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Author Topic: Retractable and expandable chains  (Read 528 times)

Crimson Catsup

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Retractable and expandable chains
« on: February 22, 2014, 07:15:18 pm »

Hey I'm new to forums and glad to be here! I've been playing off and on for a couple of years and finally decided to make an account. I was reading a post earlier by TheCoolSideofthePIllow about keeping dragons and I thought a good idea for something to add to the game would be retractable and expandable chains hooked up to a lever or something. That way you could give a dragon (or any other untamed beast) room to roam if you are using it to guard something, and then when you want to let some dwarves past you could pull the switch and retract the chain to maybe one square in length until they get by. What do you guys think, useful or not useful? 
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Trainzack

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Re: Retractable and expandable chains
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2014, 09:05:32 pm »

That sounds like it could help with fortress design, but could be a bit to OP. Maybe, depending on the quality of the chain or mechanisms, it has a random chance of breaking (either the beast becomes unchained, or it just stops working) every time you use it?

Crimson Catsup

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Re: Retractable and expandable chains
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2014, 09:12:49 pm »

Yeah exactly, tying a dragon up with just a rope will last about 2 seconds, other metals could be melted, but different materials would have different breaking points depending on what they are holding back. And artifact chains would probably never break. I was thinking of the old Ray Harryhausen 7th voyage of Sinbad movie with the dragon that is chained that eventually breaks free and fights the cyclops. So yeah that fits perfectly.
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NAV

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Re: Retractable and expandable chains
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2014, 12:28:00 am »

It should only have a chance of breaking if the animal is poorly trained or fighting. Well trained animals should respect the chain and not struggle.

And I remember ToadyOne mentioning Ray Harryhausen as one of his inspirations for Dwarf Fortress.
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Crimson Catsup

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Re: Retractable and expandable chains
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2014, 09:22:14 am »

And I remember ToadyOne mentioning Ray Harryhausen as one of his inspirations for Dwarf Fortress.
I didn't realize that! He probably already has this idea floating around in his head somewhere then. And training definitely could play a significant part.
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