v0.34 Talk:Vampire

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)

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)

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)

--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)

---

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

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?

-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)

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)