Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: High observer skill and "look-out tower"  (Read 1867 times)

xelo

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
High observer skill and "look-out tower"
« on: September 08, 2011, 12:14:59 pm »
Hi you dwarves out there : )

I got a dwarfette with an "accomplished observer" skill in one of my last wave of migrants.
Does it make sense to position her (building a room with bed, etc) on the top of my look-out tower?
I have a 7x7 map with the tower in the middle of the map. Would she be able because of her's relatively high observer skill to detect ambushes very early?

Observing greetings

xelo
Logged
Please use Code-Tags for ascii illustrations relating DF

#....#
###### Bad
Code: [Select]
#....#
###### Good

i2amroy

  • Bay Watcher
  • Cats, ruling the world one dwarf at a time
    • View Profile
Re: High observer skill and "look-out tower"
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2011, 12:18:14 pm »
Detecting ambushes only deals with how close the dwarf is to the ambush, and has nothing to do with how high up they are (In fact since the height of the tower increases their distance from the ambushes through z-levels it will actually decrease their ability to detect ambushes :P). If you do want them to be useful at detecting ambushes I would suggest setting them as a fisher/woodcutter/somebody who spends a lot of time outside. Since they will be the one who is ambushed, having a high observer skill will help them notice ambushes from farther away, thus granting them a more likely chance to escape them someone with a lower skill level.
Logged
Quote from: PTTG
It would be brutally difficult and probably won't work. In other words, it's absolutely dwarven!
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - A fun zombie survival rougelike that I'm dev-ing for.

Xen0n

  • Bay Watcher
  • Took joy in ‼SCIENCE‼ lately.
    • View Profile
Re: High observer skill and "look-out tower"
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2011, 01:33:51 pm »
Whether the Observer skill is linked to ambush detection, or if different creature have different ambush detection ranges, I don't know.  Didn't check the wiki :P.
But you may find this thread useful for more generic watchtowers: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79133.0

It also seems to mention (at least for tame animals) that ambush detection happens in a 3x3x3 cube, as odd as it sounds, so at least for being 1 z-level off the ground ambush detection range shouldn't be affected.  Not sure how observation range works for dwarves.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2011, 01:38:35 pm by Xen0n »
Logged

xelo

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: High observer skill and "look-out tower"
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2011, 04:05:17 pm »
Thank you i2amroy and Xen0n for your kind and informative answers.

Because there is no reason for my dwarves to fish, hunt or to gain wood outside I have to find another useful purpose for my dwarfette instead offering her to any risk.

The thread recomended by Xen0n is very interesting. Too bad the radius -measured in tiles- of detecting ambushs is too small for a really useful alert system which fits my needs.
But this is only true for me and my fortress/map, not in general of course, as I would probably need several dozens of such constructions.
Nevertheless Xen0n's recommended thread gaves me other inspirations... thank you very much.

xelo
Logged
Please use Code-Tags for ascii illustrations relating DF

#....#
###### Bad
Code: [Select]
#....#
###### Good

Leonidas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: High observer skill and "look-out tower"
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2011, 08:18:06 pm »
For observing, I'm playing with combining fortifications with windows. The fortifications keep out the building destroyers, and the windows keep out the missiles.
Logged