Unmet need : Pray to X

[Sentient Fungus]

I can't work out why my Dwarves are whinging about not being able to pray, I have so many temples, catered for what ever deity they wish, yet they refuse to visit them and whinge that they can't pray!
All temples are in the living area of my fortress, with wide straight roads intersecting all the dormitories and bed rooms, eateries ect. Yet they ''can't pray'' Why? I have no clue what else to do. They all have altar, all smoothed out and carved. Dwarves do use them because I can see they lurking in the various temples, however some just seem to be in a constant state of ''I cant pray to X''
What am I doing wrong?

[pezenwever]

You can force a dwarf to a certain temple by assigning him to a lever in said temple. It's an annoying workaround, but effective. They can wait too long with praying if they are too busy training, working, drinking, reading, socialising.. I feel the game doesn't work out the priorities well.
When you create or update temples, also try to make dedicated temples of deities. Once you can make a dedicated one of deity X, delete the non dedicated one. They have a better happy buff when doing their complete rites in a dedicated temple (enraptured), yet sometimes only go to the undedicated ones if that's an option.

[Sentient Fungus]

Originally posted by pezenwever:

You can force a dwarf to a certain temple by assigning him to a lever in said temple. It's an annoying workaround, but effective. They can wait too long with praying if they are too busy training, working, drinking, reading, socialising.. I feel the game doesn't work out the priorities well.
When you create or update temples, also try to make dedicated temples of deities. Once you can make a dedicated one of deity X, delete the non dedicated one. They have a better happy buff when doing their complete rites in a dedicated temple (enraptured), yet sometimes only go to the undedicated ones if that's an option.

Ah that's what hey may be doing, I have about 18 temples to all the most popular deity's, but the first one I built was one to ''No specific deity'' and that one is always rammed! there is constantly about 20 dudes all chilling in there. Maybe if I delete that one maybe they will go to their specific one. Thanks

[Entrappedmind]

In addition to the aforementioned lever trick, a less effective but also less micro-managey strategy is to create a burrow covering your bedrooms, dining, temples, and tavern; and assign any unhappy dorfs to said burrow on an as-needed basis. They'll passively fulfill those associated needs, if possible.

[Diarmuhnd]

Are you sure you have Temples and Grand Temples .. not shrines? Some dwarves won't pray to a favorite god in a "meh" shrine.

Adding a performer to your Temple can also help attract the faithful to come visit.

If thats not it it could be pathing issues, but if your fortress has good access for your citizens then that leaves me with one last possible reason.

So dwarves are just crazy or stupid or foreign agents. Kick them out, or accidently "let" them have an accident. Falling into lava, drowning in a river or even forgotten beast chow. Or you could just kick them out. This gets rid of the troublesome git and lets you find somone new and hopefully better.

[Sentient Fungus]

Originally posted by Entrappedmind:

In addition to the aforementioned lever trick, a less effective but also less micro-managey strategy is to create a burrow covering your bedrooms, dining, temples, and tavern; and assign any unhappy dorfs to said burrow on an as-needed basis. They'll passively fulfill those associated needs, if possible.

I'll try that as well. cheers

[Sentient Fungus]

Originally posted by Diarmuhnd:

Are you sure you have Temples and Grand Temples .. not shrines? Some dwarves won't pray to a favorite god in a "meh" shrine.

Adding a performer to your Temple can also help attract the faithful to come visit.

If thats not it it could be pathing issues, but if your fortress has good access for your citizens then that leaves me with one last possible reason.

So dwarves are just crazy or stupid or foreign agents. Kick them out, or accidently "let" them have an accident. Falling into lava, drowning in a river or even forgotten beast chow. Or you could just kick them out. This gets rid of the troublesome git and lets you find somone new and hopefully better.

Hmmm, never considered there maybe an interloper, spreading fear and doubt amongst my Dwarves..they need to be found and purged! lol

I will try all other no death routes to make my Dwarves happy, then I might make a squad of miserable dwarves and make them fight some horrific monster :)

[Entrappedmind]

Originally posted by Sentient Fungus:

I will try all other no death routes to make my Dwarves happy, then I might make a squad of miserable dwarves and make them fight some horrific monster :)

If overall happiness is the issue, rather than specifically "Pray to X," look into mist generators or waterfalls. Ever since I started associating them into my builds, I have had zero happiness issues whatsoever despite any specific dorf's unmet needs.

[Sentient Fungus]

Originally posted by Entrappedmind:

Originally posted by Sentient Fungus:

I will try all other no death routes to make my Dwarves happy, then I might make a squad of miserable dwarves and make them fight some horrific monster :)

If overall happiness is the issue, rather than specifically "Pray to X," look into mist generators or waterfalls. Ever since I started associating them into my builds, I have had zero happiness issues whatsoever despite any specific dorf's unmet needs.

Ah ok, it seems the 20 odd miserbale dwarfs all moan about their god, just watched another video on temples and my temples may not be up to spec, not quite 2k, so I'll try and boost them up, if that fails. Gona look into mist generators, not got any yet, think 'ill build some any how. :) cheers

[VoiD]

Bad programing/AI, really, they will suffer endlessly, for years, as they want to speak to family members, get some new junk item, or pray to some deity, but they will refuse to do it unless you restrict their movement completely and try to glitch them into actually doing what they were supposed to want to do.

Sure, there are glitchy workarounds, but the root of the problem is just the AI/simulation being too simple to work.

[pezenwever]

They are also socialy handicapped. Even when training for 15 years with the same squad, they still will not have made friends. Then they are depressed because they don't have any friends. They probably hand out jester rewards as well and camp negative reviews

[LastChime]

Do the dorfs in question have any negative memories about praying?

[OOTN]

When I had this problem it turned out my dwarves were simply too busy and had no downtime to pray.

[McOrigin]

For most dwarves a generic temple will be enough. But as soon as they are "ardent worshippers of ..", they need a dedicated temple. And if they worship a specific religion, that will need a specific temple too.

And dwarves with many deities, like 8 or more, may never have enough time to pray to all they need.

That's why I sort through each migration wave and expel or send away anyone with 6 or more deities. Even if they manage to pray to each god, that's all time they are not working - which is extremely crucial at the start of a new fort.

However, sending away dwarves with many relatives can be tricky, because it causes negative thoughts on said relatives.

Later in a fort, a dwarf with many gods and relatives can be kept as long as he does not do much work. Be sure he does not haul, for example. Make him a butcher or gem cutter, whatever job you don't need permanently. Or make him a profession you have plenty of.

I try to split my population in half with custom professions: half farmers, half metalworkers.
Some few dedicated specialists without many needs.

[Entrappedmind]

Originally posted by McOrigin:

For most dwarves a generic temple will be enough. But as soon as they are "ardent worshippers of ..", they need a dedicated temple. And if they worship a specific religion, that will need a specific temple too.

Speaking of, with my most recent start, I had an oddity occur that I hadn't encountered before. Before the first season ended, meaning before I even got the basics started (stockpiling wagon goods, dining, still, farm, etc) every single of my embark dorfs demanded a specific temple for their organized religion. I didn't think anything of it as I didn't at first notice it was all of them, so I dismissed the demand. It instantly (next day) popped back up. Again, and again, and again. Finally, I realized that continuing this would lead to inevitable tantrums, so I had to scramble to make a fully-outfitted and engraved etc temple before even making my first bed or wine barrel.

That one threw me for a loop. What's more, almost every single migrant I get adheres to the same religion, which at least is making meeting their prayer needs fairly simple thus far.