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[xpi0t0s]

Found a great way to kill a fort: simply designate a row of up/down stairs to be deconstructed.  The falling masonry puts anyone daft enough to be standing underneath it into the hospital (and due to hospital overload, eventually the morgue).  This was never an issue in 31.25.  The only reason I haven't lost this fort twice is due to my vampire broker safely locked up next to the trade depot.

I've tried shutting everyone inside except one brave soul and this is mostly OK but (a) this now means deconstructing lots of stairs takes forever and still isn't foolproof as that one dwarf gets eventually hospitalised.

I already have a patched version that's supposed to solve bug 5994 (and others: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6741 ) but somehow this twit still seems able to drop some stone then run underneath it before it hits the ground.  This has to be a bug (although TBF I have "fastdwarf 1" enabled).

So how do I safely and quickly deconstruct lots of constructed up/down stairs?

[Neyvn]

Is it wrong that the only thing that stuck out for me was the Vampire Broker...

Trader - "So Mr Urist. What will you fine fort be requesting from us this year???"
Vampire Broker - "Your blood!!!!!!" NOMNOMNOMNOM

[ExecratedDwarf]

I've never run into this issue myself, so I can't give you a solution. But can I suggest returning you dorfs to normal speed and seeing if this is still an issue?

[GhostDwemer]

I have run into this very issue. Designate the stairs as restricted, providing an alternate route of course. Then remove the stairs on odd numbered levels, go back and remove stairs on even numbered levels. I had not one injury while removing several dozen stairs.

[xpi0t0s]

Fastdwarf disabled.  4-5 plus some migrants who showed up mid-experiment.  Designated deconstruction of around 40 stairs.  One fatality, some injuries.

Fastdwarf re-enabled and more designated.  All dead/maimed.

Fastdwarf 0 and the whole fort sent out to do some destruction -> 3 fatalities

Fastdwarf 1 and some designation 5 spaces apart: dn x----x-----x----x----x...
No injuries - takes five passes to clear a row.
Tried a quick removal of the last two passes (xx---xx---xx---xx) with dn the lot and got instant death.
So some separation is needed.
Try dn x-x-x.. (2 passes): no casualties with fastdwarf on or off.  So this is the solution, and a macro makes this substantially less tedious.


@Nebyn, when the dwarf traders annoyed me for some reason I left the vampire in with them for a while.  He wasn't interested, despite the fact that he hasn't had a square meal since I discovered him several years ago.

[Sutremaine]

Only dwarven citizens sleep, and sleep (or unconsciousness) is what allows a vampire to feed. If you were able to pump sleeping gas into the depot and put the traders or animals to sleep without affecting the vampire you'd see some snacking going on.

Another option is to cave in the column of staircases, but you're probably not going to have a freestanding column unless the stairs were anchoring for bridge scaffolding. If you didn't build the column ready to cave in you'll need to build a wall next to the support site so that the column doesn't collapse when you deconstruct the bottom stair to make room for the support.

[Anathema]

You could also try knocking the traders unconscious with a cave-in; I think injury-caused unconsciousness is adequate for a vampire to feed?

[ExecratedDwarf]

I'm glad you found a solution. I've never actually deconstructed stairs but I might have to in my newest fortress, so I think I'll back up my files and savescum if I run into any deaths lol.

[megahelmet]

Only one fatality and some injuries? That seems pretty successful to me. I always assume any task I order my dwarves to do will have a 2-3% fort population mortality cost associated with it.