Dwarf Fortress

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by Reelya

Unfortunately, that sort of airlock with retracting bridges doesn't help vs. flying creatures, and goblin bowmen can still turn your dorfs into pincushions. I always use raising bridges because they give a 100% seal.

You can put another turn in after the bridge if you're worried about getting shot from the other side. I don't find it is a problem because they generally won't camp the other side, or even approach it once the bridges are up. If they're mingled with the traders then you can just let them kill the traders and get a free depot worth of loot. If they are camping the other side don't assign a trader or move goods to the depot, again you get a free depot of goods or the traders guards clean the enemy for you.

As far as flying enemies go I've had exactly one of those fly into my depot in years of DF and it didn't have trap_avoid so it ended up in a cage trap.

The problem with building them as drawbridges is that they can be destroyed by anything with building_destroyer. Won't make your base vulnerable but will make you have to build another bridge, run the mechanisms out, tie a switch to it, etc. The same flying mobs you're trying to stop don't need a tile to stand on to destroy the bridge.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

Those are all great trap ideas, thanks for sharing!

I know that sieges are generally based on wealth, but I don't feel as if I've even accumulated all that much wealth. I do have over 140 dwarves, and I suppose that all of their possessions and furniture, not to mention food and booze, add up. I haven't made much in the way of treasures/crafts though, other than some stone instruments for trading.

If you used one carpenter for beds/barrels/bins then he has been turning out masterworks for awhile, can generate a good deal of wealth there.

If you used one mason for your doors, coffers, cabinets, tables, thrones, etc., he has been making masterwork stuff for awhile too if each of your 140 dwarves has their own furnished room.

Same for your brewer and cook, particularly when it comes to some types of prepared meals.

Add on top of that the value of any artifacts from strange moods and you might have quite a bit of value even without specifically trying to create it.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by Reelya

The idea is that goblins will path into, but not be able to path out of the area. I want to do this so that i can trap whole sieges at once (goblins run away when a % of the invaders are already caught). My built version is a lot bigger, 5 x entries and 5 x exits, with a 9 x 10 bridge. Under the bridge I'm building 90 cage traps, so that all the attackers get caged at once. The spaces under the hatches lead back into the main area, in case goblins fall in.

An easier way to trap an entire siege in my experience is to just build a siege path that is a very long corridor with 1-unit retracting bridges at either end. You make it long enough that the entire siege will be inside it before the first units hit the inside bridge, then 1 unit up from that area you have a room full of marksdwarves behind fortifications sitting on quantum stacks of bolts. The goblins can't seem to shoot through fortifications at that angle, at least last time I did this, so your marksdwarves are shooting fish in a barrel.

Like this, but of course much longer/more rows:

                          #x#
########################### #
#                           #
# ###########################
#                           #
########################### #
#                           #
# ###########################
#x#

Actually a great way to skill up marksdwarves, they'll gain a few levels for each siege.

What makes this method nice is that all of the dead goblins are on just a few tiles. Build a trash chute with magma at the bottom nearby and your dwarves can clean up after each siege with very little wasted movement. Or you can have a chute that goes to your metalworking area. Have everything dumped down the chute, then pump magma in, then pump it out, nothing left but metal items for you to melt down.

Last time I played around with these it was possible to build them too long, such that the goblins couldn't even figure the route in.

I hate using lots of cages because moving things into and out of cages can be a pain. If you have dwarves do it they sometimes let the beast out, and building a lever for each cage to empty it safely is a pain.

[MagGnome]

Good point. I have a legendary carpenter who churns out a lot of items for me, so that's a lot of value right there. My masons are still somewhat mid-level, just because I was splitting that work between a couple of dwarves. My cook and brewer are also legendary, and my cook regularly turns out masterwork meals. I have at least 400 meals, so that's probably a lot of wealth right there.

Those things really do add up now that I think about it.

Each dwarf (or each couple) gets a small 1x3 room with a chest, cabinet, and bed.

Edit - That was in response to your post about wealth, of course.

[Reelya]

**cough cough** Mouse Fortress

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=102563.0

Never used this myself, but it's supposed to be good.

[Reelya]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

If they're mingled with the traders then you can just let them kill the traders and get a free depot worth of loot.

Haven't paid for a caravan in many, many, months (real time), and I don't have to kill or actively rob any traders. I'll leave that as homework. Telling you how easy it is might spoil the fun. It's a bug exploit i really must stop using, actually.

But, use raising bridges not retracting ones, even if you have a pit under part of the raising bridge. You don't want a Roc or a flying FB spoiling your day (rare, but flying building destroyers do happen). Also, automated defenses mean you can't get surprised, and you won't be cursing because no dwarf pulled the lever in time.

Anyway, i need caged goblins for my experiments my square trapping room is better for that.

---

Originally Posted by RandoM51

I hate using lots of cages because moving things into and out of cages can be a pain. If you have dwarves do it they sometimes let the beast out, and building a lever for each cage to empty it safely is a pain.

Just never build the lever

One thing i'm wondering about from reading this thread - are you guys actually building cages to disarm the Goblins? don't build the cages. Make a goblins-only animal stockpile, mark everything for dumping with d-b-c, d-b-d, then use k menu, and "d" on each cage to unmark it.

Also, intergrate cages and pits like this :

AAAAAAAAA  A = Animal Stockpile
AHAAHAAHA  H = Hatch over hole
AAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAA
AHAAHAAHA
AAAAAAAAA

Mark the whole area as a pit zone and then every cage is only one tile away from a pit, and the hatches stop dwarves becoming scared of pitted creatures.

So - never build cages, store specific creatures right at the pit area. Good cage management reduces dwarf labor. A nice idea would be to make the top of the pit area also a barracks and have squads training there, or just put a squad on duty at the top while your doing the pitting.

But, regular goblins don't escape (not sure about thieves). Only wild animals do.

[Joshkdmw]

I'm gonna try and get into this series again. Couple questions:

What's a generally good tile set to use? Currently have phobos our something like that.

Where's a good noob guide at?

[Reelya]

There's been a few others mentioned in this thread, the one i originally learnt from was "the complete and utter newbies guide".

http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/...ss-part-1-wtf/

It's for an old version, but it's entertaining and will give you the basics.

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Joshkdmw

I'm gonna try and get into this series again. Couple questions:

What's a generally good tile set to use? Currently have phobos our something like that.

Where's a good noob guide at?

I recommend the Ironhand tileset myself. Scroll back up to the last two sets of screenshots I posted and you can see what it looks like. It's very pretty.

MayDay has some weird glitches right now, so I'd stay away from that one. It made my engraved rooms look like a complete mess.

[bean]

I've gotten decently deep into this game before, and I always run into the same issue. Basically, I can't forgive the UI. This game could be so much more fun with a decent GUI and mouse support. I want to be able to do things without needing to learn how to do them off a guide.

Played this again today and I've come back to my old conclusion that I really want a Dwarf Fortress (Modern GUI)!

[MagGnome]

Did you try that MouseFortress that Reelya linked to above?

I get that the interface is a deal-breaker for some, and that's a shame.

[bean]

Just read it and it reminds me too much of working as a coder which is my problem with the main game. I love the idea of a "SimCity" that micromanages the building of a dwarven fortress/eco system. One of my favorite games is Evil Genius (though I mastered it and really don't play it anymore because it's hard to play with subpar traps when you already know the "perfect" one and the whole resort/hotel thing is an incomplete stub of a game mechanic.)

Anyway, I got far enough into DF to see that it has crazy depth should you be willing and able to look deep into it (like dwarves that like and dislike certain things, needing various objects to perform a variety of tasks, body parts are modeled to simulate dwarven injuries). They've got a lot going on "under the hood" and then they make a choice to make the GUI as archaic as possible.

Someone could absolutely create a GUI with high resolution sprites and a point-and-click interface along with a tutorial using Unity and then we could play DF on our phones. The only reason it's crazy old-school is because someone wants it that way.

More power to them, but I miss games like this that use modern UIs.

[Hemalin]

A dragon showed up along with a poorly timed immigration wave. Most of them died and a few fires were started.




Then the dragon tripped over a stone trap and died.

[AntonThaGreat]

Originally Posted by Hemalin

A dragon showed up along with a poorly timed immigration wave. Most of them died and a few fires were started.

[MagGnome]

Where is the dragon in that shot? I'll readily admit that the standard ASCII graphics are somewhat incoherent to me.

[Libuke]

Doesn't look like there is a dragon. It is just showing off the spreading fire I think.

[Hemalin]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

Where is the dragon in that shot? I'll readily admit that the standard ASCII graphics are somewhat incoherent to me.

Looks like I missed the dragon, must have run off screen.

[MagGnome]

Ah, well that explains why I couldn't find it.

[CES]

That is exactly why this game is awesome. Unexplained carnage, death and insanity.

[MagGnome]

Exactly. Trying to deal with all of the crazy random things that happen is a lot of fun.