v0.31:Stonegears/Examining your dwarves

Back to the main tutorial page

You can view and set various details of your dwarves by using v from the main menu, which will show you various things about the dwarf (or creature) closest to the X cursor, with the closest dwarf marked by a flashing +; you can move the cursor around to look at different dwarves. If there are multiple dwarves on the same tile you can cycle between them by repeatedly pressing v.

General view

The game starts out with the general view. You can return to the general view with g.

• The topmost line shows the dwarf's name, followed by their profession name. The profession name is determined by the dwarf's highest skill (unless manually set to something else), as is the color of the line.
• The next line shows the dwarf's name inside of double quotes, but with the last name translated from Dwarfish to English.
• The third line shows the sex of the dwarf with ♂ or ♀ .
• The fourth line shows whatever job the dwarf is currently engaged in, or No Job if there is no job.
• After that comes the list of the skills the dwarf has. If the skill list is too long to fit all at once on the screen (indicated by a ↓ under the skills list) you can scroll through it with + and -. You can toggle hiding or displaying the combat, labor, and social skills with c, b and m respectively.

Wounds

You can view the wounds a dwarf has with w; white text means that that body part is fine. The wounds display will also show you if the dwarf is hungry, thirsty, bleeding, nauseous, and so on.

Inventory

You can view the items a dwarf is wearing or holding with i. You can then scroll through the list using + and -, and see more details on an item with Enter. See also the Examining items page.

Note that the game treats clothing as gender-neutral, so there'll be male dwarves wearing skirts and dresses and female dwarves wearing pants. Also note that a bug prevents dwarves from putting on new clothing when their old clothing wears out, so eventually all of your dwarves will wind up running around naked.

Labors and work animals

With p you get the chance to examine and set the dwarves' labors (l) and work dogs (e).

Labors

This shows the labors that the dwarf has enabled. If a dwarf has a labor enabled then s/he will perform that job, no matter how low that skill, since any dwarf can do any job (even though s/he will do it slowly and poorly without any skill).

All of the labors are grouped together by category (except for Mining). If none of the labors in a category are enabled the category is gray, if some are enabled the category is light gray, and if all labors are enabled the category is white. You use + and - to select a category, then Shift-Enter to toggle all the labors in the category on or off. Alternatively, you use Enter to see the individual labors in the group, + and - to select a labor, Enter to toggle the labor on or off, and then Esc to return to the list of labor categories.

If you want to change the labors of multiple dwarves at once, it's much easier to do so using the third party utility Dwarf Therapist.

Work animals

This shows the number of hunting or war dogs (or other trainable animal) assigned to the dwarf, the number of unassigned hunting/war animals left, and lets you assign them to the dwarf. An animal assigned to a dwarf will become the dwarf's pet and follow that dwarf around.

Tame but untrained trainable animals can be trained at a kennel.

If you have dogs trained as war dogs or hunting dogs, you can assign them to individual dwarves to have them follow the dwarf around. Tame but untrained dogs can be trained at a kennel.

Status

Unlike the other displays, this takes you to a whole new screen. The status screen itself only shows the number of objects owned by the dwarf, but offers access to three other screens. Scrolling/selection on the screens is done with ↑ and ↓.

Thoughts and preferences

Enter gets you the thoughts and preferences sub-screen, which shows a lot of information about the dwarf.

• The first piece of information, in white shows the dwarf's thoughts. The first sentence says how happy or unhappy s/he is at the moment, and the next sentence lists the recent events that have increased or decreased his/her happiness. If a dwarf is unhappy enough there's the danger that s/he will tantrum. If many dwarves are unhappy enough, then one dwarf tantruming can tip a second dwarf over the edge into tantruming, who will set off a third, and so on. A good way to keep track of the overall happiness of your fort is the third party utility Dwarf Therapist.
• The second piece of information, in cyan, are the two gods the dwarf worships. This currently has no effect on the game. Sometimes a dwarf will worship the same god twice; this is a known bug.
• The third piece of information, in blue, is the dwarven kingdom s/he's a citizen of, and the name of the group of which s/he's a member (the group being the dwarves who founded the fortress)
• The fourth piece of information, in yellow, is the dwarf's age and birthday. Your dwarves are unlikely to die of old age, and they don't celebrate their birthdays. This is only useful if you're waiting for a child to grow into an adult at age 12.
• The fifth piece of information, in white, is the dwarf's physical description. Wounds will be listed in red and missing body parts will be listed in magenta.
• The sixth piece of information, in a mixture of green and red, are the dwarf's different-than-average physical (body) attributes; if all the physical attributes are average then this section will be missing. This information can be useful when determining which job to assign to a dwarf.
• The seventh piece of information, in lime green, is the list of the dwarf's preferences:
  • The first sentence lists the materials, type of items, shapes, colors, animals and plants the dwarf likes.
    • The materials and item types are useful in assigning jobs, since if a dwarf likes (for example) gold then s/he will be more skillful when crafting items out of gold, and if s/he likes goblets s/he will be more skillful when crafting goblets.
    • The materials and item types are also useful in deciding which dwarves to not make into the mayor or baron, since these nobles will onerously demand that those types of things be made and/or forbid them from being exported.
    • A dwarf will be more likely to select an animal as a pet if it's the type of animal they prefer.
  • The second sentence lists the types of food and booze the dwarf prefers to consume. A dwarf consuming the type of food/booze s/he prefers will get a happy thought. The types of plants and animals listed in the first sentence is entirely different than what the dwarf likes to eat.
  • The third sentence (which not all dwarfs have) is the type of vermin which the dwarf hates. If the dwarf encounters this type of vermin it will generate an unhappy thought. You can reduce the chance of your dwarves encountering vermin by keeping around a few cats.
• The eighth piece of information, in a mixture of green and red, are the dwarf's different-than-average mental (soul) attributes; if all the mental attributes are average then this section will be missing. This information can be useful when determining which job to assign to a dwarf.
• The ninth piece of information, in white, is the list of the dwarf's personality traits. The last "personality" trait is your dwarf's level of cave adaptation, which determines if s/he'll get an unhappy thought and/or vomit when exposed to sunlight.
• The last piece of information, A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry, is a description of the dwarven species.

Relationships

r will give a list of relationships, consisting of the dwarf's spouse, children, gods, pets, friends, and those the dwarf holds a grudge against. The gods worshiped currently have no effect on the game. An encounter with a pet, spouse, child or friend will generate a happy thought, while an encounter with someone against whom a grudge is held will generate a negative thought. Anyone on the list dying will generate an unhappy thought, except for those the dwarf has a grudge against, which might generate a happy thought.

v is used to view the selected entity. Viewing a deity or pet will show a description. Viewing a dwarf will bring you to the status screen of that dwarf. z can be used to zoom in on the location of a pet or dwarf.

Customize name

y gets you the customize sub-screen, which can be used to change the nickname (n) or profession name (p) of the dwarf. This has no effect on the game, and its only purpose is to help you more easily tell one dwarf from another.