40d Talk:Children

Dwarves will get married? I thought only immigrants could be married, when the arive at the fort?

– unsigned comment by Doler 12

Dunno about that! but I did rewrite the article. Hope the formal wikipedia style isn't too far out of whack here, slap me if I need it.GarrieIrons 06:19, 5 February 2008 (EST)

Dwarves can get married at any point, if they like each other enough. Does anyone know if dwarves will ever not 'forgo any formal arrangements'? Someone better than me should write a marriage page. --Niaba 12:27, 12 April 2008 (EDT)

see Marriage Twiggie 13:16, 16 April 2008 (EDT)

out of date

relationships and marriage has been added recently, so this ought to updated to reflect the new, less mysterious process.

How many children again?

Hmmm 25 children and only 10 dwarves... Maybe unleashing that dragon was a bad idea.

You think that's bad? 241 dwarves, 70 children. I'm making an entire village outside for all of them... when you hit the pop cap, they keep having babies (until 100 if the init.txt is unedited), but you get no actual labor from migrants. It's getting exceptionally annoying in here... 12 years in game, and only 2 children have graduated to peasants. --Gotthard 12:11, 26 October 2008 (EDT)

kids and alcohol

gotta love em when they lift up the whole 56 weight barrel... and thats from as young at two as well ^_^ Twiggie 08:53, 18 April 2008 (EDT)

The newborns in my fortress "need alcohol to get through the working day". Must come from their mum the Mayor being still on active duty and having one baby per year every year of the fortress so far. Kinda sucks that my most reliable means of "alcohol production" so far is trading in "narrow giant cave spider silk socks (600)" for sly grog!09:07, 29 June 2008 (EDT)

Actually the quote from the (I guess toddler) is "She needs alcohol to get through the working day and has gone without a drink for far, far too long"!GarrieIrons 09:09, 29 June 2008 (EDT)

child abuse?

my child has a broken upper leg... idk how it happened :( my guess is one of its parents hit it really hard, or one of them sat/laid on top of it in bed - that family often has all four of them in the same bed. Twiggie 08:48, 19 May 2008 (EDT)

:( nobody wanted to feed the kid, or bring it water, so it went melancholy within a year. Twiggie 10:15, 19 May 2008 (EDT)

Noble children don't become nobles right?

I was amazed a noble gave birth. I want princesses and princes, even though they will have beards.--Seaneat 21:17, 2 July 2008 (EDT)

I've not seen it personally, but the exact opposite is said to be the case. Due to a dwarf's value being set in an economy by how much work they do and their children's value supposedly being a function of both their parent's until they come of age, Noble children end up being paupers since their parents don't need to do any work/get stuff for free for merely being nobles. --Kyace 07:05, 3 July 2008 (EDT)

Happy to be free

I recently had a kidnapper make off with a baby (despite the only entrance to my fort being cage-trapped - NB. it is not safe for baby-carrying women to be Mechanics!), and the child in question currently has a single thought: "She is happy to be free.". Free from the oppressive shackles of dwarven society, I guess. Perhaps the goblins make more toys than I do! --Raumkraut 15:22, 13 July 2008 (EDT)

Maybe it's just a "joke" from Toady. Or maybe the baby manage to escape the goblin's lair, but it seems strange in the current version (38c).

I just had one kidnapped and was expecting the parents to get a negative thought. (didn't see one) And I also saw the happy to be free bit under the child. When i zoomed to it though it showed the spot where the kidnapping took place. Probably a bug.--Silver 15:41, 7 August 2008 (EDT)

I actually believe this is a way to stabilize the child's mood so it doesn't abruptly throw a tantrum when kidnapped and break something. Happy to be free is an outstandingly powerful happy thought (+1000 where ecstatic is +50), usually used to give people a break from unhappy prisoners getting out of jail. By tacking on happy to be free, Toady is essentially locking in the child's mood so it behaves predictably helplessly when kidnapped. --ThunderClaw 17:20, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

I noticed the "happy to be free" thought in a baby that was actually freed after its kidnapper was taken down by dogs. (It happened automatically once the bag was dropped.) Maybe generating the happy thought before it gets out of the bag is just a bug.--Maximus 18:09, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

Child production

Hmm, seems that idle dwarves gave birth to more baby than others. I've got a nervous system-injured dwarf that do nothing else that wander in the meeting hall, and she have 4 children. It should be related to the relationships, because this dwarf is competent in all the the relationship skills... anyone can confirm ? (sorry for my imperfect english) Timst 10:12, 14 July 2008 (EDT)

I also have a nervous system-injured dwarf wounded from sparring who's beginning to have children. She's the only one so far with the injury or children. --FloodSpectre 17:28, 24 August 2008 (EDT)

My duchess has had 6 children so far, and she sits around all day whining for more platinum items. My legendary siege builder had no children until she hit legendary (and now does nothing) and started to have kids. However, I have had kinds from my 2 miners (whi NEVER stop mining) but they seem to stick at one until it gets to child status, and then have another. --Gotthard 12:13, 26 October 2008 (EDT)

Triplets...

Small fortress, 50 dwarves and suddenly "Tirist Dwarfeddwarves has given birth to triplets"... Of course it was military dwarfess... The article page says nothing about huge dwarven litters. --Someone-else 11:19, 24 July 2008 (EDT)

Unusual Family Structures

Playing in Adventure mode, I asked a child about his family. He told me about his grandmother, who moved to some city in some year, and later slew a wolf. Then the child added, "She is also my aunt." o.O --RomeoFalling 16:04, 26 October 2008 (EDT)

Children strenght ?

Are children -not only dwarves but all creatures- weaker than the adults ? It seem logical, but I've never read anything about it. Timst 04:23, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

The only way I can think to test it is to have your dwarves haul some heavy things (>2000Γ) to the depot and see if the children do it slower than the adults. My bet would be no, though if not, Toady's bound to fix it sooner or later.--Maximus 18:17, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

Well, by strenght, I also meant damage resistance and etc... eg ; is a puppy less resistant than a dog ? Is a young giant eagle less deadly than a full-grown one ? Timst 18:27, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

(jarred memory) Oh yes -- children are about 2/3s the size of adults (going by how much meat you get from butchering them), and size is a big factor in combat. So, yes, children are weaker.--Maximus 13:15, 2 November 2008 (EST)

I don't think there is much difference, my chilren at 'superdwarvenly tough' seem to take as many iron bolts to die a their older relatives. I've had a couple of my children (of which I have 90+) fight off Goblins in hand-to-hand combat, but they won't engage unless they are caught. Frankly, overall children will end up BEING stronger, stat wise, due to talking all the time, compared with older folk who have jobs, but that is not inherent to children themselves. --Gotthard 22:57, 2 November 2008 (EST)

"abandoned" baby

Can a baby die of starvation/thirst if the mother is injured and unable to retrieve them? Random832 17:02, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

I don't believe babies receive food or drink at all (this leads to the "has not had a drink in far too long" message by the end of their infancy). It's possible that would change when the baby is not carried by the mother, but frankly, I'd be surprised.--Maximus 18:14, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

No Profession?

One of my children finally grew up to be a real, manly, dwarf farmer. Except that, despite having proficient skill in growing, he is considered a peasant. Milskidasith 14:13, 11 November 2008 (EST)

Hm. I remember in older versions my harvesting children, upon reaching adulthood, became farmers. Does he have Proficient or higher broker skills? Once his farming skill exceeds them, his profession ought to change.--Maximus 14:37, 11 November 2008 (EST)

His highest broker skill is competent intimidation. Milskidasith 14:59, 11 November 2008 (EST)

Confirmation, I have a peasant former-child who has novice grower and has not become a farmer. He has higher social skills of course, but that never interfered with the promotion of regular peasants to other professions afaik. --Squirrelloid 10:58, 4 December 2008 (EST)

Update: said peasant became a grower when his Siege Operating reached novice... despite them both being the same level... I don't get it... --Squirrelloid 12:33, 4 December 2008 (EST)

The bones of the young

How many bones do you get from a dwarven baby? This seems odd and I find no page for the "baby" dwarf here on the wiki so.. it's like this:

The baby and her mother were attacked by goblins. An arrow tore the babys hand clean off and then they killed the mother and the child. I always (f)orbid the dwarves from touching the corpses after they're buried since I suspect they will steal the bones and make bolts out of them. Now I noticed that for some reason in the baby grave there is 1 skull and 2 bones. Does the body give 1 bone and the hand 1? Or does the body give 2 and they never retrieved the hand? Is this all a bug? Aspgren 03:48, 23 December 2008 (EDT)

The current understanding is that young creatures have 2/3s the size (and therefore bones) of adults. Babies might be distinct from children, however -- 1/3 size? That would make dwarven babies size 2, 'cause adult dwarves are size 6.--Maximus 22:25, 22 December 2008 (EST)