Bay 12 Games Forum

Over the past few months occasionally I'll discover a random jpg's contents have been overwritten to contain, in plain text, "An error has occurred. (403)" (28 byte file size). The first time I encountered it was while going over a backup copy of a drive that had died, and assumed some errors had occurred when I copied it (the source drive was dying, and I ended up having to use an Ubuntu Live CD instead of Windows XP to get anything copied at all). However, now I'm seeing random overwritten jpgs slowly popping up on my newer drive, on Windows 7. Google doesn't return any programs that I use when searching for the plain text (mostly hits on http 403's and a backup program, such a generic error message...), I myself haven't touched most of the jpgs recently except for viewing, and the timestamps (created/modified/accessed/whatever) haven't been changed whenever I find another problem jpg.

I have no idea when the file gets overwritten, I only notice new ones when going through a directory with an image viewer (almost always IrfanView), though now I'm keeping an eye open for that reported file size and having TeraCopy test after operations. The number of jpg's with issues is still in the lower double digits, but I can't have jpgs randomly being overwritten (and possibly other file types, but jpgs far outnumber most other frequently accessed file types on this computer due to work and are encountered the most).

I'm stumped, as searching hasn't returned anything useful, and the programs I think most likely to have accessed the files have never caused a problem like this before (windows file operations, TeraCopy [installed after problems], Comodo, IrfanView, Defraggler) nor have related searches shown similar problems being reported.

Most of my military just stands around when they have crossbows equipped, refusing to move to the station/patrol points or kill targets. They have all their equipment picked up, they have bolts in their quivers, nothing is marked forbidden/melt. All their jobs say 'Patrol Crossbow Route'/'Station'/'Kill Target' whenever this happens, and I can't get them to move so long as they have crossbows equipped. The patrol route is valid, as 2 of the 11 dwarves are following it, but the rest are just standing where they picked up their crossbow/final stack of bolts. Any ideas how I can get them to start moving?

EDIT: Just to clarify... I have 3 squads of 4 dwarves (one dwarf hospitalized). Each squad is set to use copper crossbows and 300 metal bolts and 100 bone bolts. Each and every squad member is wearing all of their assigned uniform, and even has bolts in their quivers. They are all in military mode, set to an alert that has each squad patrolling (minimum of 3 soldiers) the same route. Only two of the dwarves are patrolling (neither are squad leaders or in the same squad), the rest are standing like statues in military mode with full load outs. All of them have job status 'Patrolling Crossbow Route' but they refuse to move, even if I use 'station' or 'kill target' so long as they are equipped with crossbows.

So my chief medical dwarf just got hit by a stray crossbow bolt, and hobbled his way over to the hospital where he promptly rested and requested a diagnosis. Do I need to give the position to someone else to get the diagnosis started?

EDIT: Enabled Diagnosis on my other two doctors without switching nobles, and one went ahead and treated him. I thought only the CMD could diagnose patients?

Was checking why one of my dwarves was still ecstatic after tossing all his masterwork stuff by accident in Dwarf Therapist, when I noticed nearly a 1/4th of my population is over the 1000 mark for mood, 2/3rd above 500, and the rest generally above 200. Bit strange considering that what I built during the first year is all they've had for 12 years now while I dig out where my subterranean magma fort is going.

I can't imagine how high their mood will get once my fort is finished, mist generator filled zoo and all.

1. What exactly determines how likely it is for a creature to escape while being transferred from a cage (to pit or another cage)? In my recent fortress I have yet to experience a single orc or terrifying goblin escaping their handler, even when the handler gets spooked and spends 2 seasons wondering around the map dragging them behind (an entire orc squad and goblin ambush was basically being walked around the surface until I fixed the view to my pit).

2. Can creatures break out of cages? I just had a terrifying goblin thief and a wrestler presumably break out of their cages sitting in my stockpile, as there is no way they walked to that area (cage traps and military on duty at entrance). I'm also missing the only goblin thief I've cage trapped, so I'm fairly certain he was the one I had in my stockpile, and its been a couple seasons since my last goblin ambush.

Does anyone know if the inside temperature is a constant regardless of outside conditions, or is it related? Every time I hear a story where dwarves die from heat/cold on the surface, digging down always saves them.

Probably doesn't matter much, seeing as how if its hot enough to kill inside they won't have time to dig down unless there is a huge variance in temperature in the map, or you dig into a biome that is extreme enough.

Been awhile since I've had a question the wiki didn't cover xD

Recently I had a terrifying goblin ambush an elven caravan, and one of the guys who decided to retreat before getting in range tripped a 3x -bronze whip- trap. Before this he had no wounds, afterwards he lost both eyes, an ear, and damaged his fingers, toes, and hands. Normally I'd expect them to keep going, and this guy tried to. He didn't leave spatterings of blood, nor smears of blood. No, he made an offering to Armok with a full 38 pools of blood.

How far have your enemies made it before bleeding out?

I was messing around with a new entrance defense when I noticed the lead wagons for trade caravans were mysteriously dieing. Turns out that part of the wagon will move far enough through the wall behind a ramp before changing z-levels that creatures on the other side can attack it. Though I have yet to put magma on the other side of the wall I'm assuming it works just as well. All items the wagon was carrying will appear on the ramp.


The next logical step is to figure out how to get all the wagons. I'm thinking empty the pit, let them get across the bridges, then refill the pit so the end wagon gets killed first. The rest panic and end up walking right over the now functioning trap. Unfortunately that means it is no longer automatic. Do wagons trigger pressure plates? Maybe set the plate to only trigger for a certain creature size, such as whatever pulls the wagons. Or the creature size of the wagon itself if it works.
Could also just give the wagons an alternate path, then close it once all are on the map so they have to path over it no matter what.