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[SmokedRWA]

Ok so I've been playing DF for a few months now and I finally have a fort that isn't being dragged into hell by the FPS monster and it's a site that has exactly what I want. Now as far as my experience with sieges goes, I have only encountered one, and that was by humans who were attacking me for reasons I don't know (I had the orc mod at the time and I can only assume a human got caught in an atom smasher during an attack).

Anyways I'm planning on creating a long maze-like hallway for sieging gobbos to meander through as they have their eyes gouged and fingers torn off by a random assortment of crappy weapon traps. But I've envisioned a final coup de grace that will finish the entire lot of them off: The maze/long hall will end at the widest z-level of my bottomless pit, where the goblins find themselves having to cross an incredibly long bridge/walkway (haven't decided on how I want to span the pit yet). Basically the idea I have is that once all or the majority of the attackers are on the walkway, a massive cistern will flood them off of the walkway from the north side and into a pit of upright spike traps. Here is where I have some questions:

1) I really want the flooding to be like a tidal wave that almost instantly blows them off the bridge. I'm not too sure how to accomplish that though, should I:
       -Use screw pumps en masse
       -Set up the cistern almost directly above the bridge and use some sort of hatch/floodgate system to just drop all the water at once (not sure if that is even possible but I feel like it is).
2) I realize that the spike traps themselves may not actually finish them off, although that would really be just a matter of putting in more preliminary traps to soften them up some more, but I would really like the spike pit to be the finale. Does fall damage still come into play when landing on spike traps, and if so, how many z-levels down would you suggest I actually set up the spike pit?

This is my first attempt at any sort of major trap project and I would like it to turn out well, so any suggestions and/or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
     

[Typoman]

well making a huge cistern would work for a tidal wave , about 10 z levels of water = instant flooding + lots of water + really low framerate, but because of the way pushing items work, i am not sure... someone else wil have to back me up on this. i think i will still wash them away. just have the outlet lenghtways along the bridge with lots of floodgates. or you would probably mainly  push them along the bridge rather than off.

[SquirrelWizard]

also spike traps dont do any damage when you fall on them.

They only do damage when they activate, you can set them up on a repeater though.

[random51]

2 sieges entered my roach motel, 1 fall, 1 winter.  Net result was 65 notable kills for one marksdwarf and another 60+ for the other.  The trick is to make a very long maze so you can slam the back door on them before you start killing.

The dwarves were 1 z-level higher than the maze and behind fortifications, with a field of fire covering two consecutive switchbacks.  It is going to take me an entire season to sift through the dead orcs and their human leaders.

The butcher's bill from the second siege:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[SmokedRWA]

also spike traps dont do any damage when you fall on them.

They only do damage when they activate, you can set them up on a repeater though.

Really? The wiki suggests that while they don't do any additional damage for falling onto the spikes, they will still do their base damage just as if they were walking through and a repeater was going.

[SquirrelWizard]

These traps can only be utilized by attaching them to levers or pressure plates, which when triggered will cause the spikes to extend from the ground and, when triggered again, to retract back into the ground. They don't slow or hurt any creature walking through them if they are not currently triggered by a lever/plate, neither when up nor when retracted.

taken from the wiki.

I think the quote you are using (its alittle further down the page) is in referance to a long fall into some spike traps. IE it doesn't cause additional damage meaning that the creature only takes fall damage, no spike damage.

course I haven't worked with them, so I could be wrong.

[Albedo]

re "tidal wave" - 7/7 water has no "push", so only 6/7 and lower flows will have any effect. Might be better to have a series of waves rather than one wall of water that is mostly pointless (except for flash.)

A wide drawbridge or overhead retracting bridge would give the best "instant wall of water" effect.  A series of r'g-bridges, that opened up a 1-tile wide "drain" to a reservoir above and along the central tile of this bridge might work well.

[Chewykittens]

If you don't want your frame rate to die along with the invaders, or you want an alternative while you build the thing. You could make the bridge(s) retract and simply drop the invaders down the pit.

[NFossil]

Dropping lots of water with bridges is perfectly fine. I did that to quickly fill my drowning pit once. As for pushing stuff, I guess even if the initial wall of water doesn't do it, water draining away from the bridge would do the work.

[Kanddak]

The pressurized water flooding onto the bridge will not push away goblins, but water flowing horizontally will pull them.

NFossil has it. Your best bet would be to suspend a bunch of water directly above the bridge and drop it onto the bridge, so it will pull the goblins off when it then flows off the edge of the bridge.