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[Guthbug]

Hello, folks. Long time reader, first time poster.

Thought I'd come out of lurking with a bang so to reciprocate on all the cool ideas I've gleaned from this forum over the past year, here is a stellar invention to help keep your dwarves entertained while they dine.

Somewhere in your dining room build a pressure plate which can be triggered by a dwarf. 10 z-levels above said dining room, carve out a room, make it a pasture, and fill it with the animal of your choice. (I prefer kittens).

A trapdoor linked to the pressure plate will open it when a dwarf passes over it. The channeled tube leads directly down from the "kitten holding chamber" to somewhere in the dining room.

I guess you can see where this is going. Dwarf hits the pressure plate which opens the trapdoor and if a kitten is standing on it, the kitten is dropped 10 z-levels into the dining room to the amusement of all present. Extra hilarity ensues if it lands on another dwarf.

On the downside your dining room is usually a mess, but on the bright side everyone can be outfitted nicely in kitten leather gloves.

This has surpassed in enjoyment my previous dining hall entertainment of a pit filled with war dogs whom goblin prisoners can be tossed into. I tried making a zombie pit to throw prisoners into but eventually the FPS gets bad and you can't exactly control the zombies very well. One door opened at the wrong time and you've got a problem.

[Dorfimedes]

Oh we are way ahead of you on that one. Dropping kittens in the dining hall? That is so several releases ago

I think your zombie pit would work better if you put an atom smasher in it. If the zambies start to get unruly you can just pull the lever and erase them from existence. Here's one idea how that might work:

Code: [Select]

+ Floor
. Space
> Down Stair
< Up Stair
^ Cage Trap
= Drawbridge, raises west
- Pit over which a retractable bridge is placed

z: 1
    ++++++
    +....+
>++++....+
    +....+
    ++++++


z: 0

    %%%%%%
    %====%
<^^^-====%
    %====%
    %%%%%%

So, the idea is that if the bridge is destroyed somehow, there's still a pit keeping them in, and if they somehow got over that (maybe a gremlin pulled the lever) they'll be captured in the traps. But those are probably not needed.

[Iceflame]

One door opened at the wrong time and you've got a problem.

This describes the while game really well.

[Guthbug]

Awww. I thought I was so clever.

Good idea on the pit-smasher.

I have spent a lot of work in terrifying biomes trying to figure out the best way for a long-term survival fort but I haven't figured out a really good solution. Something always goes wrong. My last attempt was to build a "Cheyenne Mountain" sort of bunker complex with a vast control room and hallways sealed off by bridges if things went bad. Well, things inevitably went bad.

A group of about 20 migrants ran right into a cloud and turned into about 20 angry thralls who stormed the first level of the complex. I sent out my military (about 30) to deal with them and to my horror, the 20 thralls handled the armored military with only a few losses. Then the 30 military corpses raised from the dead and I had steel-armored zombies roaming the first level with the thralls. Bad news.

We were sealed into the safe level (protected by a caved in hallway) and had about 5 years of food but not enough weaponry to break out of the zombie and thrall encirclement so after about a year (and more incoming migrants being added to the horde) I gave up and abandoned that fort. Didn't seem to be any way to recover. I thought about digging out a vast hallway and pit with a bridge that would drop them into lava but just didn't have the resources and manpower in the safe room.

Still, my attempts at building a fort which can survive a zombie apocalypse are continuing.

[weenog]

Awww. I thought I was so clever.

Good idea on the pit-smasher.

I have spent a lot of work in terrifying biomes trying to figure out the best way for a long-term survival fort but I haven't figured out a really good solution. Something always goes wrong. My last attempt was to build a "Cheyenne Mountain" sort of bunker complex with a vast control room and hallways sealed off by bridges if things went bad. Well, things inevitably went bad.

Think I found the problem.  Complexity is your enemy if you're after survival (not so much if you're looking for Fun instead).  Every working part is a potential failure point.  The simpler, the better.  Simple is tough.  Simple has few ways to go wrong.  A fortress with one entrance -- a drawbridge which raises to form a wall completely sealing the opening -- is impenetrable so long as you keep that drawbridge up.  Course you've still got to deal with maintaining morale and supplies, but at least you don't have invaders to worry about.

[The Bard]

Yeah, but mistakes happen. Especially with the undead. Being able to seal off sectors of the fort can be invaluable in a dangerous enough area.

[Loud Whispers]

Yeah, but mistakes happen. Especially with the undead. Being able to seal off sectors of the fort can be invaluable in a dangerous enough area.

Now why does that sound so appealing? :x

[Dorfimedes]

Yeah, but mistakes happen. Especially with the undead. Being able to seal off sectors of the fort can be invaluable in a dangerous enough area.

Now why does that sound so appealing? :x

Because it's a zombie apocalypse trope to barricade areas of a structure that have been claimed by the undead? I mean, it really is no mystery why it's rad as fuck.

[Darkening Kaos]

I've put a Goblin Fun Run in the dining room of the fortress, so dorfs get dinner and a show.........

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Its currently set for three participants while I'm upgrading the upper three lanes of the Stawell Gift......  er Goblin Fun Run, that is.
From the cages on the right hand side, each floor trap has one masterwork wooden weapon, left-most traps have 'contingency load-outs' of.....
just so that there are no escapees.  And because of one legendary dodger in the past, I've also added cage traps after the serrated discs.
And speaking of that dodger, he is Snamoz Lunzorukge, a Goblin Swordsman who is now on display in the centre of the dining room.  He almost got out of the fortress, but 'found' my trap field where another set of serrated discs made a mess of his day.

20 years he's been in the dining room, locked behind glass walls.  After taking the top-most s-cap I decided to remove some walls and replace them with windows, so he had a view of his compatriots competing for honour, glory and dismemberment!

[Loud Whispers]

Woah, that's brutal, even by Dwarf standards. Did I mention goblins are immortal?

Hell, it's hard to see why they're "driven to cruelty."

LET THE FUN RUNS BEGIN!