Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[omalley]

I looked all over the forums/wiki and couldn't find anything on it, so I ask:

I captured a hydra, and noticed it was tameable (with the dungeon master), so I tamed it, of course. Later I captured a bronze colossus, but it wasn't. Wouldn't it be neat, I think, if I could train them, war-dog style. So I go into the raws and add [TRAINABLE] to the hydra and [PET_EXOTIC] and [TRAINABLE] to the Colossus. Sure enough, I then tame the colossus and train both of them. I get frustrated with the enormous numbers of gobbos that come (I'm up to like 80 per seige now!), so I go to set up a cage to put the colossus in at the front of my fort. I figure that since he's tame now I won't need to do the old build-the-old-cage-next-to-the-new-cage-so-you-can-transfer-him-in-without-him-getting-loose trick that you normally (used?) to have to do. But when one of my dwarfs goes to transfer him, he gets out and begins slaughtering them. Yikes.

Question: I've moved trolls across my fort to the zoo without them getting loose. Why did this guy get loose? And why was he hostile? He showed up as "Il Grotimgum [or whatever his name was], a Stray bronze colossus (tame)", and he showed up as tame on the creatures menu, so why was he killing all my dorfs?

[Morlark]

I've never tested this personally, but I believe that named creatures will always attack your dwarves, even after being "tamed".

[BurnedToast]

Yes, named creatures can never be tamed and megabeasts are always named. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but it is unfortunate either way.

'tame' dragons have caused the fiery death of many a fort.

[omalley]

Well, I guess that explains that. Indeed, I set up my colossus to help with the siege, and he certainly did (that bugger heals quickly! The goblins managed to pluck out his eyes but that was it), but I neglected to recognize that after the siege all of my cage traps contained gobbos and trolls, and there was no way I could trap the colossus again. There goes another fort. At least losing is fun.

The colossus did seem, in fact, to be immune to all my traps--i.e. he didn't set off the stone-fall traps. I would guess that that is because he's tamed, and thus "on my side" in some sense. (Incidentally, I can still set him to be butchered. Good luck with that.)

Questions remaining: why is the hydra not killing my folks as well? He's listed (properly) as a "War Hydra." (Which is awesome.) He is named as well--all fantastic creatures that arrive are named (they get names upon arrival). Might he not be hostile still if he didn't kill any dwarves before being trapped? I don't remember if he did or not.

Now if only I can get the hydra to fight the colossus before all my guys die. I expect the colossus to win handily, but it still will be fun.

[Paul]

You're correct, the name has nothing to do with it. What matters is if they have killed before. If they have killed, they are never tame. The only reason the name got associated with this is people saw named regular animals never being tamed and assumed it was the name, when it was in fact their killing dwarves (which gave them the name).

[Thallone]

So, what you're saying is that if you could capture a male and female dragon, keep them locked up, then recruit(tame) the young, you'd have tame dragons, for example. Awesome.

[valcon]

i have a bronze colossus caged outside my gates with a lever attached inside.

he is my "oh shit" button.