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Author Topic: Goblin gun  (Read 2702 times)

!!Fyre!!

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Goblin gun
« on: August 09, 2013, 04:54:39 am »

I was up way to late playing DF when I saw that when i pit creatures down a 10+ z level hole they have a pretty decent chance of exploding into multiple pieces of bone, teeth, limbs, etc. I also read that falling objects can cause pretty devastating amounts of damage, so being in a dwarfy mindset I of course decided to try to weaponize this as inefficiently and using as many resources as possible. Here's the basic outline of the idea. First build a hollow tower at least 15 z levels high and on top put platform with a built goblin cage (with fully equipped gob inside so theres more shrapnel) thats linked to trigger which drops the goblin down an internal shute at least 10 z levels onto one of 4 extended raising bridges (thats 1 for each cardinal direction so I can somewhat aim), hopefully exploding due to the massive impact. After the gob drops an appropriate switch is thrown to lower a raised  bridge (which was used to keep gob bits on the first bridge until ready to be fired) bridge is raised to fling goblin bits at the approaching siege. I know chances are pretty small that i'll actually hit anything, but I think showering goblin sieges with bits and pieces of their former friends and family sends just the right kind of welcome to my fort that I'm looking for. I'm wondering if anyone has done this or anything similar before? My current fort is only in its third year, and near to finishing it's magma pump stack, but I'm sure making a few of these towers is going to be my next project.
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Swonnrr

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2013, 06:07:34 am »

Paragraphs, sir.
They hold the power of  clarity.
Master their power!
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itg

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2013, 06:50:30 am »

Bridges are actually pretty terrible at flinging things at enemies, since the direction any one item goes is random and not correlated with the direction the bridge raises. You could build a minecart shotgun filled with goblin bits, though. The basic idea is to ram a minecart into a fortification at high speed, stopping the cart but not its contents. A search of the forum ought to bring up plenty of information on the subject.

!!Fyre!!

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2013, 07:33:24 am »

Yes, I know about minecart shotguns, but part of the idea is that the goblin is alive looking out of it's cage at it's buddies who've come to rescue him and then moments later being rained down on the rescuers in as many tiny, preferably blood-soaked bits as possible. From what I understand about minecarts, items falling into the tile they occupy aren't loaded into the minecart. If I rely on dwarves to fill the cart the siege would likely have already entered my siege-ending ocean-dropping drowning tunnels by time they've finished. So, while it may be inaccurate the bridge is the only solution i have come up with so far. Although on second thought perhaps if the minecarts are on rollers rotten miasma generating gob bits might be an even better welcome than fresh ones...
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Tirion

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2013, 08:41:42 am »

I heard caged animals loaded into minecarts are released when the shotgun fires. You can fire armed, armored goblins at their comrades.
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"Fools dig for water, corpses, or gold. The earth's real treasure is far deeper."

Di

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2013, 11:37:35 am »

Seems fun.

Code: [Select]
FFF
FBF
FFF

F - floodgates B - retracting bridge
Bet the effective range will be around half a dozen steps.

Also one could always just drop the goblins onto their comrades.
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Solon64

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2013, 07:44:42 pm »

Drop them!? Where's the dorfy in that, ya blasted fool!?

On topic, yeah, bridgeapults are incredibly unreliable. Sometimes they go two tiles sideways, sometimes twenty z's straight up.

I support the vote for minecart shotgun. You can even do a double to fling the live goblin at his comrades. Bonus dorfy points: multiple launches, staggered slightly for maximal carnage and synchronicity.
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illarion

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2013, 06:17:25 am »

Abnorsome idea!  Nothing dwarfier than using mechanisms to fling your enemies to their deaths.
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Button

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Re: Goblin gun
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2013, 08:55:13 am »

If you're dead set on having both your ammunition alive at the time of firing, and scattered into shrapnel by the time they hit the enemy, you could make it a 31-Z high tower, with bridges at 30 and 15; open the top bridge first, let the gobbos splode, then open the bottom bridge to rain the shrapnel on your enemies. Bonus points for making both bridges out of clear or crystal glass.

You could even do it with a single lever pull, by making the top floor out of grates, or by using a delay circuit (timed minecart track) to trigger the second bridge ~300 ticks after the top bridge is triggered. The former is easier but would require a lot of mechanisms.
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