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[Techhead]

You want traps semi-nerfed?
Merchants don't know where the traps are either, and can get pissed off after one of their number triggers one.
Diplomats, however, are given instructions on safe and not-safe spots.

[Sowelu]

This might be planned as part of AI stuff...  There's already been discussion that monsters should learn trap behavior, pass it along, so after a squad loses one or two goblins the others know when to duck.

I think it would be neat if monsters learned about traps by having their squad see them go off.  Because that way, you could stick your traps around blind corners in order to catch monsters better.  Hmm, seeing a trap go off should also make critters more wary of traps -nearby- it, and even all traps in general.  Big paranoia bonus, until you go a while without seeing a trap...which means that setting traps deeper inside your fortress, too, is a good idea.

(Seriously. If there's a two-tile-wide corridor, and you just lost a guy to a trap on the left side, you might know how to dodge that left side trap.  But you really deserve a bonus to the trap on the right hand side too, because anyone smart would recognize one exists.  Traps should stop the first wave of critters, but before long, they'll get used to them and you'll need your soldiers.)

Allow any escaped monsters to tell their whole kingdom about the traps they saw, for a bonus during the next siege...and suddenly traps really aren't so great anymore.

[Draco18s]

I need that magical barrier in Dragoncharm worked out in various RPG settings so I can show off how badass it was (along with all the other traps that killed and maimed a good tenth of the book's population--hey there WERE only a thousand or so by the time the book opened...).

[Aquillion]

I think any changes to the way traps work should wait until we have a proper invasion system in the game.

The thing is, right now... no, traps aren't really overpowered.  Not compared to everything else, at least.  I mean, sure you can stop an invading force dead in its tracks with a bunch of traps...  but you can do the same thing by digging a shallow, empty moat and raising the drawbridge.

Invaders need a broader, more general way to overcome your defenses.  Any fixes to traps should wait until then, and should be worked into it.

(I would also prefer it, though, if it remains possible to rely primarily on traps for defense -- maybe not exclusively, but the small mountain fortress with little standing army which relies on traps and secret doors for defense should be doable.  Well, we don't have secret doors yet, but you get the idea.)

[Neonivek]

Perhaps we could use Traps requiring more time to reset Aquillon, put some pressure on the player who wants to use Traps as a primary defense by making him require a substancial number of Mechanics (like 20). Plus I guess an increase in production time, though weapon traps do take a VERY long time to set up anyhow.

Another tactic could be that some enemies could destroy traps they set off. Imagine the horror if you had to rebuild your traps all over again. (Mind you I think traps that are destroyed shouldn't disapear EXACTLY but be replaced by a similar trap "Under Construction" so you don't have to micromanage your traps all over again.

Other then that I do agree that Traps do need a general spot and dodge chance. (Cage traps problems are no mystery and I have no doubt Toady will fix those eventually)

As I said quite a few times before: We want to weaken traps so that it is possible for enemies to get by them. Not weaken them so that the enemy will get by them.

[Jake]

Here's a thought... How about giving goblins the ability to probe for traps by throwing items onto them? There'd need to be a skill-check for detecting each one, and they'd have to land something on it each time, which would be a fairly lengthy process. It'd also be nice if trap density also increased the detection chance in that scenario; players could either scatter lone traps at irregular intervals to thin the invaders out as they approached, line the entrance hall wall to wall with them and attempt to flank the invaders as their engineers worked to clear the minefield or even hide the trigger for a Boatmurdered-style Doomsday weapon in amongst a cluster of more pedestrian traps.

[Aquillion]

As I said quite a few times before: We want to weaken traps so that it is possible for enemies to get by them. Not weaken them so that the enemy will get by them.

But the thing is, right now enemies have no mechanisms for getting past anything.

This should wait until the siege arc, overall.  We still have no idea what sort of AI or strategies enemies will be applying for their siege in an overarching sense, so it's hard to say anything concrete about the details of the traps they will be up against.

With that said, though, I've got one idea:  Make traps wear out a bit faster, and require maintenance.  If an entire army rushes through your weapon trap (and your dwarves can't get to it for maintenance), it eventually wears out to the point where it stops working until it's repaired.  Simple and logical...  except for the part where all your engineers suddenly rush into the oncoming army to repair the trap that they set off, of course...  which is not so good.  Hmm.

Yeah, giving enemies alertness checks is a logical idea, too.  This could also eventually be used for secret doors, and would eventually synergize well with adventurer mode (anyone who ever explored a trapped fortress with an adventurer knows how much it sucks to have no way to detect or fight back against traps.)  Enemies could have scouts trained for searching and spotting traps...  maybe they could use paint or ink to mark traps they discovered (which your dwarves could clean off.)  This has the advantage of being much more clear to the player than having them silently go back and report stuff.  A marked trap would be easier for enemies to dodge even if they step into it, and naturally they'd avoid stepping on it if they could.

There's still one basic problem, though.  Enemies find a trap.  They disarm/mark/whatever it.  Now, we don't want to force the player to replace every single trap by hand; I think we can all agree on that (using boredom as a game mechanic sucks.)  But if we replace it with an 'active' task to repair/rebuild/rearm/re-whatever, well...  we all know what that's going to lead to, don't we?  A billion goblins pour in, the first trap gets set off or disarmed or whatever, and instantly every dwarf in your fortress rushes into the oncoming horde to fix it.

Not sure what to do about that.  Perhaps there needs to be a designation-style area command to 'pause job' and 'resume job' -- intended primarily to mass-order the reactivation of traps when the coast is clear (and then they'd start out paused.)