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40d:Noise

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Certain jobs generate noise which disturbs nearby sleeping dwarves. Depending on a job's noise level and proximity, your dwarves could sleep "uneasily due to noise", "very uneasily due to noise", or be woken up by noise. These events will produce unhappy thoughts in varying degrees.

Neither walls nor doors will insulate dwarves from noise. Distance and how loud a job is are the only factors determining whether a dwarf's sleep will be disturbed.

Noise is produced when a noisy job is completed. Thoughts about noise do not appear until the sleeping dwarf has woken up.

Dwarves walking through a sleeping dwarf's room (even over his head) will not cause noise, which is important for bedroom design.

Noisiness of various jobs

  • Jobs performed at workshops cause noise within 4 tiles. (see below for visualization)
  • Placing and removing buildings causes noise within 16 tiles. For example, placing a chair will cause a 33x33x33 cube (or 35937 tiles) of noise centered on the chair. Hopefully this will change in future versions.
  • Construction causes noise within 16 tiles, and is known to wake dwarves up.
  • Fighting has also been observed to wake dwarves up, which suggests that it causes noise within 16 tiles as well. Strangely, sparring does not cause any noise at all -- which is just as well, considering dwarves will only spar in a barracks, which is essentially a communal bedroom.
  • Eating is believed to cause noise within 1 or 2 tiles; probably 1. It is unknown whether the noise radiates from the eating dwarf or his food.
  • Moving stuff in and out of stockpiles has been observed not to cause noise.
  • It has been claimed that most other jobs cause noise within 2-4 tiles. More research is necessary to determine the specifics.
  • An operating water wheel causes noise within at least 3 tiles.

Visualization

Noise radiates in the shape of a cube, so noise that travels 4 tiles will generate noise in a 9x9 pattern on 9 successive floors. The noise radiates from the center of the noise-producing apparatus.

  Level 0      Level ± 1     Level ± 2     Level ± 3     Level ± 4     Level ± 5

...........   ...........   ...........   ...........   ...........   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.***WWW***.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.***WWW***.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.***WWW***.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
.*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   .*********.   ...........
...........   ...........   ...........   ...........   ...........   ...........

W = Workshop
* = Noise
. = No noise

Noise in practice

  • Try not to place buildings like doors while your dwarves are asleep. Or if you do, make sure they are at least 16 tiles away from the nearest sleeping dwarf.
  • Don't dig near the bedrooms when there are dwarves sleeping in them.

Designing in anticipation of noise

  • A good way to start is to put all your bedrooms on level -5 or lower. This means you don't have worry about restricting your woodcutting.
  • If you anticipate there to be fighting in your Trade Depot, you should keep bedrooms away from there. (It is believed that fighting creates noise within 16 tiles, since it has the power to wake units up.)
  • Remember that jails, hospitals, and sleeping barracks should also ideally be kept away from noise, in addition to standard and noble bedrooms.