Cycle of Riots

[James]

I seem to be stuck in a cycle of riots. (average of 2 per year for the past 4 years)

At the beginning of this, I had 190 dwarfs. I'm currently down to 140 due to riot deaths (This is with immigration).

I've tried everything I can to improve the mood of everyone but the second I start seeing numbers improve another riot breaks out and I'm worse than what I started.

Of my 140 dwarves, half of them are below yellow and 38 are completely red.

We have tons of variety in food and alcohol, and a massive surplus in both the halls are decorated with high quality furniture/displays, we are no longer at war (I think maybe we wiped out our enemies?) we have a ton of wealth, and I'm trying to keep them busy with tasks that will generate more.

I'm not entirely sure what I can do at this point. I feel that if the riots continue this save may be lost and I've spent a ton of time on it.

[Rover]

Read their thoughts to see why they are upset. Im gonna guess they can't pray anywhere

[Teemo]

Originally posted by Rover:

Read their thoughts to see why they are upset. Im gonna guess they can't pray anywhere

Further on to this: Open up the character screens and look at the "unmet needs" section and start with the ones in yellow.

[Sinclair]

With that many dwarves being in the red, I'm not sure how much you can do to improve things. There are probably a few more things that you haven't tried though. Expelling the red dwarves might help stabilize the rest. Building a small waterfall to generate mist in the main hallway will give them some happy thoughts. If worse comes to worst, you can retire the fort, then try coming back to it a few years later after you try your luck with a new one.

[⎛⎝Tiùwilo⎠⎞]

Just keep the coffins coming, focus on making more tombs and enjoy the show. This is what it's all about.

[James]

OK thank you for the advice everyone.

[Thom293]

Originally posted by Sinclair:

With that many dwarves being in the red, I'm not sure how much you can do to improve things. There are probably a few more things that you haven't tried though. Expelling the red dwarves might help stabilize the rest. Building a small waterfall to generate mist in the main hallway will give them some happy thoughts. If worse comes to worst, you can retire the fort, then try coming back to it a few years later after you try your luck with a new one.

So this is one thing I have never tried. Do you actually take control over your old fort or just find it's ruins?

[⎛⎝Tiùwilo⎠⎞]

Alternatively you can try to contain the situation a little bit by carving out a (not so) big room, assigning all the red dwarves to it as a burrow, and slapping on a door that you lock shut. Bonus points for adding some old weapons to the room in a stockpile.

At least there they can discuss their grievances in a controlled environment without punching someone who's still happy.

[Sinclair]

Originally posted by Thom293:

Originally posted by Sinclair:

With that many dwarves being in the red, I'm not sure how much you can do to improve things. There are probably a few more things that you haven't tried though. Expelling the red dwarves might help stabilize the rest. Building a small waterfall to generate mist in the main hallway will give them some happy thoughts. If worse comes to worst, you can retire the fort, then try coming back to it a few years later after you try your luck with a new one.

So this is one thing I have never tried. Do you actually take control over your old fort or just find it's ruins?

This depends on the circumstances of when you abandoned it. If there were hostile forces present (a siege or raid) the option will say 'abandon the fort to ruin. Otherwise it will say 'retire the fortress (for the time being). You can still reclaim a ruined fort if you wish.

[James]

Originally posted by Rover:

Read their thoughts to see why they are upset. Im gonna guess they can't pray anywhere

One thing I was sure to do was add temples to the big religions. For the rest I put a large generic temple in with no deity selected for focus. Is there a better way to go about things?

[nrusselluk]

Once Adventurer mode is back, you'll be able to retire Fort. Start an adventurer, steal weapons/armour from your current fort, and go off on quests. Could come back and reside in your Tavern.. You just reclaim fortress and it's how you left it, but time has passed.

Ruined fortress is problematic, since what ended it is still probably there, and reclaiming it also makes it harder since the fortress has a lot of wealth created - accelerating difficulty.

Nothing to stop you sending an adventurer into a ruined fortress (with a squad of hirelings or some of your own geared adventurers) and loot the artifacts, or clear it out.

This is how Classic works. Persistent world.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Ah, yes. The Tantrum Circle. Not quite a Tantrum Spiral, but FUN in its own right.

If there are any "important" dwarfs in the horde of riotous layabouts, you can try saving them from their foul mood by clearing out their list of needs and exposing them to high levels of positive stimuli (free time,taverns, temples, high quality food and furniture) to pull them out of their funk, preferably isolating them while you do so. Just be mindful that depending on how close they are to going nuts, it may take months or years to stabilize them.

Any unimportant dwarfs should be sealed up, drowned, burnt, stabbed, dropped from great height, crushed, sent out to seek glory (or other accomodations), or something else equally appropriate to the situation.

My current "Fun is Mandatory" fort is currently experiencing maximum happiness except for one miserable bastard of a dwarf who was the original stoneworker for the expedition, who has several unmeetable needs. The fort often has to do without several key dwarfs for months at a time as I work to pamper his grouchy ass. I'd have hammered him years ago if he didn't have a bunch of legendary skills. I may yet, as not having fun is still illegal.

[Xcorps]

Originally posted by Machaut:

I
I'm not entirely sure what I can do at this point. I feel that if the riots continue this save may be lost and I've spent a ton of time on it.

Hi, you've found Dwarf Fortress. You're in a death spiral right now, at the top.

Generating wealth doesn't make your dwarves happy. Making your dwarves happy generates wealth. Check the dwarves, a lot. They will tell you what is wrong.