Bay 12 Games Forum

This is something that will be much more interesting when the new release comes out, with configurable Z-level limits.  In the current version you're limited to 15 levels over the tallest natural terrain, which isn't all that high.

There is a dead baby at the bottom of Pagedslipped's new cistern.  With the cistern already several levels full and no practical access to the bottom, the dwarves will have to try to ignore the funny taste in the drinking water for a while.  The baby's mother seems unconcerned;  perhaps with the dozen other children she's already given birth to she's lost count.

Meanwhile, the tax collector has mandated the construction of bismuth items.  Of course, it is impossible to make anything out of bismuth.  Miners are digging exploratory tunnels to look for Bismuthinite.

Meanwhile, the rabbit breeding engine continues functioning, with a few newly matured wild rabbits about to be delivered to the sawblade array.  And construction is underway on the prototype magma-powered automated trash incinerator.

Bridges, whether retracting or raising, do not fling creatures up Z-levels.  Creatures on a raising or retracting bridge will be thrown around but will stay on the same Z-level.  Objects can be thrown up Z-levels, but not creatures.

See the following for experiments demonstrating this:

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=42111.0

Most wild animals will breed, provided you can keep them on the map long enough.  Wild animals which wander onto your map from the edge usually wander off before they can give birth.  You can capture them in cage traps, but they won't breed while in cages.  Capture several, then release them in an enclosed space they can't escape from, and they will breed.  My current fortress has an elaborate mechanical device which contains six wild rabbits in separate non-cage enclosures, with baby wild rabbits held until they grow into adults then released into a hallway full of weapon traps.

Females of any species are barely mentioned in Tolkien's books.  I do recall it being stated that it is difficult for non-dwarves to tell male and female dwarves apart, which would imply that they have beards, but I don't know where if anywhere in the books that is.

Strangely, upright spears don't increase the damage taken by a creature falling on them.  They only do damage when they extend.

I hear there is a trick that if you chain your animals up in a stairwell, their newborn offspring will fall to their doom upon birth. Then they can be collected, butchered and tanned automatically.

Tested this, doesn't work.  The newborn is born standing on the stairs.

I have created an automated wild animal breeding/butchering machine, but it involves a lot of pressure plates, hatches, and doors.