Need advice on rain and dwarven irritation

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Plain and simple, I've noticed over time that dwarves despise rain with a cold hatred, I've seen children consistently lose all interest in toys, food, booze just because on their way into my fort they were inevitably caught in the rain. I have to ask is there any advice on this other then banishing the grumpy children? Is there a mod that lessens the dwarven hatred of rain?

[Fel]

Embarking in places where it doesn't rain works pretty well.

You can also have things that offset bad mood even for children.
A mist generator usually works well for that purpose.
High quality meals taken in a high quality dining room also gives frequent positive thoughts.

Since children can also claim bedrooms, fully featured bedrooms (bed, cabinet and chest) tends to be good enough to make them happier as well.

Of course, remove chores as well.

And preferably don't give them any reason to go outside.


Funny enough, your starter dwarves usually have "only mildly grumble when working outside" in their traits, not too sure how you can get such trait on your dwarves more consistently but it really helps to have it on dwarves that need to work outside.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Fel:

Embarking in places where it doesn't rain works pretty well.

You can also have things that offset bad mood even for children.
A mist generator usually works well for that purpose.
High quality meals taken in a high quality dining room also gives frequent positive thoughts.

Since children can also claim bedrooms, fully featured bedrooms (bed, cabinet and chest) tends to be good enough to make them happier as well.

Of course, remove chores as well.

And preferably don't give them any reason to go outside.


Funny enough, your starter dwarves usually have "only mildly grumble when working outside" in their traits, not too sure how you can get such trait on your dwarves more consistently but it really helps to have it on dwarves that need to work outside.

True but I swear to god if a child even once gets a single drop of rain on them its like everything in existence is ruined for them forever, I do turn off chores yes but when migrants arrive JUST as the weather starts raining...

Also I want to make mist generators but I always find their construction a bit annoying, maybe this time Ill just do it by diverting a flow from a river. Also I might try a desert embark with the stoneworking mod (for stone pots and beds)

[Fel]

I usually do a "lazy" mist generator by using weak aquifers, much easier to do and all you need is to drain it off the map.

[jingai3]

Try making a kids burrow that is all inside. Make it your whole fort. Assign the kids. Also, make sure they have toys to play with.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Fel:

I usually do a "lazy" mist generator by using weak aquifers, much easier to do and all you need is to drain it off the map.

ahh...I actually play with the dry mines mod...

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Fel:

...
And preferably don't give them any reason to go outside.
..

^-- This.

I think Hunters have some offsets for things like this, but I don't think others do. (I know Hunters can sleep anywhere without significant penalty, just can't remember about rain atm. Should be in the wiki. Not sure Woodcutters get any of the same benefits.)

I think those who set up "Gathering" zones outside have the most issues with this. I don't and prefer to manually order Gathering. If timed right, a bunch of dorfs can participate and won't get Cavern Sickness. (I don't know that it has such a bad penalty, though, when present.)

Waterfalls are the nuclear-bomb for dorf happy-things... But, Doors are pretty nice and easier to construct. Plus, you can put them just about anywhere. Once the crafter is leveled up, oodles of very nice doors all over the place maximize the chances that multiple dorfs will get happy thoughts at any one time.

Dorf kids - I worry about the difficulty they cause, but I appreciate the somewhat "wildcard" mechanics and the risk inherent in a lack of kid-centric management/mood features. The biggest issue is the clock-time, really - They represent a liability for a very long time. Putting them on Chores and removing corpse-hauling while making sure to have plenty of accessible Toys as well as good clothing (they can benefit from that, too) helps a ton.

[Fel]

Originally posted by Googley Eye'd Bastard:

Originally posted by Fel:

I usually do a "lazy" mist generator by using weak aquifers, much easier to do and all you need is to drain it off the map.

ahh...I actually play with the dry mines mod...

Light aquifer is incredibly easy to handle.
If you discover it in a soil layer, make a few rounds of blocks (wood blocks at a carpenter works fine), you get 4 blocks per rock or log (sadly only 1 from metal bars even if that has no place here).
Just dig all times directly around your stairs, build a wall with those blocks and you are done.

In the stone layers it's even easier, just smooth the walls.

The only issue is that you can't easily use the layer directly under an aquifer layer because water drips from it.
You can fairly easily use the top layer of a light aquifer by digging the area you want to use and adding walls (or smoothing) the outer walls.

If you really need to use the layers where aquifer is, you can just dig it out like that starting from the top layer of it.

Light aquifer gives you a very easy access to water, no matter if it's for a well, a simple mist generator or more complex projects that require a lot of water.
It makes river less of a must-have for your embarks, giving you more flexibility on where you want to make your fort.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Fel:

Originally posted by Googley Eye'd Bastard:

ahh...I actually play with the dry mines mod...

Light aquifer is incredibly easy to handle.
If you discover it in a soil layer, make a few rounds of blocks (wood blocks at a carpenter works fine), you get 4 blocks per rock or log (sadly only 1 from metal bars even if that has no place here).
Just dig all times directly around your stairs, build a wall with those blocks and you are done.

In the stone layers it's even easier, just smooth the walls.

The only issue is that you can't easily use the layer directly under an aquifer layer because water drips from it.
You can fairly easily use the top layer of a light aquifer by digging the area you want to use and adding walls (or smoothing) the outer walls.

If you really need to use the layers where aquifer is, you can just dig it out like that starting from the top layer of it.

Light aquifer gives you a very easy access to water, no matter if it's for a well, a simple mist generator or more complex projects that require a lot of water.
It makes river less of a must-have for your embarks, giving you more flexibility on where you want to make your fort.

Thanks I never really thought about that, tbh I've always played in areas with no aquifers and with the mod because of all the complaints/warnings I've read from other players.

[Fel]

Most of the bad reputation for aquifer comes from the time where there was only one type, which is now called heavy aquifer.

That one is troublesome to deal with because it produces a large amount of water very quickly so you had to do some pretty crazy stuff to get through it (puncing through it with a cave-in or doing mass pumping to be able to slowly build the walls).

The only upside of heavy aquifer is that it also absorbs water coming from the tile above it, which the light aquifer doesn't do.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Fel:

Most of the bad reputation for aquifer comes from the time where there was only one type, which is now called heavy aquifer.

That one is troublesome to deal with because it produces a large amount of water very quickly so you had to do some pretty crazy stuff to get through it (puncing through it with a cave-in or doing mass pumping to be able to slowly build the walls).

The only upside of heavy aquifer is that it also absorbs water coming from the tile above it, which the light aquifer doesn't do.

Ah good to know so the only thing you really need to worry about is them, Ill make a new world today and try it out without the mod on thanks.

I'm also going to put on the mod with stone beds and pots etc to avoid the surface at all costs.

[Fel]

Stone pots already exist, so beds are the only thing you need wood for (well, you also need at least 1 charcoal to start your smelters on coke and you need plenty of ash for soap).

Cutting a few trees as you bring everyone inside should be all the wood you need to start.

Given a few years, you can make an underground tree farm as long as you make a place with at least 2 z-levels (so channels or ramps) and soil or mud at the bottom, plus breaching any of the cave levels (only works if they have moss of some sort growing but most caves have it).
Of course you could also use the caves directly but that's usually kind of dangerous.

By the way, for your migrants you can make tunnels connecting to your fortress with exits at various points closer to the edge, as long as you put bridges in them to be able to close them in case of danger.

Tunnels like that can also be a great way to bring invaders in places where you have the advantage (traps, crosbow users behind fortifications, balistas or other stuff).
If you make them 3 tiles large (inclusing the entrance and with channels instead of stairs) you can also use them for traders even after they start using wagons.

[PhearedPhantom]

Originally posted by Googley Eye'd Bastard:

Plain and simple, I've noticed over time that dwarves despise rain with a cold hatred, I've seen children consistently lose all interest in toys, food, booze just because on their way into my fort they were inevitably caught in the rain. I have to ask is there any advice on this other then banishing the grumpy children? Is there a mod that lessens the dwarven hatred of rain?

Can't have children losing interest in booze, that's just sad