Bay 12 Games Forum

Snooping around in the legends it seems the elves in the area have fought humans and "the imprisoned empire" had been defeated by the elves. and I THINK that members of the imprisoned empire joined the other elves.. but then again there was not a single human present, only elves... I can't tell. All I know is that some elves were former members of the "imprisoned empire" and, oddly enough, former members of their own civilization too.
So I'm just going to assume that the AI just got really confused about who was who's enemy - and pitted everyone against eachother.

Atleast it was amusing  too bad I didn't record it.

Test 1. A dwarf stands in a room suspended above a bottomless pit. With him are some loose stone, a chair, a table and a coffin.
When released the dwarf is immediately crushed and all the constructed furniture and the walls disappear into the chasm immediately. The dwarf was crushed by the ceiling but his equipment and the loose stone can be seen falling down in the dustcloud. The fact that they were under the roof matters little.

Test 2. A cat is put in a constructed cage, standing on a tile of rock one z level above a platform. The rock tile is allowed to fall and survives the impact, the cage was deconstructed and hurled a good distance - but the cat survived without a scratch.

Test 3. A room is suspended 2 z levels above a platform. There is a constructed cage in it, some furniture and a dwarf. The dwarf is standing under a hole in the ceiling. There is also some loose stone.
Upon drop the entire structure immediately falls. It lands partially on the edge of the chasm. The furniture is deconstructed and hurled around. The roof falls in and crushes everything beneath it, it does NOT stay in position. The cat dies as the cage is crushed. The dwarf survives since he wasn't hit by the roof and suffers only minor injuries.

Oddly enough a cabinet survives the fall. There was roof above it so it should have been crushed, it is found in the location it was constructed and had not been hurled under the hole in the ceiling. Unless the cabinet was hurled immediately as the construction fell and then bounced back in faster-than-light speed I do not know how it survived.

There were some loose items in the room as well. They survived the fall and survived being crushed by the ceiling.

Tests indicate that you cannot drop a room and expect it to maintain construction. It falls to pieces and the only things standing are the walls... however since loose items don't seem affected by the cavein one could PERHAPS make a stockpile of caged dwarves and drop them - and have them survive. How to get them out of the cages is something I cannot answer, though.

Test 4. A floor tile was dropped on an unconstructed cat cage. It was crushed and the cat died immediately.

 I didn't think it mattered earlier, but the items that survived being crushed were all either STONE or BELONGINGS to a dwarf who was crushed. In Test 3 the miner who released the room went and did so from inside and was crushed. I didn't think it mattered but apparently it did. His corpse survived...

 Could it be that the dwarf is hit by the ceiling and dies - and drops his corpse and items? This would mean that the items are dropped after the roof hits. but it could also mean that the roof tile is destroyed upon collision and the dwarf acts as a meat shield.

 Could meat shields protect an object lying at their feet by taking a rock to the head? I don't know. and my remaining dwarves have just been killed. Tests are abandoned.