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[Yoink]

Holy Armok, that is epic. Top-of-the-line Science and writeup, man!

[Ivir_Baggins]

That is actually terrifying. Mind if I use it in a novel?

[Reudh]

Oh, it's Girlinhat's science, not mine... I just saw a story ripe for the picking, so I wrote it.

And Ivir, feel free, pretty much anything posted on the internet becomes public domain anyway. I only write to keep those particular faculties sharp.

[miauw62]

Thats one awesome story.

[andreus015]

Dwarf Blighted Soldiers enough to make a space marine tremble.

[Rodge]

Thought, could we use 'controlled tragedy' to make them mentally tougher?

We know that after enough losses a Dwarf can become more used to tragedy, then deaths are less likely to cause tantums (if I understand right). So could we introduce a small number of children to each other early on in the experiment so they become acquantances (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, not morning person) so that as a few die they can become mentally stronger?

[expwnent]

I believe that the "doesn't care about anything anymore" trait makes dwarves move more slowly and drink more.

[Rodge]

I was referring to "Used to tragedy" or "Becoming accustomed to tragedy" or whatever they are called.

[Trif]

Oh, it's Girlinhat's science, not mine... I just saw a story ripe for the picking, so I wrote it.

Now wait a minute, I'm confused... Did you actually do the ‼Science‼ or did you just write the story of a hypothetical outcome?
Don't get me wrong, I love the writeup, I just want some clarification about it.

[Girlinhat]

I believe that the "doesn't care about anything anymore" trait makes dwarves move more slowly and drink more.

I was referring to "Used to tragedy" or "Becoming accustomed to tragedy" or whatever they are called.

These are the same thing.  "Used to tragedy" is first, and "doesn't really care about anything anymore" is the final stage.  It seems to accrue whenever the dwarf loses happiness in small amounts, but gets major boosts when they witness death or suffer injury.

It does not make them any slower or any weaker.  It makes them more resistant to mood swings in both directions.  They naturally maintain a state of "fine" and sleeping in the dirt or drinking water will barely change their mood.  Similarly, fine dining and grand bedrooms hardly give them benefits.  At least for short-term.  After a long enough time, they reach the full mood swing that the thoughts allow, but have a "lower acceleration" for how quickly their happiness changes.

They also seem insanity resistant or immune.  I had one older fort, the lead soldier was danger room trained and candy clad, fought solo against elf sieges and won.  He was fully hardened by the time a tantrum spiral arrived, and every single dwarf and child eventually died.  He rested at 0 happiness for several months and tantrumed rarely, but never went insane.

Finally, fantastic read, though as above, is this real?

[MarcAFK]

The first children listed in that post seem to be based on your science, but i can't for the life of me remember those last 8, did i miss something or  were they fiction?

[Reudh]

The writeup I did was entirely fiction based, using Girlinhat's science as a base. They weren't based on her results, merely a hypothetical set of dwarves... and the results I chose for poetic purposes.

[Reudh]

Of course, I'm now inspired to set up such an experiment, though my computer has not got the grunt for long-term DF. I'll do the writeup of that as well.

[sketchyd]

So I actually tried building this the other day, and didn't have very much luck.

First my dwarves were dumping food and booze into my other garbage dump, the open air magma chute.

Then I managed to flood my forges and berserk my soon-to-be-legendary armorsmith on a mood when his forge became unpowered.  I still don't know where the leak was coming from.

Then my proportions of magma and water were off, creating pillars of obsidian instead of crispy dwarf kiddies.

Finally, I got a morsel of magma into the room, but the water was stuck on its new obsidian floors, and the children were burnt to a crisp.

And the dogs never went rabid anyway.


Can someone clarify how to magma mist for my next attempt?

[Reudh]

Magma mist is created by controlled cave ins. How to direct it? I think a very small tank with a single tile being dropped should splash magma mist out enough to set the dwarf on fire, who can then be put out once his or her burning has reached a sufficient level via controlled flooding.

Perhaps a 2x1 of magma with a grate holding back the magma. I don't know whether that would transmit the mist, but we'll see.

All guesses here, but I haven't actually built a child care system yet, been bogged under with uni.

Magma mist is the toxic/dangerous yellow mist created when debris from a cave-in splashes into magma, but, unlike water, not when a magma falls down a Z-level. It sets on fire all non-fire-resistant creatures that share a tile with it, and in earlier versions would instantly kill most creatures who breathed it in. Luckily, it generally disappears quickly, as not much will usually be produced; cave-ins only cause a small amount of it.

It is called lava mist when a cave-in falls into lava, but is arguably similar.