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Author Topic: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?  (Read 1635 times)

Sgt.Awesomeness

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Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« on: September 06, 2017, 11:46:36 pm »

So my second goblin aeige I got a ton of goblins against my 30 poorly trained troops stood no chance against the 40 warriors and their bird things so I activate my bridge! I have a tunnel into my base with LOADS of traps ready to go

Only problem is nobody felt like pulling the lever to save everyone they would rather pray or socialize...

Next fort any tips for this? Or just lock myself away and say goodbye to traders
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bloop_bleep

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2017, 12:07:40 am »

Did you use the "Do now" option?

I usually make a completely separate lever room and lock a vampire in there with a bunch of cool statues so that he doesn't go crazy. If I don't have a vampire I would just air-drop food and booze into the room using dump-zone with hatch, or minecarts if I'm feeling classy.

Also, you could lock yourself away and not say goodbye to traders, by using an airlock around your trade depot.
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2017, 01:28:00 am »

You could make overseer-controlled pressure plates in general, and/or goblin siege-triggered ones for goblins in particular.

Can't block off wagon entrance path with forbidden doors or hatches, though, otherwise I'd suggest that to buy time.

PatrikLundell

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2017, 03:48:05 am »

As suggested, "DO NOW!" should work, unless your whole population is engaged in uninterruptible needs activities because you just put your temple and tavern on line (so they have lots of pent up needs). Still, removing the temple and tavern zones should shake some of them out of it (if that happens it time is another issue).
Locking a non vampire dorf in with the levers is usually not a good idea, as idle dorfs with nowhere to go and nothing to do tend to go to sleep (and won't wake up just because the lever finally needs to be pulled).
Also make sure you haven't activated a civilian alert that has the lever outside of the burrow: if it is outside, nobody will take up the task. If it is outside, just paint the area around the lever to add it to the burrow.
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blapnk

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2017, 09:17:03 am »

Just a slight bit of troubleshooting, make sure the lever is within the civilian alert burrow if you're using one. That happened to me.

Also, while putting levers right next to the bridge in question is flavorful and makes it easier to tell what lever does what, it does mean that by the time a dwarf does eventually feel like getting around to pulling the lever they'll change their mind and run as soon as they catch sight of the approaching goblin army. Even if they could have saved the whole fort by taking one more step and pulling the damn lever.
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Sgt.Awesomeness

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2017, 03:01:13 pm »

Just to clarify I had do now and suspended EVERY job I could (couldn't stop stockpiles or plant jobs) and yes I made sure I didn't suspend the lever job

Maybe they all felt suicidal
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Quarque

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2017, 04:06:14 am »

In my experience, praying receives a weirdly high priority in the current version of DF, in fact that's been reported as a bug.

Personally I just stopped building temples until it will be fixed in a future version. Your dwarves will receive some bad thoughts from being unable to pray, but with a nice dining hall it doesn't matter, they'll still be happy. And they will do some jobs instead of praying and meditating 24/7.
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Montieth

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Re: Nobody feels like pulling a lever... Fun times?
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2017, 12:57:04 pm »

Don't rely JUST on _a_ bridge. Have a LONG entrance hall that gives you the ability to channelize the Goblins and fill them with bolts prior to their meeting your melee dwarves. The entrance hall should be two levels tall with fortifications looking down on the lower level. For more advantage you can have a bridge at both ends. For better security you can have three bridges.
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B                                                                                   B   DEPOT  B  Rest of the fort
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This works VERY well for me. You can add complexity with the same sort of thing feeding down to your mines for security from cave invaders. I like to put the watch points for guards in an area where they can keep an eye on both halls with some guards walking a patrol along the areas. The Barracks are usually nearby for added turn around time on guards and militia rest cycles.

For added training, you can close the bridges trapping a force of goblins in the long hallway between the fort and the exit and train your crossbow dwarves up to elite status pretty quickly.

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