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[Foxite]

Like the title suggests, one of my hunters just targetted a GCS. Now hes dead...
I obviously want to avoid my hunters from targetting giant cave spiders in the future, so is there any way to do that? It doesnt really matter to me what it takes, even if it involves repeating it every time a GCS enters the map, but more preferably, of course, forbidding hunting on those monsters altogether.

[Bandreus]

An untested workaround might involve creating an burrow encompassing the site's surface only (and possibly the rest of the fort's inside) and assigning hunters to said burrow. Assuming the burrow assignment does restrict the game picked for hunting depending on its location, that would make it impossible for the hunter to venture into the caves, hence meeting GCSs.

Let me stress once more I never actually tested this, but I guess you might as well give it a try.

Alternatively, your best option would be to check the units screen for newely spawned GCSs, immediately disabling hunting on all of your dwarves as soon as possible. Or simply not using the hunter labor altogether (you can import tons of leather/meat from caravans anyways, if hunting in your embark is too dangerous).

A few additional tips: you can assign hunting/war dogs to hunters, which should make the job much safer.

[Foxite]

Your first method seems a good option for me, but I got one question about it: I have an alert level that prevents citizens from going into my DAS smashing room when I want to destroy its contents, and it works by assigning all the citizens in the fort to a burrow that spans across the entire map, except for that square in the DAS. If I set the civilian alert to that level, would it superceed the burrow restrictions that prevents the hunters from going inside the caverns? Or would they still be prevented from going inside the caverns? Or, possibly, would it only allow the hunters where the 2 burrows overlap?

The second method however doesnt seem to be an option for me, because I am partially relying on my hunters for food; you see, I am a horrible trader and I pretty much destroy all of the caravans that arrive because I know they will be offended in some way if I try to trade with them(accidently offering wooden items to elves or repeatedly making bad trade offers to dwarves). Also, hunting on the surface of my embark site is perfectly safe(that is, given that there are no invaders). The only real way I have ever acquired food other than by hunting is by fishing, farming, and butchering kittens during the some catsplosions(I removed the [CHILD:1] tag from the cat raws in my save, though, so that wont happen again).

[Urist McRas]

You can always kill animals with military, although they will not bring prey to the butchery.

[WJLIII3]

Your first method seems a good option for me, but I got one question about it: I have an alert level that prevents citizens from going into my DAS smashing room when I want to destroy its contents, and it works by assigning all the citizens in the fort to a burrow that spans across the entire map, except for that square in the DAS. If I set the civilian alert to that level, would it superceed the burrow restrictions that prevents the hunters from going inside the caverns? Or would they still be prevented from going inside the caverns? Or, possibly, would it only allow the hunters where the 2 burrows overlap?

I believe that restricting people to two burrows means they can go into either of those two but nowhere else.

[Bandreus]

This is too something I never specifically tested, but I think whatever burrows are specified in the active civilian alert will superceed every "normal" burrow assignment for all civilian dwarves. Meaning, in your example, hunters could potentially be allowed into the caves if that one civilian alert gets activated. I quickly consulted the wiki, and the info in there seems to support this (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Burrow#Civilian_Alerts).

When you set the civilian alert level to an alert including a defined burrow, your civilian dwarves will ignore their normal burrow based job restrictions even if their burrow is one of those in the civilian alert.

Now, I think using a burrow/civilian alert just for keepeing dwarves away from an Atom Smasher is both unsafe and overkill. Simply lock the AS behind a door and lock said door before pulling the bridge lever. That's the simplest and safest way to avoid AS-related !!FUN!!

On a side note, you can just make a back-up copy of your save, mess around all you want and experiment with burrows and other stuff. Once you find a set up which works for you, just restore the back-up save and play as normal.

[Larix]

Do you absolutely need a constant access to the scarier parts of the caverns? If hunters can't go there, they can't target the locals for hunting. Giant cave spiders really are terrifyingly effective at countering hunters - hunters must wear no uniform, thus have no protection from headshots and a single shot of webs tends to disable a hunter and any accompanying hunting animals at once.

If you normally keep the caverns closed via drawbridge and only open them up for closely supervised logging and wood collection, keeping hunters safe should be much easier. It would also provide better security from incursions by forgotten beasts and cave ogres.

[Sutremaine]

I have an alert level that prevents citizens from going into my DAS smashing room when I want to destroy its contents, and it works by assigning all the citizens in the fort to a burrow that spans across the entire map, except for that square in the DAS.

Why not use a door?

[Mushroo]

I agree with the above: your best bed is creating a "help! there's a spider on my map!!" military alert.

I've done some !!science!! and legendary hunters are superior to legendary military for keeping the map clear of giant cave spiders. They will sneak up behind it and put a bolt through its brain before the poor arachnid even knows what hit it. Train up a dozen or so legendary hunters, and you will never ever need to worry about dangerous wildlife again.

[Foxite]

I have an alert level that prevents citizens from going into my DAS smashing room when I want to destroy its contents, and it works by assigning all the citizens in the fort to a burrow that spans across the entire map, except for that square in the DAS.

Why not use a door?

Didnt think about that, lol. But I use an alert level to speed up the process of dwarves moving out of the room so I can forbid the door. But I guess I can just wait xD

[Garath]

This is too something I never specifically tested, but I think whatever burrows are specified in the active civilian alert will superceed every "normal" burrow assignment for all civilian dwarves. Meaning, in your example, hunters could potentially be allowed into the caves if that one civilian alert gets activated. I quickly consulted the wiki, and the info in there seems to support this (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Burrow#Civilian_Alerts).

My experience is that an alert cancels other burrows. I put a baron in a tiny burrow so he'd finally finish a meeting, but when I activated an alert he started working again like nothing happened.

I support the other suggestions, just creating a door that you can close, or a raising bridge, will keep your hunter from entering the caverns when you don't want him too. Personally I keep those closed most of the time anyway, there is almost nothing in the caverns that I need.

Take some time learning how to trade and start thinking of them as actual merchants - they're here to make a profit. Giving them a profit of 50 to 100% is generally a good idea for the first few trades unless you have a very good broker doing the trading. For clarification which hopefully isn't needed, if you ask for 1000 urists of value, offer at least 1500

I agree with the above: your best bed is creating a "help! there's a spider on my map!!" military alert.

I've done some !!science!! and legendary hunters are superior to legendary military for keeping the map clear of giant cave spiders. They will sneak up behind it and put a bolt through its brain before the poor arachnid even knows what hit it. Train up a dozen or so legendary hunters, and you will never ever need to worry about dangerous wildlife again.

You've just inspired me to make a wildlife preserve where I can release captured animals without training, letting them breed and sending 'gamekeepers' in to keep populations in check - too bad you can't influence what they hunt

[Sutremaine]

But I use an alert level to speed up the process of dwarves moving out of the room so I can forbid the door.

You can set up your DAS so that items are dumped into a pit with the bridge at the bottom. Then you can keep the door locked, except if you want to recover something that shouldn't have gone in.