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[GalacticCow]

So, I embarked in a max savagery world, in untamed wilds.  I thought I knew what I was getting into, but as usual I underestimated Dwarf Fortress.  It seems every season, at least once, sometimes 2 or 3 times, I get a big group of giant keas, or giant roaches, or other terrifying giant hostile flying monsters.

Now these guys aren't too tough to kill.  I have a large army with metal armor and good weapons that's highly trained -- they recently took down a goblin siege without a single major injury.  But the problem is, they fly around (and thus are hard to kill), and scare away all the dwarves collecting fruits and fishing and doing all the other outside stuff.  When I need to do big things outside, it becomes impossible to do anything because dwarves are panicking whenever they walk in the general vicinity of one of them.

I'm not sure how to best handle this.  I've got a few ideas though.

1)  A system of tall towers accessible from underground, with fortifications and patrol routes between the tops of them, for archers to shoot them out of the sky.  Not sure how well this would work though, since archers already have trouble shooting them from ground level, even as champion marksdwarves.

2)  A trap -- use a combat alert to bring all the dwarves inside, then use a food stockpile with a roof over it covered in weapon traps to lure and systematically murder all the enemies.  Not sure if this would work for all giant hostile flying monsters though.

3)  Draft everyone into the military, give them all crossbows, make them carry them even when off-duty.  Not sure whether they would try to shoot down the birds while off-duty though.

Any ideas or suggestions?  How do you usually handle regular giant kea invasions?

[PatrikLundell]

I build my fortress with a recessed courtyard that's decked over with cage traps at the long entrance tunnels to the courtyard. However, I don't have trees in the courtyard , so any fruit gathering still has to be done topside.

Trap constructions can be used, but you need to bait them with bait appropriate to the target creature. Keas steal shiny stuff, badgers go for food, some critters go for booze. I believe a cross shaped trap has been recommended, i.e. the bait in the middle with entrance tunnels in each of the 4 cardinal directions, with the tunnels filled with traps (cage or weapon). If you're targeting fliers specifically you can make the entrances accessible only to fliers (but you ought to provide access to the contraption for maintenance work). Also, if using weapon traps, be aware of the weapon trap break crash bug.

There is a cheesy exploit you can use if desperate: Creatures trapped in cages and then release are considered members of a roaming critter group from the appropriate level (surface, each cavern, etc). A savage biome can give you two concurrent groups, so catch critters from two groups and then release them into a locked room, and no critters will enter on that level. Note that catching a group member has a tendency to result in a camper bug, though: it's not unusual for the other members of the group to just stay in place when one member is trapped, only moving when threatened. It seems fliers are particularly prone to just hover. This may be desired in your case, though.

[Seolferwulf]

I'd simply relocate everything underground, since the annoyances come again and again.
Having a trustworthy stone ceiling protecting your head is the best defense.

[Skorpion]

Wall your gathering areas in, and roof over them. Have marksdwarves patrol over the top, and deploy them to support corpse haulage.
Also, weapon traps guarding all the doors inside, and have as few doors as possible leading out. Yes, it's inefficient and hampers FPS, but security has to come first.