a badger stole my smith's food (as mentioned in a previous thread) but the dwarf got hungrier and then gave up.

[darkflagrance]

To shoot the animals more efficiently, you could carve channels around the pit on its lowest level, and then station marksdwarves on the other side and shoot the monsters. You could then rewall the pit later.

If you create pits like this in the future, it's usually a good idea to have a hatch or retracting bridge over them.

[Halnoth]

However, I figure something like this will happen to a valuable fortress member at some point and would like to see if there is a different solution that could be applied to the situation.

lol this is the sole reason I even bother to watch out for ALL my dwarves. The way I figure it if I prevent the death of a worthless dwarf that means I probably prevented the death of my legendary smith. As well more noob dwarves means more chances they are the ones getting shot at by an ambush and not my important chaps.

Edit: MT

[gtmattz]

The REAL issue is... Why on earth did you drop all those monsters into that pit instead of just leaving them caged until it was time to deal with them one at a time???
 

[Zdrok]

It must be a really good berry:

"URIST! Get inside! The goblins are coming and anyone who stays out here will die!"
"I have to eat this berry!"
"You're going to die out here!"
"Some things are more important than life."

[Lord_Phoenix]

I had a similar, but somewhat different issue, in my last fortress.  I had built a dining hall with tables laid out in two ovals, with chairs around the outside.  This one guy goes and grabs some food from the stockpile and brings it in, and then just starts playing musical chairs with himself, running around and around the table.  Damn near starved himself to death trying to figure out where he wanted to sit.  Eventually had to break it by putting him in a squad and activating him, stationing him, and then cancelling the order.

[Oaktree]

Obsessed dwarf did starve himself to death.

Now a burial party dwarf is in a scare cycle trying to recover the body. (or now *he* wants that berry.)

Might be time to bring in some miners and channel that area to keep folk out.  Assuming that the cut doesn't mangle the integrity of the fort somehow.

I am trying to work out a non-hack method of dealing with this stuff.

And the badger pit was a bad idea for handling monsters.  Wanted to see if dumping a bunch of goblins, badgers, and an ettin together would create carnage.  It didn't.  Though the periodic badger enraging has resulted in the ettin and few goblins having serious injuries.

I'm currently killing caged monsters one at a time elsewhere in the warren.  Lesson learned.

---
Looks like the body was close enough to the edge of the scare zone someone was able to get it.  And now the miners have ditched the area so that the items on the edge are out of sight and thus retrievable.  Turns out it was a very *sour* berry too.   

Back to cleaning out cages and preparing a nice tunnel for the next goblin siege to use...