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[blue emu]

Looked for this suggestion and couldn't find it... I hope it's not a repeat.

In addition to the existing item flags... "to be melted", "to be dumped", "forbidden", etc... it would be nice if a new flag was introduced: "to be reserved for Strange Moods".

That way my stack of Hydra Bones would only be used for making Artifacts. As an added bonus, items flagged for Moods might also be PRIORITIZED for use in Artifacts... a Moody Dwarf would grab those items in preference to others.

[QuakeIV]

Pure awesome, plain and simple.


'This is an artifact adamantine floodgate. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It menaces with spikes od dragon bone'

[Derakon]

In my opinion, moods should not be controllable. A moody dwarf should ignore the forbidden tag, the "dwarves don't go outdoors" order, "locked" doors, and so on. I recognize that last is tricky because of pathfinding, but you get the idea. The dwarf is half-insane;  why is he going to pay attention to your orders?

At the same time, I'd prefer it if moody dwarves didn't gather the closest appropriate input of the type they want. Let's say a dwarf wants a stone. Currently he'll go grab the closest one. Instead, it'd be nice if he chose a random type of stone from the ones available to you, and then grabs a random instance of that stone that is accessible. This would mean, for example, that if the only stones you've uncovered are conglomerate and petrified wood, then your moody dwarf has equal odds of grabbing either, whereas currently practically all of your artifacts are going to be made of conglomerate.

[Geb]

This suggestion is more of a nice to have than a priority fix, since it isn't very difficult to do the same thing with forbidding. With my normal work patterns, it doesn't cause much disruption to mass forbid stuff for a few moments.

[Draco18s]

In my opinion, moods should not be controllable. A moody dwarf should ignore the forbidden tag, the "dwarves don't go outdoors" order, "locked" doors, and so on. I recognize that last is tricky because of pathfinding, but you get the idea. The dwarf is half-insane;  why is he going to pay attention to your orders?

Well if they'd be more discretionary than "OH LOOK!  TURTLE BONES!  YAY!" then I'd be all for it.

[webkilla]

i wouldn't consider anticipating and preparing for strange moods controling them

they're a well known aspect of the  game - why should we not be allowed to prepare for it?

[blue emu]

In my opinion, moods should not be controllable.

I'm not proposing that Strange Moods should be controllable. Quite the opposite... I'm proposing that Dwarves which are NOT in a strange Mood should follow orders and leave those items alone.

Eg: Orders from the Duke - "All you Bolt-makers... leave these Hydra Bones alone. We're saving them for something special."

If it makes you feel better, how about a small chance that a non-Moody Dwarf might illicitly use the flagged item... and then face disciplinary action (ie: get hammered for it).

[assimilateur]

I'm not proposing that Strange Moods should be controllable.

To be fair, you did say

items flagged for Moods might also be PRIORITIZED for use in Artifacts

, which would be a direct way of influencing moods, at least if I understood you correctly.

[Derakon]

Right, I'm fine with "don't touch this" flags working for normal dwarves -- but you can do that right now just by forbidding things, and in fact, I typically forbid a few turtle shells and some silk and plant fiber thread in my forts as soon as possible. I just don't want the game to have mechanisms for influencing which of the available items moody dwarves pick.

[assimilateur]

Moody dwarfs already disregard "forbidden" flags as it is, right?

Also:

plant fiber

Why? Don't you grow pig tails or rope reed yourself?

thread

Is that really used for artifacts, or did you mean cloth?

[Euld]

I vote in favor of the "prioritized for Moods" idea.  Yes, the dwarf is half-insane, but you would think they would want their artifact, their special, wonderful artifact should only be made from the best.  Don't they already favor adamantine after you find it?

[CaptainNitpick]

Moody dwarfs already disregard "forbidden" flags as it is, right?

Moody dwarfs obey the forbidden flag. This means you can significantly manipulate an artifact's materials through use of forbidding. You can even forbid an item after they've selected it (but before the dwarf has started work!) and they'll go find a substitute.

[assimilateur]

So it would work to, for example, forbid all the shitty metals once a smith becomes obsessed and they'll leave something like gold or platinum for them to use? That's sweet.

[Squirrelloid]

Well, unless they want a specific kind of metal, which happens occasionally.  Similarly, sometimes the preference for cloth is specific to plant fiber, silk, or giant spider silk.  But otherwise, yes, you can control *exactly* which items the dwarf picks up (within the categories he demands) by forbidding all other substitutible item types.

As opposed to Derakon, I'd oppose anything which makes it harder to control special moods.  Artifacts are the most interesting things a fortress creates, and I like getting to have some say about what goes into its creation.  As such, the suggestion to be able to prioritize objects for use in moods appeals to me, since it removes a lot of the annoyance from doing it currently.

[Derakon]

I'm all for artifacts being made more interesting. I just think that, as the ultimate expression of creativity that that dwarf will ever make, it should be up to the dwarf what goes into them, not the player. I suspect that eventually artifacts will be made more interesting anyway -- probably sometime around when the magic arc happens.

In general, I tend to favor letting the dwarves do their own thing. The emergent behavior that Dwarf Fortress has is one of its biggest strong points. Giving more control to the player weakens that, and should only be done when it's really necessary for gameplay to work properly.