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Author Topic: How to stop Artifact theft  (Read 8878 times)

Sooner535

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How to stop Artifact theft
« on: March 29, 2020, 08:33:45 pm »

Do we have any ideas on how to stop artifact theft? I have a museum set up and had about.... 10? Now I have 2 -.- I’ve posted guards inside and outside the museum but am unsure if that’s actually helping, any advice? Or is there even a way to stop this yet? I mean shouldn’t your guards be like “hey, don’t touch that” and beat the crap out of or imprison thieving dwarves? Right now it just seems like they see them steal it and just shrug and say it’s fine -.- is this implemented? Can we have an option to tell guards to annihilate anyone who dares to disturb them? Am I cursed now to make forts with 0 visitors? Lol just curious
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2020, 08:56:52 pm »

Do we have any ideas on how to stop artifact theft? I have a museum set up and had about.... 10? Now I have 2 -.- I’ve posted guards inside and outside the museum but am unsure if that’s actually helping, any advice? Or is there even a way to stop this yet? I mean shouldn’t your guards be like “hey, don’t touch that” and beat the crap out of or imprison thieving dwarves? Right now it just seems like they see them steal it and just shrug and say it’s fine -.- is this implemented? Can we have an option to tell guards to annihilate anyone who dares to disturb them? Am I cursed now to make forts with 0 visitors? Lol just curious
Villains release isn't finished, so hopefully this stuff will be added when work resumes. Right now if you don't want thieves, don't invite potential thieves to the fortress.

But Dwarf Fortress is mostly about inviting potential disaster to your fortress (right now), so best you can do is, if something's stolen, interrogate, reveal the truth, and go get it back.
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Sooner535

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2020, 09:00:06 pm »

I thought I had read somewhere that this was the first half of the villains release >.< hence the thought it could have not been added yet :) anyways, do we have any word on when the second half of the release will be? Before or after steam?
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2020, 09:41:53 pm »

I thought I had read somewhere that this was the first half of the villains release >.< hence the thought it could have not been added yet :) anyways, do we have any word on when the second half of the release will be? Before or after steam?
After. Villains is on pause because Steam needs to be done, as that release is part of a contract Bay12 have with Kitfox.
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Sooner535

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2020, 09:45:29 pm »

>.< at least I have that info now, thanks very much for the answers :)
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coalboat

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2020, 10:13:44 pm »

I always get a prompt and pause a short while after the thief picks up the artifact. Then I can locate the thief by zooming to the artifact. Soldiers are able kill the thief without loyalty cascade.

However, of these thefts the artifacts are all displayed on pedestal. I don't know if a prompt will appear when an artifact on stockpile is stolen.
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2020, 10:35:26 pm »

I always get a prompt and pause a short while after the thief picks up the artifact. Then I can locate the thief by zooming to the artifact. Soldiers are able kill the thief without loyalty cascade.

However, of these thefts the artifacts are all displayed on pedestal. I don't know if a prompt will appear when an artifact on stockpile is stolen.
Ah, yes, that works. If a citizen has it, follow them around until they pass it off to the villain (citizen can't leave the map, deal with them later).

But, yeah, it's all a manual "overseer" run process right now.
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Sarmatian123

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2020, 01:21:05 am »

I never had visitors and have default visitor number set at 10. So, I have a suggestion.

Did you consider walling those pedestals in with walls being actually windows?
Dwarves can see through a window. Animals can too.
Thieves can not deconstruct wall yet.
I would imagine invasion, when digging after Dwarves, would also stop dead at constructed wall/floors. You can't dig through those. :)
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coalboat

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2020, 01:39:55 am »

Window is a good idea. The color of window cycles through the color of the three pieces of gem that consist it. This can produce a disco ball effect.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2020, 02:37:44 am »

There is nothing you can do to stop thefts short of completely blocking access to the items, and it's very doubtful Toady intends to provide any means to protect anything beyond guards filing reports of having seen artifacts being taken and carried away (at best: past experiences of trying to use stationed militia to stop vampires from feeding on citizenry just resulted in them not seeing a thing when the vampire drained a citizen 5 tiles of clear view in front of them). At least that's the impression I got from Toady's answer when I voiced my concern in a FotF a year or whatever ago.

While dorfs can see through windows, I doubt that's useful for artifact displays, because I think they have to be adjacent to items to get any good (or bad) thoughts from them. Also, I've gotten the impression that a display case is just a more complicated to construct pedestal from a game point of view, i.e. it can't be locked.

It can be noted that DF has glass windows as well as gem windows.
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2020, 02:56:18 am »

There is nothing you can do to stop thefts short of completely blocking access to the items, and it's very doubtful Toady intends to provide any means to protect anything beyond guards filing reports of having seen artifacts being taken and carried away (at best: past experiences of trying to use stationed militia to stop vampires from feeding on citizenry just resulted in them not seeing a thing when the vampire drained a citizen 5 tiles of clear view in front of them). At least that's the impression I got from Toady's answer when I voiced my concern in a FotF a year or whatever ago.

While dorfs can see through windows, I doubt that's useful for artifact displays, because I think they have to be adjacent to items to get any good (or bad) thoughts from them. Also, I've gotten the impression that a display case is just a more complicated to construct pedestal from a game point of view, i.e. it can't be locked.

It can be noted that DF has glass windows as well as gem windows.
Nothing you can do except that as described exactly above, people can spot thefts, you can follow citizens with artifacts, you can kill villains. Would be much better with a more dorf based system of course. Let's wait and see what villains part 2 brings before saying "nothing will change". Basically nothing in Fortress Mode is done yet except the ability to steal artifacts.

And, you know, locking away your artifacts is kind of like closing your drawbridge or embarking far from goblins. You just get to see less of the game. Weird game... :)
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2020, 07:44:06 am »

I don't have high hopes for the Villains "finalization" (as you say, nothing is finished, and that won't be either), but hope to be wrong.
I probably won't lock away my artifacts, unless the reports are so sluggish that the artifacts are long since gone when I'm notified, but it will still be annoying to have to babysit the artifact movements when actually trying to perform some project or other, especially since every villain and their cat seems to claim every artifact made in fortresses at the time they're made.

I can't say I'm looking forward to Villain assassination plots, though. "Yes, both I and Urist saw the foreigner enter the mayors bedroom.", "No, the foreigner didn't talk to either me or Urist.", "Yes, both I and Urist heard the mayor scream.", "Yes, both I and Urist saw the foreigner leave the mayor's bedroom holding a bloody knife.", "Yes, once our shift was over, both I and Urist filed anomaly reports.", "No, neither I nor Urist entered the mayor's bedroom. We were stationed outside the doors and kept vigilant watch over all coming and goings.", "No, neither Urist nor I know where the mayor is. We saw him enter the bedroom at the beginning of our shift, and he hadn't left when it was over".
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2020, 07:56:30 am »

Um, spotting thieves, following thieves and killing villains as described above is the way the system works right now. Hoping for something better in villains part 2, but as you say, maybe it'll all be skipped.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 07:58:44 am by Shonai_Dweller »
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2020, 08:10:12 am »

Um, spotting thieves, following thieves and killing villains as described above is the way the system works right now. Hoping for something better in villains part 2, but as you say, maybe it'll all be skipped.
You currently can't kill most of the villains, probably, because they'll never set their foot in your fortress. The best you can do is to remove their underlings, but I suspect that will do absolutely nothing to deter new underlings from signing up.
There was some talk early on about the ability to strike back through assassinations (and, I think, capture/kidnapping, which would be even better, in my view), but I don't know what the status of that is.
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nogoodnames

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Re: How to stop Artifact theft
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2020, 10:34:37 am »

There's always the dwarven method of assassination (which involves burning the villain's whole town to the ground). I can see why that might be considered a bit extreme, though.
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