deteriorate

When enabled, this script will cause the specified item types to slowly rot away. As they deteriorate, they will acquire the normal x, X, and XX markings. By default, items disappear after a few months, but you can choose to slow this down or even make things rot away instantly!

Now all those slightly worn wool shoes that dwarves scatter all over the place or the toes, teeth, fingers, and limbs from the last undead siege will deteriorate at a greatly increased rate, and eventually just crumble into nothing. As warm and fuzzy as a dining room full of used socks makes your dwarves feel, your FPS does not like it!

By default (if you run enable deteriorate without changing any settings), only non-entombed corpses and non-usable body parts will be affected.

You can set other common options for new forts on the Gameplay / Autostart tab of the DFHack control panel.

Usage

enable deteriorate
deteriorate [status]
deteriorate (enable|disable) <categories>
deteriorate frequency <days> <categories>
deteriorate now <categories>

Where <categories> is a comma-separated list of item types to affect. The following categories are available:

clothes:

All non-armor clothing pieces that are lying on the ground that already have some damage.

food:

All food and plants. Milk is included, but seeds are left untouched.

corpses:

All vermin remains and non-entombed corpses. This includes former members of your fort, so if this category is enabled, dwarves that have fallen down your well will rot away with time.

usable-parts:

Non-entombed body parts that can be used for manufacturing, crafting, or suturing (e.g. hair, wool, skulls, horns, etc.).

unusable-parts:

Non-entombed body parts that can’t be used for manufacturing or crafting.

parts:

Shorthand for the combination of the above two categories.

all:

Shorthand for all of the above categories.

When setting a frequency, the number indicates the number of days between adjustments of the deterioration counter. The default frequency of 1 day will result in items disappearing after several months. The number does not need to be a whole number. E.g. deteriorate frequency 0.5 all is perfectly valid.

Examples

enable deteriorate

Start deteriorating items with current settings.

deteriorate status

Show the current settings.

deteriorate enable corpses,parts

Deteriorate corpses and body parts. This includes potentially useful parts such as hair or wool, so use them quickly or lose them!

deteriorate frequency 0.5 all

Deteriorate items of the enabled categories at twice the default rate.

deteriorate frequency 14 clothes

Deteriorate clothes very slowly.

deteriorate now corpses,unusable-parts

Deteriorate corpses and unusable body parts immediately. This is useful for cleaning up after a siege or ambush (maybe after you have buried your own casualties).

deteriorate now food

Deteriorate all food items immediately. Instant famine!