Interrogation Help

[Veenuhs]

Sooooo something got stolen in my Fortress of about 60 dwarves and I clicked on each and everyone to interrogate but I don't want to do this ever again. Is there an option or some type of system to setup for auto interrogation or do I just have to suck it up and click each one every time?

[Esca]

I'd recommend just...not doing that. If anyone sees a crime, they'll report to a guard about it and accuse a specific person. If nobody saw anything, you can just accept the loss and ignore it.

Reworking your fort is usually more important than chasing down criminals. If theft is a recurring issue, put your display artifacts in more visible spots, have a barracks nearby, keep an eye out for spies *before* they steal stuff or corrupt people, etc. (Checking visitors for the Schemer skill is a pretty reliable spy filter, in my experience.)

Some players also deliberately keep a crime unsolved so they can interrogate suspicious people at will, rather than wait for a report. Suspects will apparently admit to crimes even if they're unrelated to the case.

[Veenuhs]

Originally posted by Esca:

I'd recommend just...not doing that. If anyone sees a crime, they'll report to a guard about it and accuse a specific person. If nobody saw anything, you can just accept the loss and ignore it.

Reworking your fort is usually more important than chasing down criminals. If theft is a recurring issue, put your display artifacts in more visible spots, have a barracks nearby, keep an eye out for spies *before* they steal stuff or corrupt people, etc. (Checking visitors for the Schemer skill is a pretty reliable spy filter, in my experience.)

Some players also deliberately keep a crime unsolved so they can interrogate suspicious people at will, rather than wait for a report. Suspects will apparently admit to crimes even if they're unrelated to the case.

Thanks ! This all makes a lot of sense. However I would also like to ask how do you display your artifacts in certain spots? A lot of mine are stuck in say a bin in my main stockpile even though I disallowed them under the "core quality" and "total quality" tabs so I'm not sure what to do about that. I tried another stockpile with these two things allowed but they don't seem to ever get moved to it...

[Esca]

I'm not really sure about the stockpile aspect, but you can craft pedestals[dwarffortresswiki.org] and build them as furniture in rooms you want to decorate. After it's built, select the pedestal and choose which item(s) to put on display there. One of your haulers should eventually grab them and add them to the display, which increases the room's value by the items' value.

It's a convenient way to use otherwise neglected artifacts, but keep in mind that artifacts can be stolen from pedestals too, and people are more likely to notice they exist (so more visitors might plot to steal them). Certain wild animals like keas will also steal stuff from them, if they manage to get into your fort.

If you keep artifacts in places that are visible to soldiers or random citizens, someone will probably witness the theft and report it, so they're less likely to just vanish. Adding windows or fortifications might help if you're putting them in otherwise isolated rooms. Some people say guard animals help too, but I'm not sure whether they react to thieves. (They'll maul any wild animals that get in, at least.)

PS: To stop theft entirely, you can just seal your artifacts behind walls/etc. It can still add to a room's value if the sealed area is part of it. The only real downside is that people can't get mood boosts by walking over the pedestal.

[Veenuhs]

Originally posted by Esca:

I'm not really sure about the stockpile aspect, but you can craft pedestals[dwarffortresswiki.org] and build them as furniture in rooms you want to decorate. After it's built, select the pedestal and choose which item(s) to put on display there. One of your haulers should eventually grab them and add them to the display, which increases the room's value by the items' value.

It's a convenient way to use otherwise neglected artifacts, but keep in mind that artifacts can be stolen from pedestals too, and people are more likely to notice they exist (so more visitors might plot to steal them). Certain wild animals like keas will also steal stuff from them, if they manage to get into your fort.

If you keep artifacts in places that are visible to soldiers or random citizens, someone will probably witness the theft and report it, so they're less likely to just vanish. Adding windows or fortifications might help if you're putting them in otherwise isolated rooms. Some people say guard animals help too, but I'm not sure whether they react to thieves. (They'll maul any wild animals that get in, at least.)

PS: To stop theft entirely, you can just seal your artifacts behind walls/etc. It can still add to a room's value if the sealed area is part of it. The only real downside is that people can't get mood boosts by walking over the pedestal.

Hmmmmm okay. Thanks once again, especially for such a detailed response!

[Sophtopus]

Keep in mind that your dwarves are honour bound to help the agent forever. Punishing them doesn't help. The only way to stop the crime is to kill their boss.

Focus your interrogations on suspicious visitors. If you see 'criminal' they're 100 percent a suspect. Interrogate anyone who shouldn't be appearing on your fort.
For example, visiting poets are top on my list because I don't have a public tavern. It's even more suspicious if they return every year. Those to me are definitely spies.

I've also seen "poets" armed to the teeth. Interrogate those too just to be on the safe side.

When your captain starts the interrogation, lock the officer door by forbidding it until you get information out of the person. It may take a few tries. Once a visitor is interrogated, they'll immediately try to leave.

Espionage is a death sentence in dwarf society. If your hammerer doesn't finish the job, you can order one of your soldiers to clean it up. Once convicted they're considered enemies. I had one triggering a cage trap after surviving the hammering.

[Shuklack]

One thing that would be great is to a 'pause on interrogation' option. Sometimes I queue up interrogations and they will admit to crimes but then make their escape before I realize I can convict someone... and even then they can get away if I don't lock the doors going outside. There are a lot of other options to generate a pause but couldn't find one for an interrogation.