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Author Topic: Presumably only falling off a pump and not an invisible monster  (Read 763 times)

Muddy Mudstone

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I got this combat report (literally as quoted):

"it  The Pump Operator in the body part, but the attack is deflected by The Pump Operator's (cow leather cloak)!"

This in fact happened to both my pump operators at once, after they had been uneventfully pumping for several days. My best theory is that the layout of the pumps allowed for a rare freak wave to wash back (through a diagonal gap) and dislodge one pump operator, and then with extreme bad luck enough of the wave moved onto the tile occupied by the other pump operator to dislodge him as well, leaving them both drowning because there was nobody else to pump the water away. Presumably there was a constant trickle through that diagonal gap all the time they had been pumping, but usually too small to have any effect.

The room was set up like this:

X#PP#
#PP#X

Where # is empty space, X is stairs and and P is part of a pump, with both pumps pumping east.

They escaped from the watery pit quickly enough, after drowning only briefly.

I was just a bit baffled by the message, particularly the blank double space where a verb should be, and the non-specific attack on "the body part". Besides, in that other fine ascii-based game, Angband, when "it hits you" that means you're being attacked by an invisible monster, usually Smeagol, so at first I feared there was an intruder.

One of them has bruised his hand. This will get better by itself without a hospital, right? (I don't know what a doctor could do about a bruise anyway, but this game is pretty perverse and for all I know it's going to go gangrenous or undead without token medical attention and a month's bed rest.)
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Morpha

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Re: Presumably only falling off a pump and not an invisible monster
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2012, 02:33:32 pm »

Bruised? I'm sorry, but that requires immediate amputation or submersion in magma!

Maybe I'm just tired, but it looks like the bottom pump would be able to pump into the top one's "passenger slot" if the passage east is filled/obstructed. Not sure why the bottom guy is getting hit as well though.
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Quote from: Gerottomo on May 03, 2012, 04:34:11 pm
That should be a new type of project, making a rug design in dwarf fortress (With accurate coloring)
"And so, after many deaths and much sacrifice, someone turned their fortress into a fully functioning self aware carpet that actively sought after sources of fresh blood."

The Giant Bat who decided an axe made a better weapon than claws:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=108229.30

Muddy Mudstone

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Re: Presumably only falling off a pump and not an invisible monster
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2012, 02:45:32 pm »

Oh sorry I forgot to mention - under the empty spaces are channels into aquifer. That's where the water's supposed to drain to, but perhaps it can build up on the tile above the drain and then wash back once in a while.
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HiEv

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Re: Presumably only falling off a pump and not an invisible monster
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2012, 06:33:25 pm »

Is it possible that something got dropped on them from above?  The odd wording in the combat report is a known bug caused by objects falling on dwarves.  I don't think that includes water, but it might be possible from one dwarf falling onto another?  See:

Bug #3722: Falling damage blocked/deflected by armor results in malformed combat announcements
Bug #5877: Miner channels tile containing log, gets hit by log, resulting combat report is malformed
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