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I have a dwarf which has already gathered some materials. He now:

  • sketches pictures of stacked leather
  • sketches pictures of stacked cloth
  • sketches pictures of a quarry

but I have tons of stones available, 30 units of cloth and 2 units of tanned hides. Why is the dwarf not collecting the resources and start working on the artifact?

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  • He continues to sketch materials already gathered, right? What does he have in his workshop being used?
    – Ullallulloo
    Commented Mar 22, 2014 at 2:52

2 Answers 2

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There are several possible reasons for this.

1. You don't have enough of the materials

Since you said you have plenty of stone and cloth, I would imagine it's leather that's the problem. You said that you think you have enough because it's only shown for 2 seconds, but the DF wiki says

the mood's primary material will always be shown for only 2 seconds even if more than one is required

so if leather is the primary material, it's possible he still wants more than one piece.

2. The items you have are forbidden

Moody dwarves still respect forbidden items, so if the items are forbidden then the dwarf won't collect them.

3. You have the wrong kind of cloth

If your dwarf is skilled in weaving, he may be fussy enough to demand a particular type of cloth. It is possible you have the wrong kind. When you get the

<dwarf> is taken by a fey mood!

announcement, a weaver dwarf wanting cloth may specifically demand plant cloth, silk cloth or yarn cloth.

When you have the

<dwarf> withdraws from society...

announcement as you do (he sketches pictures instead of making demands), it's possible that he still has a particular kind of cloth in mind, even if his sketches aren't good enough to tell you which one he's drawing.

Source: DF wiki and personal experience of the game.

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    Note however that the material preference only applies to dwarves skilled in the material. In your last example, a Weaver would demand a specific type of cloth if it had a preference for it, while any other would not demand any specifics.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 1:32
  • @DoktoroReichard I hadn't realised that only dwarves with the relevant skill would specify a preference. Thanks for the correction - I'll edit accordingly.
    – starsplusplus
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 11:06
  • @DoktoroReichard Is it related to skill, or profession?
    – starsplusplus
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 11:09
  • The information on the wiki isn't clear in this point, but I believe it is related to the skill being used. Professions are only used as weighting for the mood lottery. Once a dwarf is chosen, regardless of profession, the highest-level skill is chosen for the workshop search. The arrangement of the items after the table in the Demands section seem to corroborate this hypothesis.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 19:31
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He may need more leather? He will only gather the first needed item before gathering the others. So let's say I have a dwarf in strange mood who needs:

  • 6 units of leather
  • 6 units of cloth
  • 6 units of stone

The he will not gather any cloth or stone until he has fulfilled his requirement of leather.

If you aren't sure of the quantities and have dfhack installed, you can use the dfhack command showmood to get exact details.

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  • I do not think so, since leather only flashed 2 seconds
    – Envite
    Commented Mar 23, 2014 at 9:26

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