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[Maximus]

If it turns out he was asking for stone blocks, then you would have needed to chisel him a white stone block.

[bbb]

does the preference really play any part?

.....
last night.. one demanded thread/cloth..

except there's no cave spider silk thread to be had.. since they are all weaved into cloth..

had to wait.. and wait for spiderwebs to appear... needed 2 of them to boot.

maybe there should be a strategic reserve pile that i can have somewhere.. then again.. i've no bookkeeper yet..

[Stregone]

I hate when they want thread. The looms automaticaly weave it into cloth!

[Zomg]

I've noticed these things:

Every character is placed in a "skill family" job, like mason, carpenter, craftsdwarf, etc. based on their highest skill. Certain skills translate to certain jobs - for example, masonry and engraving are both in the mason jobtype. So, if a dwarf has Proficient engraving, he's a mason if every other skill is lower. Characters in a fey/secretive/possessed mood claim shops related to their job - Jewellers take jewel shops, Metalsmiths take forges/magma forges, etc.

For fey moods, and I think secretive moods, if the artifact is successfully completed the highest level skill in the current job is raised to legendary.

I find this hard to work around, since I like to use engraving as busywork for immigrants, which ends up with all of my strange moods going towards legendary engravers. I think if you want to try to focus your strange moods into skills that are very difficult to raise, like weapon/armorsmithing and so on, you really have to micromanage your guys to make sure they always have a top skill that won't inadvertently turn them into less useful legendary types like stonecrafters or engravers if their mood comes up. That's especially hard on immigrants, since they're only metalsmiths or carpenters based on a novice skill.

I've never seen two strange moods going on at once. I think it's an exclusive condition. They also don't seem to happen more often with a larger population, so I think the rate is flat rather than per capita, although the moods don't occur when the population is still less than 25 or so. Anyone disagree with that assessment?

An interesting strategy might be to try to load up on as many peasants as possible, get them to novice in a skill related to useful artifacts (ex: weaponsmith, bowyer) and then turn them into permanent haulers, sand collectors, or some other unskilled job. With enough of them, you're stacking the deck in favor of the most desirable artifacts and legendary skills in the Strange Mood lottery.

[Freki]

quote:Originally posted by Zomg:
<STRONG>the moods don't occur when the population is still less than 25 or so. Anyone disagree with that assessment?
</STRONG>

I disagree with that. I had my metalsmith go into a fey mood and create something when my population was something under 20 - I can't recall the exact number, but soon after the first batch of immigrants.

[Mud]

I've had dwarves go fey while my population was still seven or eight, and just today I had a child who came with the first wave of immigrants (which put my population to 18) get possessed. I think that it's just unusual for the script that causes dwarves to go fey to fire before you have a decent amount of dwarves.

   

quote:For fey moods, and I think secretive moods, if the artifact is successfully completed the highest level skill in the current job is raised to legendary.

This seems to be correct. My metalsmith made a whole lot of metal bars but rarely forged them into anything, and as such was a much better furnace operator than metalsmith. He went into a fey mood, and made a legendary scepter or something at the magma forge, presumably using his metalsmithing skill. Despite the fact he used the Magma Forge and created an item that would have used the metalsmithing skill, he became a legendary furnace operator. Not that I'm complaining in the least, I just wanted to emphasize that what dwarves create in their fey mood and where they create them have no effect on what skill becomes legendary.

Also, a question:

Does anyone know if the script that makes dwarves go fey make a general roll or if there's a random chance for each dwarf? That is, does the game check if any dwarves go fey every so often then pick one to go fey if the check is positive, or does it check if each individual dwarf is going to go fey? I'm leaning towards the later, (because you seem to get more dwarves going fey as the game goes on and your population goes up,) but can anyone confirm this?

Also, does anyone know if the chances of a dwarf going fey are dependant on anything more than a random check?

[ October 01, 2006: Message edited by: Mud ]

[Majestic7]

quote:Originally posted by Mud:

This seems to be correct. My metalsmith made a whole lot of metal bars but rarely forged them into anything, and as such was a much better furnace operator than metalsmith. He went into a fey mood, and made a legendary scepter or something at the magma forge, presumably using his metalsmithing skill. Despite the fact he used the Magma Forge and created an item that would have used the metalsmithing skill, he became a legendary furnace operator. Not that I'm complaining in the least, I just wanted to emphasize that what dwarves create in their fey mood and where they create them have no effect on what skill becomes legendary.

[ October 01, 2006: Message edited by: Mud ][/QB]

I believe this is incorrect assumption. I've had a fisherdwarf get hit by a fey mood a few times, resulting in them becoming legendary stonecrafters and their type changing to craftsdwarf.

[Mud]

It might be that the highest crafting skill to raised to legendary, and if the dwarf has no crafting skills whatsoever then the tpye of item made and building used would determine what skill is raised. Or there just could be a whole lot more randomness associated with fey moods than it might seem at first.

[Telok]

I can pretty much rule out a loony dwarf's matereal preferences in making artifacts. I've recently had dwarves who liked Granite and Rock Crystal go nutters on me.

The one who liked Granite wanted wood, stone, blocks, and rough gems. He took everything except blocks and gems, I checked and found Granite blocks in my bins. I slammed out orders for more grey blocks, some light and dark blocks too. To no avail, after a month or so of waiting and 15 or so assorted blocks in my piles he went beserk. The dogs got him, I assigned him two when he went loony and he attacked them fist.

The one who liked Rock Crystal was a fisherdwarf who moped around untill I build a glass workshop. Then he wanted cloth, rough gems, and shell. He didn't grab anything. I only had spider silk available as cloth, couldn't make others for lack of correct plants and barrels/bags/vials. Had both turtle shell and cave lobster, cut and uncut Rock Crystal. He just sat there untill he decided to go drown himself.

I've never noticed a correlation between a dwarf's personal preferences and artifact construction matereals.

Edit: I currently have a morbid bunch of dwarves.

Zeberelot Kon Athel, "Smoulderbuck the Master of Rings", A Moonstone coffin. Decorated and spikes of Moonstone.

Alakilid, "Aceruled", a Acacia casket. Bands and images of dwarves in Acacia.

Kironnin, "The Holy Toe", a Felsite mechanism. Bands of silver, spikes of Andesite, images of roaches in Felsite, images of roaches in Andesite.

Bloody loonies.

[ October 02, 2006: Message edited by: Telok ]

[Aquillion]

You have to understand that dwarves have a set order in which they'll grab things, and they will not reveal this order in their hints.  For instance:

quote:The one who liked Granite wanted wood, stone, blocks, and rough gems. He took everything except blocks and gems, I checked and found Granite blocks in my bins. I slammed out orders for more grey blocks, some light and dark blocks too. To no avail, after a month or so of waiting and 15 or so assorted blocks in my piles he went beserk. The dogs got him, I assigned him two when he went loony and he attacked them fist.

This one was almost certainly waiting on the rough gems and not the blocks.  What sorts of rough gems did you have?

quote:The one who liked Rock Crystal was a fisherdwarf who moped around untill I build a glass workshop. Then he wanted cloth, rough gems, and shell. He didn't grab anything. I only had spider silk available as cloth, couldn't make others for lack of correct plants and barrels/bags/vials. Had both turtle shell and cave lobster, cut and uncut Rock Crystal. He just sat there untill he decided to go drown himself.

From your description, wanted a different kind of cloth, almost certainly.

[NotQuiteSure]

Damn,my dwarves are creating the very lamest artifact in existence...for example,I had one create a pig tail cap with hanging rings of oak.I thought thats rock bottom,but guess what do I have now:"The Lacy Patterned Suffering of Sounding" which is....a pig tail rope menacing with spikes of pig tail!And those guys make those atrocities right next to my pile of 6 gem bins...

[Rondol]

I've gotten artifacts with 11 or 12 dwarves. In fact I've had forts with 2 artifacts, and I dont' think I've ever had a colony >20 last very long.

Also, are possessions supposed to not increase a skill? Because I just had a dwarf grab a log (and a stone block oddly, though maybe he was just carrying this when he became possessed) and go make a cage with bands of ... wood, and he didn't increase any skills.

[Majestic7]

Hmm, after starting a new game since I couldn't farm again, I've certainly had horrible luck with the strange moods. It is second year and seven dwarves have so far went in to a strange mood. All have gone berserk in the end. Their demands have been pretty general (pictures of quarry etc), but well, apparentally they've wanted something special.

Oh well, at least all the deaths are toning down immigration. Losing skilled masons and craftsdwarves is a bitch, though.

[Carlos Gustavos]

"Throatrawness the Hammerer of Loving", an obsidian trumpet. I really like the name.

[Zomg]

I'm having a terrible run of possessed (rather than fey/secretive) dwarves in my current game, so much so that it makes me question whether there's some underlying variable in the process. I have 4 dwarves that got legendary status from an artifact, and 11 total artifacts - can my luck be that bad? (and of course three of the four are only slightly useful engravers or metalcrafters, naturally). Do possessed dwarves have some common property? I know my peasant recruits have an annoying habit of getting possessed and making some incredibly complicated 8-part craft in a craftsdwarf's shop. Do *weapon*dwarves/wrestlers make the same things? Do they not get possessed in the first place?

In general, is there a way to minimize the number of dwarves susceptible to possession and maximize fey/secretive dwarves? Has anyone running games under strange conditions seen strange patterns?