Bay 12 Games Forum

I adjusted my settings to fill my monitor, and now the settings are ~just~ cutting off the right edge of the screen, the z-height and sometimes the end of some options - which (of the several adjustments I made) did I screw up?

Am I drawing it lame, or are you guessing?

It's not the Omega/horse-shoe (dwarven location)
It's not the grey "dot" (cave, right?)
Don't know what a bottomless pit looks like.

It's like a thick boxy oval.  With nothing visible upon arrival at that location.

Might be more like this?...

  XXXXX
XXX XXXX
XXX   XXX
XX       XX
XXX   XXX
 XXX XXX
  XXXXX

I'm new at all this, and a bug is a bug, but I've read this and another recent thread on the same subject (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=32850.0), and it strikes me there may be an answer - one that is beyond my current fortress capabilities to test. It seems the heart of the problem is that water splashes around, and water levels/pressure readings change on a single trigger tile much faster than a door/gate can respond. 

The solution, it would seem, is to have your trigger restricted to reservoir of only 1 tile in total area, so there is no "sloshing around".  That "trigger-well" would be below the area you are concerned about.

You have a large room/complex/hall you want to safeguard against flooding (who doesn't?)  Early on in this area, near where you expect the flooding to start, you dig your trigger "well", only one tile big, with a pressure plate that triggers the desired effect when it's 1 water-level deep. 

One number for depth, no splashing, no variation, no mixed signals.

     (top)                                      (Side)
W->HHHHHHH                         W->HHHHHHH   
W->HHHHHoH -> (& etc)                         o
W->HHHHHHH

W = water source
-> direction of water flow
H = Hallway
o = "trigger well"


If you wanted to combine this with something to catch the first of any flood, you could dig a channel across the entire hall with a grate over it to catch the first of any such water - and since it's below the main level it could be a extended into a sewer/drain system that connects several nearby corridors - whatever.  But then you'd want that to feed the single-tile trigger-well below ~that~ level - the idea is that if water comes, it fills this channel first, and then when the trigger gets wet it stays at level 1 or more, but the closer the better, for faster reaction time to fill the trigger-well.

Like I said, I'm a n00b at this, and maybe I'm talking out a dark orifice, and this is beyond me to test - but someone might want to, and let us know!  (I'll do it when I can... some day... soon... soon...)

(edit to include link to similar thread)

Right, good news - these are just stop-gap measures.  I've got a sand field and a series of small ponds, and a small hill I dove into - it's a quick job to channel them all together and carve a bit out of the first level of the back of the hill, let the water drop to 6 and then fill back to 7 next rain (and it's been raining a lot.)

Thanks all!

(btw - will this stop thieves, or do they just materialize/sneak in with caravans?  I've got traps too, and a dog... and plans...

Oh, I just remembered that lots of enemies won't drown unless the water is deeper than 7/7, like 7/7 on the bottom level and 1/7 on the top level.  So a deeper moat might come in handy.

Good to know!  I'll make sure I leave extra levels below for when I make it a proper moat, with it's own active water source.

Also about the archers - that makes sense, I'm on it, thanks.

Also larger constructions look cooler.

No doubt! Just gettin' warmed up. 

My dwarves just "named" two local cave-swallowmen - does this have ~any~ impact on their thoughts/mood/combat?  Is it possible to "make friends"? (gawdz, what a revoltin' development!)

Hrmmm - it's certainly possible there was - effin n00b, what can I say?  All I know is that the green line ended at the dog.  (hmmm - that sounds bad...)

Anyway, a "month" later the problem with the dog is still there - I had gone into its inventory and marked it for Dump, but it's still wearing the chain - I guess the dog doesn't have the Haul Refuse skill?

I guess that might be a good way to make your hunting dogs very butch and give them value, and I guess eventually it will die and I can recover the chain (or, as a stray/guard dog, get killed in the line of duty, or the chow line), but I'd worry that the weight might slow it down?  I guess it's another chain and hope for the best.

(Edit:
Now that I have a second chain, it seems the procedure to move a restrained animal is:

1) q, a - to "assign" another animal to that placed chain
2) choose "nobody"
3) wait for current animal to be released
4) remove and relocate chain (q,x), then re-restrain animal as above (q,a)

Also, confirmed - it seems the dog was ~not~ the problem.  New chain in same place, Trade Route is all green.  (I don't want to talk about it.)

(Edit to include key shortcuts)

Or use a drawbridge, and just use the walls so there's no direct line of sight for enemy arrowfire into your complex.  The entry path would go over the bridge, then jog sideways between some curtain walls, then on in, no prob.  (Also a great way to make death traps/killing zones.)

When you have even one of these on a weapon trap it ganks goblins pretty nice. I shudder to think what would happen if I used ten at once.

And that's the bottom line - whatever works, baby!  Blend'em!