v0.34 Talk:Vampire

So I did some !!SCIENCE!! by accident when trying to optimize my labour / hauling...

If using burrows it appears that Vampires only will feed on sleeping dwarfs that are in the same burrow as themselves. Setup was like this: 2 burrows, 1.st one (lets call it The Fortress) containing your whole fort and all the beds, 2nd one (lets call that one Vampire Prison for obvious reasons) containing nothing except your Vampire(s). I forgot to lock the door to said vampire prison and only noticed it when i wanted to reopen it to put a second vamp in there. The first one just sat in his little 5x5 burrow for 3 years without ever killing one dwarf. (or doing anything at all since i disabled all his labours) Can anyone confirm this?

Lets improve this article

I think it might be a good idea to divide this into two parts, one for adventure mode and one for fortress mode, since it is quite a difference. I'm not very good at wikis, so i dont really want to do anything wrong, but this would be usefull to be added:

• Do vampires actually sustain your fort if everybody else dies?
• vampires usually have tons of sentient creature bone crafts on them in adventure mode
• vampires are often found in high positions in adventure mode
• potential (dwarfy) uses marked d for dwarf

et cetera. just some ideas here, would be happy if somebody did this. --Miauw62 14:19, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

In regards to fortress mode, from my own fortress I have observed the following:

• Vampires in fortress mode also wear lots of bone jewellery which can be used to identify them.
• Vampires in fortress mode are not necessarily highly skilled/ranked (e.g. a peasant in my case).

Also, it should perhaps be noted that due to their lack of thirst or hunger, vampires can be happily locked into a room and used by resourceful players for menial tasks such as lever-pulling, work-managing or bookkeeping.

I believe that vampire skills are frozen, and thus are not particular useful as soldiers unless already skilled - could someone confirm this?

--Flobulon 16:31, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

• Vampires tend to have been part of a lot of forts
• Vampire skills may be frozen but if so it's at bite time and I got a dwarf turned in an existing fort since I leveled his weapon skills extensively in a danger room... no way of knowing pre/post vampirism.

Shadus 18:41, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Vampires' attributes are frozen. Vampires continue to gain (and lose) skill. --Vasiln 00:17, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

This is info from the first patch, but I imagine it hasn't been changed. Vampires don't drink but are still alcohol dependent. This is reflected in the article by mentioning that "s/he really needs a drink", and is because they haven't had any alcohol since they entered your fort. I'm pretty sure this results in the vampire being an immensely poor worker despite never needing to stop to eat/drink. I noticed that a vampire that was jailed and then isolated into a sealed off area became perpetually tired; I think this might be unrelated to the sobriety but I'm not sure. -- Qazmlpok 18:50, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

34.07 - a weak vampire came as an immigrant, i made him a miner - now he is mighty (as written in v mode). In adv. mode 34.07 i also managed to become a vamp flom almost very start: powerlevelling as a vampire also worked perfectly, all the stats increased the same way as if my hero was a non-vamp. The single bad thing in adv.mode is that vamp has a speed-cap of about 1300, even if an elf with maxed 2k speed becomes a vamp, the speed is instantly set to a vamp's cap of ~1300. (there are three exact constant cap's depending on the race, yet all are 1300+-)

I can confirm this. The NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN and NO_PHYS_ATT_RUST tags do nothing at the moment. Confirmed vampire (several years in a box, then watched him suck the life from 6 people in a row when released) had his strength go from no description to 'strong' after about 6 months of mining duty, then back to no description when I took him off. (unmodded 0.34.11) --Abdulijubjub 00:59, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Do you mean sobriety from booze or blood? --Headjack

From booze. They need to drink alcohol to avoid the negative effects any other dwarf would experience but do not drink alcohol. The "tired" status was probably from not getting enough blood, but the status message is from alcohol. -- Qazmlpok 13:20, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

I've tested the "s/he really needs a drink"/"s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long" Vampire Identification Method^tm and found it to be pretty much useless in vampire CSI. Have updated the page to reflect this new discovery. --CantankerousTank 22:12, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Fixed text to reflect uncertainty Headjack 03:28, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

A few things on my mind: Do vampires actively marry/reproduce? Do vampires have vampire kids? How often do vampires create new vampires through biting & how likely is it? Headjack 08:00, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I had a vampire who had a wife in my fort. They also had a children. However, according legends, it seems that vampire was married and got children before he was cursed to be a vampire. His child was not vampire. 80.247.245.72 13:51, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Vampires have the "Sterile" tag added to them. I'm assuming this means they can't have children. 205.178.83.139 10:34, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

--Hey, could someone confirm this for me? I'm finding that vampires cant display custom profession or nicknames given to them. Its happening on my end but I wanna get someone else to back this up; it might be the best way to CSI yet. Headjack 08:34, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

It is true. However, it will also be fixed in the next version. Knight Otu 10:52, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

-New to dwarf fortress and new member: Just found my third vampire with a fortress of 240+ dwarves, and I was able to confirm all 3 by changing their nickname and checking the deity. One thing that I did notice was that all three had something attached to the end of "He/She needs alcohol to get through the working day" that always started with "and". One was "and can't remember the last time she had some" and the other two were something along the lines of "and drinks a lot". The first two had a fairly long history, but the third had a shorter history than some of my other dwarves. I'd also like to note while searching some of the actual dwarves didn't mention food/drink/sleep when I was looking through the thoughts (seemed like mainly fishers and hunters). 21:43 CT 8/16/12 -bgreen

---

Do they have strange moods? technically they should but i'm not sure

- They do indeed get strange moods, had to let a vampire out of its enclosure for one

-Just found another possible way to identify vampires. A dwarf in my fortress that I'm pretty sure is a vampire is displaying a completely different name ingame from what is being displayed for him in the current Dwarf Therapist. Not sure if someone else more experienced wants to test this and/or update the page, this is my first contribution here. Tombozo 03:14, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

-Thats probably another iteration of the name bug Headjack 20:02, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

-Dwarf Therapist identification can also lead to false positives

- Nice try, vampire. --IC Pandemonium 06:26, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Somebody on Reddit said that zombies won't attack vampires in your fortress. Can anyone confirm/deny this? FatherLatour 00:36, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

-I don't know, I am now 3 for 3 vampires positively identified in my fortress, none of whom have names that match the name that Dwarf Therapist shows for them. I wouldn't doubt that this is related to the nickname bug, but it wouldn't surprise me if this (at least the DF part) were intentional behavior. It makes sense - a vampire who lived in 10-20 forts in the past, changes names every time they move. It is possible that the name Therapist shows is their original name, and the name shown ingame is a new alias; this could be the source of the nickname bug - the player can't give the vampire a new name, because the vampire has already given himself one. Tombozo 01:58, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

-I have a new immigrant that seems suspicious. Every single thing in her wound menu is inhibited or broken. I'm able to nickname her but she doesn't show up on Dwarf Therapist. I'm going to keep an eye on her... Has anyone seen anything like this?

I've had several immigrants like this, so far they've turned out to be 'normal' and, if you save and reload, DT discovers them. My current theory, based on a large number of missing ears, is elven raiders jealous of dwarven ears.

-This page doesn't specify whether vampire dwarves will specifically target living dwarves or if a vampire will feed on another vampire. Has anyone ever observed this?

Vampires only feed on sleeping creatures. Vampires never sleep. Therefore, Vampire never feed on vampires. --Timrem 19:31, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Vampires will rest if wounded. I'm pretty sure I've seen vampires feed on resting dwarves, not just sleeping. Could be worth testing at least. -- Qazmlpok 13:41, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

I can confirm that vampires and undead will not attack each other in fortress mode. During an undead siege I sent my vampire pikeman outside and closed the bridge. Both parties ignored the other, however the undead did fight back after giving an explicit attack order. You could use a single vampire to fight off an undead horde if your fort is sealed, but issuing attack orders to 80+ undead is a pain, and if you seal off your fort it's simply more fun to use magma. It should be possible to use this fact to quickly flush out a vampire. Build a contained area next to a critical hallway that every dwarf will pass through. Use fortifications to allow viewing the area while preventing (most) crossbowdwarves from shooting in, and a bridge so it can be turned off. Place an undead creature in the area and lower the bridge. As each dwarf passes by the undead, they should panic and ran away - unless they are a vampire. I imagine that this would quickly filter out any vampires in your fort, but I haven't tested any of it. -- Qazmlpok 13:41, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

- Mass kill designation might help a bit with that. -- Frogwarrior 15:07, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Do vampires produce ghosts if improperly memorialized? Considering converting my fortress into vampires with a tainted well. --Introprospector 01:17, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, they do. -- Qazmlpok 03:05, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Page also doesn't say if Vampires will feed off their own rellies, and thus make themselves unhappy. I'll test this to find out, if nobody knows. (I have one who had a son in the fortress - I'm fairly sure this vampire immigrated, too; so either he came with a wife and kid or that happened in the fort. Will also find out if child is a vamp.) Apparently missdiagnosed vampire. He got hungry. No idea who it is, now. Sorry! --Zatnik 16:38, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Instead of enforcing Justice normally, once I determine who the vampire is I've just been locking them up in a room by drafting them and stationing them in a room, then forbidding the door. Twice now I've had them get out and discovered the formerly locked door to be "Passable", but not pet passable. I'm quite certain I never unforbade it myself, doubly so since I would have made it pet passable as well. Do vampires have a way to pick locks, or could there be some other force opening the doors? This is in the middle of my fort so a hidden gremlin/thief should be impossible. -- Qazmlpok 22:55, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Very likely vampire's "hair is dark brown with flecks of grey" in my most recent fort (from v0.34.6) am adding a verify tag to the "white hair" section of identification... have a nasty feeling that the vamps have developed hair colouring. Earthfiredrake 03:10, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Just a quick note about the "He has the appearance of someone (x) years old and is among the first of his kind" line. I don't know firsthand how useful this is for vampire ID in general, but in a world with a very short history, any dwarf older than the world will have this line for their age. So, for example, I've got a fortress in year 8 of its world, so any dwarf older than 8 years old has this. This caused me to briefly worry that I had an all-vamp fort before I figured it out. 19:00 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thought of a way to put that vampire to work! Make a big big room for them and set all your important levers up in there to lock him in there with them, make your vampire useful by having him pull switches all day! Have a little side room to lock him into, so other dwafs can safely come in and do maintenance, and make sure the room is nice so he don't flip out and start braking things just when you need him to pull that 'save my fort' switch the most. Who else is better to have manning your switches than some one who never sleeps, never dies, and has to be separated from the rest of society? User:Azraile 14:36 20 August 20 2016 (UTC)

You do realize that this page is for the version of DF that was released over 4 years ago, right? --Quietust (talk) 23:48, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Melancholy

To get rid of the 5 vampires I had locked up, I sent them to kill a forgotten beast duster. Unfortunately one survived despite the syndrome and infection, but with the severe wounds and his friends dying and rotting in front of him, he went insane. Somehow he got cured of the infection and appears to be in perfect health now. As he doesn't need food or drink to survive he isn't going to die on his own. Supposedly melancholic dwarves will jump off cliffs or into magma, but he doesn't seem to be even trying to do that. Is there anything I can do to get rid of him? -- Qazmlpok 17:37, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Mmh, they gravitate to meeting areas, trap him somewhere and add magma, or just trap him in a cavern. Headjack 00:30, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Atom Smashing Vamps Is Dangerous

Vampire Ghosts? If you thought you had it bad before, there have been reports that vampire ghosts are un-slabbable; and their ghosts are still thirsty...

This issue is supposedly fixed according to the 34.05 change log. Testing is still required to see if vampire ghosts can be atom-smashed with impunity now (though the tearing off of limbs would probably still be a detriment).--Tenyn42 20:42, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

-I smashed a vampire, they later popped back up again as a restless spirit (I'll need to check the legends to see just how troubled their life was). I'm using the vanilla edition, and once people noticed the ghost they were classed as 'deceased' and I could engrave a slab.

First vamp notes

I just got my first vamp (I think he's the first one...) and he was identified completely by accident. All of a sudden I got a message that "Stodir Keskalosir, Dwarf Butcher vampire cancels..." Although I'd not noticed it before, he does appear by that name and title in the unit listings now, and he also has his night creature tile. He has not attacked anyone yet, my fort has 0 dead dorfs and 0 missing ones. I do have Dwarf Therapist and DFHack, so one of those may explain why he was auto-revealed. His name does match the one shown in Therapist, notably. I did discover a method to flush out vamps, though. His details indicate that he is 98 years old, born in the year 7. Its currently year 252. So he's lying about almost a hundred and fifty years, roughly an entire normal dorf's lifespan. If someone can verify it, let's add "has a mismatched birth year and age combination" to the methods of catching one. In other news, I'm planning a vampire work pit: A small pit, with a level above and a level below. Raw materials are dumped into the top, the vamp(s) inside process them, then dump them back down the other side for retrieval. --Waladil 21:17, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

My vampire details read: "He is thirty-three years old born on the 4th of Opal in the year 218" and the current date is 6th Galena 252. The numbers match so age it's not a definitive indicator. --Petar Petrov 18:29, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Unconfirmed

Think this is another instance of name bug. I set one of my vampires up in a labyrinth (he can open goblin cages himself without a lever, woot!) He has enough kills to warrant a longer name, at least according to therapist, but he still shows his original short name. Presumably this would be an additional way to ID vamps if confirmed.

Vampire Diplomat

I just got a human law-giver vampire diplomat in my fortress. He just arrived so I don't know if he'll start anything funky, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this? Anything I've got to watch for? And if so, it may be worthwhile to add the possibility to this page. Angry B8 15:56, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

-I've just had the same experience - due to some past grievances with their kind, I'm going to try to dispose of them in a manner which probably won't be linked back to me, and I'll post the results up. (21 March 2012) ---Turns out the humans were remarkably ungrateful about the fact that I had delivered them from their vampire overlord, so they besieged me. He didn't go down without a fight - I released several goblins into his room, and he shoved his human-bone jewellery right through their skulls before going down after an armed swordsman struck him down. Conclusion from all of this, vampire diplomats exist and are still treated as respected members of their own civilisation.

- One of my two known vamps somehow became Baron so he's locked into his quarters with a couple wall grates and levers. Suddenly this Serpent Man vampire law giver diplomat shows up! I had to open the Baron's enclosure up and they are now negotiating. I'm quite excited to see what the result will be.

Zero Variation

Just adding a little note here, in case anybody else is curious about the same things as I am: I had a look through a lot of the vampires in my world.sav, and there was no variation between any of the vampire curses. Every vampire curse was identical to the example curse: strength, agility, toughness+200, standard tag changes, nothing else. --Vasiln 22:56, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Blood vision

I'm playing an adventurer vamp, and I've been getting red " marks where some enemies beyond my normal sight lines. Not all enemies get red " marks, so I think it's the ones who are bleeding. Can anyone verify or provide greater info? It's largely speculation now, so I don't wanna add it to the article. --Waladil 22:56, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

They're probably goblins, which have [GLOWTILE:'"'] and [GLOWCOLOR:4:0:1]. Kobolds are the same way, except their eyes are yellow. --Quietust 23:12, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

That probably explains it, then. Considering it hasn't happened since then, and since some of the enemies were also not wounded. Thanks. --Waladil 22:04, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Breathless

Playing as a vampire adventurer, I'm noticing a few things that the article doesn't mention. For one, my vamp doesn't need to breathe. At all. He can go as deep underwater as needed and never starts to drown. Would this mean they're good candidates for killing toxin-breathing creatures? Also, whenever I swam a long time as a non-vamp, I'd inevitably freeze to death. As a vamp (After I pissed off the only major civ on a continent...) I swam to another continent, swimming for a full day, roughly from sunrise to sunset. He's also never been tired, even in during one of his several massacres. So I looked up the raws: NOEXERT: NOPAIN: NOBREATHE: NOSTUN: NONAUSEA: NO_DIZZINESS: NO_FEVERS: PARALYZEIMMUNE: NO_EAT: NO_DRINK: NO_SLEEP: NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN: NO_PHYS_ATT_RUST: START: 0] So they cannot get tired, cannot feel pain, don't breathe (As I discovered), can't be stunned, made nauseous, feel dizzy, get fevers, be paralyzed... so they're pretty much perfect candidates for fighting random Forgotten Beasts that emit those gases. Of course, that NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN is pretty annoying. <mods it out>. Much better. --Waladil 22:18, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

How to seal in a vampire

I'm pretty sure I got a positive - huge background list (been part of +50 fortresses) - his desc say's he's thirsty... and it has been a while since a corpse has been found drained of blood - plus the Dwarf Therapist name check also listed the joker under a different name

I'm thinking drafting, then putting him in a room and sealing him behind a stone floodgate? It shouldn't be possible for him to escape that, right? webkillal - may 6th 2012

These sorts of things are better placed on the forums. But yes, that would work. Make him an office and make him your manager and bookkeeper, and he'll be useful too. A floodgate would require someone be alive to pull it, so I would drop a pick in there too, so he can dig himself out if he's the last man standing.

Vampire vs. The Volcano

I just dropped a vampire into a volcano. He sank all the way down to the Magma Sea, discovered adamantine, and sat around for awhile on the bottom before finally dying.

Vampire Nobles

A vampire was elected Mayor in my fortress. (Maybe it's all the connections he has built up in his 150 years of life xD) Anyway, it told me that he was a vampire when this happened. However, the tag disappeared over time. --Dissimulation 00:18, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I can one up you there, apparently my civilization has a Vampire Queen. Now I don't know if I'm supposed to kill my vampire when I find it, or try to make it the ruler of my fortress. Apparently it's not all that uncommon, maybe someone should write a blurb about it. --Zemaniac 20:23, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

tired vampire

i have a tired pump operator / soldier vampire, so i'll put a verify tag on 'never get tired' - maybe this is true only for adventure mode? Kartofius al andalus 05:39, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Took Joy in Slaughter

Do dwarves get the "took joy in slaughter lately" thought when they bite someone as vampire? Because if so, and the vampire isn't in the military, identification should just be a matter of trawling through the thoughts of all the dwarves as soon as the body is found. --Stinhad Limarezum 13:15, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

After I discovered a dead Lye Maker in the middle of a hallway I noticed a Marksdwarf, who had seen no combat whatsoever, with the Joy In Slaughter thought despite no recorded kills. Later confirmed that this was my vampire. I'm going to say this is indeed another indicator. -- 209.6.50.208 22:37, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Why vampire alcohol dependant bug might not be fixed.

http://www.altergamer.com/dwarf-fortress-interview/ http://www.bay12games.com/media/df_talk_18_transcript.html

Toady thinks that vampires slowing down is due to them not drinking enough blood, and I can't find any case of Toady acknowledging the alcohol dependant bug.

Please enlighten me if this isn't the situation. --UristDaVinci 06:15, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Someone on the forums linked me to this comment http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=107933.msg3216725#msg3216725 so it seems that it's more of a low priority bug

Vampires in Starting Party

Although the article says otherwise, It seems one of my starting dwarves, my expedition leader is the vampire.. can anyone confirm this being possible or did I get a false positive from therapist?

EDIT However once I check again it seems I was right after all - She has 18 different past memberships in different groups, "She is the first of her kind" and "looks as if she is 142 years old" (older then the world itself which is 126.) Does this mean vampires can be in the starting party now?

Age is not a problem, in my 50 year old world many dwarves come as if they are 70~100 years old, none of them is a vampire (if therapist is right). BUT I want one! -- lcy03406

Due to this post and the Vampire diplomat post I added a verify tag for vampires as diplomats, starter dwarves, ect. --Brichess 14:17, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Getting a vampire in your starting party is 100% impossible because those dwarves are created from scratch - in all likelihood, lcy03406's original expedition leader died and was replaced by a migrant. --Quietust 14:40, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Vampires feed on hunt kills?

I had a vampire that hunted and killed an animal then stood over the corpse, presumably due to the vampire feeding on it, while it stood there I could see its real name, so can vampires feed from hunt kills? --Brichess 14:14, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Likely the hunter just injured the target enough to have them fall unconscious, then stood over and drank the now "sleeping" creature dry. (Hmm, the page as it reads now gives the impression that vampires only drink from actually-sleeping creatures. I suspect that the only requirement is for the creature to be unconscious for any reason, including injury/pain. Certainly the vampire-adventurer section seems to confirm that injured/unconscious creatures are drinkable.) Urist McDorf 02:47, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Nickname/Deity Check

Should probably note that the deity relationship isn't necessarily a "cursed the dwarf vampire 'nickname'" one. While checking out new migrants, I initially missed one vamp by skimming just the "cursed" lines. It turns out that "In 177, Ino received the worship of the dwarf vampire 'ImAVampire' Elderstars". No indication of what deity first cursed the poor sap. Urist McDorf 02:30, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Spreading Vampirism Intentionally

I've tried to spread the vampiric curse with tainted water-supply, but I've never been able to pull it off correctly. Can anyone confirm that they've been able to create more vampires in this manner? – unsigned comment by 131.230.193.146

I believe that some vampire blood needs to make its way into the water, although I can't say I've tried. Looking at the water should display Stagnant water if there is vampire blood present. --Lethosor (talk) 22:38, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Proximity trigger?

By observing my vampire and moving her around with 'station' orders (and sacrificing my fortress (okay, I had a backup)) I have come to the conclusion that proximity to a sleeping dwarf, maybe 10 tiles, either increases the chance of a suck job or even triggers one. --Old Ancient (talk) 17:33, 27 April 2013 (UTC)

Indicators

I just found my first vampire, and had her wall herself into her tomb, where she's currently happily occupying herself by drawing on the floor. I figure if I need her out for some reason, I can have her deconstruct the wall, but as long as I don't give her that order, I think the worst she can do is throw a tantrum and knock over her coffin.

Her status page makes her vampirism so completely obvious that the only way I could have missed it before she killed and I went actively hunting is by not ever looking at it. She had no happiness modifiers (though she's now acquired "admired own fine Burial Receptacle lately"), in a fortress where most everyone else has eaten in the legendary dining room at least once.

She has an entire page of prior associations - fully thirty. The last of those indicates that she's "the former sacred oil of The Cult of Caves", the like of which I've never seen in anyone else's description.

She reports a huge list of relations, including a husband and three children, and dozens of siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins, none of whom have ever been in the fortress.

Her social skills are consistently high. Her labor skills don't get above Competent... but she's got a lot of them, with no particular theme. Mason, Animal Dissector, Clothier, Herbalist, Furnace Operator, Surgeon, Potash Maker, Appraiser... and a dozen others at Novice in between.

The reported age is consistent, and may even be accurate - she'd have been fifty-odd when cursed, if the provided birthdate is truthful.

And a more subtle point: Absolutely everyone else in my fortress has bronze eyes. The vampire's eyes are brass.

Further Indicators

Having had to deal with a few fortresses with 3-4 vampires each, sometimes it happens later on, when you have ~200 dwarves. Sometimes, also, the vampire is not particularly exceptional (doesn't set off a red flag when the wave arrives) and has an occupation that causes them to spend a lot of time working, like fisherdwarf. Some of those labors (esp. fisherdwarf) seem to be driven by success + bodily needs, meaning the vampire may go long stretches (between say, sieges/ambushes) simply working.

This particular vampire I finally caught (I had a few false positives such as my Mayor, who had been working at consoling angry dwarves so long he forgot the last time he ate and drank and slept...!) with a very simple technique that seems to apply almost only to fortresses with large populations and not enough beds.

As it often happens, my food storage is above my dining room, and above almost all sleeping quarters in the fortress. Building ~144 'modest' quarters takes some time & some engraving work, and during this time dwarves will often fall asleep in the food storage room. I have caught two vampires specifically this way; and it relates to the 'forcing dwarves to sleep in the same room' idea in 'Defense'. However in this case, you happen to have a mixture of sleeping, eating and lingering dwarves and the vampire will be spotted. Keeping most workshops in groups (such as the kitches and stills) seems to help with this 'other dwarves naturally being around another sleeping dwarf.'

The second part of this is to make sure you have a captain of the guard, not because you want to convict the vampire, but so people will start pointing fingers at each other. When the murder happens, look at the accusations and examine each dwarf. If the murder was one with a ton of witnesses (which it sometimes will be) the vampire will be obvious because a large number of different dwarves will be accusing the vampire. If not, you can simply do 'view creature' on each of the people in the accusations (including the person who found the body) and one of them will be this clever vampire. Usually you want to check out the dwarves making accusations first; if the migrants have been there for awhile, it will be the strange dwarf, in particular the one that has only been admiring your traps, doors and bridges; who has no thoughts about sleep, eating or drinking.

One way to confirm this oddity is to immediately assign that dwarf to your atom smasher burrow (or your vampire prison burrow if you intend to utilize the creature). The vampire dwarf will not immediately go (you will not get the usual 'Urist McUrist cancels search uselessly for extinct fish, forbidden area' but instead the Dwarf will go to 'No Job' and stand there for a VERY long time.

For confirmation, once assigned to this space the dwarf will just hang around, doing nothing and not getting upset at all. All of this is just because often a vampire dwarf is also an exceptionally skilled dwarf that you don't want seal away or vaporize on a whim.

In this case, it seems like the combination of fisherdwarf and vampire made for a 'clever' vampire that only very occasionally fed, and since there were three vampires in total, for a long time I was certain I had dealt with the problem.

As an aside it would be interesting if vampire dwarves would get clever (if for instance, other vampires had been killed or disappeared 'accidentally') and try to choose low priority targets (i.e. children of non-nobles & non-legendaries, or the adult dwarf with the fewest skills) in an attempt to avoid being caught / subjected to 'accidents'.

NOTE: why the vampire dwarf behaves this way RE: burrow assignment I do not know; during Civilian Alerts he or she will come inside immediately like any other dwarf. If this is generally a kind of bug in the current version, it may be worth noting.

--Riverc (talk) 03:52, 2 February 2014 (UTC)