Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.  (Read 1955 times)

KiTA

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« on: March 23, 2012, 10:56:47 pm »

So yeah.  I got attacked by a Necromancer.  Two of them, actually.

There's no notification for that when it happens, like a siege or an ambush or a werebeast or really any other attack -- this is probably a bug.

I only noticed when a few random corpses had stood up.  The necromancers walked into my traps, blowing into a billion pieces.

Unfortunately, one necromancer revived the other, and the undead necromancers appeared to still be able to revive each other.  But they eventually died at the same time, so no harm done, right?

But during all this my traps (serrated disks) caused a piece of a random zombie to land on a wall, where it was revived.  It can't get down, but I can't get to it.

So I'm stuck.  No one can enter my fortress cause there's undead on the wall above the entrance, and I can't build a ramp to get up there to get rid of the zombie because of the undead.  I can't get a bow set up, because I can't get into the fort.

Well, it's an interesting bit of *fun* anyway.
Logged

kronith

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2012, 11:36:07 pm »

try flooding your entrance, the water flow might wash your errant body part off the wall.

if that doesn't work try making a waterfall fed into your entrance directly above said part

if THAT doesn't work flood it with magma.
Logged

krenshala

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2012, 11:54:35 pm »

Its just tunneling up "behind" the bit of undead flesh much easier (if decidedly undwarfly)? :)
Logged
Quote from: Haspen
Quote from: phoenixuk
Zepave Dawnhogs the Butterfly of Vales the Marsh Titan ... was taken out by a single novice axedwarf and his pet war kitten. Long Live Domas Etasastesh Adilloram, slayer of the snow butterfly!
Doesn't quite have the ring of heroics to it...
Mother: "...and after the evil snow butterfly was defeated, Domas and his kitten lived happily ever after!"
Kids: "Yaaaay!"

Beyondrepair

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2012, 12:22:53 am »

But during all this my traps (serrated disks) caused a piece of a random zombie to land on a wall, where it was revived.  It can't get down, but I can't get to it.

Ahaha this just happened to me as well. At least, inaccessible undead parts.

I was busy trying to kill a vampire by cave in as a punishment for killing my legendary grower. This was on a neutral aquifer map, which required me to use the ground level as the cave in roof. The vampire escaped because I messed up with the generated ramps. I thought that would only be a temporary set back (just costing me another dead), however, moments later (presumably by coincidence) one visible necromancer showed up. At this point I was a lot more vulnerable already than I would've been under normal circumstances with all dwarfs inside, so I decided to go for an active defense.

There was no military yet (yeah, I'm really rusty since I only got back to DF recently, nor did I ever play much compared to reading forums to begin with). I drafted the whole populace of 60 dwarfs - children and sent them to target the necromancer specifically, instead of the Elf merchant skeletons re-animated by him in my trade depot. They nailed the necromancer quickly, and after that managed to kill the skeletons as well. Cancel order issued; mission accomplished... I thought.

Then I noticed most dwarfs were behaving weirdly - they appeared to run back and forth, away from my pasture enclosure wall. I checked unit list, and a partial skeleton was listed as not deceased. I couldn't see it however, and couldn't zoom it until later on. When I finally could, I noted there was an immobilized skeleton finger 1 Z-level up, unable to jump down from the wall. Nor could my dwarfs reach it when I re-drafted them.

I tried to get my dwarfs back by digging, however, with a river in the way it was easier said than done. My only miners on the correct side decided it was a good time to get food and drink. As a desperate measure I drafted everyone else as miners, but they all refused to work, presumably due to tiredness and job cancellations. I tried digging from the other side; the dwarfs back in my base would also disobey however. Potentially the problem was that they wanted to go up stairs to be scared off by the skeleton finger again, so I tried deconstructing the stairs, to no avail.

Meanwhile, the vampire was feasting on dwarf children down in the fort judging by the announcements.

From there, things were already pretty bad (I'm sure a more experienced player would've found a way to solve it at that point), but it got worse. All hell exploded when another necromancer showed up (I think). For a prelude, my 30+ animals in the pasture got massacred, by some other skeleton parts thrown over the wall earlier, now re-animated. Then the worst slaughter I have seen so far in my own games commenced in the halls down below. Let's just say my trap corridor wasn't particularly useful, and I hadn't prioritized building a physical obstacle. I think I went from 60 to near zero dwarfs in 60 seconds real time.

However, at the end of the carnage a single dwarf was standing: The vampire (mayor (elite hammerer)). The avenging undead and elves had gotten the better of me. Such beauty and elegance in intricate game mechanics.

This situation would've been completely avoidable if I had prepared differently/more, or for that matter reacted quicker to the cancellation-fest caused by the skeleton finger on top of the 1 Z-level wall.

Losing is fun.

Edit: Spelling fixes, playing until 6 AM in the morning has that effect.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2012, 12:35:04 am by Beyondrepair »
Logged

Frogwarrior

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2012, 02:53:42 am »

Marksdwarves? I think undead collapse after taking too many bolts to the face. Or to the finger, depending.
Logged
Lately, I'm proud of MAGMA LANDMINES:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91789.0
And been a bit smug over generating a world with an elephant monster that got 87763 sentient kills.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104354.0

Beyondrepair

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2012, 04:06:19 pm »

Hmm maybe. That was too late though, and falls into "prepare better next time" category. I should've just walled myself in and let most of the dwarfs die outside I guess.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2012, 04:08:08 pm by Beyondrepair »
Logged

Beyondrepair

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2012, 04:06:43 pm »

Edit: wtf accidentally pressed quote instead of edit  :-\
Logged

Stil

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2012, 04:10:45 pm »

I've had necromancers and necromancer pairs turn up before - there isn't a warning because I think they *infiltrate* your fort (usually as fisher dorfs) until they raise the first body and combat starts, so kinda like kidnappers and ambushes, silent until detected doing something bad, I don't think it pauses unless it's a siege.
Logged
"This in particular, simply because it's so siggable." Ironyowl

RAKninja

  • Bay Watcher
  • Beware his deadly fusion cannon!
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2012, 04:14:31 pm »

how about channeling up from under?  providing the zombie part is not on something unminable, like a tree or constructed wall.
Logged
Goblin Fortress (NOW UPDATED FOR 34.02!
magma on his bed when he is sleeping, works every time

psychologicalshock

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2012, 04:28:22 pm »

I am 6.5 years into my fort and no necros showed up yet, is there a chance that they will? I have had 2 dragons show up so far and about 4 sieges.
Logged

Flying Dice

  • Bay Watcher
  • inveterate shitposter
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2012, 04:31:46 pm »

I am 6.5 years into my fort and no necros showed up yet, is there a chance that they will? I have had 2 dragons show up so far and about 4 sieges.

Was there a Tower listed in the civilizations on the preembark screen?
Logged


Aurora on small monitors:
1. Game Parameters -> Reduced Height Windows.
2. Lock taskbar to the right side of your desktop.
3. Run Resize Enable

Frogwarrior

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Thoughts on a recent Zombie attack.
« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2012, 07:45:46 pm »

I've had necromancers and necromancer pairs turn up before - there isn't a warning because I think they *infiltrate* your fort (usually as fisher dorfs) until they raise the first body and combat starts, so kinda like kidnappers and ambushes, silent until detected doing something bad, I don't think it pauses unless it's a siege.
Necromancers can sneak sometimes. It's awesome.
Logged
Lately, I'm proud of MAGMA LANDMINES:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91789.0
And been a bit smug over generating a world with an elephant monster that got 87763 sentient kills.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104354.0