Need

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

The needs of a scholar.

Needs affect a creature's focus - needs that are unmet for long enough will increasingly damage the creature's focus, while sufficiently well-satisfied needs will improve it. Better focus leads to better results from work--essentially, a boost to all skills. Distraction is the opposite--an unfocused dwarf may become sloppy in their work, making worse crafts or failing a block during combat.

The need system replaces the generalized on break feature of previous versions. Dwarves will sometimes perform jobs that satisfy their personal needs, instead of working for the betterment of the fortress. These personal-fulfillment jobs generally come in two varieties: low-priority (indicated by green text, e.g. Listen to Poetry), or high-priority (magenta text with an exclamation point, e.g. Pray to Lorsïth!). Low-priority jobs may be cancelled to undertake a fortress job. High-priority jobs will not be cancelled for fortress jobs.

Focus

Overall, Urist is unfocused by unmet needs.

Focus affects a dwarf's ability to perform. A dwarf with high focus will work faster and produce better results, while a distracted dwarf will take longer to do everything poorly. Focus is separate and independent of overall mood; a dwarf can be happy even with largely-unmet needs, or unhappy yet focused. However, prolonged insufficiency in meeting needs is a cause for both low focus and bad thoughts. Thus, focus can, with prudence, be used to predict future mood developments.

Focus represents the percentage of the combined totals of met over unmet need values. The ratio of 1:1 (100%) represents a neutral state.

Focus statuses:

Very focused	+ 140% (?)
Quite focused	120-139% (-149%?)
Focused	101-119%
Untroubled	100%
Unfocused	80-99%
Distracted	...-79% (?)
Badly distracted	(?)

A highly-focused dwarf can receive an effective skill boost of up to 50%; a badly distracted dwarf can receive an effective skill penalty of up to 50%.^[1]

Diversity

She is unfocused by a lack of trouble-making.

An individual creature's set of needs and their weights (levels) are affected by personality traits. For instance, a dwarf that values romance will be unfocused "after being unable to make romance", while a dwarf that personally values nature will be unfettered "after seeing animals". Unreligious dwarves will have no need to pray or meditate; dubious and casual worshippers will have low or medium level needs to pray; committed believers will have high level need; and dwarves following multiple deities will have a separate prayer need, with separate level for each of their deities. Proposed weights per need level are 1, 2, 5, and 10.

As expected, high-level needs hold a much larger sway in a dwarf's overall focus than low-level needs. For example, "immoderation" controls the need for alcohol; dwarves, thus, are more likely to have a need for alcohol than humans (but most of the time won't have a very strong one). A small percentage have no need for alcohol at all, though they'll still slow down without it, due to dwarves' alcohol dependence.

Needs are shown in the "Needs" sub-tab of the "Personality" tab of a creature's character sheet, which can be accessed by clicking on the creature or from the creature tabs by clicking the magnifying glass next to the creature in one of the sub-tabs of the "creatures" tab..

Degree of fulfillment:

Descriptor	Range
Unfettered	400 to 300
Level-headed	299 to 200
Untroubled	199 to 100
Not distracted	99 to -999
Unfocused	-1,000 to -9,999
Distracted	-10,000 to -99,999
Badly distracted	-100,000 and below

When a need is satisfied, its value is refreshed to maximum (400), regardless of previous value. There is no minimum to how Badly distracted a need can get. A deeper negative value won't further reduce total focus, which is based on a ratio of all needs' focus rating.

In the absence of needs rated as "Badly distracted" the focus score is expressed as the ratio of:

[6     * number of Unfettered scores +
 5 1/3 * number of Level-headed scores +
 4 2/3 * number of Untroubled scores +
 4     * number of Not distracted scores +
 3 1/3 * number of Unfocused scores +
 2 2/3 * number of Distracted scores] / (4 * number of scores total)

where the numerator is rounded down to a whole number.

It is currently unknown how "Badly distracted" needs contribute to focus, pending further science, but it is likely that they contribute 2 points each to the numerator.

Fortress actions per need

Positive	Negative	Related Value or Personality Trait	Job
spending time with people	being away from people	GREGARIOUSNESS	Socialize
drinking	being kept from alcohol	IMMODERATION, SELF-CONTROL	Drink alcohol
communing with [deity] / meditation	being unable to pray (to [deity])		Pray/meditate in a temple
staying occupied	being unoccupied	HARD_WORK, ACTIVITY_LEVEL	(assumedly a sufficient amount of fortress tasks*)
doing something creative	doing nothing creative	ART_INCLINED	Create or perform any artistic work
doing something exciting	leading an unexciting life	EXCITEMENT_SEEKING	Varied; including at least being in danger or catching a live vermin
learning something	not learning anything	KNOWLEDGE, CURIOUS	Gain a rank in any skill, learn a new subject from written content.
being with family	being away from family	FAMILY	(Socialize with close family members? Note that this need can currently be assigned to dwarves without families)
being with friends	being away from friends	FRIENDSHIP	(Socialize with friends?)
hearing eloquent speech	being unable to hear eloquent speech	ELOQUENCE	Hear or recite poetry
upholding tradition	being away from traditions	TRADITION	(Perform any improvisational form? Religious rites? Justice served?)
self-examination	a lack of introspection	INTROSPECTION	read anything, compose song or poetry (automatically self-indulgent)
making merry	being unable to make merry	MERRIMENT, HUMOR	Watching a performance, (Recite any poem?)
practicing a craft	being unable to practice a craft	CRAFTMANSHIP	Craft any item
practicing a martial art	being unable to practice a martial art	MARTIAL_PROWESS	Gain a rank in any combat skill
practicing a skill	being unable to practice a skill	SKILL	Use any skill (?)
taking it easy	being unable to take it easy	LEISURE_TIME	(assumedly spending a sufficient time idle or self-fulfilling?)
making romance	being unable to make romance	ROMANCE, LOVE PROPENSITY	(interacting with spouse/partner)
seeing animals	being away from animals	NATURE	Animal must also see the dwarf.*
seeing a great beast	being away from great beasts	EXCITEMENT_SEEKING, NATURE, CURIOSITY	Uncertain, possibly encounter LARGE_ROAMING?
acquiring something	being unable to acquire something	GREED, COMMERCE	Acquire any trinket (happens automatically when performing a "Store item in stockpile" job on an eligible trade good)
eating a good meal	a lack of decent meals	IMMODERATION	Eating a preferred food (or a preferred alcohol cooked into a meal), or a sufficiently valuable mealv0.47.05.
fighting	being unable to fight	VIOLENT	Partake in a fight or any combat.
causing trouble	a lack of trouble-making	HARMONY, DISCORD	Fight or Argue
arguing	being unable to argue	FRIENDLINESS	Argue
being extravagant	being unable to be extravagant	IMMODESTY	Wear any item with a quality modifier
wandering	being unable to wander	NATURE, ACTIVITY LEVEL	Complete a Fish, Return kill (hunt) or Gather plants job; complete a mission
helping somebody	being unable to help anybody	ALTRUISM, SACRIFICE	Bring water or food to patient/prisoner/animal*; bring wounded units to rest; leading demonstration; being yelled at by unhappy citizens (for relevant nobles).
thinking abstractly	a lack of abstract thinking	ABSTRACT_INCLINED	Read or write any written content, or compose music or a poem. Playing make-believe. (Using Architect skill does not satisfy this need.)
admiring art	being unable to admire art	ARTWORK	Exposure to artful furniture, artistic crafts, or engravings. Watching certain performances.

(* See also animal caretaker)

Satisfying any need will result in a good thought and a decrease in stress.

Adventurer actions per need

Positive	Negative	Related Value or Personality Trait	Adventurer activity
spending time with people	being away from people	GREGARIOUSNESS	Speak to anyone or reply to greeting. They don't have to be able to reply back.
drinking	being kept from alcohol	IMMODERATION, SELF-CONTROL	Drink alcohol
communing with [deity] / meditation	being unable to pray (to [deity])		Speak, Pray to <Deity> or Begin a performance, Give a sermon
staying occupied	being unoccupied	HARD_WORK, ACTIVITY_LEVEL	Very wide variety of actions
doing something creative	doing nothing creative	ART_INCLINED	Perform or compose any work
doing something exciting	leading an unexciting life	EXCITEMENT_SEEKING	A wide variety of actions
learning something	not learning anything	KNOWLEDGE, CURIOUS	Gain a rank in any skill, learn a new subject from written content.
being with family	being away from family	FAMILY	Implemented, but inaccessible without modding. If your character has close family members, this need will be filled by spending time with them (seems to only apply to blood relations). However, there is currently no way to actually do this outside of mods.
being with friends	being away from friends	FRIENDSHIP	Unimplemented
hearing eloquent speech	being unable to hear eloquent speech	ELOQUENCE	Hear or recite poetry
upholding tradition	being away from traditions	TRADITION	Perform any improvisational form
self-examination	a lack of introspection	INTROSPECTION	read anything, compose song or poetry (automatically self-indulgent), craft a figurine of yourself
making merry	being unable to make merry	MERRIMENT, HUMOR	Recite any poem
practicing a craft	being unable to practice a craft	CRAFTMANSHIP	Craft an item (ie, Knapping, Bone Carving)
practicing a martial art	being unable to practice a martial art	MARTIAL_PROWESS	Gain a rank in any combat skill
practicing a skill	being unable to practice a skill	SKILL	Gain a rank in any skill
taking it easy	being unable to take it easy	LEISURE_TIME	Unknown (I fulfilled this need by going to sleep at a tavern, getting interrupted in the middle of the night by a giant alligator (which the bards killed by the time I went down the stairs) and performing with them for a while)
making romance	being unable to make romance	ROMANCE, LOVE PROPENSITY	Unimplemented
seeing animals	being away from animals	NATURE	Animal must also see you
seeing a great beast	being away from great beasts	EXCITEMENT_SEEKING, NATURE, CURIOSITY	Uncertain, possibly encounter LARGE_ROAMING?[Verify]
acquiring something	being unable to acquire something	GREED, COMMERCE	Acquire any item by trade or demand
eating a good meal	a lack of decent meals	IMMODERATION	Eating a sufficiently valuable meal. Foods with an item value of at least 4 count. v0.47.05.
fighting	being unable to fight	VIOLENT	Engage in any combat of any lethality
causing trouble	a lack of trouble-making	HARMONY, DISCORD	Fight or Argue
arguing	being unable to argue	FRIENDLINESS	Get into any disagreement about values
being extravagant	being unable to be extravagant	IMMODESTY	Wear any item with a quality modifier on a body part - a waterskin will not work, as it can only be worn in another item of clothing
wandering	being unable to wander	NATURE, ACTIVITY LEVEL	Move to/from any site or region tile
helping somebody	being unable to help anybody	ALTRUISM, SACRIFICE	Reunite family members
thinking abstractly	a lack of abstract thinking	ABSTRACT_INCLINED	Read or write any written content, or compose music or a poem
admiring art	being unable to admire art	ARTWORK	Exposure to artistic crafts, examining adornments and coins

Satisfying any need will usually result in a good thought and a mild decrease in stress. (If the dwarf has extremely low CHEER, they may "felt nothing after X").

Creatures with [NOEMOTION] cannot satisfy any need and will inevitably become 'distracted'. In unmodded games, this concerns only Intelligent undead.

Adventure mode meta-strategy

Upon creating your adventurer, you may want to avoid having any of the non-fulfillable needs: romance, family, friends. Otherwise, you will suffer never-ending focus disadvantages. Some precaution is necessary in sacrifice/altruism -> helping capability is not available as long as you're quite weak (fighting; companions), and maybe in martial prowess if you're not constantly fighting, and so increasing your stats. To fulfill your booze needs, you'll have to visit human towns' taverns or other dwarven fortresses quite often (and fill your extra water storage containers with ale from the barrels for on the road).