Print

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

[TychoTheDwarf]

I have been toying around with them lately (along with other forms of fortress defense) and I am trying to better understand how non-flying enemies react to them.  How deep and wide do dry moats need to be to be effective? Will enemies ever try to jump into a dry moat of any depth?

[AWdeV]

I don't think jumping actually exists in Dwarf mode. Aside from the dodging-move that is. No, nobody will every try to jump a ditch. They'll walk around or become completely flustered by it.

[Loud Whispers]

If it has no ramps, they'll not willingly jump in. (They can still dodge into them though). Fliers will just bugger off and fly over them :I

As for the size, it's down to preference. A 10 z lvl moat drop will kill pretty much everything except sponges, larger moats lets you make cool bridgeways (and is easier to secure) but in reality if you just want an obstacle, a simple 1x1 dry ditch'll do

[Deus Machina]

Just a 1-wide, 1-Z ditch makes a great early defense, with a retractable bridge so you can actually get across later.


Other than that, I'm a fan of moats 5Z or so deep, to make it hard to fire crossbows into. Train war animals, put them into it via a door at the bottom.

[Girlinhat]

1 deep 3 wide - that'll keep anything safe from building destryoers who might happen upon your fort.  2 deep if I'm flooding it.

[wierd]

Makes me wish we could make acid lake moats...

Or deadly poison ones... (a moat filled with processed cinnebar (eg, liquid mercury, heated below by magma) would be epically dwarfy, expecially in an evil biome where poisoning the soil irreparably would be seen as beneficial to keep the hentai tentacle grass and peeping eyeballs under control...)

Oh, the joys if basic inorganic chem was implemented!  Finally, a use for brimstone, and other acidic minerals! (Acid bombs! Whee!)

But I doubt toady would add such features.   it would be a total rewrite on the ambient reaction code.

As is though.. it makes me wonder if spinning disc traps work when submerged. Blender lake is almost as good.

[krenshala]

Has anyone done testing to see if evil mists or fogs that drop down holes will stay in a moat yet?

[Flying Dice]

I typically use 1-deep 3-wide dry moats, which is just about right to keep enemies from hiding under your walls.

[AWdeV]

Use floorgrates as murder-holes.

[Flying Dice]

Why bother? A dry moat keeps them away, isn't limited by the visual range provided by grates/bars (as we don't have boiling oil, etc., and there are better ways to do a magmadrop), and also traps enemies that dodge the wrong way.