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Author Topic: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a  (Read 931 times)

Dwarfchik 9000

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Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« on: August 24, 2008, 10:40:05 am »

I just got the first siege on my fortress, right after some ambushers massacred the Human caravan in early Autumn.

It's now winter, and the goblin siege squad has been lingering in the same corner of the map.  My fortress, courtyard and path to drinking source are sealed up with walls and a drawbridge.  So technically, I could sit tight forever with the drawbridge raised.  I might run out of wood, but I've got plenty of beds already.

Are the goblins lingering a bug again?    Or are they trying to force me to send the wrestlers out?  I'm going to start training them on crossbows now, so the gobbies can just patiently wait to die.
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Ceramics are too dang hippie for dwarves.  <P>Next thing you know, they''ll throwing endless Cave Phish jam sessions.

Dwarfchik 9000

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2008, 10:43:01 am »

huh... right after I posted, they went away.  Oh well...
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Ceramics are too dang hippie for dwarves.  <P>Next thing you know, they''ll throwing endless Cave Phish jam sessions.

wiki

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2008, 10:43:47 am »

They usually don't attack if they can't find a path to any of your dwarves. If the fortress is completely isolated from them (no path), then they will indeed just hang around and siege your fortress. Lower the drawbridge or offer them some other path if you want them to charge.
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Teldin

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2008, 10:43:54 am »

What do you expect them to do, exactly, when there's no path into your fortress?

Siege AI is pretty much only in the very basic stages right now; there are no doubt plans to make them more intelligent, such as scaling walls and bridging moats, but at the moment they just idle around until someone steps outside, if they have no trolls to knock your doors down. This has made defending against sieges ridiculously easy with a drawbridge and a moat.

So it's not really a bug so much as it is AI; if you want more of a challenge, try playing without a moat.
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Tormy

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2008, 10:46:13 am »

I just got the first siege on my fortress, right after some ambushers massacred the Human caravan in early Autumn.

It's now winter, and the goblin siege squad has been lingering in the same corner of the map.  My fortress, courtyard and path to drinking source are sealed up with walls and a drawbridge.  So technically, I could sit tight forever with the drawbridge raised.  I might run out of wood, but I've got plenty of beds already.

Are the goblins lingering a bug again?    Or are they trying to force me to send the wrestlers out?  I'm going to start training them on crossbows now, so the gobbies can just patiently wait to die.

Erm welcome in the DF world of useless sieges.. ;D
Yes if you have a moat with a drawbridge for example, the siegers cannot do anything, just messing around on the other side of the map.
Hint: do not build moats + drawbridges, and sieges might be a bit more fun actually.
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Proteus

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2008, 11:41:45 am »

Or raise the drawbridges only in the last moment when the goblins are directly in front of them (I usually do it, after all dwarves that might be outside (fishers, hunters and the like) should get a chance to return
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Draco18s

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Re: Goblin siege not attacking... v40a
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2008, 01:14:47 pm »

This is why I don't isolate my fort, but rather have a few choke points.  My last map had one edge I could do little about, but there were some lakes there that they always went between (rather than around, up by where the caravan spawned).  The north edge was around back, carved fortifications and trapped the **** out of the area.  The remaining two edges lead up a slope before nearing the front of my fort.  I built a wall so they couldn't shoot stray dwarves from below and channeled the path to a narrow 1x1 spot that had a pressure plate on it.  That operated 53 tiles worth of deadly deadly spikes.  First man to the front gate kills everyone else!
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