Bay 12 Games Forum

Only if you prefer your dwarves alive.

I build catapults outside, watch where the rocks land, then dig out a channel and fill it with water.  The rocks aren't destroyed on impact, and since they're underwater the dwarves won't try to grab them (though I still (f)orbid them every once in a while to prevent pathing from trying).  I figure in the extremely unlikely event that I run out of rock, I just dig a staircase down and get 'em out.

I flooded some 0/1 yellow sand farms and they jumped, after a short while submerged, to 0/8.  I haven't really noticed a difference in output, though; all it seems to have done is make my people spend more time lugging potash to the farms.

Animals can't conceive in cages.  Just put all the female cats/kittens in a cage and voila!  Pest control without a feline population problem.  Note that since animals CAN give birth in cages, you'll need to periodically recheck to make sure all the females are caged since some of the cats where probably pregnant when they went in.

I just finally finished building my own little gladiatorial arena in my current fortress.  Since I'm making a backup save so I can try several different fights, I figured I might as well offer anyone else who wants to watch a good fight the opportunity to check it out.

You can download the file here.  (8mb)

Once in the fortress, press shift-F4 to jump to the lower level of the arena.  The controls are in a small room to the southwest, far enough away for the lever operator not to become afraid of the combatants.  The levers do the following, ordered from far left to far right:

1 - white - release the war dogs (8 dogs)
2 - black - open/close the door (bridge)
3 - yellow - release top goblin cages (8 goblins, mostly thieves)
4 - yellow - release middle goblin cages (8 goblins, mostly thieves)
5 - yellow - release bottom goblin cages (8 goblins, mostly thieves)
6 - blue - release the Titan
7 - white - release the monkeys (16 adult and baby rhesus macaques)

Honestly, it would be a better fight if captured goblins didn't lose their aggression ai, a fact I'd forgotten when I began construction.  Still, it's amusing to watch the titan drop kick baby monkey heads the length of the arena.  Note that slower computers will likely choke a bit on this fortress, as I like to build BIG and there are nearly 150 dwarves walking around.  Have fun!

I despise using outside utilities to "cheat," even as a workaround for a bug.  I guess I'll try the "remove from military" solution, although now that I think about it, my entire military are elite or champions, so that won't work.

I have noticed that wounded dwarves, rather than being taken to a random unused bed, are getting taken to their own room; perhaps that's the bug?  Next time this happens, I'll try deconstructing his bed, or possibly evicting him.  Of course, that's not going to make the wounded dwarf very happy...

Is there a bug in the database for this one yet?  I searched but couldn't find a relevant listing.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Silveron:
<STRONG>By the way.... if you never assign a sheriff... the hammerer is never an issue.</STRONG>

---

Are you positive on that?  I've always lock him away immediately as a precaution; I was under the impression that if a noble tagged someone for hammering, the hammerer was gonna do it on his own.