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Author Topic: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?  (Read 2863 times)

sadron

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Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« on: September 03, 2012, 10:05:31 pm »

In the burrow article it mentions bolt holes, which I'm assuming are little areas around your embark location that your dwarves can go into and hide in or are pathways of sorts back into your fort. Can someone clarify for me?
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mastahcheese

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2012, 10:12:02 pm »

Unless I'm mistaken, I think you have the right idea, I'm pretty sure it refers to auxillary passages that your dwarves can flee into in case the main entrace is blocked by enemies, but the passages have to be long and winding enough that the enemies don't think to use them.

I could be wrong, however.
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AutomataKittay

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2012, 10:13:15 pm »

Just took a look at burrows article, looks like it means a underground tunnels or rooms that you can seal off when dwarf manage to somehow stumble into. Sounds like it's assuming too much of dwarven intelligence to me, though :D
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sadron

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2012, 11:12:00 pm »

Just took a look at burrows article, looks like it means a underground tunnels or rooms that you can seal off when dwarf manage to somehow stumble into. Sounds like it's assuming too much of dwarven intelligence to me, though :D
Doesn't really have any visual representations though.
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ab00

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2012, 11:45:54 pm »

I would say they would be small, underground safe areas, either stockpiled with food to wait out a siege, or having a usually closed connection back to the fort.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2012, 12:22:12 am »

It's a hole in the ground that can be bolted shut to keep Dwarves safe. In case Dwarves for whatever reason can't reach the gatehouse.

Sus

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2012, 03:16:07 am »

...Ye Gods, the burrow article is made of so much win! :o
It solves practically every problem I've ran into so far due to dwarven ..."intelligence", such as trader going out of his way to do anything but trading or exp leader/baron/whatever playing hide and seek with the liaison until the latter gets pissed off and leaves without goodbye.
Plus the whole "running anywhere but the gatehouse" thingy during sieges.

Now if only there was some way to prevent active military from wandering into the middle of a siege one by one to fill waterskins or grab a particularly shiny x(troll fur sock)x...
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Stromko

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2012, 04:39:49 am »

Forbid death items option is a must for that, and I like to just mass-forbid any random items that are outside as well. I find it easier to just go through the stocks screen and manually reclaim the rare items that're worth bringing into the fort, once it's safe to take them.
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Iapetus

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2012, 09:07:01 am »

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bolt-hole?s=t
Quote
bolt-hole
   [bohlt-hohl] Show IPA
noun
1.
a hole in the ground, protected opening in bushes, etc., into which an animal can flee when pursued or frightened.
2.
a place or avenue of escape or refuge: The remote mountain village was a safe bolt-hole for refugees during the war.
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chris_strain

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2012, 12:53:31 am »

The idea is to have either a safe room where the dorfs can waits for safety, or a tunnel that leads back to the fortress. In either case, they should be covered by a hatch/door that you can lock once everyone is inside. By adding these areas to the general 'everyone inside!!' burrow, you can get people outside safe without them having to go all the way to the main gates. If you opt for tunnels, adding a retracting bridge over a channel along the route will let you lock out any building destroyers that may tear down the doors or hatches trying to give chase.

On the note of stopping the squads from running out piecemeal, just give them a station command just inside the safety of the fort, once everyone has geared up and assembled, you can send them out en mass.
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krenshala

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Re: Can someone explain "bolt-holes" to me?
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2012, 08:36:43 am »

I suppose you could set up the tunnels with a pressure plate that only triggers on dwarves that extends a bridge over the channel.  You'd have to have the burrow start at the pressure plate, however, or the dwarves wont go there, or at least won't path past the channel.  Doing this would let multiple dwarves across/in without having to micromanage their access.  It would also make it a one way passage that only gets used when the citizens are burrowed.

I'm going to have to try this now. ;)
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