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Author Topic: "Airlock" gladiator arena antechamber design  (Read 431 times)

pajrc1234

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"Airlock" gladiator arena antechamber design
« on: September 09, 2023, 08:17:25 am »

Hi, so I'm building a gladiator arena to do something fun with all the undead I've been capturing. It has two side chambers for monsters so I can pit undead against something else I think would be entertaining. I'm also putting an antechamber so I can put soldiers there to either have them fight or just take out the winner.
I've been using drawbridges and I'm going to link up levers to each thing so I can control when each party enters the arena. For the antechamber, I want two bridges: one into the arena and one from the main fortress. But I want these bridges to alternate, so that only one is ever open at a time. Basically, I want an airlock where the soldiers are astronauts and the abstract concept of "safety" is air pressure. I've looked at the DF wiki and it says that toggling a lever doesn't toggle the thing it's linked to, it just changes it to the lever's state; so turning off the lever will open both bridges regardless of how I set them up before.
Is there a way I might go about this?
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FantasticDorf

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Re: "Airlock" gladiator arena antechamber design
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2023, 09:01:21 am »

Try pitting from a safe but nonlethal distance with some cushioning for a safe landing (soft floors, maybe a 1x1 of 3x4s of water surrounded by ramps if you're not installing animal cages to be released by levers directly into the gladiatorial trap hall, animals of the same type can just live inside your pit until you lower the bridges.

You ever see the finale to that movie "Cabin in the Woods?"
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh and if im just misunderstanding. You can stagger levers by deconstructing the lever after pulling it once, if a bridge is already up it will work on alternation to bridges that are already down connected to the same lever.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2023, 09:03:05 am by FantasticDorf »
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Salmeuk

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Re: "Airlock" gladiator arena antechamber design
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2023, 12:18:04 pm »

Quote
But I want these bridges to alternate, so that only one is ever open at a time.

with enough patience you could design a pressure plate + water based airlock mechanism, which is triggered by the first lever pull in some manner. leading to a timed gate effect for the second door.

like, when the gate is open, it somehow blocks the flow of water to a second area, where a pressure plate is contained. once that water drains, the pressure plate will un-trigger and close the first door. something like that.

the easiest solution is just manual operation - yet that is boring.

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