Should I separate dining hall/tavern/ and meeting room zones?

[ekidhardt]

For those more experienced with this--what do you think? I hear there is a socialization benefit from having them overlap, but then there is a room value decrease at the same time.

Thoughts about having them all as the same place?

[McFuzz]

Yes. Dining halls are better off designated as taverns now, which function as both. You don't need both.

[Doctor Zalgo]

Originally posted by ekidhardt:

For those more experienced with this--what do you think? I hear there is a socialization benefit from having them overlap, but then there is a room value decrease at the same time.

Thoughts?

I always keep them separate, but I turn the meeting room into a tavern almost immediately anyway. There's always plenty of space available (unless you have heavy aquifers in which case why are you like this).

[Morkonan]

I have a big Tavern/Dining hall and a separate, smaller, Dining Hall. It works fine, I guess. I just wanted to keep the old one in service, too. Local Dorfs go there for a snack.

[ekidhardt]

ohh! you don't need a meeting area and a dining hall? good to know.

What's the logic in separating them?

Follow up question

Do you have the tavern and dining hall in a nested format? Or do you create them entirely in separate places? I was thinking a big tavern and nested inside that is the dining hall. (A big square with a little square nested inside without overlapping areas). Is that smart, or non-optimal?

Much obliged!

[Rainbow Jeremy]

nobles need dining halls for their requirements sometimes

[McFuzz]

You can do that. But taverns tend to like big empty floor areas to allow for dancing zones.
Put chests in the tavern and the dwarves will fill them with cups, then a barkeep will serve them alcohol

[Tagek]

Originally posted by Frank McFuzz:

Yes. Dining halls are better off designated as taverns now, which function as both. You don't need both.

But do dwarfs still get the mood buff for a good dining hall when you only designate it as a tavern? I saw a bunch of (old) posts about that.

[Boyce]

Since nobody answered this clearly ill just answer it for anyone that stumbles on this. You do NOT want to replace your dining hall with the tavern. You can if you want but that will make you lose the dining room buff which is a good one. I recommend not even putting tables or chairs in your tavern. Put a dining room right beside it so dwarfs just use the dining room and just make the tavern a large space for dancing with a chest for instruments.

[Fallingferret]

I always make my dining hall into a citizens/long term tavern and my dwarves get good thoughts about dining in a legendary hall.

[Vanguard]

Is it a good idea to assign the dining hall to the tavern?

[Banana Montana.]

Originally posted by Boyce:

Since nobody answered this clearly ill just answer it for anyone that stumbles on this. You do NOT want to replace your dining hall with the tavern. You can if you want but that will make you lose the dining room buff which is a good one. I recommend not even putting tables or chairs in your tavern. Put a dining room right beside it so dwarfs just use the dining room and just make the tavern a large space for dancing with a chest for instruments.

Thank you so much this was driving me nuts.

[amade]

Originally posted by Banana Montana.:

Thank you so much this was driving me nuts.

Actually, that info is false. It's also very easy to find out yourself: just make a tavern out of a dining hall and observe that your dorfs are still getting good thoughts from eating in a legendary dining room or whatever.

I'll say one thing though: if you want to engineer where your dorfs spend their time idling you may want to consider separating taverns from dining halls, because dorfs tend to idle in whatever valid location they happen to be closest to. So if they idle right after eating/drinking, they'll end up idling in the tavern instead of temples or guildhalls. The layout of your fortress matters a lot in these cases.

[Hunvokmar1]

If you want to increase room value for positive thoughts then I recommend leveling the engraver skill for a few dwarves, some master engravings can increase value pretty quickly. Or you can use iron or gold flooring