40d:Strange mood

Help! A crazy dwarf is in my metal shop and I need to make giant axe blades to fend off the skeletal carp!

Periodically, individual dwarves in your fortress will be struck with an idea for a legendary artifact and enter a strange mood. Dwarves which enter a strange mood will stop whatever they are doing and pursue the construction of this artifact single-mindedly. They will not stop to eat, drink, sleep, or even run away from dangerous creatures. If they do not manage to begin construction of the artifact within three months or so, they will go insane and die soon afterward.

However, if a dwarf does manage to create an artifact, he or she will gain one legendary skill (with one exception: "possessed" dwarves will create an artifact but gain no skill from it).

For a mood to start, the following conditions must be fullfilled:

at least 20 dwarves
nobody currently crazy, melancholic, or in a strange mood
at least 1 dwarf that has not already created an artifact

Strange-mood behavior

When a dwarf is struck by a strange mood, the game will automatically center the map on the moody dwarf, pause, and alert you to his or her particular mood. While in a mood, a dwarf will display a blinking exclamation point (see status icons).

Workshops

After entering a mood, a dwarf will stop whatever he or she is doing, head to a workshop, and "claim" it, kicking out any other dwarf who may be using it. The workshop a dwarf takes over will usually depend upon the dwarf's highest "trade" skill: a Bone Carver, for instance, will generally take over a craftsdwarf's workshop; a Jeweler will take over a jeweler's workshop; a Mechanic will take over a mechanic's workshop; and a Metalsmith will take over a forge.

Most farming-, fishing-, trapping-, and combat-related skills (grower, thresher, brewer, fish cleaner, animal trainer, axedwarf, etc.) do not count as "trade" skills (although Tanners can enter strange moods, and will take over a tanner's shop).

Active soldiers can enter a strange mood if they have any trade skills from before they were conscripted. A soldier will be removed from his or her squad during the course of a mood and returned to it upon successful completion of an artifact. If a soldier has gained a legendary skill, you may wish to make use of it by removing that dwarf from the military.

If the right workshop is not available, a moody dwarf will stand idle instead (in their bedroom, outside the fort, in a sculpture garden or meeting hall, etc.) waiting for you to construct the right workshop. You can usually tell which workshop a moody dwarf wants by viewing their skills; their highest trade skill will dictate which workshop you should build for them. Be warned, however, that a moody dwarf will not help you construct a workshop. If you do not have another dwarf with the skills to construct it, you must enable the relevant skill on another dwarf.

Moody Glassmakers will require a glass furnace instead of a workshop, but Furnace Operators will require a forge. If your miners have reached the magma flow, any dwarf requiring a forge will insist on a magma forge, and will ignore any existing charcoal-powered forges.^[Verify] Glassmakers will use either a charcoal- or a magma-fuelled glass furnace.^[Verify]

Moody dwarves will occasionally seize a random workshop and proceed to create their artifact there. Following completion of the artifact, this workshop will often be converted into the type originally desired by the dwarf.

Skills

If a dwarf manages to successfully complete an artifact, the dwarf's highest trade skill will be elevated to "legendary". More specifically, 20,000 experience will be added to that skill. This will also give the dwarf several attribute boosts. ("Possessed" dwarves, however, gain no experience.)

This fact can be utilized to maximize the possibility of getting dwarf with a legendary skill you want: where possible, make sure each dwarf's highest trade skill is one of the kinds you want. Have all your peasants, growers, soldiers (you will have to temporarily deactivate them from the military), and other dwarves without trade skills do a tiny bit of work in the skill(s) you most want (Armorsmith is possibly the most-desired legendary skill); if a "dabbling" trade skill is the highest they have, that is the skill that will be used.

The type of artifact created will also depend on the dwarf's highest trade skill. Masons will always create some kind of stone object; Bone Carvers, a bone or shell object; Carpenters, a wood object, etc.

For the purposes of strange moods, mining and engraving are considered trade skills: moody miners and engravers will usually take over a craftsdwarf's or mason's workshop, turn out a stone craft or piece of furniture, and gain legendary skill as miners or engravers respectively (not as stone crafters or masons). Furnace operators will turn out a metal craft or piece of furniture and become legendary furnace operators. Weavers will take over a clothier's shop and produce an article of clothing.

Dwarves with no trade skills whatsoever (including children, sometimes) can go into strange moods. Such dwarves generally gain one of the crafting skills (wood crafter, bone carver, etc.).

Materials

In addition to requiring a specific workshop, dwarves will also demand specific raw materials in order to complete their artifact. Each artifact will require between one and ten items to complete.^[Verify]

After claiming a workshop, a moody dwarf will set about collecting these materials. If the supplies are not at hand, the dwarf will sit in the workshop until the items become available, or go insane if they do not become available before long.

Jewelers will usually only require one item: a rough gem, which they will fashion into a "perfect" gem. Metalsmiths will usually use ore (not metal bars).^[Verify]

Glassmakers will always require at least one piece of raw glass, usually clear. Since they will usually take over your glass furnace, you will either have to build another glass furnace or make sure you have the right types of raw glass ahead of time. The steps involved in glass production are fairly time-consuming: you must first collect sand, which requires an empty bag and an "Item Hauler" who is not busy hauling finished goods, then haul the sand to the furnace and melt it into glass. Clear glass is even more time consuming (the above steps plus: make potash out of wood, bake it into pearlash in a kiln, haul it to the furnace). It is therefore recommended you make several pieces of raw glass of each type as early as you can, reserved for use by moody dwarves. Furthermore, any dwarf may require raw glass, not just glassmakers.

The first object grabbed by the dwarf will be the "primary" substance; all other materials will be used to decorate the artifact. If a dwarf grabs onyx and makes a bed, for instance, it will be an "onyx bed". In addition to the primary substance, many other materials will often be used to construct an artifact. An artifact can potentially be composed of bone, cloth, gems, leather, metal, shell, stone, and wood all at once.^[Verify]

Demands

While a moody dwarf is in a workshop, you can get an idea of what materials he or she wants by pressing q and moving the cursor over the workshop. (If the dwarf is busy fetching objects instead of "waiting" for unavailable materials, you can still see this display by catching the dwarf in the workshop just as he or she is dropping off an object.)

The message will change every few seconds if the dwarf demands several different items. The dwarf will list all the materials he or she demands even if most of them have already been fetched. If a demand lasts longer than about 2 seconds, that means multiple items of that type will be required. Sometimes a dwarf will also mutter an unfamiliar word, such as "Kerging". This word is the name of the artifact he or she intends to create.

Moody dwarves collect their items in a fixed sequence, so if they have already collected at least one item (it will be lying in the workshop, viewable under the t menu), you can see what item in the sequence they will need next to continue.

Things dwarves demand include:

Bones - "bones... yes", "pictures of skeletons"
Cloth (not thread) - "cloth... thread", "pictures of stacked cloth"
Cut gems - "gems... shining", "gems". These must be ordinary cut gems, not "large" gems.
Leather - "leather... skin", "pictures of stacked leather"
Metal ore - "ore... particular ore", "picture of an ore mine", "the correct ore"
Metal bars - "shining bars... metal", "shining bars of metal"
Rough gems - "rough... color". Sometimes when they request rough gems they are looking for a specific type of raw glass.
Raw crystal glass - "raw... crystal", "rough gems and glass" (I think this is right. I have raw types of both green and clear glass, but not crystal glass)
Raw clear glass - "raw... clear", "glass with burning wood"
Shell - "a shell"
Stone - "stone... rock", "pictures of a quarry", "the right stone"
Stone blocks - "blocks... bricks", "the proper surface to work on", "square blocks"
Wood - "tree... life", "pictures of a forest", "a tree"
Dwarven bones/remains - "things... certain things". This demand is only seen during "Macabre" moods.

Sometimes the required item(s) will be very specific (for instance, rough emeralds); other times, very general (leather from any type of creature). Sometimes when dwarves are waiting for a specific material, it will be listed in the dwarf's thoughts and preferences. For instance, a dwarf that "likes platinum" will sometimes use one or more platinum nuggets in the construction of an artifact. This is not always the case, however, and they may want a completely unrelated item.^[Verify]

Once the dwarf has assembled all the materials he or she needs, the game will announce that the dwarf "has begun a mysterious construction!". The artifact should be completed within a day or two.

Dwarves which have created an artifact will hold on to it for a very long time (or the loss of the limb in which it is held^[Verify]) after which one of three events can occur.

The dwarf can become obsessed with the item and will keep hold of it until death.^[Verify]
Become nervous and hide the artifact.^[Verify]
Become uneasy and drop the artifact wherever he currently stands.^[Verify]

If it is a heavy object (such as a floodgate), it will slow them substantially unless they have several levels of strength. This is a bigger problem with a possessed dwarf, as the legendary status resulting from other moods will provide a good attribute boost.

Failure

If you can't provide all the required items within a couple of months, the dwarf will go insane and cancel the artifact. This insanity can take several forms:

Become melancholy. The dwarf will either refuse to eat or drink until dead, or drown themselves at some point. They may also hurl themselves into the river, chasm, or magma immediately.^[Verify]
Become a babbling wreck. A dwarf experiencing this will drop all the items he or she is wearing, one by one, and eventually starve to death.
Go on a murderous rampage.

The first two outcomes are harmless (except to the moody dwarf, who will die), but you may want to station a squad nearby or assign a few war dogs to the dwarf on the chance that they will lash out. If you build your workshops inside enclosed rooms (with doors), you can also lock the moody dwarf in the room until he or she starves.

Anything that would cause the dwarf to cancel the strange mood job (like being attacked or having the workshop destroyed) will cause insanity. Note that the insanity can happen even when the dwarf is not deadlocked on an item; there have been observed instances where a dwarf goes insane while in the process of carrying a required item back to the commandeered workshop.

Types of strange moods

The first message in the following sections is how the mood is announced; the second message appears in the dwarf's profile when he or she is [v]iewed. All dwarves in a strange mood will have "Strange Mood" listed as their active task.

Fey

Taken by a fey mood!
Has the aspect of one fey!

This is the basic strange mood. Fey dwarves will clearly state their demands when the workshop they are in is examined.

Secretive

Withdraws from society...
Peculiarly secretive...

Secretive moods are the same as fey moods, except instead of loudly proclaiming his demands, a secretive dwarf will sketch his or her ideas.

Possessed

Has been possessed!
Possessed by unknown forces!

Possessed dwarves behave the same as fey dwarves, but will not gain any skill once the artifact is complete. Their thoughts are also cryptic, but are harder to understand than dwarves who withdraw from society.

Fell

Looses a roaring laughter, fell and terrible!
Has a horrible fell look!

A dwarf that goes into a fell mood will take over a butcher's shop or a tanner's shop instead of one of the craft shops. The dwarf will then murder the nearest dwarf, drag the corpse into the shop and make some sort of object out of dwarf leather or bone. Once the artifact is completed, the fell dwarf will become a legendary Bone Carver or Leatherworker. Strangely, none of the other dwarves seem to mind the murder.

Aside from the potential loss of an important dwarf in the wrong place at the wrong time, there doesn't seem to be any downside to a fell mood. The end result is always an artifact and a legendary craftsdwarf. Since the only ingredient used (a dwarf) is available in abundance, a fell mood will only "fail" if a hermit has a horrible fell look or if the proper workshop does not exist.

Macabre

Begins to stalk and brood...
Brooding darkly...

Like a fell mood, above, but the dwarf will not murder a fellow dwarf. A macabre dwarf may require dwarf bones, skulls, and chunks/remains; if you do not happen to have any, you will have to "make" some, or let the moody dwarf go insane.

Fell and Macabre moods will only happen to dwarves which are unhappy at the time of entering a mood.

Multiple Moods

Toady stated on this thread in the forum that two moods at once is a bug. Therefore, it is safe to assume that it is usually impossible to get more than one mood at once. Also, on the buglists: 000317 □ [dwarf mode][moods] two mood dwarves at once

Unresolved questions

Does a larger number of dwarves in a fortress increase the chance of strange moods?
- You need at least 20 non noble dwarves to get a mood, and at least a single dwarf that has not already had a mood.
Can the same dwarf go into a strange mood more than once?
- They can't.
Can an already legendary dwarf go into a strange mood?
- A Legendary dwarf that hasn't acquired legendary status via creating an artifact can go into a strange mood.
How many strange moods can occur in a single fortress?
- "There's a total growing limit based on how many items you've made and how many subterranean squares you've unhidden." --Toady One http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=002224
- It seems that the limit is equal to the number of subterranean squares you've unhidden divided by 2304 (48*48), or the quantity of items made divided per 200. The games selects the lowest of the two values.
How often do they happen?
- An internal counter is set to 1000 at first, and decremented regularly. When it hits zero, instead of being decremented, the probability to trigger a mood is 1/500 (every time). The speed at which this function is called is being calculated ...