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DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Endlessly respawning armies
« on: June 18, 2017, 12:53:48 am »
I tried googling for other people experiencing this issue, and found a similar bug regarding site populations that apparently respawn. But I haven't found a post about the same thing happening with armies.
So, here's what happens. A world map army spawns at a goblin site and makes a beeline for you. They ambush you, and it's two trolls and 7 beak dogs. You kill them and hit T to fast travel. You move one square, and then you're ambushed. Oh okay... it's two trolls and 7 beak dogs. You chase down the last beak dog to slay it and return on foot to where the ambush happened, and in that location, in a square clump are... you guessed it, another two trolls and 7 new beak dogs.
So you kill them all and then instead of hitting fast travel you run away from the scene and press fast travel further away. Success! It looks like, until you make a move, and then a short ways from you on the world map an asterisk appears, a new army. I don't suppose I need to tell you what units that army has when you encounter it, do I? Spoiler: it was two trolls and 7 beak dogs.
This isn't an isolated incident, the immortal armies are everywhere. In fact, it's a rare instance when an army you destroy actually stays dead -- it does happen! About 10-20% of the time. Which makes me think that's the correct behavior and it isn't intended for them to be unaffected by adventurers.
Anything have any insight into what mechanism would be failing to cause this to happen? If there's a very specific reason, then maybe there's a dfhack fix I could jury-rig together as well.
edit:
I found a "fix" for this but it comes at a bit of a cost. Someone mentioned in the bug tracker thread that having a conversation with someone turns them into a historical figure, and I decided to test if shouting would make everyone in the battle into a historical figure. It worked! When the fight with one of these legions begins, use the 'k' command to shout something. If you want to make it thematic, kill one of the enemies first, and then you can shout about killing him because "triumph" appears in the menu. This immediately makes everyone in earshot into a historical figure, which for some reason makes their deaths record correctly.
However, it clutters up the historical figure list. That could breed unforeseeable issues when we're talking about the thousands of beak dogs and trolls that the goblins can throw at you.
So, here's what happens. A world map army spawns at a goblin site and makes a beeline for you. They ambush you, and it's two trolls and 7 beak dogs. You kill them and hit T to fast travel. You move one square, and then you're ambushed. Oh okay... it's two trolls and 7 beak dogs. You chase down the last beak dog to slay it and return on foot to where the ambush happened, and in that location, in a square clump are... you guessed it, another two trolls and 7 new beak dogs.
So you kill them all and then instead of hitting fast travel you run away from the scene and press fast travel further away. Success! It looks like, until you make a move, and then a short ways from you on the world map an asterisk appears, a new army. I don't suppose I need to tell you what units that army has when you encounter it, do I? Spoiler: it was two trolls and 7 beak dogs.
This isn't an isolated incident, the immortal armies are everywhere. In fact, it's a rare instance when an army you destroy actually stays dead -- it does happen! About 10-20% of the time. Which makes me think that's the correct behavior and it isn't intended for them to be unaffected by adventurers.
Anything have any insight into what mechanism would be failing to cause this to happen? If there's a very specific reason, then maybe there's a dfhack fix I could jury-rig together as well.
edit:
I found a "fix" for this but it comes at a bit of a cost. Someone mentioned in the bug tracker thread that having a conversation with someone turns them into a historical figure, and I decided to test if shouting would make everyone in the battle into a historical figure. It worked! When the fight with one of these legions begins, use the 'k' command to shout something. If you want to make it thematic, kill one of the enemies first, and then you can shout about killing him because "triumph" appears in the menu. This immediately makes everyone in earshot into a historical figure, which for some reason makes their deaths record correctly.
However, it clutters up the historical figure list. That could breed unforeseeable issues when we're talking about the thousands of beak dogs and trolls that the goblins can throw at you.
