Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Wait for the next release. I want usable mugs damn it!

55 (71.4%)

We can use the current one. I like the big trees and slightly smarter dorfs.

17 (22.1%)

I'll take .34.11 thanks. I want to know I'll get to kill things for sure.

5 (6.5%)

Total Members Voted: 77

[TalonisWolf]

Currently experimenting with banshees that do not kill, but rather incapacitate affected dwarves with pain for a long time (something like 2 weeks at the moment, though I may extend it further). Decided that insta-kills were a bit too brutal.

 So a long death at the hospital is preferable? Michewa might not be able to save it this time, ya know.

     

                                              And he's the only one who could fix it last time.

[Mr Frog]

@Cynm:

The pain in question has a severity of something ridiculous like 1000, and it affects the unit's entire body. Anything hit with it tends to go down pretty fast.

Unconsciousness is indeed a possible syndrome effect, but I went with pain because it seemed more brutal. And also partially because I forgot unconsciousness was a thing.

[Reudh]

Is it resistable by willpower at all?

[Lolfail0009]

OK, I know I'm probably looking too far into the future yet, but what's the policy on danger rooms and this bullshit in SBII?

[Reudh]

Well, Splint and I discussed this: in between the Spawn, Scythod and Seqiv being able to scale our walls, and nasty banshees inflicting pain on anyone who is on the map, among other things, that we'll probably need danger rooms to stay competent.

[Splint]

Indeed. I've got a small test fort going and have yet to meet an enemy as it's only year one and not even fall yet at that but I'm fairly certain an old fashioned homegrown militia won't be enough to take on so many threats at once, not without absolutely appalling casualty rates that will scare away replacements.

[TalonisWolf]

 (

OK, I know I'm probably looking too far into the future yet, but what's the policy on danger rooms and this bullshit in SBII?

And your opinion on the "Shaft of Enlightenment" glitch, referred to as "this bullshit" in above post? It allows you to make a dwarf legendary near-instataneously, which is worse than the Danger Room.

[Splint]

I'd prefer that be avoided. I already don't approve of the use of danger rooms and view it as a possible necessary evil.

[Mr Frog]

@Reudh:

The pain effect isn't resistable by willpower per se, but it does have a very low chance of triggering, so they usually have to scream for a while before someone goes down. It's less an attack and more of a punishment for letting banshees linger on the map for too long.

I'm pretty sure having high disease resistance will reduce the pain suffered (just like any other syndrome symptom with the RESISTABLE tag), but I doubt it would actually reduce it to any useful degree (i.e. enough to stop the dwarf passing out); the pain is pretty severe. Maybe if the dwarf has really high willpower and disease resistance it could work.

Re: Danger Rooms possibly being a necessary evil:

Just send a bunch of fully-armoured recruits with training weapons to fight troglodytes (or any other weak-but-aggressive critter). Provided that there are enough troops to prevent any of them from being ganged up on, the trogs won't be able to do anything through the armour and the soldiers will be able to harmlessly bonk the trogs all day long (or at least until they get a lucky headshot), getting huge amounts of combat experience (I had one guy go from Dabbling to Skilled in a single encounter).

[Splint]

That isn't always an option though. I mean hell, just the megaspawn alone are able to attack as early as summer of the first year and my run in with one was only kept from being a tragic one thanks to paranoia and bringing a loaded railgun and a lucky body shot slamming it fatally into a tree.

Plus often there's not exactly a "weak-but-aggressive critter." Often the caverns are inhabited by things in the water, that can fly out of reach, or will pull an armored dwarf's arms off. Hell most of our cavern residents here were your choice of FB, bugbat, or aquatic life with the odd crundle or elk bird mixed in. I mean I'm familiar with the tactic, I've used it myself on occasion to get things to stop pestering cage trap setters and train up some soldiers at the same time. I'm just saying that the sheer number of enemies may make doing things old fashioned with the military extremely difficult (and not in a good way. I mean the severe frustration and fortress destroying way.) But I'm not looking for a debate. We'll just vote on it when the fort rolls around.

[Mr Frog]

The vast majority of (unflooded) caverns I've seen have either crundles or troglodytes. Perhaps not at all times, but they tend to wander onto the map fairly frequently, so it's just a matter of waiting for some to appear. It's not a catch-all strategy, but when it's possible to do it it's probably a good idea to do so.

5 recruits at a time might be ideal. When I tried it with 3, one of them got mobbed and killed. When I tried it with 8, the opposite happened -- some of the trogs would get gangbanged, pass out from exhaustion, and get their brains poked out, ending the training session.

You could also use the elven caravan as training dummies, seeing as how they lack guards, though this may provoke a war. (I wouldn't know, as I've never tried.)

[Splint]

Actually I think the mod has them as a thieving race, desperate to steal our sharp stuff to battle the spawn and others with so as to not be the ones responsible for the harming of trees. Pretty sure the Dwelves replace them in spring.

[Mr Frog]

Banshee testing update: I was feeling rather smug about fending off an ambush based on sheer military strength alone, without using any drowining traps (admittedly it was kobolds but meh). Then 40 zombies and 3 necromancers drop in to say hi. To make a short, bloody story even shorter: fuck fuck fuck. God, I suck at military

Still haven't gotten any banshee sieges yet.

[Splint]

I would think anyone who played this fort would have a nigh crippling a fear of necromancers...

[Starweaver396]

That isn't always an option though. I mean hell, just the megaspawn alone are able to attack as early as summer of the first year ...

[DIFFICULTY:5]
      [ATTACK_TRIGGER:50:5000:50000]

I found this under the Minotaur. If the Greater Spawn are a real problem(I had to pour water on one in a freezing biome in DFHack ) then this may make them wait for a little while.

The vast majority of (unflooded) caverns I've seen have either crundles or troglodytes. Perhaps not at all times, but they tend to wander onto the map fairly frequently, so it's just a matter of waiting for some to appear. It's not a catch-all strategy, but when it's possible to do it it's probably a good idea to do so.

The first critters on my map were pit gorlaks... I have a feeling they are tougher to deal with and just as common. I'd hate to have them show up during a training session.

Last but only because least recent:

Currently experimenting with banshees that do not kill, but rather incapacitate affected dwarves with pain for a long time (something like 2 weeks at the moment, though I may extend it further). Decided that insta-kills were a bit too brutal.

I would suggest splitting it into a three caste critter, with death dealers (being true banshees) being very uncommon. Mostly because banshee screams kill by definition, and not because I want turtles to suffer...

ninja'd

Still haven't gotten any banshee sieges yet.

That you know of. *evil grin*