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[AFlyingNunAttack]

What are some tips on using them? How effective are they?

[Girlinhat]

...Awe?  Do you mean Axe?  If so - what's the material?  Artifacts gain no incredible benefit for being artifacts, an artifact tin axe is infinitely worse than a mundane copper axe.  Use it as a regular axe when determining how to weaponize it.

Or put it into a trap in the mayor's room.  A trap is technically furniture, and provides value to a room based on the weapons installed in it.

[forsaken1111]

I'd love it if you could slap a really bitchin artifact outside and invaders would just stop in awe and stare.

[Girlinhat]

I'd love it if you could slap a really bitchin artifact outside and invaders would just stop in awe and stare.

Similar does happen with kobolds.  A 1x1 artifact stockpile and some traps.  They can't not go to it.

[AFlyingNunAttack]

...Awe?  Do you mean Axe?  If so - what's the material?  Artifacts gain no incredible benefit for being artifacts, an artifact tin axe is infinitely worse than a mundane copper axe.  Use it as a regular axe when determining how to weaponize it.

Or put it into a trap in the mayor's room.  A trap is technically furniture, and provides value to a room based on the weapons installed in it.

I'm talking about this: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Trap_design#Artifact_awe_trap I looked around and there isn't really anything anywhere ellaborating on why this kind of trap would work or how effective it is. I have a couple cheap, gabbro, artifact grates that I would sacrifice in a heartbeat to have protection from forgotten beasts and gremlins below.

[Lord_Phoenix]

I'm talking about this: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Trap_design#Artifact_awe_trap I looked around and there isn't really anything anywhere ellaborating on why this kind of trap would work or how effective it is. I have a couple cheap, gabbro, artifact grates that I would sacrifice in a heartbeat to have protection from forgotten beasts and gremlins below.

Basically, this only works against building destroyers.  Artifacts can't be destroyed once built, so an artifact door or grate or table or whatever can't be torn up by a building destroyer.  They won't stop trying to destroy it though, so they just stand there beating on it forever. 

Forgotten Beasts, Titans, a number of megabeasts, demons, and werecreatures are all building destroyers that actively seek out the nearest building to destroy it.  So, building an artifact grate in a room just off the tunnel into the caverns (where they can see it from the tunnel) will lure forgotten beasts into the room and they won't leave because they're trying to destroy it.  Won't work against gremlins though.

Oh, and they destroy from 1 tile away, so there's a gap between the artifact and the building destroyer that can be used to block it off from both sides.

[Girlinhat]

Oh, THAT trap.  Yeah, building destroyer magnets.  Keep in mind that if a creature approaches, the building destroyer will prioritize the creature.  But it's a decent way to buy time, or to set up crossbows on ledges.

[AFlyingNunAttack]

I'm talking about this: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Trap_design#Artifact_awe_trap I looked around and there isn't really anything anywhere ellaborating on why this kind of trap would work or how effective it is. I have a couple cheap, gabbro, artifact grates that I would sacrifice in a heartbeat to have protection from forgotten beasts and gremlins below.

Basically, this only works against building destroyers.  Artifacts can't be destroyed once built, so an artifact door or grate or table or whatever can't be torn up by a building destroyer.  They won't stop trying to destroy it though, so they just stand there beating on it forever. 

Forgotten Beasts, Titans, a number of megabeasts, demons, and werecreatures are all building destroyers that actively seek out the nearest building to destroy it.  So, building an artifact grate in a room just off the tunnel into the caverns (where they can see it from the tunnel) will lure forgotten beasts into the room and they won't leave because they're trying to destroy it.  Won't work against gremlins though.

Oh, and they destroy from 1 tile away, so there's a gap between the artifact and the building destroyer that can be used to block it off from both sides.

With grates couldn't you just build them IN the tunnel? That way if they want to get to your fortress they have to go through it and get stuck?

[Lord_Phoenix]

With grates couldn't you just build them IN the tunnel? That way if they want to get to your fortress they have to go through it and get stuck?

Yeah, but the point is to keep the passage open.  Putting it right in the path would just have a big, angry, forgotten beast blocking your dwarves' path to the caverns.

[MattStriker]

Using something like this was the only way I've ever been able to get a siege engine to do something useful. If you know where the target will be you can just Fire At Will from outside of sight range, which neatly avoids both the stupid panicking siege operator issue and the problem with the target pathing straight towards the operators instead of staying on the bait.

[Crossroads Inc.]

On a 10year fort of mine, I had once ended up with an Artifact serated disk, an Artifact giant hammer, and Two Artifact mechanisims...

I put all of them, along with an addtional 8 steel serated discs into a single wepon trap that lad to the fort...
I recall laughing my ass off as I watched Goblins just EXPLODE when they touched it.

[Girlinhat]

On a 10year fort of mine, I had once ended up with an Artifact serated disk, an Artifact giant hammer, and Two Artifact mechanisims...

I put all of them, along with an addtional 8 steel serated discs into a single wepon trap that lad to the fort...
I recall laughing my ass off as I watched Goblins just EXPLODE when they touched it.

That'll happen even with 10 copper disks.  A Large Serrated Disk deals 3x attacks, and goblins tend to leave their arms and legs exposed.  That's 30 attacks, statistically speaking some will end up severing limbs.

[joeclark77]

Thing is, you can do this even with ordinary furniture (although you have to watch it closely lest the beast wander away).  When I crack open the caverns, i create a second entrance that leads only to furniture.  If a FB or spider is spotted, I close the gate that leads to the fort and open the one that leads to furniture.  It might be laid out as follows:

Code: [Select]

############
#XX........#
#XX........#
#########..#
........#..#
........#..#
###D#D#D#..#
###D#D#D#..# D = drawbridge
###.#.#.#..#
###.#.#.#..#
###F#F#F#..# F = furniture
###F#F#F#..#
#########..#
...........#
...........# <- dwarf entrance to caverns
############

In this mockup the cavern floor is to the west.  Dwarves take the long way around (east>south>west).  When a FB or other building destroyer wanders into one of the furniture-display cubbyholes, you simply close the drawbridge and trap it forever.  The nice thing about this layout is that if you have trapped a spider or webbing FB,  you can use their webs to secure the main cavern entrance.  Build cage traps to the south of their prison cells, hook up a bait animal, install a drawbridge to turn them on/off, and carve a fortification into their cell wall.  They will web the cage traps, guaranteeing capture of any non-webbing enemies (even FBs) that try to enter through the dwarfs' entrance.

[BoredVirulence]

Note to self, when I get artifact furniture, add this to my building destroyer retracting bridge drop / sealing trap.
So far, if I can get anything inside (I currently have a floodgate as the bait and it sets off the trap), it works flawlessly (drops them down a chute where I can obsidianize them, or if they are too large for the bridge to function the trap seals them in, where I can pump more water in and potentially obsidianize them), but I've had a few building destroyers ignore it.