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[Giant Ostrich Bone [29]]

Hello, I was hoping to talk to some fellow players about the nature of Giant Sponges. This entry can be moved if it is in the wrong spot/forum and I apologize. I was misled by the http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Giant_sponge entry stating:

If some hapless dwarf appears near their water, giant sponges may feel suddenly threatened and charge (!) the hapless dwarf and engage in combat - the only occasion when they move at all. They may also become enraged or unconscious or feel pain, as utterly improbable as that sounds.
"Without a nervous system, the only thing it can feel is ANGER."

While I saw they may be aggressive (mangled sea lamprey cartilage resting near one of them with reports of the sponge attacking first), one actually ran away from something in terror! (a fish? one of my dwarves walking too close to it? There isn't much wildlife in my save right now and I didn't see what happened at first)
It clearly had the terrified icon; I consulted the wiki to confirm this. It ran so much it even became winded (status icon) and was so eager to flee I believe it walked too often on 4/7 etc. water depth tiles and air-drowned itself! (there were no reports of fighting in this circumstance) A giant sponge body was left in it's wake.

Does anyone have similar experiences with Giant Sponges? I wanted to discuss here first before thinking about possibly altering the entry, as I believe it is misleading.

One alternative could be that it only moved in the first place because it saw something it wanted to attack, charged, never made contact somehow?, and then saw something that made it terrified and decided to run away after that? Has anyone experienced a case of a Giant Sponge moving in the first place due to something other than wanting to attack?

I am now incredibly invested in finding out more about Giant Sponges and other immobile/halfway immobile creatures.

[Fleeting Frames]

Can confirm, seen scared sponges myself.

I wish we could see more emotions than that, but I also have trouble imagining sponge laughing or being confused.

[Giant Ostrich Bone [29]]

Was it giant, or the regular variety? Do you know what it had been or currently was afraid of? Did it have the terrified (blue exclamation point plus blue background) icon?

I wonder if Giant Sponges can be thrown by wrestlers or drawbridges, etc. once they are moving around. Or are they just too heavy? I'd like to see an airborne sponge.

[Fleeting Frames]

Giant iirc. My dogs, I speculate. Yup.

Bridges, probably. Giant sponges are 0,56 mil, which is well under the bridge limit of 1,2. I'd use a retracting bridge, though, so they can be thrown again if they land down on same spot.

Now that stress is stronger, I'd like to see a vampire sponge man.

[Giant Ostrich Bone [29]]

What do you mean by "stress?"

[Fleeting Frames]

That thing that makes sentients throw tantrum and topple statues in temples to gods prone to cursing.

[feelotraveller]

I had a game (early in the 44.xx series?) where I built an elevated walkway over a river using floor grates (+walls).  In the river underneath, and a couple of tiles to the side were two Giant Sponges.  They were repeatedly terrified whenever my dwarfs used the walkway, graphically showing the blue exclamation mark.  My dwarfs were never terrified and the Giant Sponges never moved.

[PatrikLundell]

If I understand it correctly, Giant Sponges were a big menace in early versions of DF, so the entry might be a decade or so out of date.

It is possible to use DFHack to get thoughts out of animals, but they're rarely interesting, while visitors can be of some interest.
This web page contains a script for viewing thoughts: https://github.com/PatrikLundell/scripts/blob/own_scripts/thoughts.lua. Note that it's a web page with the script contents, not a file with it.
The script is halfway between an investigation tool in progress and a tool for actual usage. It's used by selecting a unit ('v', units list, etc) and running the script to display information similar to that of a units thought screen and parts of the relations screen.

[wierd]

What I find interesting is that animals often have religious beliefs.  I am sure this is some kind of bug, but the idea of an evil giant sponge, secretly holding a great desire to pray to a god of pestilence and pain as part of its festering malice endemic to its nature just tickles me in all the right ways.

[PatrikLundell]

There was a bug that caused adopting cats (and probably "real" pets as well) to get deities as part of the process, but that bug should be fixed.

[Blue_Dwarf]

If I understand it correctly, Giant Sponges were a big menace in early versions of DF, so the entry might be a decade or so out of date.

If even a wiki entry is a decade out of date, it puts into perspective just how long the game has been around...

[scourge728]

PTW