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Topics - PatrikLundell

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136

DF Gameplay Questions / Kobold forest retreats & human caves

« on: August 20, 2015, 06:52:16 am »

When examining the map after world gen, I've noted that I sometimes get kobolds in hamlets, forest retreats, etc, and that I also sometimes get "civilized" races in caves (I've set them to be visible). I've made a test embark to a kobold cave, and I did indeed have 4 visible kobolds there. When I did the same thing with a human cave, I didn't find any humans, but did encounter elk birds while descending (which isn't that surprising, since all caves I've seen so far reach the first cavern).

I think the site display is part of vanilla DF, but I cannot rule out a DFHack extension, by the way.

- My guess is that human/elven/dwarven/goblin caves are temporary habitations of refugees and the like, while kobold ones are actual "real" habitations. Is that a correct assumption?
- Do kobold occupied "civilized" sites have any effect in fortress mode, and are those occupations "permanent" or temporary? I'm thinking along the lines of a kobold hamlet being capable of sending larger forces than a cave, and possibly even mount a siege. So far my experience of kobolds have been underwhelming, as I've never had more than 3 at a time, and the few times I've been able to kill the single intruder that meant the end of the kobolds, as that single individual seemed to be the only one visiting (repeatedly, until killed). I thus assume killing off one of the 3 in a "large" wave would result in only 2 arriving the next time.
Kobolds aren't shown in the neighbors list even when occupying a hamlet within range, by the way.

137

DF Gameplay Questions / Refined Gremlin trap?

« on: August 16, 2015, 05:16:15 am »

I have the problem of getting unwanted bycatch in my Gremlin traps, so I'd like to keep the non Gremlins out.
How does a support cave-in work?
1) The gremlin pulling the lever on top of the support (and floor) falls straight down and then rolls stunned in a random direction to get caught in a trap.
2) The gremlin get tossed in a random direction and falls down onto a trap.

If 1) is the case I can protect the cages by covering them with drawbridges, whereas with 2) the Gremlin would still be stunned, but end up on a drawbridge rather than in a trap.

My trap design is fairly simple:
z-1:

wrwww
wcccw
wcscw
wcccw
wwwww

z:
wwWww
w..ww
w b w
w l w
w B w
wwBww

where
r=ramp
c=cage trap
s=support
w=wall
W=wall that' put in place last. Removed if a Gremlin is to be collected
.=floor
= empty space
b=retracting drawbridge, but not hooked up. There for access
l=lever (standing on a floor) connected to the support underneath
B=raising drawbridge to the south. This closes the access when a Gremlin is to be collected, as well as during the construction phase.

In case 1) I'd just replace the empty space with unconnected drawbridges. With 2) hooking these drawbridges up to the lever ought to cause the stunned Gremlin to fall down onto the trap underneath when the bridge opens?

138

DF Gameplay Questions / Gremlin baron bind

« on: August 15, 2015, 10:41:25 am »

I've caught a Gremlin and have managed to sort of keep it trained by chaining it next to my water cistern and assigning the chain tiles as a training zone as well as a food storage (or the bugger would starve/thirst to death as no one bothers to bring it food or water).
So, the trade liaison came along and offered to make the fortress into a barony. I checked the list for non harmful candidates, and suddenly saw "The Gremlin" as one of the alternatives. It had to be him!
The next step is obviously to build the required rooms for the new baron, but when I'm going to assign the room I can't because The Gremlin is not in the list, either as "The Gremlin", "Stray Baron...", or anything else.
- Is there a way to assign the rooms to the baron?
- Will the appointment to Baron cause the Gremlin training from decaying into the wild state? If not, what happens if I'm forced to kill him (loyalty cascade or anything like that)?

139

DF Gameplay Questions / (semi) aborted invasions?

« on: August 10, 2015, 03:12:15 am »

I've had a number of invasions that are immediately aborted or reduced, i.e. the invasion announcement comes and the game pauses. I can see a number of invaders. The civilian alert is set up and the game unpaused. Then the invaders can be completely gone or mostly gone.
My first siege (first summer, undead) just left immediately, while my latest invasion (14 days after I dealt with the previous undead one) saw 7 "goblin" invaders on pause, but when unpaused only 2 remained.
Can anyone explain what the buggers are doing and why they're doing it?

140

DF Gameplay Questions / Can gay dorfs bend straight ones?

« on: July 27, 2015, 07:30:20 am »

I have just discovered a lover couple consisting of a female who is bisexual according to DT, while her partner is reported as a heterosexual female only. Both of them are reported as being lovers to each other (by DF), so it's not a one way relationship. I thought both of them would have to be aligned (bi- or homo-sexual) for a homo relation to form? Or is there some kind of hole in DT's reporting?

141

DF Gameplay Questions / How does Gremlin training work?

« on: July 26, 2015, 03:00:09 pm »

My first attempt at Gremlin training failed. I trained them and then let them lose (one male, one female), but one reverted back to wild, so I killed it and caged the other one. That cause the second one to go insane from lack of sleep.
So, on this attempt I kept the Gremlin in a training pasture with an animal locked (but not dorf locked) door, only to find that it died of thirst, so I crashed DF and reverted back to the previous save, let the bugger free (unpastured it and unocked the doors), and it rushed to the well to drink its fill. It's now presumably trying to find something to eat, since it's hungry as well.
Given the spamming of cancellation of "give water" (to unknown entity, but not a seriously injured dorf) due to lack of buckets from time to time, I had assumed dorfs somehow gave food and drink to its animals (seeds in cages, as well as dorfs carrying food to cages support this assumption). Are Gremlins somehow a separate class of creature that require special treatment (yes, apparently: the real question is to what extent and how?).
Do I have to regularly let it out to let it eat/drink, alternatively lock it in as it reverts to semi-wild?

Edit: The Gremlin indeed went to eat. After having eaten it returned to its former pasture, opening both animal locked doors in the way in the process (which caused them to have to be recaptured from an "intruder"!), and then left again, presumably because it was no longer pastured.
The next guess is that you should keep it in an UNLOCKED pasture, and that it will leave the pasture to eat/drink, and then return (as opposed to normal animals, that stray of not locked up). Underline above is also new.

Edit2: Trying to pasture the Gremlin in an unenclosed pasture caused it to roam, so it apparently need to be locked up.

142

DF Gameplay Questions / Which hauling category controls mine cart loading?

« on: July 16, 2015, 03:57:43 pm »

I use Quantum Stockpiles extensively, but run into the problem of hauling (including harvesting) frequently stalling because nobody bothers performing the mine cart loading jobs (they're visible on the jobs screen as unassigned), so there's no free stockpile space in the feeder stockpiles. I've tried to get my miners to help with hauling, but they just stand there doing nothing when I try to assign food and item hauling (my most troublesome QS is the farmer's one, that holds still and thresher plants, plus thread/cloth/masterworks clothing). Assigning all hauling jobs have the miners take off hauling animals back to pastures they immediately desert, so I don't want to do that. Stone and wood are not yet stockpiled, so those jobs should be out of the question.

143

DF Gameplay Questions / Cavern oddities?

« on: June 22, 2015, 03:51:23 am »

I have two unusual things happening to my caverns:
1. The second cavern is subject to long stretches of emptiness, i.e. periods where no critters are in the cavern. I have a Gremlin trap (proven to work) but as far as I've seen Gremlins sneak in while other critters are in the cavern anyway. I think the cavern has been empty for something like half a year by now, and that's something I haven't seen before. I've checked and rechecked that I've actually mapped the whole cavern, so there can't be something camping in an unexplored corner. As far as I know, Gremlins are the only cavern sneakers, and my dorfs busy with securing the cavern haven't bumped into anything. Is there an explanation for the emptiness?
I've also seen a somewhat higher rate of double critter waves (i.e. two kinds of critters in a cavern at the same time) than normal in to first cavern, although no such case during the current empty spell.
2. I have a disappearing lake in the third cavern, i.e. the water depth in the lake has gradually decreased to the point it's now evaporating. I have confirmed I haven't dug any leaks into it (not digging at all underneath it or in the cavern itself). However, I've got a rampaging FB made out of fire that's set the moss on fire in most of the cavern. Can this fire have caused the lake to dry out?

144

DF Gameplay Questions / "Stray Gremlin (Semi-Wild) has gone berserk!"?

« on: June 20, 2015, 09:21:52 am »

What's happening?

I caught two Gremlins and trained them and let them roam, trying to get myself a Gremlin Mayor. After the first one went wild I put it down, and as the second one went semi-wild I caged it (in a cage together with two Kea Men and a Hamster Man). Then I suddenly got the message in the Subject line. The Gremlin is bonded to one of the 3 animal trainers, and there isn't a whole lot of animal training to do (actually only this Gremlin since a while, and only a handful of animals before that, something a single trainer has had no problems with in past fortresses).

145

DF Gameplay Questions / Is there a safe candy harvesting level? (Spoiler)

« on: June 17, 2015, 04:37:58 am »

Do you have to treat the complete spire as hazardous, or is there a level above which the danger never manifests itself? Some potential levels:
- Anything on a third cavern level
- Above the top of the magma sea
- Above the top SMR level of the spire (i.e. the potential for danger starts once the spire dips into the SMR anywhere (as seen from above, obviously).
- The lowest magma sea level (i.e. every level completely enclosed by SMR is potentially dangerous)

It would greatly simplify work if the answer was the last one, for instance, since it would mean you wouldn't have to deal with the unsafe parts of the spire blocking your obsidianization of the sea.

Edit: Changed title due to demand.

146

DF Gameplay Questions / Magma sea related !!science!! results

« on: May 07, 2015, 11:05:21 am »

In case anyone is interested, I've done some stupid !!science!! with the magma sea.
- Will magma flow generate power in a nether-cap water wheel? - No. At least not always (i.e. it didn't in my single attempt).
- Can you use cave-ins to divide the magma sea into pockets? - No. I've tried to drop "shaped" pieces of rock into the sea to stick on top of regular rock and then dipping down into the sea. All the rock entering the magma sea disappeared immediately, while the parts on top of regular rock fused as normal. Not only does the rock entering the sea disappear, the rock above it does as well, i.e. the layer of rock connected horizontally to the part on top of the regular rock vanishes. I've tried this both with rock reaching down to the magma flow, and rock that should just have hemmed in a little pool at the top sea level, with ordinary magma underneath.

Remains to be tested (unless someone else already knows the answer):
- What happens with a cave-in dropped onto a dry magma flow? Will it disappear, or fuse? Will it affect the magma flow tile properties if it fuses?
- Same as the previous one, but dropped onto SMR. I expect just a regular rock fuse here.

147

DF Gameplay Questions / Dwarf just won't move

« on: May 03, 2015, 08:36:43 am »

My single militiadwarf has become immobile for unknown reasons. He doesn't have any physical damage, and I can't see anything in his thoughts only says "afraid after experiencing trauma" (again, no physical damage visible). He's now growing hungry, thirsty, and drowsy, but his top thought was "I'm alright", and the stress level is 0.
The dorf was sent to fight first one goblin, which worked out well, and then another one in my trade entrance where I had two captured goblins and two free ones: the captives in cages on the trade route level, and the free ones dropped one level below via a retractable bridge. The militia dwarf charged down the slope and killed one of the goblins, while the other one managed to get itself caught in the remaining cage trap of that trap array.
The militiadwarf then just stood there at the slope on top of the body of the killed dwarf. As I ran short of time, I closed the bridge on top of him just before the human caravan came, but shortly afterwards dug the last tile for a path to the area, but he still wouldn't move. He accepted a job to haul trade goods, but didn't move, I tried to station him elsewhere, but he wouldn't move. I sheared away the ramp he stood on, but he wouldn't move. I then used DFHack fastdwarf to teleport him free, but I just found he just stands in the new location instead, still accepting, but not performing, jobs, but now he's hungry, thirsty, and tired. I've kicked him out of the militia to no avail.
It's not a syndrome, since I've deployed in a good area, the goblins did not have any mount (never seen that) so it can't be poisoning (goblins don't use poisoned weapons, as far as I know).

Any idea what's wrong, and, even better, how to get him back in working order again? Should I just build a coffin and wait for him to die?

Edit:
Nevermind. He died of dehydration. Apparently noone else bothered to give him water.

148

DF Gameplay Questions / Boring, muddied cavern

« on: April 17, 2015, 04:58:16 pm »

My top cavern is completely devoid of vegetation (and water). Instead, it seems to be stone only, covered in mud. I've encountered a cavern where half of it was like that earlier, but then trees grew, and regrew, in it (the mud part, that is). Cavern critters still enter the cavern, and cave spiders spread webs on the ground, but no moss, no trees, not even after opening up the other caverns.
Now, I've had trees block my water pump stack in an earlier fortress, so trees can obviously grow in mud on stone. Does this mean the cavern can be "revived", at least tree wise, by adding water to it, or is it destined to remain dead? I made an attempt to use the "build wall and tear it down" trick to see if I'd get sand or soil instead, but that tile just resulted in unmuddied stone.
It's not really important, just annoying not to understand what the rules are.

149

DF Gameplay Questions / Does trap loading spook caravans?

« on: April 16, 2015, 04:07:23 pm »

I just finally got a caravan (last year an undead siege blocked it), but then they suddenly disappeared. Looking around, I found a pile of stuff just beside a cage trap along the (underground) caravan route. That array of cage traps had just been constructed, and one of them had just been loaded. Can loading a trap under the hooves of draft animals spook them? The path is a standard serpentine one with a row of traps to force the wagons to make a detour, but there is a perfectly viable path to the trade depot.

150

DF Gameplay Questions / Bugged mine cart track

« on: April 16, 2015, 09:19:48 am »

I've created a mine cart route from my fortress down to the magma sea (around 100 levels) via a drop chute. However, I've designed it incorrectly somehow, because the mine cart contents gets dumped on the N/S ramp (with a wall on the north side, and a track on the south side) it lands on. The now empty cart then rolls to the track stop as designed.
As far as I can remember, I used the same design the last time I sent stuff downwards (0.40.13?)
Any idea on how I can get the contents to remain in the cart?

As a side issue, the contents was sand bags, and I made the N/S ramp into a links only stockpile for sand bags only. After a while, the stockpile contents hasn't been depleted, as I would have expected, but gets converted into a stockpile of empty bags, so either the dorf operating the magma glass smelter empties the bags into his/her beard when fetching sand, or the empty bags are returned to the links only (with no links) stockpile after use.