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[khearn]

Anyone who's run a fort very long has experienced the moment when the Liaison comes and offers to make your fort a barony. You can either pick a dwarf to elevate right then, or decline and not get to request specific items for next year's caravan. In the past, I've usually picked a dwarf pretty much at random and hoped for the best. This usually tends to result in a Baron who likes slade, clear diamonds, and penguin leather, resulting in lots of unfulfillable mandates.

So this time I declined and then started looking through my dwarves to find one that I can pick for next time. I'll share my thoughts on what to look for and what to avoid, but I'd like feedback from others who might have better ideas than I.

First off, I don't know of any way to make this task anything but an obnoxious chore. The only way I can think of is to hit 'u', select the first dwarf, then 'c', 'z', 'enter', look at dwarf's prefs and maybe make a note of them, 'esc', 'esc', make note of name, 'esc', 'u', scroll down to next dwarf, repeat ad nauseum. By the time you get halfway through a 90 dwarf list, it gets really old. Is there any easier way to look at all of the dwarves' preferences?

Anyway, when looking at the preferences, here's what I looked for:
- Make sure he likes stones that you have readily available. My current fort has no metal ores at all, so that really cuts down on the list. No point in having a Baron that's going to mandate limonite stuff if I don't have any. Definitely avoid anyone who likes slade. Rare gems like diamonds are also on the avoid list. I found it useful to make a list of the rocks and gems that I've found in my fort for handy reference.
- Dwarves that like useful stuff like armor and weapons are good, since I'll probably be happy when he mandates them. Bolts are especially nice, since I'll always be making more of them. Dwarves that like craft items like earrings aren't so good. They're not as bad as liking something like slade or diamonds, but still not very useful (especially since they'll probably also forbid their export). Plus, you can't tell a craftsman to make earrings, you have to have "crafts" made, and hope that enough earrings are randomly made.
- Avoid dwarves that like specific types of leather, unless it's from an animal you see a lot of on your map. Getting a mandate for whale leather items at a desert fort is no good.  But if your hunters are killing elephants faster than you can butcher them, a Baron that likes elephant leather wouldn't be bad at all. Liking specific types of tooth or horn is also bad, especially if it's something like turkey teeth, that don't even exist.

What else do people think are good or bad for a noble to like? I guess furniture is good, since it's easy to make.

Do color preferences have any effect?

What about dislikes? Would a dwarf that detests large roaches be any better or worse than one who detests purring maggots?

Any other thoughts on this subject?

[Darkmere]

On embark you have 7 dwarfs to look through. Just pick the one that has the most reasonable likes (adamantine and slade = bad, copper is probably okay), give them social skills, make them your bookkeeper and trader, and let them hang out to make friends.

You can import leather, metal, ore, and stone from your home civ, and you have a handy list of everything right there at embark. It might pay to import a steady load of lay pewter just to satisfy a noble.

Otherwise you can just give them fantastic rooms with a private pantry for booze and food, and a statue garden to their deity. That should balance out the mandates for bluejay teeth items, iron slabs, and other nonsense.

[Girlinhat]

Colors don't matter, dislikes don't seem to matter.  My general plan has been to pick someone who likes available stone, and have a lot of chains ready.  People go to prison, meh, but eventually those "make microcline cabinet" mandates get met, so it's cool.  If you set it up just right, you can make the baron send himself to prison.  He'll blame anyone with the appropriate skill, so if the mayor/baron/king mandates glass items, and he's the only glassworker, he will send himself to prison.  If I'm understanding nobles correctly though, they only make a certain number of mandates and demands, and after that are satisfied, so you can fulfill those rare stone mandates and be finished.  Mine never survived that long though.

[Nidokoenig]

First off, I don't know of any way to make this task anything but an obnoxious chore. The only way I can think of is to hit 'u', select the first dwarf, then 'c', 'z', 'enter', look at dwarf's prefs and maybe make a note of them, 'esc', 'esc', make note of name, 'esc', 'u', scroll down to next dwarf, repeat ad nauseum. By the time you get halfway through a 90 dwarf list, it gets really old. Is there any easier way to look at all of the dwarves' preferences?

Instead of [c] on the unit screen, press [v]iew, then press [enter] for thoughts and preferences. You can now double-tap [escape] to take yourself back to the unit list. I assume there's also a utility which will dump this info directly.

To make this feel less like a chore, get into the habit of vetting all dwarves for this data when they first appear. This way you can make dwarves that like platinum/silver/gold and warhammers/maces/whips into weaponsmiths in the hope that they'll make an awesome artifact, for example, and you'll have this information on hand when you're first asked for a baron nomination

[khearn]

First off, I don't know of any way to make this task anything but an obnoxious chore. The only way I can think of is to hit 'u', select the first dwarf, then 'c', 'z', 'enter', look at dwarf's prefs and maybe make a note of them, 'esc', 'esc', make note of name, 'esc', 'u', scroll down to next dwarf, repeat ad nauseum. By the time you get halfway through a 90 dwarf list, it gets really old. Is there any easier way to look at all of the dwarves' preferences?

Instead of [c] on the unit screen, press [v]iew, then press [enter] for thoughts and preferences. You can now double-tap [escape] to take yourself back to the unit list. I assume there's also a utility which will dump this info directly.

To make this feel less like a chore, get into the habit of vetting all dwarves for this data when they first appear. This way you can make dwarves that like platinum/silver/gold and warhammers/maces/whips into weaponsmiths in the hope that they'll make an awesome artifact, for example, and you'll have this information on hand when you're first asked for a baron nomination

Thanks! I was hoping someone knew a better way.

[Korva]

I use the "make the most reasonable and socially not-inept dwarf my leader" approach as well -- partly because it's the easiest approach and partly because I like for my baron(ness) to be one of the founders as a matter of principle. The only problem is that I also like to give ALL my founders (and good soldiers, and special legendary crafters) swanky rooms, so the ruling noble can easily become pissy and even suicidally moody if I'm not careful.  That wouldn't be a problem if Urist McRandomPeasantIDon'tReallyCareAbout was my baron -- I'd just let 'em die and good riddance. But if you are fond of your baron and want other special dwarves to live nicely, it's a bit of a knife's edge dance sometimes.

And apparently removing the sleep pretension tag doesn't work to prevent this from happening due to anything other than bedrooms. I almost lost my duchess because she couldn't live with another founder having a "grand mausoleum". That was the second near-debacle with that noble and it is seriously making me consider breaking my "baron = founder" policy just so I can nuke a jealous noble from orbit without regrets.

[Necro910]

That was the second near-debacle with that noble and it is seriously making me consider breaking my "baron = founder" policy just so I can nuke a jealous noble from orbit without regrets.

Firing magma cannon in: 3...2...1... OOOHH A SOCK!

[Vercingetorix]

I traditionally elevate the expedition leader to the position, or one of the other starting seven if the expedition leader is already the mayor or dead.

[Sutremaine]

- Make sure he likes stones that you have readily available.

And that you aren't going to be exporting a lot of. Applies more to item types than to materials, but something to keep in mind.

[Saiko Kila]

I choose one of my seven, because I know them more or less, and they tend to be reasonable. But for mayor I don't care - I don't use justice (it's useless) and dwarves with delayed punishment get happy thoughts from that. So you have a one pissed mayor and dozens of happy workers. Is that bad?

[Girlinhat]

My mayor has sparked more full-scale tantrum spirals than any other reason.  He's missing ONE chest, and he goes berzerk!  I swear...  My baron usually gets put down for similar reasons.

[Halnoth]

I choose one of my seven, because I know them more or less, and they tend to be reasonable. But for mayor I don't care - I don't use justice (it's useless) and dwarves with delayed punishment get happy thoughts from that. So you have a one pissed mayor and dozens of happy workers. Is that bad?

It's not completely useless. If you set up really swanky jails your dwarves will actually get happy thoughts from being in prison. So, if a dwarf starts getting pissy and breaks a few chairs he will get thrown into club fed and come out of the ordeal happy. Some might say a legendary dining hall fixes this but if Urist McCatperson loses 10 pets in a row he will go from happy to tantruming faster than you can designate a coffin.

Edit: Also, Korva, you can simply make the baron's room the best room ever (like 10 plat statues, glass windows, artifacts, the whole deal) and they will never moan about another dwarfs room ever again (provided you don't do the same for other dwarves).

[Naryar]

I also tend to choose my expedition leader as baron. Most of the time he is reasonable, and I know him, and when he gives unreasonable mandates I just ignore him.

I also tend to ignore justice as well.

[Vandersleld]

I usually elevate friendless peasants with mundane preferences. I start thinking about the whole baron thing when I get to 40-ish dwarves, and filter candidates based on profession. Due to their elaborate accommodations, they always end up unbelievably happy and mostly agreeable.
The mayor gives me more trouble most of the time, since the dwarf with the most friends and the best social skills is always the one who likes bugbat leather and stone crafts, inevitably getting re-elected year after year.  When the primary export of your fortress is worthless stone crafts, it can get rather aggravating when the export of figurines is banned AFTER the caravan has left the depot, carrying hundreds of kitschy baubles, year after year. This incidentally resulted in a certain dwarf being sentenced to 1200 days in prison for illegal item export, which from what I've read here is record-settingly high.

[Dorf3000]

Dwarves that like craft items like earrings aren't so good. They're not as bad as liking something like slade or diamonds, but still not very useful (especially since they'll probably also forbid their export). Plus, you can't tell a craftsman to make earrings, you have to have "crafts" made, and hope that enough earrings are randomly made.

I used to think the same thing, but if you don't use crafts for trading, then it's an easy set of mandates to meet.  Export bans obviously are the best, but even if you get a request for 3 earrings, then adding 30 stonecraft jobs in the job manager screen usually works.  There's always plenty of stone lying around waiting to be used and once you're done you can dump the lot in magma to get rid of them.