Memories and personal regard in Fortress

Memories, reasons and events are different

A memory affects a settler’s current morale and work pace while it remains active. A personal regard reason changes what that settler thinks of one other person. A life-story event records what happened. These can come from the same incident, but they have separate numbers and lifetimes. Open Life and Feeling now for retained memories, then Social for personal reasons and the other person’s view.

Eight memories, with a daily refresh limit

A settler retains up to 8 active memories. The same kind about the same person cannot refresh within 24 in-game hours of its previous occurrence. Once that day has passed, a new occurrence replaces that copy and starts its duration again. Different named subjects can have different copies. Descriptive details alone do not make a new subject. If capacity is exceeded, the weakest absolute current morale effect is removed, with the oldest removed first on equal strength.

Base effects and personal strength

Memory reference pages give base morale, work pace and duration. The actual strength multiplies both morale and work pace. For example, Brave settlers remember an ordinary fight at half strength, while Craven settlers remember it at one and a half times strength. A chair or cushioned bench can strengthen the meal-at-a-table memory. Cheerful makes good memories last half again as long, and Gloomy does the same for bad memories. These duration changes do not increase the base strength.

Social effects have their own limits

The total contribution from active memories is limited to 20 morale gained or lost and 10% work pace gained or lost. Nearby company is calculated separately, up to 6 morale and 10% work pace in either direction. The combined social work-pace change is limited to 15% in either direction. Hauling uses its own handling pace and does not receive this social work-pace multiplier. Effective morale combines these contributions with base morale and wellbeing, then stays between 0 and 100.

Six reasons about each person

A settler can retain up to 6 different regard reasons about each other person. Each reason fades towards zero over its own duration. The same reason happening again adds its new worth to what remains, up to twice its adjusted initial worth, and starts the full fading duration again. If there is no room, the weakest current absolute reason is removed, with the oldest removed first on equal strength. Unlike a memory, a reason has no general once-per-day refresh rule.

Nature changes personal regard

Warm increases a good reason’s worth by half, while Aloof halves it. Grudging doubles how long bad reasons last, while Forgiving halves that time. Proud doubles the strength of praise and insults through those exchanges. These rules affect the person receiving or holding the reason. The other settler can keep different reasons and reach a different view of the relationship.

Shared time and the four Fortress relationships

In a colony keeping life stories, positive shared time counts up to 20 toward personal regard. The person’s retained reasons make up the rest, and total regard stays between minus 100 and plus 100. Regard of 35 or more means Friend. Regard of 15 or more can mean Comrade if the pair have fought together. Regard of minus 25 or less means Rival. Otherwise they are Acquaintances. These are each settler’s own views. Becoming a Friend also grants the long-lived Became my friend reason.

Ill feeling and talking it out

Some bad reasons sour company. While either person retains one of those reasons, positive time near each other normally takes from their shared time instead. Fighting together is exempt from this souring rule. Keep apart suppresses the hourly shared-company change and prevents exchanges, while the separate warband battle bond can still happen. Talking a quarrel out halves each remaining bad reason’s current worth and restarts that reason’s full duration. It does not simply halve the time left.

Fading does not erase the story

An expired memory stops affecting the current social calculation. A faded reason stops contributing personal regard. Their earlier events can remain in Life so far, with Why and What followed showing recorded links. The first retained routine memory can have its own event, while later routine repetitions are counted under Day to day. An old event’s displayed feeling is a historical record, not another permanent morale bonus.