Bay 12 Games Forum

Just as the title says. I've been squeamish about assigning dwarves with low disease resistance to my military for fear that their first infected scratch will inevitably kill them, but many of my strongest, toughest, most agile dwarves have very low resistance, and none of the places I've looked (the wiki, searching the forum) tell me for sure one way or the other.

So what does Disease Resistance actually do?

of course, if this is implemented there will immediately be issues with dwarves locking themselves on the wrong sides of doors.

I'd been a little sporadic on my armor forging and hadn't gotten everyone helmets yet. He really did only have the hood.

Another dwarf who survived the same encounter ended up with one arm gone and the other with motor nerve damage. I retired him from the military and made him my captain of the guard.

I've been trying out the fortress defense mod for a bit of added challenge, since regular dwarf fortress had begun to seem kind of easy. I've barely withstood six sieges and two winters, the last one of which killed two of my dwarves by dehydration (my embark has ponds frozen starting in early autumn and ending in late spring, and the first level of the caverns are dry.) One day, two of my soldiers are out grabbing some dropped wargear and run into a goblin ambush right on the end of my bridge, so of course the idiots try to chase them down. In the process, one of them chases them to a secluded area where they proceed to slice his arm off and then attempt to murder him with their spears. He managed to survive a shocking amount of punishment, long enough for my alpha squad to get to him and bring vengeance to the goblins. He even managed to survive until being brought to the hospital, and is currently lying there awaiting treatment.

I looked through the combat log, just to see how they got his arm off with spears (which seemed a bit odd, but I guess is possible with a broad spearhead,) and saw that after he lost consciousness from his attempt to emulate the black knight, the true nature of his rockheadedness.

The goblins, one armed with a copper spear, the other with an iron spear, stabbed him in the head 260 times before he was rescued. Each time they merely "bruised the fat" through his giant toad leather hood.

With any luck, this soldier will survive, though his fighting days might be over. I'm giving him the nickname "Rockhead", and hoping he survives another dry winter. (I tried to save some water in a couple of basins by designating ponds, but they got drank up before the caravan arrived with their life-giving booze. My basins have 2/7 water in them, and I'm not sure how to make that more usable... and I just realized all I need to do is channel under the well and it will collect in a 7/7 tile. Whew, my dorfs may yet live!

Edit: aaand he just died of infection. Damn.

Agreed as well, especially for the ability to have companions who've been wounded badly enough to make them no good in a fight retire, rather than just tag along until they get killed.

I have to agree with the Labarynth ideas. With a kitten behind a cage trap behind a lever-connected wall grate, you could even recapture him if necessary. You can set things up so that the labarynth opens with the same lever that seals your fort off from the world, leading the goblins into the maze.

Or just set something up to put caged prisoners in an airlocked room that connects either to the fortress or the maze, but never both at once. Put the cage in the airlock, cycle the airlock over to the maze, and pull the lever to release the prisoner. Maybe he can get out before the minotaur finds him, maybe not... For a bigger challenge, litter the maze with floodgates that open and close based on a set of levers that are set to be pulled repeatedly.

This isn't a bug, it's a feature. She's picked up a cursed, magic sword that ensorcelled her mind and made her desire it. She will murder to keep possession of it. It's the beginning of a tragic and possibly epic tale.

As far as setting up ambushes goes, dwarves will charge headlong into battle at the first sight of the enemy, regardless of other considerations. There's no way short of kicking them from a squad to make them relent. The best way to set up an ambush, then, is around a corner where the dwarves don't see the enemy until they're all right on top of them. Preferably with doors behind said dwarves that can be locked once they're all assembled, so none of them decide it's naptime just before the horde arrives.