I was thinking about this lately. Is it possible for someone like a foreman who works in a wood shop to develop a fear of chairs? If s/he is afraid of chairs, can s/he mandate that the workers only produce something like tables, even if the colony needs chairs? Or would it be that every time a chair is produced, that the foreman goes crazy terrified and runs away?
You prompted a short discussion on this, actually. (Also, wow, Use of Weapons anyone?) Imagine a game where a player is running a colony and find that, quietly, they have no chairs and have no idea why. They check the tree-cutters, they check the carpentry shop, they check the stockpiles, everything is good. What's going on, why are there no chairs? Is it a stupid bug? Or do they, by happenstance, have the phrenologist check everyone and happen to stumble upon the detailed character info screen for the Carpentry Foreman and discover a fear of chairs? (Or do we give an alert every time someone gets a fear of something. Or only when it interferes with their job? But where is the line -- if a bureaucrat won't use a chair, and they need a chair to use their desk ... if a farmer just happens to walk near a chair on the way to the farm ... ) It's got to be handled with a somewhat light touch that doesn't break the game or create a ton of micromanagement and/or frustration as if it's a bug. Like DF Dwarves running to fetch socks off a corpse, then seeing a Giant Cave Spider standing over said corpse, fleeing, and once out of sight range of the Giant Cave Spider, deciding that someone really ought to fetch those lovely socks that Urist doesn't need anymore ... Short answer: "Maybe. And if so, then not quite like that."
Thank you so much for answering this! I have been pondering the details and am glad that you guys are considering them. After reading boarmurdered and how the dwarves would run out to loot the corpses of those slain by the elephants only to die themselves does come across to the more casual gamer as being extremely frustrating. I am sure you guys will find a great solution so that the 'not quite' is just right. Thanks again for the response.
I know it's just a wild suggestion, but how about banning the order which was cancelled due to fear until any other order was fulfilled by that person? That way someone with more than one sort of task in their job who can't do this particular task will cycle through all the other tasks they have to do while checking if it's possible to get back to it every so often. Edit: Of course if all of their tasks became banned it would start damaging their sanity. Or make them psychotic. Or even worse, turn them into poets.
I think maybe a little notifier when a fear is developed would be a good idea, it would also help to see the fears they have on a character profile or something (though you've probably already got something like that)
I like this idea a lot, it lends itself to wacky stories. Makes me think of Dwarf Fortress' dwarves and things they like and hate. Sometimes they would etch stuff they hate all over and it was kind of funny.
Heh, I guess if it is clear to the player why it is happening, then more power too them. I don't know if you guys have plans for different difficulties but tweaking how often this kind of stuff happens might be one of the 'knobs you can turn' to control difficulties.
It could definitely lead to some interesting stories, however I think that it could lead to frustration. Avoiding an objection entirely can be confusing and having a notifier for every fear can be overwhelming when the population grows. A more subtle approach can lead to the npc being miserable which can lead to other hilarity that can be more enjoyable to deal with. There are many cool things in DF that cause kinks in your industry that are fun to deal with and allow for great stories, but it is important to balance that with frustration. Easier said than done. Have to be clever like the fine folks and Gaslamp
Well you could make it very clear in a tutorial that these kinda things could happen. Also I think that an alert system (maybe with different options on what you want to recive alerts on) would be VERY usefull. I like muddyhawks approach to just make them feel bad if they are forced to do jobs they don´t like. Another way could be that the afraid worker tries to convince someone else to do this one particular job, but that oculd lead to gameplay problems, too. Maybe implement fears like this but make them optional for the more casual gamers?
I agree with having an intelligently placed alert system. That could allow something crazy to happen such as the refusal to work while giving you the knowledge of how to adjust to it. A message popping up saying that the carpenter can't complete that task due to a phobia or an alert that chairs have stopped being manufactured due to a 'Albert's newly developed phobia'. haha I don't know, I'm just spitballing. I'm sure that there is constant discussion on these types of little issues.
