Dwarf Fortress - Quick Tutorials - Justice and Crimes

[@Quintzal]

I've got several retired forts in my Civ and have left many crimes unsolved in my wake. In my current fort, while investigating a murder, a dwarf confessed to stealing 3 artifacts from 2 of my prior forts. I wish I could send a message to that fort and have them come and get him.

[@trumanhanks9332]

What a little thief haha

[@kevingriffith6011]

On the topic of improving the health of your fortress, bringing food and water to prisoners fills the need for dwarves who want to "help someone", which is one of the more difficult dwarven desires to squash without first squashing a dwarf or two so they wind up in the hospital.

[@kuddel928]

from what I read bee hives can also help with that :) the bees will sting your your dwarves and they will be brought to the hospital. But since they're not really injured they just leave the hospital immediately without having a negative thought. And the helper dwarf has a happy thought :)

[@alalmalal]

When are they adding kinks. Plenty of dwarves have trouble making friends and family and de-stressing, and plenty of others want to help someone

[@dumbleking5172]

​@@kuddel928 They do? I have 10 bee boxes right beside my wood stockpile and pasture but I have hardly seen anyone visiting my state-of-the-art hospital. And while I do get A LOT of stinging notification, I've never seen my dwarves in the hospital.

[@roidroid]

8:59 _"...but a percentage of them will actually improve mental-stability-wise while in prison, unlike in real life"._ Yea it seems more like a retreat or rehab. Somewhere they can go to chill out from their stressors, & contemplate/untangle their life. It's apparently a form of therapy for them. The fact that the whole fort gets a mood buff from this "justice" being implimented is fascinating, coz it implies that dwarven society (incl those who are in prison) really do all value & expect rehabilitation - not just physical punishment & incarceration.

[@karnewarrior]

On the other hand, if rehabilitation isn't an option, they're perfectly fine with justice coming in the form of a lead hammer trepanning. Dwarves are weird.

[@Jimverse_]

I found out the hard way that if you convict a random innocent animal of a crime, your whole fort becomes disgusted and has specific unhappy thoughts about it. I'd never seen it before!

[@FemboiMars]

“Wanna give that asshole dwarf that charged the lamb with theft a piece of my mind I’ll tell you what”

[@TylerChristensen69420]

The great thing of like about dwarf fortress is that it doesn't throw everything at you all at once it on day one. I didn't really have to make use of the justice system until I was at about a population of 100 dwarfs and that was 20 hours in. A nasty ass goblin decided that he wanted one of my legendary buckets. So he convinced a dwarf to migrate to my city to steal it. The dwarf had been there for a year and a half before he finally stole the bucket from a stockpile that I had moved to temporarily. I can see that it was in his inventory ( hidden ) so I began interrogating anybody that may have had access to it. After two separate interrogations, the door finally admitted it. But by time he did, the bucket had already disappeared entirely. He was sentenced to a beating. The captain of the guard beat his ass so badly he began vomiting everywhere. I never did see that bucket again...😢

[@squidfacedgod]

I've only ever played the Steam version of DF. I have 320 hours played as of right now and I'm still learning stuff. Thanks for doing these tutorials.

[@tfuenke]

Asciis better

[@Motionlesscapture]

@@tfuenkethey are literally the same, just different graphics

[@Zorro9129]

Another question I have, unrelated to the video, is how do I make my military dwarves happier? Some of them love what they do, most importantly my militia captains, but a lot of them have unmet needs for stuff like prayer and meeting friends and family. My schedules have orders with fewer assignments than the squad size so some of them go "off duty" but they hardly ever fulfill those needs. I always need some guards posted and to train when possible, so is my best bet just to make a massive army and let different squads take turns? Pretty important because whenever a member goes "haggard" I have to unassign him lest he become a threat when tantruming. One marksdwarf started a mass sho*ting before being knocked out with a lucky punch that prevented casualties.

[@ratlab5680]

I just make sure that they have no labors then lock them into that, they'll just wander around socializing and praying. If you want to force them to hang out with family you can also make a burrow that only has him and his family select and activate it so they rush there and can't leave

[@Diarmuhnd]

Commenting for the algorithm and replying to your question. I like your tutorial videos and other vods. You have a unique style. ^^ So between you, Further Reading, Twisted Logic, DasTactic, Nookrium and many others I finally learned how to play Dwarf Fortress after nearly a decade of trying. Oh snap, i starting writing a wall of text, i wonder if that will confuse the yT AI? *Good luck and have fun Blind*

[@BlindiRL]

KZbin. The machine algorithm.

[@therealcoro]

Congrats on being the only channel I (consider) running below 1.0x speed lmao. Thanks for the content ♥

[@MedievalFantasyTV]

Same here. Even his images fly by pretty fast! That and I can't keep up with his fast talk...

[@kevingriffith6011]

Something worth noting about the hammerer: while the possibility of them killing their victim when doling out punishment is *very likely* you can significantly curb their lethality by choosing a weapon made of lighter materials. Sadly, light-weight hammers are pretty difficult to procure, needing to either be artifacts made of Aluminum (or a non-metal hammer like bone or wood) or to make one yourself out of !!spoilers!!, since that is one of the lightest materials in the game and thus makes some of the worst hammers. (Though now a quick wiki dive tells me that you *might* be able to assign a training hammer to the hammerer, which would be excellent for preventing him from inadvertently doling out the death penalty because someone accidentally sold a goat cheese wheel, but this will require science. I may check back on that one.)

[@angermacfadden2702]

I would use a training weapon.

[@ravit50]

I didn’t know that spoiler hammers were bad, had my elite squad wiped by a colossus who was getting very minor dents… oh boy

[@MasterChief-ie2xu]

@@ravit50 Adamantine warhammers are the best option, or adamantine training weapon. Adamantine is the one of if not the lightest metal in the game and it's awful for warhammers but great for weapons with edges such as swords. I always give mines a candy warhammer and they never kill the criminals it's always very very minor injuries or none at all.

[@TylerChristensen69420]

Spoilers! ​@@MasterChief-ie2xu

[@SolaAesir]

These tutorials are extremely helpful, I really enjoy them. That said, don't burn yourself out to make them. They're something that is just going to sit in your back catalog slowly accruing views over time and bringing new people to your channel (like your Let's Play/DF introduction series) so consistent content isn't needed as much as making sure most of the FAQs are covered and the older stuff doesn't get out of date (like this video when the additional crime stuff comes in to the Steam version).

[@connorhannig6999]

Hey blind! Love the tutorials, but definitely don't think you're slacking off. The rate at which you released at launch was just nuts! Feel free to release at a rate that feels sustainable and enjoyable to you :)

[@rottenroadkill3311]

I second this!

[@FlyingRazzo]

One time I retrieved a stolen artifact because the intermediate thief (a sort of demon that periodically joined my inn) convinced a dwarf to stole that artifact and the next time he showed up I attached him. There was even a third criminal, a boss, never identified.

[@Анжан-ш8к]

Once I had a dwarf. A very angry dwarf, he liked to topple statutes, beat another dwarves and drank a lot. And he got cursed with vampirism for his deeds. Vampirism is truly a curse since dwarves can't eat nor drink their favourite plump helmet wine. At leas directly. They can drink only other dwarves. To death, unfortunately. The next several years hass passed for this vampire like this: - killing someone - being confined - getting beating from hammerer (with a hammer, of course) - be released - killing someone ... My hammerer beat him so many times, that he understood vampire anatomy quite well. And learned how to fracture the spine of the vampire. That made him literally paralyzed. Now vampire lived in another cycle: - try to go (or crawl) down from hospital to drink some blood - fail, get stuck near stairs. - be brought back to bed by a kind doctor - repeat. It lasted for several years, until I moved my hospital deeper. Now no one was trying to grab the vampire back to hospital. And it seems, he accepted his fate. Until the present days he is just sitting near the stairs watching our decorative waterfall and remembers his past. Dwarves come up and down paying him 0 attention. And he is totally ok with it. Truly a curse.

[@CilantroGamer]

Greatly appreciate this! My first long-term fort had a lot of run-ins with the justice system, and I would have killed to have known who the crimes got reported to (good to know now which dwarves I should keep around what areas for faster reporting!) I have a few questions though: What does it mean for a dwarf to be "assigned" to a case? I once got a huge negative thought almost entirely across my fort for convicting a long dead dwarf of a crime they definitely committed. I thought it might provide closure, but almost every dwarf I saw was upset by it. Is there any rule of thumb as to how long a dwarf can be dead before convicting them of a crime becomes a bad idea? Is it possible to change which squad the captain of the guard or the militia commander are in charge of? I found I could disband the squad and then reform, but when my squad members are all hand picked, custom schedule, custom equipment, it's quite a burden to fix it and I couldn't find an easy way to change.

[@UserTRIN]

Very good guide! Easy to undestand and fully coverable, as always. P. S. Could you overlook the possibility of making a guide on foreign guests? In terms of how a fortress can attract them and make them apply for work and/or reside at place at all?

[@timefoambathray9339]

Just want to drop in and say I really love these tutorials. Don't worry about how often they've been coming out; I didn't even know that I didn't know any of this, so I didn't even realize there was more that you were 'slacking off' on! You just keep doin you, amigo, and everything'll be wavy gravy. 👍

[@aaroncaratelli7660]

Yeah, this is great! So useful for someone like me, who has only recently 'struck the earth'

[@nyxetera]

I’m wondering, how do you use chains and restraints? I’m seeing folks talk about chaining up war dogs, or prisoners of war. I was attacked by 15 dwarves and they all got stuck in cages and idk how to move them around / put them in jail since they don’t show up in the justice menu? Is the only option throwing them in a pit?

[@GBS4893]

This system looks like it brings a lot of life and fun in the game, but at the same time i've heard it also straight up brought unfair doom onto some fortresses such as dwarves fighting each other and other dwarves getting involved until generalized chaos ensues. I'm new to the game, so i don't really know. It feels like something you choose to activate but could (and reading some advices should) ignore rather than something necessary or very beneficial, i don't know if dwarves commit crimes before justice is implemented either, is it worth it?

[@BlindiRL]

They Do commit crimes before Justice is implemented by the player. And it upset dorfs if you don't have Justice set up. So yes you should set up the justice system in your forts to keep the general happiness higher. Fights are usually caused by incorrect imprisonment or having a captain of the guard that is too strong that can kill dorfs.

[@alalmalal]

Is there a way to use pastures/pits as holding areas Like with animals but more reliable re-pasturing with dedicated guards to keep suspects and convicts in place inbetween investigation and punishment

[@alalmalal]

About 60% of my criminals go free unless i lock down the exits for 5ish minutes after clicking interrogate

[@Zorro9129]

In my game almost all my visitors are intelligent undead and they corrupted a crazy number of my dwarves. In fact one time two different dwarves were standing at the same display case, waiting for days for the other to leave to steal an artifact. Needless to say I put the display case behind a platinum grate, though there were two more attempted thefts just while setting that up. Known conspirators tend to return eventually, but interrogating them or assigning a conviction means they'll immediately run away (the game is bugged so if a visitor escapes after you assign a conviction, no sentence is given). What I like to do is raise the drawbridge before arresting them so they can't get away. Then, after they are safely in custody and I interrogate them they tend to disappear…mysteriously. Doing all this is rather tedious so my question is that can I eventually run out of "villains" or do I have to wipe out the entire population of fallen ghouls, putrid ones and necromancers from the world?

[@SolaAesir]

I was just reading on the wiki, trying to figure out the best way to display artifacts to get happy thoughts while cutting down on the thievery, and it said that the dwarves have to be able to stand on the same square to get a happy thought. So displaying them behind a grate, window, or fortification doesn't do anything except for the player. I haven't really tested it out fully but thought you might want to know that you could store your artifact in a more out of the way and secure place if it's going to be behind a grate anyway.

[@getoffmedamnnet]

​@@SolaAesir some secure setups still add room value even if the dwarves cannot get buffs from viewing the artifact.

[@rottenroadkill3311]

Thank you for this! I haven't understood the importance of these systems at all, since all my "crimes" are just dwarves going against the mayor's export bans

[@Zorro9129]

If you're violating export bans you're not being very careful during trades, lol.

[@rottenroadkill3311]

@@Zorro9129 oh my God you're right I havent.. my Woodburer just got smacked to death over it... oops...

[@angermacfadden2702]

In real life better prison conditions have a direct correlation with recidivism rates. It's one of many reasons private prisons are a sort of blight as they typically have bad conditions, for a modern prison.

[@Fuzzatron3000]

What's the weakest weapon to give a hammerer aside from fists? I'm hearing it's either a training sword or a bronze maul?

[@BlindiRL]

Adamantine hammer

[@Critic-ub2li]

Is it possible to force criminals to do some work? And if there are no witnesses, is it possible to somehow automate the interrogation? Or is the player required to manually choose who to interrogate in this case?

[@BlindiRL]

The player has to read who died go to the Justice screen interrogate the person who is a witness then accuse the person they witnessed do something. Then if they admit it arrest them. If they don't admit it arrest somebody else or interrogate somebody else. Until you get an admittance of guilt or somebody outright stating they saw somebody take it. Then you convict them. No you can't force them to do labor once they've been convicted.

[@wickedfaith17]

Very informative. Thanks blind.

[@awholelotofdoubting4880]

You're a lifesaver with these tutorials, man!

[@rottenroadkill3311]

How do you investigate visitors? Do you have to have an open case to do so?

[@BlindiRL]

When there are active crimes you can interrogate them.

[@KunalBahuguna]

A troubled child in my fortress has killed like 5 people including the mayor. Captain won't arrest him even after confession and is still rampaging. Any way to deal with this lol?

[@zergling50]

Not sure if you’ll see this, however I had a suggestion for a potential short tutorial that I think would be really beneficial. I find sometimes I want to set up a !FUN! And wacky fort, however I’m newer to the game and it takes me a while to set up all the basics and infrastructure and therefore takes a lot of effort to even start working on the !FUN! parts. Perhaps a tutorial on how to set up everything you need to support a basic fortress with minimal/effort and dwarf allocation in as compact and fast a way as possible? Or something along those lines? Just a random idea. I mainly say this because it’s hard to figure out what exactly is all essential and what isn’t the biggest deal to go without and how to set those things up rather quickly.

[@BlindiRL]

Nothing about that tutorial would be short though.

[@zergling50]

@@BlindiRL Thanks for responding! That makes sense. I’m newer to the game so wasn’t sure how hard a tutorial like that would be to make. Either way, I love the stuff you make!

[@Alex-ip1dn]

You will always be in our hearts, Weathermountains

[@Haplo-san]

It's so damn deep and complex, which I love it but still it's hard to convey all the jobs alone because everything is happening at the same time; once you unpause the game for 30 seconds, there are dozens alert and info pops up. DF could be a very good co-op game where you take noble jobs and one of you can be sheriff, taking care of peace and order, meanwhile others could share other jobs.

[@robertcotrell9810]

I don't know if this would be feasible, but an overview of maintaining haply dwarves could be useful. Big picture items and getting into the weeds a bit.

[@RoboticMagus]

Also, a dwarf simply getting beaten up might cause some loyalty cascading and put several more dwarfs in the hospital and/or the crypt.

[@Ardith_Prime]

How do you get stolen items back? can you even? I've convicted a thief but the stolen item is still missing

[@leetotigz6571]

This was fantasticly. I like your videos. They have created a true enjoyment of the game. When you're feeling up to it, would you please craft a little more in depth on the cell construction?

[@oomreni5820]

ah so sticking the criminal scum in a half flooded basement isn't what i was supposed to do :O Always informative to watch your stuff

[@pining_tree6788]

I had a dwarf who had already attacked multiple people getting accused of a crime, and all the witnesses said it was her… except for one person who happened to share the same first name who was accusing themself. It was very amusing to see and I don’t get why a dwarf would randomly do that lol

[@carl8703]

3:55 Oh, so that's why I have so many dead dwarves. I thought they were all just resisting arrest.

[@blimby2416]

dwarf in prision: Nice Chain, meals delivered, time to think. This is heaven.

[@Sworddeath727]

If I have enough candy i'll usually make 1 wiffle bat for the hammerer just to be safe

[@8darktraveler8]

If there was ever an argument or fight at the pub, my grandfather would walk up and headbutt both of them into oblivion because they were disturbing his peace. In the same town, there was also a South African, who would stand up and give them a stern look, if the out of towners still created disturbance, he would knock them out and throw them out of the pub. Simple Dwarvern times.

[@WhatWouldVillainsDo]

I was on what is really my second fortress, one that worked that is l. Really pulled out all the stops bon what I learned and got rich very very fast tons of gems and ores and I had found my first magma field. I had about 50-55 dwarves and guests and then I noticed no one was eating anything no one was complaining no deaths thinking it must be a big and it killed the fun for me to, and I just had a dwarf missing for a few weeks and dead animals started showing up and I had yet to explore the justice system. Think I'm gonna retire the fort and start it back up to see if they use anything maybe fix it. But I really don't want to play with unlimited food resources.

[@roidroid]

2:33 1 cage or chain for every 10 dwarves, a 10% incarceration rate, wow 😅

[@ivegotavandetta]

my hammerer had a well crafted silver war hammer and just kept killing everyone haha!

[@AntonSlavik]

This dude is a lifesaver

[@marystar1924]

Good. How about a tutorial or just tips on how to take out a demon in a goblin fortress?

[@syntax__err0r]

They're way less likely to commit crimes again if you make the prison cells really nice

[@AdolphusOfBlood]

You can already take back your artifact, but it would need you to be at war with the faction that stole it, and to raid their settlements till you get it as loot...

[@Zorro9129]

I assume Villains pt. 2 will include a way to set up your own plots to steal artifacts from other settlements. You could have full-on cold wars.

[@boredwarlock5216]

“…Unlike real life” LOL!

[@gmswatchmanofyahawashi]

whats the best way to make the dwarves happy?

[@koltvienzzaichard7307]

I see the newly made dungeon is filled with future convicts.

[@MrArthoz]

Wait...give hammerer the weakest weapon? Whoops...I gave mine the best hammer ever crafted or even legendary ones if available. 😅

[@BlindiRL]

Must have a high kill count then.

[@MrArthoz]

@@BlindiRL sent them flying all over the place... I thought he was performing public execution.

[@giausjulius4]

Maybe my Dwarves are just really happy but in my current run I have only had a few crimes. One was my fault because I forgot to make an order to fulfill a mandate and a metalcrafter got blamed and the Mayor himself beat the shit out of him lol, and the other was 3 separate instances of vandalism which I know was done by a tantrum. I forgave the guy because I accidentally left his pet goose unburied after an ettin attacked the pasture. Generally more than 75% of my Dwarves are in the green and super green happy zones. Really the outliers tend to be the minority and have unsolvable issues like missing loved ones or they are just children and hate doing chores. Sorry Timmy but that ore needs hauled to the stockpile and many hands make light work.

[@LeonardoDavincha-oz7gt]

Tried it.... didnt go as well. Especially when demons and hell broke loose.

[@climhazzard115]

My fortress is a survival of the fittest affair, lol. There's no justice.

[@ZexMaxwell]

Wow. I thought most of this was automated.

[@Mr.VaudeVille]

can you free prisoners?

[@nPcDrone]

Had to check my playback speed. Man u talk fast

[@DustinHodgson]

As a newb. Mr creator. You are blazing through shit so god damned fast. Jumping around saves not explaining things. Do I need to setup an office inside of the dungeon and link them? Or a meeting area? How’d that word? You blitzed through it so fast jumping around saves reading info on dwarfs I am totally lost.

[@BlindiRL]

I actually need to remake this tutorial cause half the UI is changing next patch.