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As for the coins, it's been 2500 for as long as coins have been produced by stacks of 500 and note 100 - I recall that changing a few months ago. I think there was some time between the actual change and when the documentation got updated.
As for the goblins, they can be transferred, but as I suspected they start hitting everything around them as soon as they're no longer in their cages.
Hence, new SOP for goblin PoWs:
- put the cage in my execution room
- station my military there
- have the goblin transferred to a chain
- watch goblin get slaughtered by my dwarves and their dog
- rinse and repeat.
Goblin weaponmasters will still get drowned, though. Only I won't use masterwork mechanisms.
Still, it would be nice to have an "execute" option for caged hostiles once the Hammerer is in. More incentive to get nobles.
[ January 29, 2007: Message edited by: jmrt ]
quote:
Anyhow, pulling a lever on a cage doesn't destroy the cage -- it just unbuilds it, and the cage normally winds up in an adjacent square. The same applies to the mechanism attached to the cage.
Well, I just checked and neither the cages nor the mechanisms are there (the mechanisms used at the lever still are, though - I'll unbuild it).
And my legendary mechanic is still tantruming, though he doesn't seem to be doing much dangerous (he's only very unhappy now, and has already interrupted his tantruming once, so I think he should calm down with no damage).
quote:
Anyhow, pulling a lever on a cage doesn't destroy the cage -- it just unbuilds it, and the cage normally winds up in an adjacent square. The same applies to the mechanism attached to the cage.
Yup, I thought of doing that (and actually built iron chains for that purpose) since I think a goblin in restraints should still drown.
However creatures in restraints can still fight if you get near enough to them - which one of my dwarves is going to need to to, if only for the transfer itself.
Guess I'll try it for the normal gobs, with my army stationed nearby (death by firing squad ? I'm not sure whether they will attack a restrained enemy unless provoked). As for the swordmaster, since I'm not sure my dwarves can take him without major damage, guess he's worth sacrificing a cage for. I'll keep him on exhibition for a while first, though.
Ah, and as for chasming... I only started minting coins this year, so no Stocks screen yet. And the first goblin siege apparently prevented the caravan from reaching my fort this autumn, so I guess I'll have to wait one more year for my Bookkeeper. Too bad, I was just getting ready for a fast climb up the nobles ladder. Guess there's no way to chasm a specific item without a Bookkeeper ?
On the other hand, since my new woodcutter needs a week-long struggle to get a single tree down, I guess my lumber will be better spent on ballista arrows than on new beds.
EDIT: Forget what I said about my mech's tantruming not being so bad. After tantruming on and off for a while, he decided to give it a serious go. He first pummeled a poor cat, then went on to destroy my main river bridge (effectively cutting my fort in two). Funny thing being he'd just admired it before.
Luckily the only dwarf standing on the bridge at that moment managed to climb on one of my safety piers (a poor cat was drowned, though). My tantruming mech then proceeded to destroy a safety pier. While standing on it. He got away with it, too - guess being extremely agile helps with swimming.
He's now signed up for a beating and 51 days in jail. And since my ever-helpful Captain had the wisdom to assign a sleeping guard to the case, that may not be the end of it.
(could have been worse. At least said guard is on the right side of the river.)
[ January 29, 2007: Message edited by: jmrt ]
Which, last spring, meant goblin thieves.
I've had them decorating my dining hall for a few months, then decided they were ugly as hell and the only sensible course of action was to execute them.
Since they certainly deserved an unpleasant death, I had a new room dug next to the river, a couple of floodgates installed, put the cages in them, and had my Captain of the Guard pull the levers.
Uh oh. Apparently those cages are water-proof.
Okay, no big deal. Hook up a couple more levers to release the goblins, and there we go.
Well, they drowned all right. However I found out that opening a cage with a lever apparently destroys the cage. And the mechanisms.
Note to self: never use masterwork mechanisms to hook up a cage again.
Which brings me to my question: is there any safe way to dispose of a caged creature that does not involve destroying the cage ?
See, the goblins were unhappy about their fellows being captured, so they've tried to siege me a couple of times. And I've got this goblin swordmaster sitting in a masterwork cage...
(Plus I've got much better uses for my forges than making cages, and wood will be in shorter supply since the last goblin raid got my High Master woodcutter...)
Does just leaving them to starve to death work, and how long does it take ?
The hard part would be getting the dragon into a cage. As far as I've seen, it never moved from the left border of the map unless it was chasing something. Which means that bringing it into the fortress where you can build traps would require luring it. Which in turn would require a unit able to survive... I'd say at least 5 or 6 firebreaths while travelling all the way to the cliff face.
(It would actually be much easier if the dragon decided to attack at some point, but I don't know whether they do.)
Then it would remain to see whether dragons can actually be trapped... I wouldn't try it with a wooden cage.
The precision on ballistas is really terrible. It took about 10 tries to manage to nail that dragon from about 1,5 screens away. However
- she didn't mind all these arrows passing iwithin a couple of squares of her (she was probably having a laugh at my operator's aim. As if she knew anything about aiming with that fire breath of hers.)
- once one of the arrows did hit, it mangled two of her legs as well as knocking her unconscious, leaving ample time for my champion spearman to finish the job.
And that was with a wooden arrow. I guess metal arrows must really be overkill.
OK, on to see what next year has in store for me (apart from, probably, the duke for whom I'm already preparing stores of masterpiece gold and platinum furniture. I'm actually hoping to get a king in that fort _before_ going for the adamantine).
I still feel somewhat guilty, though, it's not as if the dragon had actually done anything apart from frying up a few cats and some dumbass trappers. I think I'll restore the save someday and see if peaceful coexistence can work.
Plus, knowing Toady's sense of humor, I'm half expecting that that dragon's family will come screaming for revenge in a couple of years. But we'll see.
[ October 04, 2006: Message edited by: jmrt ]
Took a few weeks to haul that massive carcass to my refuse stockpile, then to butcher it. But now my fortress boasts an exceptional dragon bone scepter.
Base value: 2500. Price: 57540. I'm impressed.
(plus a dragon leather I can only hope will get used in a fey mood at some point, and 20 units of dragon meat)
[ October 04, 2006: Message edited by: jmrt ]
I've got an accomplished operator at hand, too, which might help with the precision problem. Only uncertainties left:
- will a near miss make the dragon angry at me ?
- will a hit do enough damage that my troops have a chance of finishing her off when she comes roaring for revenge ?
I'll keep a backed up save from just after her arrival in any case, just so I can try different strategies.
Then someone a bit, hmm, special arrived.
Uthros Shimdojoñu's the name. She's big, grean, mean and scaly. And apparently she's decided that my fortress was her new home.
More precisely, that some otherwise unremarkable square on the western border of the map was her new home. She just sits there and doesn't do much. Apart, of course, from incinerating everything that comes within 10 squares or so of her.
So far I've managed to cope with that, only losing 1 trapper. My other trappers were turned into marksdwarves so they'd stop fooling around, I manually took dwarves off the "place item in tomb" job until the bones disappeared, I watch were my bone crafters go for their supplies, and that seems to do the trick. The dragon's far enough from the road that she won't hurt human and dwarven caravans and immigrants, so the life of my dwarves goes on as before.
I'm somewhat afraid of what will happen if she decides to move in closer, however.
(Actually I tried sending all my forces at her after backing up my save. One of my champions managed to get within melee range of her, and actually got her tired before she ripped him into tiny bits. Then once she'd wiped out half of my military the other half predictably decided that it was safer to exact revenge for their fallen comrades on my furniture.)
Second death, though... My newly arrived armorsmith went into a fey mood. Apparently no shop I could build satisfied him, so a month or so later he went insane and wandered down into my moat.
At first I thought he had simply decided to kill himself, but no: I bet he was still bent on achieving legendary status.
Sadly, he died of hunger two months later, having only achieved the rank of Adept Swimmer. Note to self: next fortress, plan a way of draining the moat so drowned dwarves can get a decent burial.
(... By the way, you could probably make a pool that can be filled and emptied at will with pumps in order to train your dwarves in swimming... would be nice for increasing the stats of soldiers.)
House Fer jobs, on the other hand, are a pain in the ass. I think they only include hunting and animal training. I've taken to ignoring them, since
- my trappers usually end up either dead or marksdwarves in a few seasons (... I've had one actually make it to Legendary Ambusher/Master Marksdwarf before I drafted him - great training)
- and I butcher most of my puppies at birth since my fortress already suffers from major pet cluttering.
(Incidentally, last time I failed to satisfy a House Fer mandate, my manager got a beating for it. Serves the bugger right - I love to see nobles taking on each other.)
[ September 23, 2006: Message edited by: jmrt ]
After a couple of years of intensive sparring, I've managed to get 3 of my dwarves up to Hammer Lord status. Unfortunately, two of these are part of my fortress guard. Now I no longer have access to a v-p menu for them, meaning I can't relieve them from guard duty to draft them into my regular military so I can have a better chance of getting them where they're needed (like, fighting off the goblin invaders instead of sitting at the bottom of my fort waiting in case the demons should train a miner. That sort of thing.)
I find it incredibly in character that a dwarf who's struck by sudden inspiration should go and lock himself up in his workshop with a barrel of booze.
That last one was an interesting case - grabbed some marble and then sat forever in his craftsdwarf's shop waiting for rough gems, which made me kinda worried since my current fortress already lost 2 wannabe legendary dwarves to cravings for exotic gems. Turned out it was crystal glass he wanted, not exactly an easy task since half of my nobles have a rock crystal fetish.
Then he wanted shells. I'm beginning to think that a dwarf who likes turtle is quite invaluable in a fortress, given that my food stocks must include about 5 turtles to.. 400 plump helmets and at least 500 prepared meals.
Add some wood, platinum and a few diamonds to the mix and... bingo !
That dwarf promptly graduated to Legendary Engraver. Which I find somewhat less than impressive, considering that he already was a High Master Engraver to begin with.
(On the other hand I've got to admit that a ring worth 84000 coins is kinda impressive. I mean, that thing alone could probably buy out all the caravans I'm likely to get in the next 50 years.)
