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Author Topic: Bottoms-out Trap system help  (Read 1504 times)

sephur

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Bottoms-out Trap system help
« on: November 24, 2009, 05:05:59 am »

I've been playing DF for about a week now, and I realized that my defense was... well... shoddy.
I came up with a plan when I saw the "Arena" idea for traps, where you can capture up enemies and have them sit, or fight, in an arena until they die.  I believe, if I'm not mistaken, the way one does that was to cage trap most of the enemies.  However, I had another idea I'd like to inquire about, and possibly get some help with.

The Idea was fairly simple, and rested on a variation of the fluid repeater.  what I would do is, at the entrance of my village (the only entrance, mind you), the village being completely underground, there would be two straight corridors, each channeled out with bridges on top to allow passage.  That is, dwarves would naturally just walk over the bridges during peace times.

Below the bridges, from the channeled area, I would make, essentially, a labyrinth of passageways, allowing any captured enemies to starve, fight, or otherwise rot themselves to death down there.  the staircases to get in and out would be effectively isolated and impossible to reach after the completion of the plan, which means there should be no escape.

The last part, the harder part, that I can't seem to get just right, is as follows.  The bridges, aforementioned A and B were to alternate in retraction.  That is, during war-times, a repeater would be used to make sure that at any given time, at least one was retracted and one was down.  This way, the attackers would believe there's a constant path into the fortress and bypass any unnecessary building destruction.  However, the repeater will, inevitably, switch to the other option, dropping the enemies on the first bridge into the labyrinth, and giving the remainder of foes the false illusion that there was still a way to get inside.  This would continue until all assailants are in the dungeon, and I could turn on the repeater and allow my dwarves to go outside once more.

The pressure plates are what's killing me.  The current setup I have, which is the best I've done yet, looks like this:

the drop-out bridges:
##################
A-----------------------A
##################
B-----------------------B
##################

# = solid Wall
A = bridge A
B = bridge B

and the repeater:
     ###########
 -> GGGG PA GGGG#
 -> GGGG PB GGGG#
     ###########

-> = flow of water
# = solid wall
G = retractable bridges that lead to a channel where the water is let out in a chasm, yes, a chasm.  There should never be an overflow of water.  I substituted the channel from under the bridges in place of a floodgate.
PA = Pressure plate linked to bridge A and the G rectractable bridges.  The water level is set to 4/7 through 7/7
PB = Pressure plate linked to bridge B and nothing else.  The water level is set to 0/7 through 2/7,

although I tried up to 3/7 on PB, it appeared nothing truly happened, but now, with2/7 is almost always retracted.
Is there any way to make this a little smoother? or should I even be concerned about what the enemy pathing thinks?  All I really want is a trap that's never-ending and doesn't have to be reloaded.
(it was fairly late when I wrote this, if you don't understand anything, please ask)
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sephur

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Re: Bottoms-out Trap system help
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2009, 05:11:35 am »

actually, I think I got it.  Should P2 be 1/7 through 3/7 ?  I wasn't quite sure how the 0/7 setting operated, but if this works... well, I guess I do.
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MrFake

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Re: Bottoms-out Trap system help
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2009, 11:27:23 am »

0/7-2/7 should work just as well as 1/7-3/7.  Although it takes a while for the water on the plate to reach 0/7, because 1/7 water won't move anywhere, it only evaporates; still, the range should cover what you're trying to do.

The real problem is that water moves back and forth a lot.  If it moves back and forth over a pressure plate at just the right depth, the pressure plate will toggle on and off quickly.  When this happens, an on or off signal can get ignored, causing one of those bridges to be up or down when it's not supposed to be.  If that's bridge G, then it breaks the repeater.

To make it more reliable, have PA and PB in their own chutes

Code: [Select]
    ###########
 -> GGG PA GGG#
    ###########
 -> GGG PB GGG#
    ###########

and/or decrease the length of the chutes as much as possible

Code: [Select]
    ####
 -> ~G^#  A
    ####
 -> ~G^#  B
    ####

^ - pressure plate
~ - immediate water source, like a pump

Doing either of those reduces the space water can "slosh" around, and both will reduce it to a minimum.
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sephur

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Re: Bottoms-out Trap system help
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2009, 08:16:26 pm »

sweet. I'll try that out.  It makes sense, too. :)  I'll report back on its performance, and if it works, I'll tell exactly what I did.
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